Author: FedUpwithGlover

Why did Supervisor Glover submit a letter asking Prosecutors and the Court to grant leniency for a violent criminal who put citizens and cops in harm’s way?

On the night of July 12, 2016, a dangerous repeat criminal from Pittsburg went on a violent crime spree across Martinez.  The 33 year old brandished a gun, and threatened to murder two women on Ferry Street. He then assaulted a young man, and attempted to rob people at gun point. Martinez PD pursued and arrested this armed thug as he fled Martinez in his car. He was arrested and held on $740,000 bail.  According to allegations in the filed police report and criminal complaint.

Based on the court records and police reports, this is a terrible guy, accused of committing terrible crimes.  We will refer to him as The Defendant. With his previous convictions, the Defendant is a danger to society that cops and prosecutors work hard to keep off the streets. But Supervisor Federal Glover of Contra Costa disagrees. Supervisor Glover gave the Defendant a “Get Out of Jail Free” card to play in court.

With the ink barely dry on the arrest report, using official letterhead from his County office, Supervisor Glover wrote a letter of support asking for leniency for the Defendant from the Prosecutors and Court.

There is no need to use the Defendant’s name here, but his case can be retrieved by press and fact-checkers from the Criminal Court Clerk referencing #5-161295-1.

Politicians should not use their official influence to urge prosecutors and law enforcement to lower or drop charges against their violent criminal buddies.

Federal Glover is the boss of the DA and Prosecutors.  He approves their budgets and grants them raises. And the District Attorney Mark Peterson and the Prosecutor’s Association have both endorsed Mr. Glover for his re-election. This cozy circle of political back scratching may lead to a dangerous criminal put back on the streets to harm more civilians and put more cops in the line of fire.

The Defendant’s lawyer and the County Prosecutor are negotiating plea deals at this time.  The letter from Glover could help put a violent criminal back on the streets sooner than he deserves. The results of the plea dealings are scheduled for court on November 9th.  Conveniently one day after the election.

A Prosecutor, whose union has endorsed Glover, and whose DA boss is a Glover supporter, gets a letter of support to be lenient on Supervisor Glover’s friend. All to put a dangerous man back on the streets.  This is a terrible conflict of interest.  Prosecutors should not have to balance Justice, and granting shady political favors. We have enough crime in Contra Costa without a Supervisor putting criminals back on the street.

Let’s compare the DA’s criminal complaint against the Defendant, with the comments written by Glover asking the County for leniency:

GLOVER: It is with a great deal of pleasure I provide you with this letter of support
DA: Defendant did commit a felony, a crime which would result in death and great bodily injury

GLOVER: I have known Defendant and his family for a number of years.
DA: Defendant did willfully and unlawfully commit an assault with a firearm

GLOVER: Hopefully you will have the opportunity to consider the Defendant’s positive and responsible history.
DA: the Victim was in sustained fear for her safety and the safety of her immediate family.

GLOVER: Defendant possesses the very qualities to enable a person to follow through and succeed in his future endeavors.
DA: The threats were so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the victim a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution.

DA: did by means of force and fear take personal property
GLOVER: Thank you for taking my comments into consideration.

Mr. Glover, What about writing a letter supporting the three VICTIMS of this violent incident? Why not write a letter to commend the Martinez Police Officer who arrested the bad guy? How about writing a letter to the District Attorney and the Prosecutors thanking them for their hard work putting away bad guys? Instead, Mr. Glover, you wrote a letter to propose leniency for one of you violent acquaintances.

And to the DA, Please advise your Deputy Prosecutors to not give any special favors for Supervisor Glover, and to focus on Justice.  Also, How many other times has this happened, where Supervisor Glover used his office and authority to ask for a free pass for criminals?

Law enforcement, prosecutors, and the DA should let the public know what they think of an elected supervisor writing a “get out of jail free” letter for a violent man.  Government officials should protect us from violent bad guys, not push them back into our neighborhoods.

It is no wonder that the vast majority of Contra Costa law enforcement support Glover’s opponent Anamarie Avila Farias.  The police from Pinole, Hercules, Martinez, Antioch, PLUS the Contra Costa Deputy Sheriffs all see the need to replace Glover with a Supervisor that respects public safety.

Supervisor Glover brags on his posters about spending $1.8 Billion of your money.  A fact check reveals that MOST of the road and freeway money was spent outside our district. It is like Glover stealing your dairy cows and then bragging about all the beef East County is now eating.

Glover serves on the Metro Transportation Committee, so he does have some say in how transportation funds are used in the area. But he’s an appointed bureaucrat, one of dozens who direct the funding.  He is not the Transpo-Funding Fairy! $1.8 Billion is a lot of money, but for the entire Bay Area, it gets spread pretty thin.

And for our District? How much sway did Glover have on the Committee to bring road improvements to District 5, from Pinole through Martinez to Pittsburg?

Almost none.

Though he brags about “$$ BROUGHT TO US”, the actual results are dismal.

Of the $1,832,222,500 in tax money Glover brags about redistributing, LESS THAN 15 PERCENT was actually used for roads and freeways in our district! This is why your commute is worse than ever!

There was significant money spent on tunnel and BART improvements, but much more on freeways in East County to open up new housing developments in Brentwood and Oakley for Glover’s financial backers.

In sixteen years, Glover has so few accomplishments he must co-opt regional transportation results as his own legacy.  There is nothing else to show for the four terms in office.  And now that people are seeing through the charade, his backers are slinging mud and smearing negative campaign ads against his opponent.  Shame on Glover!  Are you Fed up with Glover?

Vince Wells, the president of Firefighters Local 1230, shares his thoughts on the recent attack ads and negative campaigning published by Glover’s backers :

Those of us that are on the front lines of politics and those who have done their best to stay educated on the issues and candidates running for office, recognize the need for qualified candidates. Unfortunately, depending on the seat you’re running for and who is running, many qualified people chose not to run due to money challenges and threats of nasty hit pieces.

Share their story! Social workers are the most caring and compassionate Contra Costa County service providers. It was difficult for many to leave their under-staffed offices to strike. But the strike was to ultimately get BETTER support and services for the county’s most vulnerable. The social workers and SEIU made a strong statement, but are returning to work to help people. The strike is over, but the case load and short staffing will persist until the Contra Costa County and the Board of Supervisors address the underlying issues. Stay strong, and caring, brothers and sisters. #FedUpwithGlover #strongertogether

After receiving Rob Schroder’s mailer and seeing his letter endorsing Federal, Bill Schilz felt compelled to write his own Letter to the Editors!  Published by the Martinez Tribune.

Schilz criticizes mayor’s endorsement of Federal Glover

Mr. Mayor,

I received your mailer endorsing Federal Glover and shook my head in amazement. I couldn’t believe what I was reading, until I realized that those weren’t your words, but rather the words of the political hack Mary Jo Rossi who somehow got you to sign off on it so she could spread it far and wide.

How on God’s green earth could you support a man who has had not a care in the world for Martinez and has done nothing for us, even though he represents Martinez on the Board of Supervisors? Once silly season started, he’s been popping up all over town as if he’s a regular, but the fact is, everywhere he goes, Lara Delaney has to introduce him because he hasn’t been here standing up for Martinez! There he is on Facebook smiling because he attended an Art in the Susana Park event, yet when I asked him to post pictures of him being in Martinez the first six months of this year before campaign season started, all he could do was delete my comment and close all comment on the picture.

We all love Doug Stewart and what he did for the homeless in our City and throughout the County. So when I put the going away dinner together for Doug, I asked Federal to come to the dinner and say a few words to the crowd about how Doug helped our entire county. His aide confirmed his appearance and when the time came, you graciously came and spoke, but our illustrious Supervisor Glover didn’t bother to show up! I guess there were more important things to do in another city than honor a man who gave 12 years of his life, with no pay, to help the most vulnerable in not just Martinez, but throughout the county. Maybe he was out justifying why he deserved a bigger raise (33 percent) as a supervisor while giving county employees next to nothing!

Drive around and all you see are Federal signs with one slogan … “$1 Billion In Transportation Improvements For Us.” Who the hell got the $1 billion? It certainly wasn’t Martinez or we wouldn’t have the streets and roads in such poor condition or be faced with a 1⁄2 cent sales tax initiative on the November ballot. I think the only thing he did was get us the expensive addition of metering lights on the entrances to Highway 4 from Alhambra, Pine and Morello, all of which aren’t being used. That certainly helped our quality of life.

Take a look at the Keller Canyon Mitigation Fund (KCMF) and the huge controversy surrounding Federal’s and District 5 staff distributing $634,371.91 of KCMF funds without required Board of Supervisors approval, the lack of transparency in the selection of grantees, and over $167,819 in overdraft of the fund causing the County to put up general fund monies to cover the deficit. It required a Contra Costa County Grand Jury and the County Auditor-Controller to investigate and sort things out and make innumerable recommendations to clean up the mess. That certainly sounds like a lack of trustworthiness to me.

Then you have to ask yourself why a Walnut Creek developer, not in his district, has given $40,000 to help get Federal elected? Or the Garaventa family, through one of its real estate entities, has given $15,000 in support of Federal. Maybe they’re expecting him to help them with projects they intend to propose?

So Mr. Mayor, please give us all concrete specifics of what Federal Glover has done for MARTINEZ over the last 16 YEARS as a County Supervisor because we all know you strongly & enthusiastically support Federal … or are those just the words Mary Jo Rossi wrote for you and you signed off on?

Bill Schilz

Concerned Martinez Resident

Contra Costa County supervisor Federal Glover voted himself a 33% raise in 2014, causing an uproar.  In a Sept 2016 debate, he claims he is still underpaid and will eventually get his raise back. All while County workers have taken cuts in pay and staffing, and County services suffer. SHAME!