Amador County – Assemblywoman Alyson Huber’s bill to delay closure of Preston Correctional Youth Facility for six month will be heard next week by a committee in the California Assembly.

Huber on Friday announced that she is “pushing ahead on her efforts to stop the current closure proceedings” at Preston, and her Assembly Bill 8 will be heard by the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, in a hearing set for 9 a.m., Tuesday, March 15, at the State Capitol.

Introduced by Huber last December, AB 8 “seeks to temporarily halt the closure of the Preston Youth Correctional Facility. The measure delays the closure process at any youth facility for a period of six months.”

Huber said: “During this time frame the Legislature and the Governor can examine the decisions” of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, “as they begin to address how to best serve the youth offender population.”

Huber, (D-El Dorado Hills) said “AB 8 also states that employee staffing may not be cut, instead keeping staff at levels the same as before the closure was announced last October.” Reductions in staff and inmate population numbers have already started at Preston.

Huber said: “This will not be an easy fight, but it is the right fight for Amador County and for the dedicated employees and their families who have given so much to Preston and to the state of California.” She said: “I hope to convince the Committee that it is not in anyone’s best interest, including the youth we are rehabilitating, to close down the most successful facility in the state, without a thorough and fair evaluation.”

Letters of support for AB 8, to be submitted to the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, can be e-mailed or posted to Huber at P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249.

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Amador County – The Amador County Unified School District board of trustees this week will consider approval of layoff notices for the equivalent of 9.83 full time positions next school year.

The board will consider reducing its certificated staff by a recommended seven full time positions for the 2011-2012 school year, due to a drop in enrollment; and will also consider layoff notices to four other part-time certificated employees, who work the hours totaling 2.83 full time equivalent.

The board meets Wednesday and its agenda includes a resolution for the “intention to dismiss certificated employees of certain particular kinds of certificated services and for declining average daily attendance for the 2011-2012 school year.”

Nina Neville, executive director of personnel, in a report to the board said that “based upon the reduction or discontinuance of the particular kinds of services and declining average daily attendance,” it “will be necessary to decrease the number of certificated employees in the district by the equivalent of seven full-time positions” for next school year.

Neville recommended the actions, saying “timelines must be met to initiate and pursue procedures for this reduction” and /or “discontinuance of services.” State code required written notification of layoffs no later than March 15, for layoffs of the ensuing year.

A resolution lists one full time equivalent agriculture teaching position for potential elimination, along with two “opportunity teachers,” two “intervention teachers” and two “elementary teachers.”

The board will also consider a resolution to “release temporary certificated employees,” giving notice of release to “any temporary certificated employee who has served during one school year for 75 percent of the days school is in session.” The resolution, in part, stated that “there are four temporary certificated employees,” working 2.83 full time equivalent positions, who fall under that distinction.

Altogether, the 9.83 full time equivalent employees would be notified of layoffs if the resolutions are approved.

A closed session to be held at the beginning of the meeting Wednesday includes a possible conference with negotiations representatives. District negotiators, Superintendent Dick Glock and Executive Director of Personnel Nina Neville are scheduled to meet with two employee organizations, Amador County Teachers Association, and the California School Employees Association. The board in closed session will also consider two expulsion cases, and six existing cases of litigation against the district.

The board meets in closed session starting 5:30 p.m., and the regular session starts at 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 9, at the county admin building, 800 Court Street in Jackson.

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Amador County – The Amador County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing Tuesday to discuss a recommended wine tasting room ordinance amendment that is aimed at preserving the rural look and feel of county winery rows.

The planning commission will consider a proposed ordinance amending Title 19 zoning of the Amador County code to allow for tasting rooms meeting the standards set forth in the ordinance, under a duplicate Alcohol Beverage Control license for wineries with their master license located in Amador County. Part of it would make the licensee “subject to first obtaining a staff-issued use permit” in agriculture zones, and “subject to first obtaining a user permit from the Planning Commission” in Rural 1A zones.

The ordinance was based on recommendations made by the “Winery Ordinance Review Committee,” which was chaired by Supervisor Ted Novelli and vice-chairwoman Jane O’Riordan. The committee met seven times since December 2009, and meetings were well attended by Amador County vintners and growers.

A recommendation report date February 2011 noted the need for protecting against wine tasting room operators from outside the area, and also preserving the rural agricultural look and feel. The committee was formed to review county code “as it relates to defining and regulating wineries,” to see if the existing winery definition is adequate, and to make recommendations and create awareness of the impact of changes.

The committee included Supervisor Brian Oneto, and vintners and/or growers Jim Gullett, Jeff Runquist, Paul Sobon, Charlie Spinetta, Jill Tanis and Art Toy, as well as citizens Mike Kerrigan and David Richards, and county planner Heather Anderson.

It looked at federal law and other counties’ ordinances, and in its recommendation overview said focus evolved to duplicate licenses, seen as tools “by which a California winery may have a ‘second’ tasting room not co-located with the winery.” It “allows an out-of-area winery to operate a tasting room,” that is, a “sales facility, remotely.” It also was seen as giving “limited community investment,” and as a consensus was a “real issue” to the committee.

The committee recommended code change to “prevent sales-only facilities in agricultural areas” by allowing tasting room duplicate licenses for in-county wineries only in agriculture and Rural 1A zones. It also recommended a staff permit for duplicate licenses for in-county wineries.

Another recommendation was requiring 10-acres lot sizes for commercial buildings in Ag and R1A zones, and also requiring 50-foot setbacks for commercial buildings in Ag and R1A zones, both with the idea to preserve the rural look and reduce the “strip mall effect.”

Another recommendation was to have a use permit for tasting rooms in R1A zones when locating a sales facility on small or neighborhood parcels, to “assure public input on tasting rooms in residential areas.”

The planning commission meets 7 p.m. Tuesday.

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Amador County – A Federal Grand Jury last week charged 15 people with racketeering, extortionate extension of credit, and narcotics offenses at two Bay Area casino card clubs, Artichoke Joe’s Casino and Oaks Card Club.

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag announced the indictment, which was unsealed March 3 in redacted form. It charged that between February 2008 and the present, Cuong Mach Binh Tieu, Lap The Chung, Bob Yuen, Ding Lin, Skyler Chang, Chea Bou, May Chung, and Hung Tieu “agreed to conduct and conducted the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity.”

The indictment alleges that they “associated in fact at the casinos to form an enterprise and that they used the casinos’ facilities and assets to extend and collect extortionate credit and distribute illegal drugs.”

Maximum punishment for the RICO crimes is 20 years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Federal narcotics offenses have maximum prison terms ranging from 20 years to life, and maximum fines ranging from $1 million to $4 million.

The indictment alleges that these narcotic offenses occurred either at the casinos or through the use of the casinos’ facilities.

Lap The Chung, Bob Yuen, Ding Lin, May Chung, and Hung Tieu are also charged with federal extortionate extension of credit offenses with maximum punishment of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Haag said: “Extortionate credit is otherwise known as loansharking, and the indictment alleges that such loansharking occurred at the casinos on numerous occasions over the past two years.” Each of these defendants is an employee of either Oaks Card Club or Artichoke Joe’s Casino.

The indictment is the result of an approximately two-year investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, who worked with the California Department of Justice, Bureau of Gambling Control and the Internal Revenue Service.

On March 2, the FBI, DEA and more than a dozen other agencies “arrested 14 of the defendants charged in the indictment. They also simultaneously executed more than 20 search warrants throughout the Bay Area and elsewhere.”

Haag said: “During the course of executing the search warrants, agents seized several hundred thousand dollars in cash and thousands of dollars worth of casino gambling chips, jewelry, and valuables, several pounds of narcotics, and numerous firearms.” The investigation was conducted and funded in part by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, a multi-agency task force that coordinates long-term narcotics trafficking investigations.

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Amador County – The Amador County Unified School District settled a civil rights lawsuit by former student Justin Zysman for $150,000 last September, with the district to pay as much as $25,000 more to set up a diversity program in schools.

Justin Zysman and his family signed the settlement and dropped a civil rights lawsuit over claims of anti-Semitism at Amador High School, according to a copy of the settlement, which was published online by the group Calaware.

Superintendent Dick Glock said Thursday he could not comment on the settlement, due to it being confidential. He referred questions to Tuolumne Joint Power Authority, which handled the settlement for the school district.

Tuolumne JPA’s attorney Alesa Schachter, of Johnson Schachter & Lewis of Sacramento, signed the settlement as attorney for the school district, and for former Amador High principal Allan Van Velzen. Schachter also said she could not comment on the settlement.

The settlement resolved a suit by Justin and his parents, Jason and Molly Zysman, filed against Amador School District, alleging four causes of action, including a violation of civil rights by the district and Van Velzen for race or perceived race. It also alleged violation of civil right of “equal protection under the 14th Amendment” by Van Velzen, and a violation of California Education Code through “student discrimination” by the district.

In the agreement, the suit was dismissed, and the School District paid $150,000 to Zysman. Justin Zysman was a student at Amador High when he alleged reporting to the principal numerous anti-Semitic harassments.

The settlements were signed by Justin Zysman and his father, Jason, on August 31, 2010, and by Glock on Sept. 7, 2010. It noted that both parties agree that “no money will be or has been paid by or on behalf of Van Velzen or any other individually named defendant to settle the litigation.”

The settlement agreement also required the school district to allocate up to $25,000 to “create or enhance and provide a diversity or similar program to its staff and students.” Failure to implement the program at least by the start of the 2011-2012 school year would violate the settlement.

The agreement included a joint statement of confidentiality, concealing the settlement and amounts paid. It noted that the Zysman family would “respond to any inquiries” from third parties by saying only that ‘the matter has been resolved.” The confidentiality clause did recognize and acknowledge that the school district must comply with the “Public Records Act which may require a disclosure of this agreement.” The group CalAware requested the settlement and posted it on its website.

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Amador County – The San Andreas Unit of the California Highway Patrol said a Sonora woman killed Monday on Highway 49 in Calaveras County may have been texting on her cell phone while driving when the fatal crash occurred.

CHP public information officer Rebecca Myers in a release Wednesday said CHP has “determined that a major contributing factor” in the crash killing 22-year-old Lisa Marie Villalobos-Wilson “was because the driver was texting on her cell phone.”

“According to cell phone records released by her parents,” Villalobos-Wilson “was in the process of sending or had just sent a text message to her boyfriend when her vehicle drifted off the right side of the roadway.” She then swerved to the left, overcorrecting and “causing her vehicle to swerve into the opposing lane, striking a south-bound vehicle” driven by Benjamin Grant, 20, of Mountain Ranch. The vehicles collided in the south-bound lane of Highway 49, north of Cosgrave Road, in Calaveras County. “Villalobos-Wilson was pronounced dead at the scene.”

Myers said: “We have also determined that Ms. Villalobos-Wilson was only wearing the automatic shoulder restraint belt.” The “lap belt portion was not used, which may have contributed in Ms. Villalobos-Wilson being partially ejected from her vehicle, resulting in fatal injuries.”

The crash was reported at 7:35 a.m. Monday, Feb. 28, and Grant and his passenger, Daniel Crane were both treated for minor injuries at Mark Twain Hospital.

Myers said the CHP “would like to remind everyone that they need to put down the phone, focus on driving, and always wear your seatbelt properly, otherwise it may cost you your life, or the life of someone else.”

Myers said: “Too many motorists are continuing to talk or text on the cell phone even though the law has been in effect since July 1, 2008.”

Lieutenant Tim Port said “driving in itself is multi-tasking, requiring a motorist’s full attention. Then you add a moment of inattention, such as looking at your cell phone, and consequences can be disastrous for a driver and those around them.”

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