Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Forum Draws Large Crowd, Produces Respectful But Pointed Exchanges Between Candidates

***Different Views Obvious From Beginning***

Democratic incumbent Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez, and Kalki Yalamanchili, who is challenging her on the Nov. 5 ballot as an Independent, were respectful of each other in the nearly 90 minutes they spent on Tuesday night responding to questions in a candidate forum.

But from the very beginning, it was clear they have very different views of what has transpired in the four years Gonzalez has held the District Attorney Office.

“I'm running to be your next district attorney as an Independent candidate because I believe that the District attorney's Office is a place for public service, not for politics,” Yalamanchili said in his introductory comments.

“Everybody that we share this community with deserves not just a District Attorney's Office that's trying to get back to being minimally adequate, but one of the best in the state of Georgia,” he said.

Gonzalez said that when she became District Attorney “we had the same kind of tough on crime, punishment-based approach to justice that we had for hundreds of years. And back then my community told me they wanted something different.”

“Now we knew when I walked in that push back was going to be swift,” she said. “We didn't know it would be this nasty or this hostile.”

In the time that followed Gonzalez and Yalamanchli responded to nine different questions drafted in advance by a panel of the Western Circuit Bar Association, the Forum organizer, and six from the audience, again screened by representatives of the Bar Association.

One of the questions dealt specifically with Oconee County. Gonzalez said the way she has assigned assistant district attorney for cases in the county has been “working out really well” while Yalamanchili said “a ton of cases” in the county are “essentially being ignored by the District Attorney's Office because there's nobody out there managing the caseload.”

Early voting started on Tuesday, and 1,585 persons cast a ballot in Oconee County, compared with 823 casting a ballot in the county in the first day of early voting in 2022 and 1,254 in the first day of early voting in the COVID-19 constrained election in 2020.

Reason For Wanting To Be DA

About 150 people turned out at the Hill Chapel Baptist Church in Athens-Clarke County for the forum on Tuesday, the first of several planned for the District Attorney race. The candidates are scheduled to meet again at 6 p.m. on Oct. 22 in the auditorium of the Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Services Building, 242 King Avenue in Athens.

Gonzalez 10/15/2024

The first question by the panel of the Western Circuit Bar Association asked the candidates why they wanted to be District Attorney given the comparatively low salary the position offers.

“Well, nobody's going to do this to get rich,” Gonzalez said. “But to me, the idea of duty and service to my community is one of my biggest priorities.”

“I guess I start from the fact that I and my sister were born here in the United States, and my parents immigrated here from India,” Yalamanchili said, “and they really showed us from a very young age the incredible blessing that we had by being born in this country.”


Staffing

Midway through the first hour of the forum the topic turned to staffing, a problem that Gonzalez has confronted from the time she entered the office. Both candidates were asked what they would do to address that problem in the future.

“We need to talk about this in terms of fully staffing with experienced, qualified and trained attorneys,” Yalamanchili said.

Yalamanchili 10/15/2024

He said that at present four of the people in the District Attorney Office “are people who aren't licensed to practice law in the state of Georgia. So per the statute, they actually don't meet the minimum qualifications to work as an attorney in the Office.”

“So if you take those out, what you've got is 11 out of 17 positions filled,” he said.

“It's very important to have a pipeline in any business and in any office,” Gonzalez responded.

She said it is very difficult to hire people “at the top of the level because we don't pay enough...We are not competitive in our salaries.”

“The DA Office in Athens historically has never been a hard place to get people to work,” Yalamanchili responded. “People love Athens. There’s a lot of people that have an affinity and connection back to Athens.”

“What I’m doing already,” he said, “is I started calling people in various jurisdictions” and “I’ve talked to over 12 people” who are interested in working in the District Attorney Office.

Gonzalez said in response that Yalamanchili was “talking about how things were” when he had served in the District Attorney Office under Ken Mauldin, the previous Western Circuit District Attorney

“He wants to bring that Office back,” Gonzalez said. “This is what the community voted against. They did not want that Office back. They want a change.”

“I am proud of the diversity that we have,” she said. “It is important to have that diversity of perspective. And we have cultivated that very, very carefully.”

Closing Comments

“I think it's important as a community that we understand that we don't have to choose between a DA's Office that is well trained and experienced and can deliver results in the courtroom,” Yalamanchili said in his closing comments, “and a DA's office that's engaged in the community, wants to connect...people alleged to have committed a crime with resources that can help them better their lives and wants to be there for young people to give them resources and relationships that can make them better decisions.”

“That is a false choice,” he said. "We can have both. We deserve both, and we should demand both.”

“I'm the same person I was four years ago,” Gonzalez said. “And four years ago I came in with a vision, and that vision hasn't changed.”

“It might have been sidetracked,” she said. “It might have been slowed down by forces beyond our control. But we never lost that vision of what justice can be for our community.”

“Stick the course,” she said. “Anything worth it takes time. Anything worth it means we have to fight for it.”

“We need to keep the faith,” Gonzalez said. “We need to be persistent. We need to keep fighting for the justice that we want and not allow it to be taken right at the moment that we are making those changes.”

Video

I was asked on Sunday evening (Oct. 13) if I would be willing to step in to moderate the Forum after the scheduled moderator canceled

I agreed.

I had intended to attend the Forum and produce a video. The Western Judicial Circuit consists of Oconee and Clarke counties.

My wife, Ann Hollifield, produced the video below in my stead.


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