 Good evening everybody and welcome to the Yolo County Judicial Candidates Forum. My name is David Greenwald. I am the Executive Director of the Davis Vanguard and we along with Davis Media Access who are supplying the cameras and recording this to be played at a later date are the co-sponsors of this event. I'd like to thank each of the four candidates who are here this evening to replace a seat that is vacated by Judge Mock who's in the audience today as well. So I want to briefly lay out the rules of this candidates forum. So each candidate is going to be given two minutes to give an opening statement. Then each candidate will read one question. The other three candidates will have two minutes each to answer the question and then they will answer their own question last and then we will rotate to the next candidate. So those will be four questions. Then we have developed our own questions. One is in three parts which will be one minute each and then the others will be in two minute intervals and I will be keeping time and I will rudely cut you off when the time goes up because we have a very tight timeline. When we are done with those questions we will take a five minute break and then we will have about 20 to 30 minutes for audience questions. There should be cards in the audience. Those are the questions. You will submit those questions to Matt who is hiding back there or another volunteer who comes around and beckons for them. So without any further ado I would like to introduce Janine Baroneo who will give two minutes opening speech. I'm Janine Baroneo. Is it working? I'm Yolo Superior Court Commissioner. I've been a commissioner for the last 25 years. Prior to that I was with the Yolo County District Attorney's Office. While I was with the District Attorney's Office I did an extensive amount of felony jury trials. I also supervised both the Davis and the Broadbrook branch offices and as a commissioner I've been doing the work of a judge for the last 25 years. I was appointed by the judges to do this job. I'm an at-will employee who has to keep the judges happy and I've done that for 25 years. Hi my name is Rick Cohen. I'm a family law specialist. I've diverted my life to protecting children and families. Currently we have no family law attorneys on the bench and we need someone with the experience, skill, and fortitude of a family law specialist to be our next judge. I am humbled and proud to be endorsed by state senators Sarah Steinberg and Mark Leno, Assemblymember Roger Dickinson, Davis City Councilmember Brett Lee, West Sacramento City Councilmember Mark Johansson and Bill Kristoff, and Winters City Councilmember Woody Frieday. I'm especially proud that just this past Monday I would unanimously endorse by the Democratic Party. I earned my law degree at UC Davis in 1989 and I'm a proud Aggie. Yolo can't be filled with the words education, industry, agriculture truly defines us. We have a broad and diverse community yet with all of our differences and individual community needs we have a very important connection that brings us together of families, our children, and our seniors. Family law touches upon the lives of all of us from the voice domestic to domestic violence just about every one of us in this room has had their lives affected by family law. Nothing stops a bullet like a job and nothing threatens our community by protecting children at the beginning and making sure that they are on the right path. We as a community need to invest in our children and our future. Finally I want to say thank you to Davis Vanguard, to the Davis residence, and to my fellow candidates. All of you work so very hard to ensure that our community elect people who show our value, support our school, treasure the beauty of our natural environment, and zealously protect the civil rights of our entire society. Thank you for taking the time to ensure that our voices are heard. Hello good evening my name is John Brennan. I have my background I was 10 years as a prosecutor in various different counties Sacramento was the last county I practiced in as a prosecutor. For the last 10 years I've been in private practice running my own excuse me nine years. I've been in private practice running my own business doing a wide variety of cases. Throughout the state of California mainly the northern state my primary practice is devoted to Sacramento County and Yolo County. My father I have five children my wife is a deputy district attorney in Sacramento. We live in West Sacramento and that's about it for my qualifications. Good evening and thank you for being here this evening. My name is Lorenda Dellaini and I'm a deputy attorney general and a Yolo Yolo County native. In terms of my experience I spent nearly five years as a deputy district attorney in both Contra Costa and Sacramento counties. When I had that position I had the pleasure of working in nearly every capacity in the office that you could imagine. I worked in the misdemeanor intake unit where I was responsible for filing misdemeanor cases. I worked in a general misdemeanor unit. I also worked in domestic violence. I prosecuted cases at juvenile hall. I worked in our general felony team where I handled serious cases such as vehicular manslaughter residential burglary and robberies. I also worked in the felony settlement courts. While I was at the district attorney's office I was honored by the district attorney with the Victim Service Award for my commitment to justice and for the compassion and respect that I showed towards victims and their families. When I left the district attorney's office I started at the California Attorney General's Office. I'm currently in the criminal division. I work in the appeals, risk and file section and that position has given me experiences completely unmatched by any other person or excuse me any other candidate. I respond to direct criminal appeals that are filed by defendants in cases. I also have the honor of handling people's appeals for our office. There's me and two other individuals. So anytime a district attorney's office and one of the 30 counties that we represent has an issue they bring it to our attention and we do the research and do the evaluation to see if we will handle these appeals. I am also the coordinator for the 4900 claims for our office which are erroneously convicted offender claims. So I investigate those cases and also assign them out to others. Thank you and thank you everybody for adhering to the timeline. We're going to start with Janine Baroneo asking the first question and Rick Cohen will be the first one to answer it. If you guys could pass the mic down. The question is the job of a judge is quite different than the job of a lawyer and an advocate. What have you done to prepare yourself to make the transition from being an advocate for clients to being a neutral fair and impartial judge. Thank you Janine. That's a terrific question. For the last 17 years I have been serving as a temporary judge in the state of California both in Plaster County Sacramento County. I have served as a temporary judge trying family to law cases handling law and motion hearing conducting settlement conferences small claims court serving as a judicial arbitrator serving as a fee arbitrator for the county bar association. And so as a result what I've learned is how to listen how to receive evidence how to make finding the facts apply the fact to the law fairly impartially and accurately. Thank you. For the last 20 years I have been in court on an almost daily basis. I think the experience of being a prosecutor and being a private defense attorney give me the qualifications that frankly no other candidate has. I started off my career looking at the case from the side of law enforcement from the side of reading the police reports getting all my facts and information based solely from what the police officers had told me. The last nine years I've been on the other side of that. I get the police reports now but it's also my job to look further going deeper look at what the evidence shows talk to the witnesses talk to the victim. And so there's always multiple sides to every story. So I believe the last 20 years of my career has given me the ability to do that to be fair and impartial to look at the facts look at what the evidence shows. Thank you. In the last 10 years in my career I've been responsible for a number of positions that don't necessarily involve being an advocate for any of the parties involved. At the district attorney's office in Contra Costa County I was on the filing desk and that isn't necessarily in the role of an advocate it's looking at the police report seeing what the evidence shows and trying to make a determination as to the whether the evidence presented can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that that individual is guilty of the offense and making that filing determination. One of my responsibilities at the Attorney General's office concerns erroneously convicted offender claims and I'm not an advocate in that role either. We do the investigation. We talk to defendants. We talk to victims. We talked to the law enforcement agencies who were involved in the arrest and the conviction and we make an impartial determination as to whether that individual is entitled to entitled to relief under our penal codes. Another thing that gives me experience and being an impartial individual and something other than an advocate is my experience in the community and the involvement that I have in various organizations working with children working with parolees and trying to get them back where they should be so that they're more productive. And then also as a mother I handle disputes every single day. My children are constantly fighting. They're four and seven years old and the disputes to them are of monumental capacity and I give them an opportunity to be heard. I listen to them and I have the ability to make a decision after I've heard from both of them. Could you pass it back to Mr. Cohen? Mr. Cohen, you now read the question and oh, thank you. I haven't been an advocate for 25 years. I've been sitting on the bench as an impartial judicial officer for 25 years. I don't have a learning curve. I've been doing it. I've been to judges college and I've taken all the continuing education for all these years. I practiced the art of judging. I've taken classes in the art of judging. I've been doing it. Well, Mr. Cohen, your turn. Please describe your volunteer work that demonstrates your commitment to public service. As I mentioned, I'm self employed and I'm the father of five children. My public service is taking care of my children. It doesn't leave much time when you have three kids under six years old in the house. We are very involved in my daughter's school. We were put on my wife and basically a group of us from school put on a fundraiser last night. It was the last thing we did for Holy Cross School in West Sacramento. We were very successful in that since we've started in that school. We've been very involved in generating funds for that school to provide. The latest thing was playground equipment. The time before was the first fundraiser was for scholarships for the underprivileged school children in that community. But besides helping out with my kids in their sports events, I do not unfortunately have a lot of time for public service. Thank you for a number of years. I have made community service a priority of mine. While I was in law school, I volunteered at Big Brothers Big Sisters where I mentored a child for nearly four years whose mother was incarcerated. Her father was not in her life. I also volunteered during the same time at the student buddy program communities in schools, which is another program that tries to mentor disadvantaged children and help them see a better future. I've also volunteered at VIP mentors, which is volunteers in parole where I mentored a parolee who is now off parole. She's doing very well and she's got a wonderful job. I also am very active at my daughter's school. My daughter attend St. James School. Last year I chaired their auction where we made over $100,000 for their school. This year I chaired the Davis business donations for that auction, so I was responsible for soliciting all of the businesses in Davis to make donations of either money or items for our four hour auction. I also teach over at Sacramento Community College where I give back to my community. I teach criminal procedure, the legal aspects of evidence, and for nearly eight years I taught the basic concepts of criminal law. I also work at Lincoln Law School in the first year writing program, trying to help their students along the way to make sure that they obtain effective legal writing skills. In addition to that, my husband is very active in our community. He coaches soccer teams for both our son and our daughter. He coaches a T-ball team for our son. He works in law enforcement and he is a combat Gulf War veteran. Okay, pass it back. I've served on the Law Library Board of Trustees for Yolo County. I've been both the president and the secretary. I've donated my time to the University of California at Davis Law School in their court competition, their trial practice, and their Francis Carr competition. Probably what I'm proudest of though is participating in the every 15-minute program, and I don't know how many of you are familiar with that, but that's a program put on at the local high schools by law enforcement, and they put together a car crash from a drunk driver and volunteers from every walk of life come there and they get cars, they paint the kids up with the eye coming out or the cuts or the bruises, they get them involved in going to the jail if you're the defendant who was driving the car. The person who died in the injury goes to the morgue and actually gets zipped up in the body bag. So all the children that participate in this really understand how important this is, but then so do all the other children who are in the school who every 15 minutes someone comes in and takes a child out of the class showing that every 15 minutes someone dies from a drunk driving accident. So that's probably the public service I'm proudest of. And Mr. Cohen, answer your own question. Thank you. My volunteer commitment really falls into three categories, teaching, public, and the court. For the past 17 years, I regularly present the continuing education program to young lawyers, to mental health providers, to experience attorneys, everything from how to be a lawyer, the presentation of evidence, deposition, to addressing how to handle custody disputes with respect to the service to the public. I've twice on two different occasions been on the board of directors of the Alzheimer's Association, Greater Sacramento Area chapter. I have also been on the board of the University of Michigan Alumni Association. And I've been on the advisory commission of the voluntary legal services program of Northern California, which is a pro bono organization dedicated to providing legal services to the indigent. In terms of service to the court and to the community, I am on the board of directors of the statewide association of certified family law specialists and vice chair and the on the executive committee of the family law section of the Sacramento County Board Association of the previous vice chair of the children's law section. I have, in addition to the pro tem work, previously done also have taught at UC Davis, the moot court program in terms of providing the input and judging the mock trial program, both at the Francis Newell Crow competition and at the high school annual statewide mock trial competition. I'm very proud to be able to give back to the community, to the children and families that we care about. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Brennan, it is your turn to ask the question. Which process for selecting a judge politicizes candidate more, the political race or an impartial commission that vets candidates for their qualifications and temperament, including checking references with those who know them and their history in the legal community. Given my brief experience in the last two months of this process, I would have to say that selecting a judge through the election process is one that has the chance of politicizing a party more. When you have individuals from the bench or from the community, the legal community who are getting involved in the process, it does turn very political. So I'd have to say that that is the process that has an opportunity to do it more rather than having an impartial commission together who can interview individuals and they can give their best assessment that might be confidential and they can sit down and interview that individual and also interview the candidates to go over what has been said with them and see if they've learned any insight from the critiques or criticism. A campaign clearly politicizes a candidate more, although there is political indications for the commission because you do have to get support from political areas and so forth, but clearly doing a campaign like this is much more difficult and politicizes a candidate much more. They're both political. Let's be completely honest. A governor who makes an appointment frequently but not always appoints someone in that same governor political party or rewards an employee who's working in the governor's office for services and election is political. We're lining up people on our side, they're lining up people on their side, people associate with the values we have and often those line up with political parties because Democrats tend to believe in one way, Republicans tend to believe in another way, green parties believe in a third way, et cetera. So it's completely political. The issue, however, is in this situation we're proud that we have an open election and the opportunity for the people to make their choices, for the people to get to know the candidate and for the people to decide who amongst the candidates best represents their values, what they care about and whether they have that sense that that candidate is the one that's going to look after the children, the families and serve with honor and distinction. Thank you. I would have to agree with Mr. Cohen or all the candidates here, clearly running a race or political campaign is going to bring out the issues and make it much more of a political race. I do agree with Mr. Cohen that still even the appointment is very political because you'll see governor is coming to the end of his term, a lot of promises or paybacks maybe for services rendered or for being a dedicated person for that governor. You'll see a lot of repayment for that. With this process where you're going around and at least introducing yourself, meeting the people, it is political still. Unfortunately, I don't believe it should be. It's supposed to be obviously a nonpartisan race. It shouldn't matter what your political affiliation is. As Mr. Cohen points out that it seems that only Democrats will talk to Democrats and only Republicans will talk to Republicans, no matter what or no matter the fact, this is supposed to be a nonpartisan race. This wasn't quite the question I had asked, but this is how it came out and I think clearly this process is much more political. Ms. Dallini? Do you think knowledge of or involvement in the Yolo County community is important to being a good judge? No, I absolutely think it's important to being a good judge and I think more important than that is knowledge of the Yolo Superior Court. I've been working for the Yolo Superior Court for 25 years. I know the judges, I know the staff and I know the attorneys and I'm well respected. Knowing the community is very, very important because you need to know the history, you need to know the customs, you need to know how the court works. I've developed forms that the court uses. It's extremely important to know the community and to know the court. If you remember when I made my introduction remarks, I talked about the Yolo County field with the word industry, agriculture, and education. Those are the heart of what is and what is fabricated by Yolo County. At the UCD Lograd, I'm a proud Aggie and I regularly represent people from the university, professors, administrative assistant, occasionally students. For agriculture, I haven't represented farmers. Previously, I represented people who owned land right next to the Yolo bypass and they had an epic battle against the city of Davis over a flooding problem caused by the development of the Mace Ranch subdivision. I'm representing the farmers. I learned more about farming in several years and I did in the lifetime soybean, tomato, alfalfa. When they grow, what crop do winter crops, summer crops? Industry. I represented business owners who have dealt with contract problems. Bankruptcy issues, they're going to arbitrary proceedings in federal courts. Even the sale of businesses and the corporate transactions involved. And most importantly, the people of Yolo County, Woodland, Davis, Winters, West Sacramento, they all care about their community and working with them had been one of the greatest privilege that I've had. Thank you. I absolutely think being part of the community is important to be a fair judge. Last two weeks, I've done a trial for the Judge Mach that is clearly one of the hot button topics in our community. Nowadays, it's a gang case, specifically a Broderick Boy gang case. I spent years as a gang prosecutor in the DA's office and various DA's offices. So being involved in the community and specifically living in the Broderick area, I'm familiar with these issues that we're facing. The criminal justice system has gone through a radical change in the last couple of years. And I think being on top of that and involved in the community is something that 90% of the judge's time is going to be spent on in this community. So thank you. Last question. Absolutely living in this community and being aware of the issues that face the members of this community is critical to the role of being a judge. I grew up in Yolo County. I graduated from River City High School. I was educated in our public schools. My husband is also from Yolo County and was educated in our public schools. We have served this community and through law enforcement for more than the last 20 years and as a veteran where he has served our country, living in the community, living with the people that you are going to be serving, listening to those individuals and sharing in their interest gives you that accountability that you need or the greater accountability to make sure that we are fair and impartial when we are sitting on that. Okay, very good. You guys did an amazing job of staying within the time constraints. We're going to make it a little bit more difficult. I'm going to hold this go around because we're going to reduce it to a minute. I have some requests in the back to speak up a little bit more because they're having trouble hearing you guys. So if you could project a little bit more. So we're going to start this round with Mr. Cohen. I'm going to read the question and each of you will have one minute to answer these questions. So the question is, since you all believe that knowledge of or involvement in the Yolo County community is important to being a good judge, how much experience do you have working in the Yolo County Superior Courtrooms? Thank you. I've been processing law for nearly 25 years now. One of my first cases, my first trial, I was proud to be in Yolo County before Judge Donna Petrie. And it was the case on the contract to make a will where people had years ago sold their shares of stock to their father in return for the promise that we get the shares back when their father passed away. And sure enough he cut them out of the will and that went all the way to the Court of Appeals. As I said, I represented farmers, I represented family, children, people dealing with issues where people died prematurely, dealing with the issues of sanctions, divorce, custody, all of those things have been in Yolo County. I'm delighted when I've walked up the stairs to the courthouse and I'm even more delighted in the current family law department because the acoustics are much better and so the result is an easier courtroom to work with. We have the new courthouse coming up. It'll be ready in 2015. All right. I've got to catch you on. All right, Mr. Brennan. Since, well, up until 2005 I was a deputy district attorney in various counties. So going up until that point I was never a DA in Yolo County. Starting in 2005 I started private practice and since then I've been in Yolo County on various numerous different cases. I've done trials up there. So I said I just completed a two week trial that went to jury on Friday in front of Judge Mock. I've done other trials from Judge Fall had one of my very first appearances in Yolo County was a DUI arraignment in front of the commissioner, Peronio. That was back early 2005. So since 2005 I've done some family law stuff up there. One or two cases, not very many. But I would say it's hard to say I'm not up there on a daily basis. Majority of my practice is out of Sacramento, but between Sacramento and Yolo County are my two primary areas of where I practice in California. The district attorney's office, most of my practice has been beyond the superior courts. My practice is typically in the California Courts of Appeal, the California Supreme Court, the United States District Court, and the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit. The practice that I've had for nearly well just over five years now involving the Yolo County Superior Court has been in handling appeals from convictions that come out of that court. And as I mentioned earlier, one of my specialties in the office is handling people's appeals and I get a number of people's appeals from the Yolo County Superior Court. I've had three that were handled successfully since probably November or December of 2013. And so that is kind of my involvement with the Yolo County Superior Courts at this time. It's looking at the evidence that is being received, the decision that has been made by the judge in that particular case and the parties involved and trying to defend that or conceding the rightfulness or wrongfulness of that decision on appeal. From my first day in the deputy district attorney's office as a deputy district attorney till the day I quit working every single day has been in a Yolo County court. I started when we had municipal courts and now we only have superior courts. 34 years only in Yolo County. All right. That is question number one. And I want to remind the audience to fill out your cards. If you have questions, Matt will come around the room and also I'm going to deputize Kathy to do some as well. Come around and pick up and Cecilia and Antoinette. So you'll be covered on all four corners. If you have questions, which will be coming up after the break. So the second question will be for Mr. Brennan. And then everybody else obviously one minute since you all believe the knowledge of or involvement in the Yolo County community is important to being a good judge. Please name the top three groups in your opinion. So I'm OK. Okay. I just going to do the question. Please name the top three groups in your opinion that currently promote further access to justice in the Yolo County community. Mr. Brennan, one minute. Well, I would I guess say the public defender's office. First of all, if we're talking about the criminal aspect of it, and we're talking about justice, the panel up there, the indigent defense panel would be the second and then the Yolo Bar Association would be the third, in my opinion. 90 percent, I believe of all the cases handled in the Superior Court of Criminal Cases. The public defender's office has a very tough job in representing the clients and ensuring access to them and make sure they get fair and partial treatment. Same with the conflict panel they have up there. They have some great attorneys on that that are always available and willing to take the cases. And then the Yolo Bar, the private attorneys who are out there taking the cases and making sure clients have their rights protected and make sure they're not being overrun or just doing what the police officers think. So those would be in my opinion the top three in Yolo County. All right. Go ahead. The top three groups in our county that promote and further access to justice are obviously the courts because that is where justice is served in our community. It's the public defender's office and the DA's office, but both of those following under the larger umbrella of California State Bar where we can contribute to things like access to justice and where we have our professional responsibility as attorneys to contribute to and promote access to justice for those individuals in our community. Back to Mr. Romion. I think the attorneys, the DA and the public defender, I'm going to lump them into one. I think victims rights groups also are very, very important in bringing equal access because the victims need that representation. And so without the victims rights group, you don't have that. And then the third group would be the bar itself. First, we need to pay attention to the people who watch the people. And that's the David Vanguard and Vanguard Court Project. They keep an eye out and make sure that nothing slips through undetected. And that's extremely important for ensuring access to justice. Second, we have the Family Justice Center Project that's underway, and we need to support the program to help protect children and families, provide training, education, services for victims of domestic violence. And third, we should thank the University of California, Davis Law School and their clinical program, the domestic violence clinic. They provide support services. They get active involved in the community and they make sure people are helpful and they need help. Thank you. All right. And then the third part of this question goes to Ms. Delaini. Since you all believe that knowledge of involvement in Yolo County community is important to being a good judge. What responsibility do you think a judge has to be involved in the community after he, she is elected? I think that judges have a tremendous responsibility to still be active and involved in our community long after taking the bench. And I've proven that through my community service that I would be an individual who would continue on that. It's just important for our judges to be out there and to be accessible so that it kind of takes the mystery of the process for individuals who are going to be appearing before them in their courtrooms. I agree that it's very important to be involved in the community. You have to be a little more careful once you become a judge, though, because you have to choose your activities more wisely. You can't get involved in the same groups that you may have been involved with before. That's why the board of trustees works for the law library. That's why every 15 minutes worked. And that's why anything that has to do with criminal justice has to work. Anything that has to do with the court, you can do that. A judge, but not only a judge, all of us have a duty and an obligation to be a part of our community, be active and involved. We all have a different skill set and strengths. We should choose those activities, choose how we serve in a way that meets the community and meets our skill set, whether that coaching Little League, whether that is working with high school students, whether that is being involved in active and committed. Each of us have a duty and each of us should actively be involved. Thank you. I obviously agree that if you're elected, you should be involved in the community. Obviously, as I stated, I live in the community. I live in West Sacramento. Raising my children in West Sacramento. They're attending school in West Sacramento. We are involved in functions in West Sacramento. Again, Yellow County is a unique county. It's different than Sacramento or the surrounding counties. And I think being part of it and out there on a daily basis living in the community, you get to know what the hot button topics are, what the issues are affecting this county. So I do believe it's important. I think obviously I will be planning on raising my family and living in West Sacramento for as long as we can. So. All right, we're going to go back to Miss Baroneo. We're back to the two minute questions. We got three more in this round and then we're going to take our break. You guys are doing great in terms of time. So everybody out there, that means you're going to get more questions to ask. So make sure you write down on your note cards. So this goes to Miss Baroneo first. How does a judicial candidate and an elected judge avoid getting too close to your constituents so that you can be fair and impartial? That's probably one of the hardest things when you take the bench is having to change some of your relationships in order that you can do that. You have to choose wisely where you go, what you do and who you do it with. You can't ever say what your opinion is about certain things. You have to be very careful what you do, what you say. And that's the only way you can do that. We have two hundred thousand people in this county. I can have 50 friends. But ultimately when you're in the community and when you are providing public service, you do need to be mindful of your role and you need to be mindful of where those relationships are. One of the important things that you know that if there's someone that you know personally appears before you, you need to disqualify yourself not only because it's an issue whether you are fair but because of the perception or the appearance of whether you can be fair. And it's important that the judge be intellectually honest and be able to say I know this person. And even though I'm sure I can be fair, I trust myself. The issue is that the other side worries that you're going to be unfair as a result, you need to be careful about who you are friends with. But that doesn't mean you can't be part of the community. We all are part of the community. And it's a matter of knowing who you know and being sure you're careful when they appear before you and they can't appear before you. Obviously, there's strict rules for for disclosures and who you have to declare either conflict on or or inform both sides if you know this person, etc. The being fair and impartial to me, it seems I'm part of the IDP indigent defense panel board member in Sacramento. One of the committees or one of the boards I'm on is the peer review committee. So we evaluate attorneys in Sacramento County that have had complaints made about and we will make recommendations as to possible suspension from the panel, not from the bar to continue in education, to providing a mentor for some attorneys who need it. And I've been part of that since 2006, I want to say. And I've been doing that. I've been mentored to some of the younger attorneys that are not quite the qualified levels for a case if the case is upgraded. I've also had to discipline and had to kick people off the panel. Some of my friends, we went to a major reclassification about four or five years ago. And a lot of people that I've known for many years were were not approved at the level they wanted to be approved at. They did not. Some of them weren't asked to come back and it was a very hard thing to do, but it was the right thing to do. And the I believe I could bring that to the bench because I've been doing it for the last eight years or so. Thank you. When you're a person who has the ability to be fair and impartial, it's part of your character. It's who you are. And so it's kind of ingrained in you to make sure that you don't step over the line and that you keep those relationships where they're supposed to be. There are judicial cannons and rules of professional responsibility that would guide me along the way. If an individual came before my court, either as a defendant or as an attorney on one side or the other, I would be able to follow those judicial cannons and make sure that I made the right decision and whether I needed to recuse myself or to make sure that there would be no appearance of impropriety in that courtroom because being fair and impartial and having that integrity is part of my character. It's OK. And maybe if you guys have your questions ready, some of the volunteers can go around and pick them up from the audience so that we can evaluate them and make sure that they pass judicial muster. So, Mr. Cohen, has a complaint ever been filed against you with the Commission on Judicial Performance or with the State Bar? If so, what did it concern? Did you file a response? And what was the resolution? No, no, not applicable, not applicable, not applicable. And I don't need two minutes to answer that question, I'm sorry. Well, obviously, the Commission on Judicial Performance, I have no complaints filed against me. In my nine years as a private attorney, I had two clients do what's called a feed dispute with the State Bar. It went to arbitration and I was actually awarded the unpaid sum of money that they never paid me and it was called for in the contract, which I never got anyway. I did file a response because we were mandated to. And again, like I said, at arbitration, I won the outstanding balance, but never sought to collect it or never tried to enforce a judgment. There were clearly clients that weren't happy that entered to plea, both of them entered to plea to multiple, multiple years in state prison. And I guess they had buyers remorse. So those are it for me. No, sir. I had a complaint filed by the father of a defendant that I put in jail because I was supposed to put him in jail and it was found beyond founded. OK, so this is the final question in this round. It'll be Mr. Brennan answering first. Have you ever submitted your name to be considered for a judge before? If so, why do you believe you were not selected? What was the commission's findings? If you have not submitted your name to be judged before, why not? I have never submitted my name to the Genny Commission or any. Well, the Genny Commission is the board that qualifies judges or, excuse me, candidates onto the governor's office. I have never done that. Why haven't I done that? I feel like finally in my career, I'm 20 years of experience has given me the ability or the ability to be a fair and impartial judge and have the experience needed to be judged. Qualifications say you need 10 years, but frankly, my views 10 years ago as coming straight out of the prosecutor's office are much different than they are now. I think I'm much more of a well-balanced person now. And my intention was to do it. I was planning on waiting. Maybe my kids were a bit older. Once there was an open seat that came up when Judge Mock decided not to put his name in or retire and have the governor appoint somebody. That's when I decided now is the time to do it because it hasn't happened in my 19 years as they're 20 years as a practicing attorney. I've never seen an open judicial seat happen. So that's why I decided to jump in now. I have never submitted my name for consideration to be a judge before. It was something that my husband and I had considered and would not have done it probably at this time had I not had such strong feelings about my community at the time I got involved in this race it was just Ms. Veronio and Mr. Cohen involved neither of which live in our community. And so that's why I got involved in this race now at this time I felt that it was important for our community to have a strong voice to have somebody who is from this community, who is a native of this community and who has served this community to be involved. Yes, I have submitted my name before. I'm not very politically connected. I don't have any connections to get myself a political appointment. And I actually really liked the person that got selected. I have submitted the application for judicial appointment. I cannot speak for the governor to his reason for selecting other people. But what we do know is that many, many people submit their application to many qualified people. But one of the problems is that family lawyers do not get the respect they deserve. We practice in one of, if not the most difficult areas of the law requiring us to note not just issue the property, custody, support, but we have to know and be familiar with taxation, immigration, bankruptcy, criminal law. And people tend not to recognize that. But ultimately the governor makes his choices which includes political favors, which includes his employees and people in the governor's office, prosecutors. And that is the governor's prerogative. And I'm very proud that we have a society that give the governor that prerogative. And here today we have the prerogative that the people get to choose. And the people will leave this room and people will go to the polls and they'll ask themselves who best meets their needs, who protect children and families, who looked after their values. And that's where the people will make that choice. Thank you. Okay, we're gonna take a little break. We've got a lot of questions in. So we gotta go through those. We'll reconvene in a few minutes. I'll let you know when, thanks. Okay, so we have a request that you kind of lean in and speak loud into the mic because the people in the back are having a little trouble hearing. So welcome back. Thank you for all your great questions. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to ask all of them. By agreement, because this is a judicial race, there are some questions that candidates can't answer. And so by agreement, I have adopted the single objection system, which means that if any one of them objects, I'm simply gonna move on rather than trying to sort through it. So hopefully we can get through most of these questions. They're gonna be one minute apiece. We are going to be starting. It might help to explain to the audience why basically the judicial canon or a rule that said that judges are not allowed to address issues that will commit them to a position that might come before them or to the court. So if you ask the question where we might have to answer in a way that somebody might have a dispute or a case and by having been on record saying we support a certain position that was suggested we're no longer impartial or no longer biased. Similarly, we can't even talk about a case that's on the court of appeal or had come down recently. So if you heard, gee, the court of appeal just issued a decision on X, we can't talk about it because it's a specific rule that prohibits it. So it's not a question of ducking the question. All right, so let us begin. Ms. Delaney, you get the first question. This one's actually specifically to you. So the others can kind of decide if they need to respond to. Your husband has been a Davis police officer and now a West Sacramento police officer. Isn't there an appearance of conflict of interest in every case where an officer from those agencies is a witness? There is absolutely not. I have the ability to be fair and impartial. Could I sit on a case where my husband is one of the witnesses? Absolutely not. Although I know I could be fair and impartial even if he were the witness that would create an appearance of impropriety and that wouldn't be something that our judiciary needs. So there's not a concern with me sitting on a case where one of the officers from the Davis police department or the West Sacramento police department is testifying. Okay, Ms. Baronia, did you wanna answer that more generally or it's up to you? Whether you think there's a conflict there or whether you have conflicts in your own life or... I've had a conflict in the past because my husband was a Davis police officer until he was injured in the line of duty and had to retire. And I would never hear his cases. There may be some conflicts based on West Sac, not from Davis anymore though. She's been gone from Davis long enough. The first issue is about disclosure. Letting the party to the case know that there's an issue out there. For example, Judge Mark White is a retired chief deputy of the Yolo County DA's office. So when he had criminal cases and regularly had criminal cases, he would disclose that his wife is a prosecutor. Then most people would say, that's fine, we trust you. So it's a matter of making sure that you have your eye open for the potential and making sure that the people are aware of it. Sometimes the conflict is great because they've had actual involvement in the case and that's absolutely disqualification. But if they have had nothing to do with it and adjust that they're in that office or that with the arresting agency, disclosure I think is what you need. I would agree with all these folks that I don't think it's a big conflict. My wife's the deputy district attorney in Sacramento. Obviously she can't prosecute a case on defending. You build safeguards in place. The only, I guess, issue would be depending on the rank or if you supervising, as long as there's a disclosure and that she would conflict herself, there wouldn't be any type of bias or any type of problem in my opinion. All right, next question will go back to Boronio. All right, this is an interesting one. Are you in favor of trials being televised, filmed, and played later on TV so taxpayers and citizens can see how justice is dispensed in Yolo County? The only problem I would have with that is if the taping of the court procedure made for the procedure not to be fair. I think that happens quite often when everything's on television, you're not worried about the rights of the victim, the rights of the defendant, you're more worried about how good you're gonna look on TV. So if that's what's happening, no, it's a terrible idea. But if it can be done in a way where it doesn't affect the process and the fairness, then it's fine. No, I don't believe that trials should be televised because what happened is people start grandstanding. Judges start grandstanding. We start with the OJ trial, prosecutors, defense attorneys, plaintiffs' counsels, defense attorneys, they all start playing to the camera instead of dealing with truth, injustice, and trying to see what's really going on and having to try out the facts, making intelligent decisions. The print media, on the other hand, people tend not to grandstand or play through the print media so trials are proceeding, they're reported, as they should be. I don't believe, with the exception of children, that courtroom should be closed. I don't believe we should have locked doors in high-profile cases or low-profile cases. The court system act as should be public, but we want to avoid grandstanding because that gets in the way of justice. As you all know or should know, obviously the courts are open in, except for the juvenile system or at certain specific instances, the courtroom can be closed. And I think the public has great access to the courtroom. You can walk into any courtroom, any county, any time. I would agree that I don't believe they should be televised just for the fact, I think some people will grandstand, some people will try to show off, but also I think in some of the serious cases that are done, the murders, the homicide, the gang cases that I've done, you'll get witnesses and people acting differently. I'd have a concern that some of the potential witnesses to the case would be afraid. For example, I do trials all the time and you're comfortable in that avenue, in that aspect. You put cameras in front of me up here and it's a different world and I think that's going to affect the people out there. And in my concern would be more for the witnesses or the potential repercussions for them if they're broadcasted. Thank you. If there was an opportunity that we could televised the trials without impairing the rights of any of the parties involved, whether that's the defendant, any of the witnesses who might be testifying, particularly witnesses, if it's a sex offense, a child sex offense, or maybe even domestic violence, some sort of serious offense, there are of course many benefits of having a public trial. I'm not sure if those would be furthered by having our trials televised. Having our courtrooms open to the public causes the parties to perform better. There are also other benefits that come along with it. There could also be detriment though and we wouldn't want to prevent a defendant from taking his case to trial if he truly believed in his innocence because he had fear maybe of embarrassment or humiliation of what the public may find out. There could also be tremendous safety issues for some of the witnesses involved depending on what the type of offense is. If it's a gang and fence or a serious or violent offense, there might be safety issues. There could also be issues for a defendant if identification is an issue in the case. You wouldn't want to have it televised if that's the main defense. All right. Mr. Cohen, I think it's your question. What ideas do you have to improve the quality of jury pools? Our jury pools are good, contrary to what a lot of people say. Our jury's are made out of people just like us. They receive that wonderful dreaded little envelope in the mail and they do their one day, one trial. They are people who are everywhere from day laborers to university professors, professionals, teachers, unemployed people. And what I hear constantly over my nearly quarter century of being a lawyer is how much, how often the jury's get it right. So I'm happy and proud of our jury system. It's part of what makes our government and our country terrific. Thank you. Which way there? I think the jury panel in Yolo County is fantastic. I've done trials up here. It's a great mix of people with Yolo County being such a unique and varied county. You've got the Davis, UC Davis, you get students, you get teachers. You'll get people from Woodland, West Sacramento, a great wide variety of people in Yolo County. I don't think anything needs to be done to change the pool in Yolo County. I assume that some of them don't come when they get their notice, but they seem to be cracking down on that recently. When we moved, we apparently I missed one and got a notice that it was gonna be warm for my rest if I didn't show up. So they're doing fairly good with it right now. And I think it's a fantastic panel. I wouldn't do a thing to change it. The California constitution demands that we have a jury that's comprised of a fair and representative cross-section of our community. And I think all of our courts, including Yolo County, do a tremendous job at making sure that statistically we do have a fair representative of our community when we come in there for the jury pool. But then what happens is we have hardships and jurors get excused for that. We have challenges for cause and jurors get excused. And then we have peremptory challenges by the parties. And before you know it, we may have a jury panel that is a cross-section of the community that is able and willing to serve at that particular time and not necessarily a fair and representative cross-section of our community. But it's the system that we have. It's a wonderful system. And we do hear about juries get it correct. I do agree that our jury system in Yolo County is good. We pull them from the places that we're supposed to pull them from and we get a good cross-section of people on the jury. And if they do get excused for a hardship or some other reason, it's just part of the system and our juries have worked well. Okay, so now we go to Mr. Brennan. The question is, if you do not technically live in the county, what parts of your life personally or professionally are connected to the county? Well, I live in the county so I don't know how to answer that. Kids go to school there, I work there, I shop there. I don't know, I mean, everything I do is pretty much related to Yolo County. So I don't think this is probably the right question for me. Thank you. I do live in this community. I grew up in this community. As I mentioned before, I was educated in the West Sacramento Public Schools. My husband's been educated in the Davis Public Schools. Our children are attending school here. We live here. This is where we volunteer. This is where we give back to our community and this is where we call home and have for many, many years. Ms. Peroni. I came to Yolo County 34 years ago and started with the court. I've lived in Yolo County and I live right outside of Winters right now. We go to the Winters Christmas tree lighting every year. We're part of the community there. I eat lunch every day in Woodland. I spend all my money in Yolo County. As you already know, I'm a proud Aggie having graduated from the UC Davis Law School. But I'll tell you one of the things that I'm most grateful for is the University of California Davis Hospital. My son was born at 24 weeks at the Michael Creamy. He lived there for four and a half months. It was two months before I knew if he was going to live or die. UC Davis is my home. I lived here for years. I live now just 15 minutes from the Woodland Courthouse. Regularly in the community, through my practice. My economic life, which is another way saying I spend my money here. Friend, family, and the community. Thank you. All right. Ms. Dellaini. So this is, there are several questions here that have to do with AB 109 split sentencing, alternative sentencing. So I've tried to kind of condense this down into a question that you might ask or may be able to answer. What role can judges play in developing or supporting alternative sentencing programs? All right. Well, based on the one objection role, then I'll strike that question. The other question was please address diverting people who have severe mental illnesses from the criminal justice system. Yeah. I think that we should have or should look at having somewhat, I don't know if we should call them specialty courts or things of that nature. We do have individuals with significant mental illness who come through our criminal justice courts and maybe it would make our courts a little more efficient if we had an opportunity where those were carved out and we had individuals there who could provide treatment and wrap around services and things of that nature that might be required for them. Ms. Barani. We actually do have a mental health court and Judge Janet guards in charge of it. So Yolo County is doing what we need to do to help those with mental health issues. For many years, too many years, we've had it lock them up and throw away the key mentality. Long sentences for relatively minor offenses. I know my time has not gone up yet. Our prisons have gotten so overcrowded that we've had federal court litigation and special panels of the federal judges to deal with the mental health care not being provided to inmates. People who may not have mental health problems when they go in have them when they come out. Prison systems are not designed to provide mental health services. We need to find alternatives both on a budgetary basis and for a community-wide how we can best serve our people, all of our people. It's part of it requires a certain amount of community will or decision where are we going to spend our precious dollars? Are we going to increase that budget, meaning more taxes? If we're not going to, how do we allocate the resources? But we need to find solutions because the prison system is not where we want to be finding treatment for mentally ill people. They need the proper treatment. Now it is. Mr. Brennan. I agree the mental health court system is fantastic. It's a good start. I think we need more help. I see it in daily basis. A lot of my clients have mental health. A lot of the crime you see stems from mental health. Incarceration is not always the answer. They do need help. Sacramento's mental health courts fantastic. Yolo knows their mental health court is good. Everything seems great, but we do need more. The problem is how do we get it? As Mr. Cohen said, no one's willing to pay more for taxes for it. What can the judges do? It's hard on what you can do with the finite budget. So I think it's a good start. I think we need more programs out there. I don't think that just locking people up is the answer. Good friend of mine runs the program down in RCCC, the Sacramento County Jail, and their welding program has had two people that have graduated from the welding program come back on a violation of probation. Two people in... Hey, next question to Ms. Barone. What impact has AB 109 had on the judicial system and the role of the judge? It's impacted Yolo County in that we are now dealing with a lot of people who would have been in state prison. And they're now out on PRC, I'm sorry, post-release community supervision, mandatory supervision, or now parolees also come and are adjudicated here. So it's made our courts work harder because we now have a lot of work that we didn't used to have. It's made our jail fuller, so it limits us in our ability to sentence people, especially misdemeanants, because there's absolutely no room left for misdemeanors. It's money. That's what the whole issue is about, the state prison to overcrowded and the governor's solution is to move lower-level offenders to the county jail. While the county jail may be a better environment for low-level offenders in prison, now people who are convicted of misdemeanors, contempt of courts, are in holding, pending the adjudication of the hearings, are overcrowded. And so now we're moving people into the community, some who are ready and some who aren't. But it really goes to this, you are an activist group, you are an activist community, and you have to decide, and we as a community have to decide how are we going to spend our resources? Because that's what AV1 or NADD is about. It's not a question of good or bad. It's about where do we put the money? I think it's significantly impacted every county in the state of California. Yolo County, clearly the jails are much more crowded. The offenders that were going to state prison a couple of years back now are staying locally. It's taxing the probation department. It's taxing the jail staff. But as I pointed out, I think that Sacramento has set up a fantastic program that has seen results. My opinion, the lack of education or the lack of education slash job is what's causing a lot of the problems. If you have somebody you teach them how to weld and that person can go and become a welder and work for 10 hours a day or 12 hours a day, it doesn't leave much time to get into trouble. My opinion, that's why that program has such a good success rate. The welders are, they have a great program to help get them jobs after they're released with their welding certificate. They also are getting funding for a horse ranch. They'll be taken in the wild horses from Miss Delaney. I think AB109 and the way it was rolled out, there's no question that it has burdened our courts, not just in Yolo County but throughout the state. Our jails are crowded and so it's changing the way we have to sentence and deal with offenders. Our jails are full of individuals who are serving long term sentences when previously they were only meant for pretrial detainees or short sentences. But it's what we have and now it's up to us as a community and the judiciary to get the programs in place to make sure that it does become a successful program. In Yolo County we now have the day center where they're able to provide wrap around services to individuals whether it might be a drug problem or a mental health problem or they may be in need of vocational training and we need more services out there to make sure that AB109 is a success. Otherwise we will continue to fill our prisons with more individuals. Mr. Cohen, what methods do you use to discover your own personal biases? How do you address or change your thinking to eliminate these biases? We have two types of biases, extrinsic bias and intrinsic bias. Extrinsic bias is easy. We know we don't like somebody because of the color of their skin or we know that we've had a bad experience with a certain type of person or a group and we're aware of those biases and when we're aware of them we can work hard to put them aside and make sure that we absolutely bend over backwards to be fair. Intrinsic bias is like the subconscious. You don't know your bias. One of the things that the Judges School programs do is they have a little online test where they show you picture the various people on the right side and the left side all you see is their eyes and you have to know more than one second at a time press the button. Do you like the person on the right side or the left side? And again, the left side or the right side? And what it does is it basically tells you as the answer are you naturally liking better one group of people? Mr. Renner, thank you. I think in my 20 years experience again I think starting off as a DA I had a lot of bias. I had opinions of right and wrong and that if you were brought to court you did something wrong therefore is my job to make sure justice was served. The last nine years on the other side of it and dealing with the human aspect of it I think my biases have significantly eliminated. I think now I have the ability to look at both sides look at things fairly and not judge somebody as a DA or as a prosecutor you get the police reports. That's all you know. It's all you know. You talk to the witnesses, they reiterate what's in the police reports and you go off the court you got your marching order. On the other side you get to look at the human aspect of it. You see the people. You see how the crimes are what's affecting not only the defendants but their families, the society. And I think in having that unique perspective gives me effectively eliminated all my biases. I think one of the best ways to get in touch with what your biases are and how you should or how you can deal with them is by getting involved. Being involved in the community. Being involved with individuals from all walks of life and I certainly have that experience through Sacramento City College where we have a very urban environment. I've gotten that experience through working with big brothers and big sisters where there are children there who are a victim of their circumstances. One of the girls I mentored her mother was in prison for murder. Obviously that's something that I have take issue with but she was not responsible for that and so by getting involved with her and dealing with the more human aspects of it it changes your views. Working through programs like volunteers in parole working with parolees who have been through the system it teaches you their perspective and maybe some of the causes as to how we get there and it changes the way that you may it just changes your perspective. Also at the attorney general's office I investigate erroneously convicted offender claims. All right Miss Peronio. I've spent the last 25 years being fair and unbiased. I listen to what people say. I don't pay any attention to all the other things that are going on other than what's in front of me. When you see someone that you might have a perception that he or she is a certain way when you do what I've done as long as I've done you'll find that that's not true. You can't pigeonhole anybody. Everybody's different. Everybody has their own story and you just need to sit back and listen keep your mind open. So that is it for the audience questions. So now we're gonna go to closing statements and I'm actually gonna give you guys three minutes each and one of the things I'd like you to, it's alive. One of the things I'd like you to do is in your closing remarks address the question of why you want to be a judge. So we will start with Mr. Brennan and with Mr. Comfort. I just get the easy ones to start off, apparently. My, well I'll try to address this two parts. Obviously my, well I want you all vote for me. I have the experience, I have the ability to be a fair and impartial judge. I have the experience that no candidate up here has. I've been in court on a almost daily basis for the last 20 years of my career. I was a prosecutor for 10 years. Did serious violent gang cases. I was in a hate crime unit. I did domestic violence units. I have domestic violence unit. I've done every trial. I'm pretty sure I've done almost every trial out there. I started off as misdemeanors. I've done DUIs, petty thefts. Did juvenile law. I've done homicides. I've done gang cases. I've done sexual assault cases, both on minors and adults. I've done everything there is that we see in court on a daily basis. That 90% of our courts deal with. When you all get jury duty summons, it's for a criminal case. Most of them, there may be some civil cases out there that maybe one or two of you have sat on. But the majority of our court system is tied up and involved in the criminal justice system. That's why I decided to run for judge. I've been doing this a long time. I was a successful prosecutor for 10 years. I've been a successful businessman for the last nine years. And this is where that has brought me, where all the experience I have gained has put me in the position to be the most qualified judge for your account. Thank you. Some of the reasons that I want to be a judge is first and foremost, as lawyers, we have an obligation to improve our legal profession. And that's one of the things that I want to be involved with. The second thing is public service. That's what my life has been about. I've dedicated my life to community service through working with children, working with parolees, working through the school, working on the volunteer, or excuse me, the auction through our school. I currently co-lead a Brownie troop where we are solely dedicated to community service and serving our community. My qualifications for this physician are unmatched. My experience transcends criminal law. My experience transcends the superior courts. I have practiced in criminal law at both the trial and appellate levels. I handle civil, habeas, corpus proceedings. I get involved in administrative proceedings. I handle writ petitions. I practice in all of our courts. The bulk of my practice is in our higher courts, in the California Courts of Appeal. I've also handled cases in the California Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. So my experience transcends the superior court. I've spent five years as a prosecutor handling trials. I've now spent five years as an appellate prosecutor handling a myriad of cases. I am also the only candidate who teaches and has taught for a number of years the rules on criminal procedure. I am the only candidate who has taught for a number of years the rules of evidence and that transcends criminal or civil. I have also taught the basic concepts of criminal law and I have done that for a number of years. There is not a candidate that has my legal research or my legal writing skills. That's what I've done on a daily basis for the past five plus years. There is not an issue that would come before me that I would not be able to figure out. I will have the moving papers from both sides to help guide me and I will also be able to do the research to figure out what I believe to be the best and most reason decision is. I've explained I have deep roots in this community. I was raised in West Sacramento. My husband's family is also from West Sacramento. In fact, my husband's family came over here in the early 1900s and walked across the I street bridge to go and work in the rail yard every day. We've been in this community for a long time. My husband has served this community through the Davis police department and the West Sacramento police department and as a veteran. We believe in this community, we're involved in this community and because of my unmatched qualifications and ties and service to this community, I would be the best judge for this position. I've chosen to work in Yolo County courtrooms for 34 years, day after day, week after week. That's all I've done is worked in Yolo County courtrooms. I don't know how anyone up here can say they're more qualified than I am because I have extensive jury trial experience as a prosecutor, but I've been on the bench for 25 years. I've been doing what a judge does for 25 years. I want to be a judge now because it will give me the opportunity to do the few things that I have not been able to do as a commissioner. As a commissioner, I've been able to do most jobs that a judge does, but there are some things that I cannot do and I would like to do those. I have so much to offer. I am supported and endorsed by every single judge that works in Yolo County. And what you should know is that a commissioner is an at-will position, which means if I'm not doing my job, I don't have one. And yet I've had a job for 25 years and they weren't all these judges either. I've worked under different judges. Every judge that's come through Yolo County has thought I'm terrific, has wanted me to keep working here and now they want me to be a judge. So I do not know how anyone can say they're more qualified for this than I am. I'm gonna stand up because the people in the back of the room haven't really been able to see us. I'm running for judge because it's the best way to serve the community and to protect children and families. As I said when we started, we had no family law attorneys on the bench and we need someone with a skill, experience, and fortitude, that special something to handle the family law assignments. But the people I wanna talk to tonight are not the people who came for Ms. Baroneo, Mr. Brennan, Ms. Delaney, or who came for me. I wanna talk to the people who came here that are truly undecided. They're like, what's this about? Let me go see what these judicial candidates have to offer, what are they saying? We have something special in this country. We can talk openly about politics without fear of going to jail, without fear of being ostracized. I want you, the people who are undecided, to go home tonight, talk to your friends, talk to your family, your neighbors, tell them what you liked, tell them what you didn't like. I can take it, we can all take it. But have that discussion, tell people what you heard. When you go to the polls, I want you to ask yourself, who on this table meets your need? Who on this table is best prepared to serve this county for the next two decades? Who on this table is going to get your vote? And if you do that, that's all I ask of you. And thank you so much for coming here. You've spent almost two hours here. You've been a terrific guardian. And on behalf of all of the candidates, thank you for giving us your time and attention. And I would like to thank all of the candidates once again for participating in this candidates forum. I'd like to thank all the audience for coming out and bearing with us their technical problems. And thank you. It's not very often that we get a open seat for judge and get to truly decide who will be sitting up on the bench. I'd like to thank Davis Media Access for showing this. They will have this posted online. Hopefully they'll have it on channel, what is it, 15? Here in Davis. And we'll also, once they post it online, we'll put it up on the Davis Vanguard website so everybody will be able to watch this event. One of the reasons we wanted to do this early on was the last couple of times there've been judge races. It's been a little bit difficult for people in Davis to come see the candidates forums. So we wanted to make it real accessible for a large group of people in the community. So thank you, everybody.