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WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2008 THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS PACE 7A — Meet the Candidates — Donna Golden Sikes, District Attorney Rick Bridgeman, District Attorney (incumbent) Please summarize your back ground. I grew up in Jackson County on a cattle and chicken farm and graduated from Jefferson High School in 1972. I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia and my law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law. I have had my own law practice for the past 17 years, representing cli ents in all areas of the law, both civil and criminal. I am a member of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and a graduate from the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce leadership program. I have served as a member and past chairman of the Jackson County Industrial Development Authority, and as attorney for the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority and for the City of Arcade. I am a member of the Piedmont Judicial Circuit Bar Association and I am licensed to practice in all Georgia Superior Courts, the Georgia Court of Appeals, the Georgia Supreme Court and the U.S. Federal District Courts. How has your background prepared you for the seat you are seeking? I have successfully tried thousands of cases for my clients and done so without a team of investigators or assistants to back me up. I have had to manage my own office and work within a budget. I also grew up here and have deep family roots in this community. I understand what the people want from their district attorney. Why are you the most qualified person for this position? Having 17 years as a practicing attorney admitted to practice before every court in Georgia and having successfully tried cases at the Georgia Court of Appeals and even the State Supreme Court makes me the most experienced attorney in this race. What do you consider to be the key issues facing the campaign? If elected, what would be your plans on how to address these issues? The most important issues are restoring public trust and integrity in the district attorney’s office and removing the stench of corruption left by Tim Madison. To achieve this, I will have an “open door, open books’’ policy so that everyone will know immediately how their tax dollars are being spent. What is the greatest challenge being the person elected to this position and how would you address it? The greatest challenge will be reassuring the public that the district attorney’s office works for them and is not used as a vehicle for personal vendettas, unethical behavior, or outright crime as it was under Tim Madison. As the only candidate who never worked for him, I’m the only one who can restore that trust. What course would you like to see the county take as it grows over the next decade? The growth in population in our area will unfortunately bring an increase in crime. The district attorney’s office needs to address that by cooperating with and supporting our law enforcement agencies and making sure they have the training and resources they need to fight increasing crime rates. I will make the district attorney’s office available for the training of investigators and arresting officers anytime a sheriff or chief of police needs that. Brad Smith, District Attorney Please summarize your back ground. Brad Smith has been leading others since his college years at The Citadel, where he served as a Cadet Second Lieutenant and Company Academic Officer. After graduating with honors from The Citadel, Brad attended one of the nation’s leading law schools at the University of Virginia, where he graduated in 1996. He began his legal career with the Piedmont Judicial Circuit as an assistant dis trict attorney for Jackson County in January 1997. Within two years of hire. Brad was placed in charge of supervising the Jackson County office. For the next five years, he was directly responsible for the prosecution of every felony case in Jackson County. In August 2004, Brad moved to the Barrow County District Attorney’s Office as a senior assistant district attorney. Highlights of Brad’s service include: •Assistant district attorney in the Piedmont Judicial Circuit for over 10 years. •Served as acting chief assistant for the Piedmont Circuit. •Lead counsel on more murder cases than any other ADA in the circuit during his tenure. •Experience with multiple death penalty cases. •Has argued before the State Supreme Court. •Past chairman of the Jackson County Child Abuse Protocol Committee and Child Fatality Review Committee. •Created and chaired the District Attorney’s Gang Task Force. •Assisted in the development of the criminal justice curricu lum for Barrow County high schools. •State Bar of Georgia Mentor for new ADAs. •Admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Georgia and the State Court of Appeals. •Current Secretary / Treasurer of the Piedmont Bar Association. Currently, Brad works at the Clarke County District Attorney’s Office. Brad has been dedicated to serving the Piedmont Circuit com munity in his private life as well. He is a member of the board of directors of the Tree House Child Advocacy Center and serves as chairman of the center’s Fatherhood Committee and is a member of its Community Outreach, Board Development and Auction Committees. He and his family are also active supporters and fundraisers for Peace Place and Relay for Life. In addition, he is the voice of the Appalachee Wildcats serving as the announcer for high school’s home football games for the past seven years, a member of the Barrow County Chamber of Commerce, Barrow County Republican Party, and past president of his neighborhood homeowner’s association. Brad and his family attend Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit Church in Winder. Brad’s experience and commitment to his community has earned him endorsements from district attorneys Ken Mauldin (Western Judicial Circuit) and Ken Hodges (Dougherty Judicial Circuit), as well as the Police Benevolent Association of Georgia. How has your background prepared you for the seat you are seeking? In my 11 years of service to the Piedmont Circuit, I have prosecuted every type of case from armed robberies and kid nappings, to domestic violence and drug trafficking. I have personally tried more murder cases than any other assistant district attorney in the circuit. I have experience with multiple death penalty cases, and have received national training in death penalty litigation. However, being district attorney is about more than prosecuting a case, it is about leading a staff of over 35 in the prosecution of thousands of cases. My roles within the Piedmont circuit as supervisor of the Jackson County office, senior assistant district attorney in Barrow County and acting chief assistant district attorney have given me significant experience leading, supervising and training other attorneys, investigators, secretaries, and victim assistance coordinators. Why are you the most qualified person for this position? I am the only candidate with significant experience both pros ecuting cases and leading others in the prosecution of cases. In addition, the vast majority of my experience comes from serv ing Barrow, Banks, and Jackson counties. As a result, I am the most familiar with the issues and trends facing our community and have built the strong relationships with law enforcement, victim services agencies and county government leaders that are necessary to effectively manage the caseload of a rapidly growing judicial circuit and the large staff responsible for pros ecuting that caseload. What do you consider to be the key issues facing the campaign? If elected, what would be your plans on how to address these issues? As Jackson, Barrow and Banks counties grow, crime rates are growing and the types of crimes are changing. The district attorney must be prepared to anticipate and stay ahead of these changing trends in crime. For example, criminal street gangs are beginning to infiltrate our counties. The DA’s office must establish a circuit-wide Gang Task Force, like the one I created and chaired when I worked in Barrow County, that gathers and shares information and intelligence and coordinates activities between all law enforcement agencies. Only by acting aggres sively now can we get ahead of the problem and stop gangs at our door. Also, as our population ages, elder abuse, both physical and financial, is on the rise. The district attorney must take the lead in both prosecuting these cases and in educating the community to help prevent these crimes. Finally, internet predators are targeting both our children and financial identities. The district attorney must embrace technology and innovation to combat these cyber criminals. In order to stay ahead of these trends, however, the district attorney must address a key challenge within the DA’s office - the high rate of attorney turnover. Since September 2007, seven attorneys have resigned from the Piedmont Circuit’s DA’s office. Such high turnover rates hinder the office’s ability to efficiently and effectively prosecute cases. In order to attract and retain the best and brightest attorneys and support staff into the district attorney’s office, I will protect all employees of the DA’s office by bringing them under the human resource policies of the counties that employ them. Currently, attorneys and staff are employed at the will of the district attorney and can be fired without cause or due process. Bringing them under the protec tion of established human resource policies will help eliminate an environment of fear and distrust. In addition, I will create formal training programs for all attorneys and staff within the district attorney’s office. Such training will enhance employees’ ability to do their jobs, promote greater job satisfaction for existing employees, and attract better qualified candidates for open positions. What is the greatest challenge being the person elected to this position and how would you address it? Bringing innovation and expanded services during an eco nomic downturn. Taxpayers are overburdened and cannot simply throw money at problems. The district attorney must use the resources that are already in place to be more efficient and productive. The district attorney must also work outside the courtroom to promote programs that prevent crime and break the cycle of victimization. What course would you like to see the county take as it grows over the next decade? I would like to see open communication and coordina tion between all of the various law enforcement agencies in the county. Since working with the district attorney’s office is something they all share, the district attorney is in a unique position to foster and promote this coop eration. With rapid growth but limited resources, law enforcement must work together and pool their various resources to stop our changing trends in crime before they take hold. The district attorney must take a leadership role in this. SMITH Storm continued from page 1A Election cont'd from page 1A ning for the Democratic nomination for Public Service Commission where the winner will face the winner of the McDonald-Davidson battle. In the county Board of Education Post 1, incumbent Republican Neal Brown will face Democrat John David Kennedy in November as both are unopposed in their respective primaries. Whitfield said he was in the back part of his home, which is located behind the mobile home, and he didn’t hear the tree when it fell. He said, “The neighbors on the other side of the mobile home came to my house beating on the front door and said a tree was on my mother’s house. I went to her front door and was able to get her out.” Mrs. Echols, 85, was also in the home when the tree fell. Mrs. Echols said, “I was in the living room on the couch and it didn’t touch me. It didn’t even wet the couch where I was at.” Mrs. Echols said she climbed over stuff in the hallway of the mobile home to the bedroom door and called for her husband, but there was no answer. “I knew he was dead then,” she said. Please summarize your back ground. I obtained my B.A. degree in Criminology from the University of Maryland. While attending law school in the evening, I served full-time as an investigator with the DeKalb County Solicitor’s Office. I obtained my law degree from Georgia State University College of Law and was admitted to the bar in June 1995.1 served as an assistant district attorney in the Piedmont Judicial Circuit from July 1995 until July 1999. From July 1999 until my appointment as district attorney by Governor Perdue on September 6,2007,1 served as an assistant district attorney in both the Northern Judicial Circuit and the Mountain Judicial Circuit. It has been my privilege to serve as district attorney in the Piedmont Circuit (Banks, Barrow and Jackson Counties) for these past nine months. How has your background prepared you for the seat you are seeking? My background as a prosecuting attorney and investigator, as well as my degree in criminology, has enabled me to serve effectively as district attorney for the past nine months. We have made significant progress in overcoming the challenges of the past and building a trustworthy office, dedicated to serving the citizens of our community. Because I have served in other jurisdictions during my career, ranging from urban DeKalb County to rural Stephens County, I have learned which practices are most effective in the prosecu tion of criminal cases. Those experiences also provide me with perspective on the issues facing the Piedmont Circuit. Having seen the challenges in the criminal justice community that result from increasing population and growth, I am better prepared and equipped to anticipate and address future issues, such as gang violence, proactively and effectively. Why are you the most qualified person for this position? As a career prosecutor, having personally prosecuted thou sands of cases ranging from DUI to murder and having exten sive felony jury trial experience, I have the level of relevant experience necessary to train, mentor and lead others in the work of a district attorney’s office. We assembled the most seasoned, experienced and committed team of attorneys, inves tigators and support staff in the history of this circuit who are now working together with other talented but less experienced professionals in our office to build a culture of excellence. We have made significant progress in bringing necessary improvement to the district attorney’s office, including resolv ing a backlog of over 2,000 uncharged criminal cases, increas ing the rate of successful prosecutions from 54 percent to 85 percent and reducing the dismissal rate from 24 percent to 15 percent. We now track and expedite cases where defendants are held in jail. We now file criminal cases by accusation where permitted, saving thousands of dollars in witness and grand juror fees and keeping law enforcement officers on the street, instead of in the courthouse. We seek to indict or accuse cases within 90 days whenever possible to ensure timely justice for victims of crime and improve our ability to successfully prosecute each case. We reopened dozens of cases of child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence that had been put on “hold” so that we can seek justice for those victims. We now are seeking justice on every case. I established a practice of regular meet ings with law enforcement agencies and our other criminal justice partners to improve communication, learn where we can make improvements and discuss proactive and innovative ways to prevent crime.While we have made great strides, we still have work to do. Where we are successful, credit goes to our entire team. Where there is failure, I accept responsibility. We learn from our mistakes and seek daily to improve the quality of the service we provide to our community. We have a track record of significant accomplishment in just nine months and we hope to have the opportunity to continue that progress. What do you consider to be the key issues being the campaign? If elected, what would be your plans on how to address these issues? There are several key issues facing the campaign. First, the increasing growth of our community will likely bring an increase in demand for services in the criminal justice system. We must be prepared to handle the increased demand effective ly and efficiently with limited resources. We must be smarter in our approach to handling criminal cases. We should first work to prevent crime to reduce the growing crime problem in our community. Second, we must work to keep first-time non-violent offenders from becoming repeat offenders through appropriate supervision and treatment while under sentence. Repeat offenders who commit non-violent offenses must be handled through a progression of supervision, treatment and increasing sanctions to include incarceration when appropriate to require them to abide by the law. Finally, we must remove violent offenders and those who abuse children from our com munity through tough sentencing. The second issue, closely related to the first, is the likely change in the character of crime in our community with growth. Gang violence is a problem that has plagued metro Atlanta counties. We must be proactive to prevent gang violence but deal with it appropriately when it occurs. We are currently prosecuting the first gang violence cases in the history of this circuit and one of those gang members has already been sen tenced to prison. Gang membership begins at a young age. Likewise, many others who commit crime begin making poor life choices at an early age. Therefore, efforts to prevent gang violence and other crime must begin with our children. Our children must have the hope of a bright tomorrow, the love and guidance of a strong family and the support and encouragement of their community. We will continue to partner with the Tree House child advocacy center, our schools, DFCS, juvenile court and others to find effective ways to help children grow into healthy, happy, productive and law-abiding citizens. We must do a better job of partnering with the faith-based community in serving at-risk children and families. As a former foster parent, mentor and current adoptive parent, I have both personally and professionally dedicated myself to providing hope and encour agement for children in this community. A third issue is the continuing problem with drug addiction, particularly methamphetamine. Again, prevention is a key factor in reducing the problem of substance abuse in our com munity. Most who have drug and alcohol addictions began their substance abuse at an early age. We will continue with our partners to look for ways to prevent children and teenagers from making those choices. However, for those defendants who are using chugs, we must combine requirements for effec tive treatment with certain and appropriate sanctions in order to encourage them to overcome their problems with drug use and become law-abiding citizens. Drug court can be effective, but the cost per defendant is high and the number of defendants who can participate is very limited. Drug courts can spend a half-million dollars a year for just one hundred defendants. Additionally, where drug court is used as a prosecution diver sion program, it can take four prosecutions before a repeat drug offender would ever have a conviction entered on their record. We must look at how our limited funds can be spent most effectively to reduce crime. For example, our circuit has seen a reduction in the number of probation officers per offender resulting in a decrease in the ability to appropriately supervise offenders and an increase in the likelihood of recidivism. We must also look at ways to require the offender to bear the costs of treatment, rather than the taxpayer, wherever possible. What is the greatest challenge facing the person elected to this position and how would you address it? The greatest challenge is to effectively and efficiently handle a growing caseload of criminal cases without a corresponding increase in resources. State budget cuts and difficult economic times have resulted in a significant decrease in the funding available to prosecute each criminal case. Additionally, an increase in mandatory minimum prison sentences for some crimes has increased the likelihood of trial for many of these cases. That results in a significant increase in the amount of time and resources that it takes to prosecute each of those cases, compared to what it takes to prosecute a case which results in an early guilty plea. Criminal cases are handled most effec tively when they are prosecuted in a timely manner. The older a case gets, the more difficult it is to prosecute. Witnesses are harder to locate, memories fade and evidence can be misplaced or destroyed with the passage of time. I have made the timely prosecution of cases a priority and we have seen a correspond ing increase in our ability to be successful in the handling of those more recent cases. We spent thousands of hours work ing on the backlogged cases we inherited and our success rate on those cases has not been as high because of the difficulties presented in prosecuting cases that were already several years old at the time we inherited them. We will continue to focus on appropriate and timely handling of criminal cases so that dockets remain manageable, offenders are held responsible and victims receive justice. What course would you like to see the county take as it grows over the next decade? The county must plan ahead for the challenges of the future. As district attorney, I hope that we will continue to see posi tive results from the relationships we are building with law enforcement, the court system, our criminal justice partners and other public officials. If we continue to anticipate the needs of our citizens, we can be proactive in providing high quality services, utilizing the taxpayer’s resources effectively and improving the quality of life in our community, instead of reacting to issues after they occur. I hope to continue to improve our technology capabilities by improving our ability to electronically share data with our criminal justice partners thereby increasing our effectiveness; by providing online access to criminal case and docket information to victims, witnesses and the public; by putting all of our public informa tion online, including closed case files, budget and expense information and other statistical information; and by explor ing opportunities to go “paperless,” which reduces costs while increasing efficiency. 1 Save money with our multi-policy discount! Hen you insure your car and home or mobile home with us, through Auto-Owners Insurance Company, we’ll save you money with their multi-policy discount! Mature policyholders can earn even greater savings. Contact our agency today! cz/m/o - Insurance Life Home Car Business The.'No fio6£e*n fiopfk.** PO Box 876 Office: 706 335 4185 30037 Hwy. 441 S. 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