Alameda Board of Supervisors Ignore Public in Appointing Nancy O'Malley as County DA: audio

Most of the debate seemed to be about the process, not about Nancy O'Malley herself. This is a shame, because she has plenty to hide and the public should know it.

Nancy O'Malley is a political climber who has used the domestic violence issue as a stepping stone for a long time in her career.

That would be OK, except that it turns out her career is more important than actually helping victims of domestic violence.

For example, she used the locally operated but Federally Funded domestic violence agency, the ACFJC, Alameda County Family Justice Center, to give out a stepping stone job to another political climber, Nadia Lockyer, the political vampiress wife of Bill Lockyer, who was state Attorney General at the time.

Nadia Lockyer had no real experience in the domestic violence field, and was not likely the most qualified, but when the position of Executive Director of ACFJC opened up, O'Malley was determined to give it to her, so that Lockyer could return the favor in all the ways he is known for.

But a couple of problems. Both state law, which forbids the AG from using his position to benefit either himself or family members, and the Federal grant laws regarding the FJC system, which does not allow those making decisions on how Federal money is spent to receive the money, were standing in the way. What to do?

O'Malley cooked up a phony "Objective" process for picking the new head, whereby two selection committees, of four people each, would decide. But then she stacked the committees with two DA staffers subordinate to herself. Harold Boscovish, Lisa Foster, Karen Meredith, and IIRC, Sharmin Bock.

With a tie vote on any candidate, Nadia was in. She could not be rejected, nor could anyone else be selected. One committee member told me directly that O'Malley dominated the process.

This sneak move by O'Malley not only violated state and Federal law, it risked loss of funding. I called Mary Beth Buchanan, who was head of the Federal funding agency at the time, US DOJ OVW, and she was angry to hear about it, but fortunately for O'Malley, Buchanan got caught up in the Alberto Gonzalez scandal.

But the point is. O'Malley violated both state and federal law, and risked the federal funding, a lost of millions potentially to taxpayers, just to do a political favor for Bill Lockyer, to further O'Malley's own career.

Is this a person who really cares about domestic violence? No. It's all just for the votes as far as O'Malley is concerned.