8 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY february 2-8, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com news With staffing levels thin, the Salinas Police Department has changed the way it prioritizes call responses. On Jan. 26, Salinas PD implemented a new process when deciding whether to send a police officer to a reported crime. “We had to make some drastic decisions,” Chief Roberto Filice told City Council on Jan. 24. Violent crimes such as homicides, robberies and sexual assault will continue to receive normal responses. Some will be on a caseby-case basis, including trespassing, vandalism and theft. Most quality-of-life calls, such as noise and traffic complaints, won’t trigger a response. Salinas PD currently has 157 police officer positions, including 13 vacancies; six officers are in training and 18 are on leave. This brings the number to 118 police officers—76 for patrol, the rest detectives and on special units—to serve 162,791 inhabitants. Salinas now has 1 police officer for every 1,379.5 residents, lower than the average of 1.6 for similarly sized cities, according to the FBI. Understaffing is part of a national and local trend, but Salinas faces additional challenges: It has higher crime rates than neighboring cities and pay is less competitive. Since 2019, SPD has lost 46 officers; of those, 28 percent moved to nearby agencies, Filice reported. Low staffing doesn’t necessarily mean cost savings: “Almost 900 hours a month of overtime just to keep the basic levels of officers on the streets,” Police Services Administrator Tonya Erickson told council. Overtime surpassed $2 million last year. Applications have dwindled over recent years, from 88 in 2015 to 23 in 2022. Some applicants have background check issues. “I’m not going to lower my standards,” Filice added. Hands Cuffed Low staffing forces Salinas PD to prioritize calls, meaning not all will trigger a police response. By Celia Jiménez Surveying the flood damage at his family’s farm outside of Castroville, Mike Scattini is relieved things weren’t any worse. The Scattinis have farmed their land near the Salinas River Lagoon for more than 100 years and have seen their share of severe weather—but when it comes to the recent storms that coupled rising river levels with king tides from the Pacific, even Scattini’s dad and uncle “haven’t seen it this bad before,” he says. Debris coats the fields closest to where the lagoon meets Monterey Bay, including pieces of a concrete levee perched on the seawall that was dismantled by massive storm swells. It will likely take months to clear the fields of detritus and ensure the soil is decontaminated enough to safely plant row crops like lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower. In fact, Scattini won’t be surprised if they don’t plant the damaged fields for the rest of this year. “It’s too expensive to farm nowadays and not know that you’re going to have a successful crop,” he notes. “We’re not doing anything until we get the all-clear.” Still, Scattini credits local authorities for mitigating the damage— particularly the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, which took measures to breach the lagoon in early January, cutting a path for Salinas River waters to flow out to the bay. Otherwise, “we’d be looking at a different situation here,” he says, with flooding extending deeper into the fields and even nearby residential areas. In the weeks since the skies finally cleared and the floodwaters receded, Monterey County’s agriculture industry has been taking stock of the damage and pivoting to recovery. Preliminary estimates last month indicated that approximately 20,000 acres of farmland in the county had been affected, with damages falling anywhere from $40 million to $50 million, according to the Monterey County Farm Bureau—though it’s likely those figures all climb further once the toll is fully assessed. To that end, the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office partnered with the Farm Bureau, the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California and the Monterey County Vintners and Growers Association to launch an online survey on Jan. 23 that allows farmers to report the damage on their properties. But even the survey may take a while to fully register—Farm Bureau Executive Director Norm Groot notes that “many fields are still experiencing standing water or are too muddy to access.” One saving grace is that many of the county’s agricultural fields remained idle during the flooding—a key difference from the floods of spring 1995, cited by many as the closest comparison in recent memory. However, it appears clear that the spring planting season will be impacted for many farmers. “Most of the crop that will be mature in the spring was not planted at the time that floods occurred,” says Grower-Shipper Association President Christopher Valadez. “However, for crop intended to be planted on those lands, there could be an impact.” Valadez adds that, at this point, indications are that only “a relatively small percentage of the overall crop that will be planted for harvest in the spring” in the Salinas Valley will be affected. Flooding along the Salinas River near Spreckels, seen here on Jan. 12, is one example of damage to agricultural fields. Farmers are still working to assess the full impact. Cropped Out As floodwaters recede, the agriculture sector is taking stock of the damage—and how much it will cost. By Rey Mashayekhi Salinas Police Chief Roberto Filice says the new protocol for which types of calls receive a police response and which do not is important to make sure officers are available in case of emergencies. “We’re not doing anything until we get the all-clear.” Daniel Dreifuss Daniel Dreifuss
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