AnonymousSource: Ariel Calonne, Santa Barbara City Attorney
Santa Barbara City Attorney Ariel Calonne today announced the appointment of the city’s first full-time prosecuting attorney, Denny Wei. Mr. Wei will join the City on June 17, 2019, as the Assistant City Prosecutor.
Denny Wei is currently a Senior Assistant City Attorney with the Burbank City Attorney’s Office. Mr. Wei worked prosecuting state misdemeanors and local code offenses in the City of Burbank’s Criminal Prosecution Unit between 2006 and 2018. He served as the Unit’s supervisor for almost ten of those years. He has extensive experience working to remediate substandard housing. He also worked with Burbank’s Mental Health Evaluation Team to address crimes stemming from people suffering from mental illness. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor teaching Criminal Law at Glendale University College of Law. Mr. Wei is currently handling civil litigation for Burbank. Before serving Burbank, Mr. Wei served as a Deputy District Attorney in San Benito County from 2000 to 2006, handling a wide variety of cases ranging from misdemeanors to violent felonies.
City Attorney Calonne commented, “We are fortunate to bring such an exceptionally well-qualified prosecutor to Santa Barbara. Denny will bring a new level of credibility and professionalism to the City’s enforcement actions.”
Mr. Wei is a graduate of the Whittier College School of Law and the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Looks like Calonne is admitting a problem “Denny will bring a new level of credibility and professionalism to the City’s enforcement actions.” I guess the old level was wanting…..
Excellent. Calone has been the best city attorney so far. There was virtually zero enforcement of city regulations going on, so this is a very, very welcome and necessary addition. Keep up the great work, Ariel. Happy to have you on our team.
Yes, enforcing city legal standards is the way you deal with the vagrancy crime, disease and blight problems associated with their presence in our town. They can choose to abide by city ordinance or they can move on to more accommodating location. Free ride is over for those who now flaunt city regulations everyone else is expected to honor. This is not a “homeless” issue- this is a failure to abide by lawful community standards issue. Don’t come to this town if you expect to live in the bushes, be a public nuisance, and pollute our parks, creeks and neighborhoods. Since we we chase cruise ships around our waterways to enforce their presence, we will also enforces our clean water way standards that vagrant camps now violate every single day.
“Wanting” is too nice a term. There is a serious non-enforcement policy of certain codes in City of Santa Barbara. Suspicious non-enforcement. I doubt that will change.
ALL SIDES: Yes, I’m aware of that. But isn’t a new “city DA” just a duplication of an already existing service? I don’t see whythis new position is needed. On the surface, this seems to be yet another example of spending $$$ we just don’t have.
I’m a little confused–how is this position different from the District Attorney?