Disgraced O.C. Sheriff Mike Carona has replaced himself for sixty days with his right hand Undersheriff Jo Ann Galisky. We have been asked to believe that she is a great person to run the department in Carona’s absence. Not so fast. The O.C. Weekly’s R. Scott Moxley has revealed the sad truth about Galisky, in an article entitled “She’s the (Under) Sheriff.” Here are a few excerpts:
Last spring, then-newly named Undersheriff Jo Ann Galisky sat face-to-face with me in a booth for lunch at Original Mike
Art,
While Scott Moxley has revealed very disturbing information about the Sheriff, it is nothing more than slash and burn “journalism” to assign Sheriff Carona’s faults to any and all who work for him.
Undersheriff Galisky has worked her way up through the ranks of the Sheriff’s Department. My contacts in the department tell me that she does have the respect and confidence of those under her command. Undersheriff Galisky is not, by any measure, in the same class as the political appointees who have disgraced the department.
The assertion the Undersheriff Galisky cannot be trusted because of her appointment to a command position by Sheriff Carona is an unfair and unwarranted indictment of every member of the department who has recieved a promotion during Sheriff Carona’s time in office.
Chris,
You missed the point Moxley made in his fine article. Galisky cannot be trusted because she is nothing more than a shill for Carona. I second that notion.
I realize that you are a union guy, but doing right by the community means putting aside your union loyalty and realizing that Galisky is Carona’s understudy. That alone is reason to disregard her.
Just look at what she told Moxley. She is the definition of a Carona hack.
She can’t be trusted. If Prevatt actually read the article, it said nothing about any proof Galisky provided to refute Moxley’s claims. Scott’s be on top this for years, continually scooping both the OCR and LAT — it’s time we all start listening — this is damn good investigative journalism that’s never been challenged with contrary evidence.
Pedroza’s right — time for house cleaning. Then again, John Seiler’s right too — maybe the whole damn thing oughta be outsourced.
Art,
Defending a Board of Supervisors approved fact finding trip is not being a shill. Working to discredit allegations against yor supervisor when you serve in a top management role, is not being a shill, it’s doing your job.
The allegations of Galisky using “spy” equipment are undocumented and unattributed, so I have little reason to believe them. Moxley’s slant is clear, tarnish anyone associated with Carona.
Moxley attacks Galisky for not having a college education. Well, I did not have the opportunity to get one of those either, but that certainly is not a method by which I should be judged, and I have little respect for the assertion that it should.
I have also been on the short end of Moxley’s slams in my career in the County. I have personally witnessed him twist facts to suit his own needs and discard those which do not support his vision of the truth.
So sorry Art, Scott Moxley saying that we should not trust Galisky only causes me to be more likely to trust her. Your use of Moxley’s reporting as the sole basis for not trusting her, or anyone who has risen through the ranks of the department under Sheriff Carona gives me reason to question your judgement.
Your suggestion that it is simply out of “Union Loyalty” that I speak in support of Galisky is without merit Art. I speak in support for a career law enforcement officer, who’s only “crime” is being a woman with the skill and finesse to work her way up through the ranks of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to a leadership position and having been appointed by Mike Carona, for whom she has worked about 1/3 of her career.
And Art, don’t even go down the road to suggest that I am only supporting her because I’m gay and she happens to be a lesbian.
Art, About 6 months ago while shopping I ran into one of my former students, now an OC deputy sheriff. I asked him, “So, whatd’ya think of the sheriff?” He looked around and replied, “Well, uh,
…uh, … uh.” I said, “It’s not good to criticize the sheriff, is it?”, and just got laugh in return.
Is Galisky a Republican?
I don’t know what Deputies Poster #1 is talking about. Most of us in the ranks know all about Galisky and her quota promotion. Nobody goes from Sgt to Asst. Sheriff that fast. She is a self-promoting brown noser and knows all about Carona’s misdeeds but doesn’t care as long as she gets a paycheck.
As to assertions regarding promotion, there is no objective criteria in writing anywhere on how a Deputy gets promoted to Lt. and above. It’s purely at the whim of Carona. Whoever pleges alligiance to Carona over the badge gets promoted to Captain and above. That’s a fact. Galisky is no good. She’s simply a front person for Carona’s bidding. We endorsed Lt. Bill Hunt for a reason last election. We will endorse him again.
I have also been on the short end of Moxley’s slams in my career in the County. I have personally witnessed him twist facts to suit his own needs and discard those which do not support his vision of the truth.
Chris: you’re scaring me. You’re sounding like a Carona apologist. More importantly, the only mention I can find of Moxley ever “slamming” you is when he he attempted to interview you regarding the disgraced AIDS doctor Steve Kooshian, and you declined. If he indeed “twist facts” at the time, why didn’t you write a Letter to the Editor then? You were quick to criticize our reporters before–why wait for years until coming out with your criticisms of Scott?
Scott Moxley does “Hit Man”
reporting. He has always done so.
Occasionally, there are five to
six other so-called news reporters
with biased axes to grind. This type of reporting is not only restricted to blog and blurb reporting. Sadly, some paid
reporters make insider deals with
“electeds”…in exchange or info
and for doing occasional nasty stuff to political enemies of their
electeds. Valerie Plame is a pretty good example. But from our
point of view she deserved it. She
allowed her very stupid husband who
was supposedly in government to
come out in the press with “his”
opinions…rather than the truth.
There is nothing like be paid by
someone and then slamming them in
the open partisan press!
Some newspeople are members of the
oldest profession…but they will
be the first to tell you: “I have
a family to support!” as their first cabin excuse. Hey, “Opinion”
is just that…show us the hard
evidence and we may reassess. In
the meantime….our dealings with
Sheriff Galinsky have been cordial
and caring! But then again we didn’t ask her to “rat out her boss” publically!
Winships,
R. Scott Moxley is a damn good reporter. Period. Your insinuations are way off-base.
I suppose you are upset because he has, for years, revealed the character of our disgraced Sheriff, Mike Carona. I remain puzzled as to why you appear to be fans of Carona. He is a ruthless, immoral, corrupt pig.
I am not sure exactly what it is you are trying to say about Moxley, but it sure looks like you owe him an apology.
If I understand what happened following the London/Paris trip, Carona gave misleading statements to cover up the fact his training or field trip didn’t conform with what was approved, and Galisky didn’t speak up to correct the record. Aren’t these two in the same boat? I don’t care if it’s the Love Boat or the Titanic, I want a refund of my tax dollars for their unauthorized vacation.
What a sorry state of affairs when the most qualified person to run the department is someone with a GED! How many people do you know who didn’t graduate from High School who get paid $200,000 to be top cop? This is insane.
Gustavo,
I got in trouble for even answering simple questions from Scott because he stated that I refused to answer questions on the record.
What Scott “reported”… “Birnbaum declined to take the call; her assistant, Chris Prevatt, also declined to answer any questions on the record.”
What actually occurred… Moxley called me and inquired about the structure of the HIV Planning Council which Ron Viramontes was Chairman of. When he asked questions that were unrelated to the functions of the HIV Planning Council, I referred him to my manager, Dr. Birnbaum, who was the only person in the department authorized to speak to the media on those matters. Dr. Birnbaum was not in the office when he called and as far as I know they never spoke.
Pat Markley in the Health Care Agency PIO took Moxley’s statement to mean that I had spoken off the record in support of his unfounded allegations in that report. I was verbally reprimanded by my Division Manager for not refering all of Moxley’s questions to PIO immediately. As far as writing a letter to your editor about Scott, I had already gotten in enough trouble, and wasn’t willing to risk more at that point in time. And quite frankly, I cannot imagine it making a bit of difference.
In Scott Moxley’s zeal to accuse Dr. Kooshian of trying to take over HIV/AIDS care in Orange County he failed to recognize that there was no way that such a thing could happen with the federal funds involved. His story was 100% off base. Interestingly though, when I tried to give him the scoop on the true story of HCA mismanagement of HIV/AIDS grant funding he wanted nothing to do with it since it had nothing to do with Dr. Kooshian.
I have no doubt that Scott Moxley sometimes gets things right. Heck, even a blind dog sometimes finds a bone. He may very well be right on the matter of Sheriff Carona. But that does not make him correct on the matter of Galisky. If he has sound facts, more power to him. But wild allegations based upon unattributed sources doesn’t convince me of anything.
Attacking Galisky’s credibility because of her education is the same thing he did regarding the county consultant in that story about Kooshian you referenced.
And for the record, I am not a Carona apologist. I voted for Hunt, and I have been critical of Carona for his actions towards Hunt after the election.
The fish stinks from the head and so does the tail in this case. Hard to trust a hand picked “lackey”.
Samuel Clemens
A qualified outsider would be best. This situation stinks like the SAUSD corruption system. The top guy gone, and there still are the same-minded decisions being made for replacement administration. The cultures need a shift towards true service and away from self-serving greed that has plagued both organizations.
Just Like Art has repeatedly said, the most qualified person in the field of Orange County Sheriff is Commander Ralph Martin, 34 years of police experience in the largest Sheriff’s Department in the world.
Hr has an impeccable background and he worked his way up through the ranks from Deputy to Commander has patrol, Custody and Detective experience and has earned BA & MA degrees along the way.
He currently manages a patrol Division nearly the size of the entire Orange County Sheriff’s Department and lives in South Orange County.
The choice is clear…..
Someone’s educational qualifications for a top management job are relevant, but the true test of relevancy is whether top administrative jobs in the sheriffs department require any specific educational qualifications. If the County were hiring to fill her spot, what educational qualifications would there be?
Perhaps we should take this opportunity to see how she does on the job.
Mr. Prevatt’s gave a pretty good response to Gustavo’s question as to why he didn’t write a letter to the OC Weekly editor. I’d be interested in a response–or maybe an apology if its warranted–from Moxley.
Bladerunner,
This entire business between Prevatt and Moxley is a red herring. It has nothing to do with Moxley’s Carona coverage, which has been impeccable. Prevatt is carrying water for the deputy sheriff;s union, and he continues to obfuscate the fact that Galinsky has been and will continue to be a Carona hack.
And I do believe that the position of Sheriff involves both police work AND administration. As such it is ridiculous to expect someone with a GED to man this position on anything other than a temporary basis.
The point of Moxley’s post was that we cannot trust Galisky. Prevatt has yet to tell us why that is not true, other than to bring up an irrelevant point about a non-related problem he had with Moxley.
The record shows that Galisky propagated Carona’s lies. She will continue to do so. She may not have a college degree, but she has earned a doctorate in BS!
Chris: Now you’re just descending to the depths of idiocy. Scott’s reporting got Kooshian federally indicted, yet you’re complaining because he didn’t take you up on a tip? Cry me a river. Not only that, but you bringing up this incident years later because you were afraid of a reprimand at the time smacks of cowardice at best. You’re bringing it up now–can’t you still get in trouble for it? We’ve been threatened with lawsuits or demands for retractions/apologies by people who had more to lose over less than your episode.
Final point: Moxley’s been reporting on the Sheriff’s department nonstop since 1998, and on the county’s various idiots since 1995. No court actions have ever found him guilty of libel, slander, defamation or any of the other blots that mark a bad journalist. Oh, people have tried (Bob Dornan and the DA, for two), but Scott has a stellar record. Your comments regarding Galisky, on the other hand, are little more than a critique of Scott, someone you obviously have a bone (like how I tied it back to your lame comparison?) to pick with. I leave it to Orange Juice’s readers to decide who’s more credible on this matter.
Gustavo,
As I said, Scott may indeed be right on Carona. I am also not surprised that Undersheriff Galisky defended her boss to Scott in their interview.
But that alone does not indicate that she should be painted with the same brush with Carona.
My “bone to pick” with Moxley is regarding a story he wrote that was factually deceptive and misleading. I do not, because of that story, believe everything he has written is false. I chose to not write a letter to the OC Weekly editor because, based upon the response I got a couple weeks earlier, I knew it wouldn’t make any difference. The threats from my division manager only served to make writing a letter less appealing.
As far as cowardice is concerned you really have no idea what you are talking about. I did eventually stand up to the threats from my division manager to assign me to a place that would make Siberia look good and reported her misconduct. Those threats were made about three months prior to Scott’s article. I suffered the consequences of that action by being assigned to a work environment that placed me at great health risk. I lost the job that I cared about and any future promotional opportunity in the County of Orange. But I continued to fight, which resulted in findings from the federal agency that managed the HIV/AIDS grants supporting my complaints. While the penalty was overturned on appeal, the findings stand.
And even after that, I was investigated on a false charge of blogging from work because I wrote a post on theliberaloc.com critical of Supervisor Norby. So Gustavo, I assure you I am not a coward by any measure.
The voters of Orange County elected Sheriff Carona to a third term in spite of all the information that indicated something was wrong. But his alleged acts, even if proven true, have never been tied by Scott Moxley or any one else to Galisky.
Her credibility, and integrity, should not be questioned simply because she is Carona’s deputy. I work in a county agency which is riddled with dishonest and corrupt managers. The fact that some good managers have been hired and promoted by them is not evidence that they share in their bosses lack of integrity.
Bring forward some evidence to support allegations that Galisky is tied to Carona’s alleged misdeeds then the arguments that she is unqualified or inappropriate for the position she is now in would be reasonable.
But if the only support for the argument is her promotion in the department under Carona, then accepting that argument would make every one in the Sheriff’s department guilty of the same charge. That is simply unreasonable.
Bladerunner has a point, let’s see how she does before we indict her along with Sheriff Carona.
Chris,
Moxley’s article proves that Galisky is a shill for Carona. She sat there and said the problem was Moxley, not her crooked boss Carona. We don’t need more time to know that Galisky is going to continue to allege that Carona is blameless. That alone makes her a bad choice to run the department.
Thank God Galisky is nothing more than a temp as Sheriff. She will be gone soon enough, as will Carona. Here is a question no one has asked – if Carona ends up in jail, does he have to resign? I would hope so. And I hope the next Sheriff will clear the remaining Carona hacks out of the department.
I’m sure that Galisky, with her GED, will be able to get a security guard job somewhere.
Art,
I’m surprised that you do not know the answer to your question. If Sheriff Carona is convicted or pleads out on a felony charge he is required to resign. In that case, the Board of Supervisors will appoint a replacement. It is generally accepted that when such a change occurs the senior leadership is replaced as well. That is not an indictment of the skill or credentials of those replaced. It is simply the political reality of working for an elected official.
Art why is Bill Hunt not being painted by you as a corrupt, unqualified individual by nature of his promotion to his previous rank in the department. He was once by your definition a shill for Carona.
Chris,
You need to read my blog more often! I have said that about Hunt, in so many words. I don’t want to see him replace Carona. My choice right now is Commander Ralph Martin. But I am told that there are a few city police officials who are in the mix too.
At the time Galisky toldMOxley, “nobody believes you” she was right. Nobody did. You’d think Tony Rack might inquire but not as long as Susan Schroeder works in the DA’s office and her husband Mike says Carona is “our guy.”
(Why aren’t more question being asked of our DA anyway; it’s a federal indictment…did they drop the ball or just refuse to play with it?).
Galisky deserves the benefit of a doubt. But as far as I’m concerned, the first time she shows she’s Carona’s toady, that’s it.
Art-
What an a-hole thing to say, about Galisky getting a job as a security guard. Have you ever worked along her, supervised her, worked for her, or even talked to her? As someone who has worked around her since the start of her career, I can tell you she was always regarded as a hard worker, someone who you could trust when everything turned to ship, and a stand-up person with unquestionable character. How many people say the same about you, amigo?
Now Moxley, who has written hundreds of hit pieces on the dept. (like all the victims “beat up” in the jail who are going to go to court and expose the system- never heard from them again). He is not a good, or scrupulous reporter. He sits down with Galisky and expects her to bash her boss??
Sorry, back “in the old days”, education wasn’t needed, promoted, or used as promotion criteria. Of course, since it now is, people race to the “buy a degree” businesses. Before you are too quick to judge, why don’t you at least sit down with the Undersheriff and see what YOU think of her, instead of listening to some sensation-seeking hack that writes for a free throw away rag? It might be fun to form your own opinion!
Poster 25,
Moxley already sat down with her. She immediately showed herself to be a Carona hack. What more do we need to know?
Who cares anyway? She is a temp. She, like Carona, will be gone soon enough.