For Immediate Release, April 3, 2025 –
El Dorado County District Attorney and Sheriff Oppose AB1037: Lawsuit Challenges State Overreach on Local Control
El Dorado County, CA – The law enforcement leaders of El Dorado County have officially expressed their opposition to Assembly Bill 1037 (AB 1037), a piece of legislation that seeks to strip local counties of their authority to regulate critical matters related to drug use and public safety. In response to this proposed bill, El Dorado County is challenging the state’s attempt to undermine local governance.
“This proposed legislation is absolutely a public safety issue. If allowed to pass, this legislation will continue to allow the victimization of El Dorado County and the State of California, as hypodermic needles, glass smoking pipes ‘meth/crack pipes’, and other similar drug paraphernalia are distributed without regard to the safety of the public. Public libraries, community parks, and other such areas where families gather will continue to be overridden with the issues that come with this failed harm reduction experiment. In the 2024 fire season, there have been numerous wildland fires in El Dorado County that were attributed to the unhoused population. Many individuals within the unhoused population suffer from illegal narcotic addiction. Illegal narcotics are commonly ‘cooked’ by utilizing a device with an open flame and a metallic container. The county was extremely fortunate that these wildland fires were quickly extinguished and did not become a catastrophic public safety incident. Law enforcement services will be greatly impacted by calls for service involving those who are within the illegal narcotic use community. These calls for service will hamper the response times for those law-abiding citizens who truly need help. This proposed legislation is just another attempt for a revitalization of failed Prop 36. The passage of this legislation will only cause a further degradation to the quality of life in El Dorado County and the communities of California.” – Sheriff Jeff Leikauf
“70% of California voters supported Proposition 36 with the stated intent to move away from the decriminalization and continued use by addicts of hard-core drugs. Harm reduction as a policy has failed this state. The solution is not to continue the failed policy of ‘harm reduction’ by renaming it ‘risk reduction’. We need to get people off the hard-core drugs that will kill them.”– District Attorney Vern Pierson.
AB 1037, if passed, would significantly reduce the power of local governments, bypassing the ability of counties to make decisions in the best interests of their communities. This legislation is seen as part of a larger trend of state overreach that aims to centralize control over public health and safety, disregarding local concerns and conditions.
El Dorado County remains committed to preserving local control, ensuring that decisions affecting the safety and well-being of our residents are made at the local level where the specific needs of our community can be best addressed.
Join John McGinness on KFBK from 3 to 4 PM as he sits down with District Attorney Vern Pierson and Sheriff Jeff Leikauf to further discuss this matter.