Okay, Seriously?

In the midst of budget woes, and the Office being short-staffed, Pat Lykos apparently decided that this morning (in the middle of normal docket call hours) would be a great time to schedule a CLE.

For those of you outside the biz, a CLE is a Continuing Legal Education class where attorneys receive training in the legal field.

There is nothing unusual about the District Attorney's Office putting on an "in house" CLE course so that the prosecutors can keep in compliance with their required amount of hours received in training. In the past, the CLEs were usually taught by senior prosecutors on a variety of topics ranging from jury selection to cross-examination to closing arguments to prosecuting family violence cases to child abuse cases, etc. And they were always held in the afternoon so as to not interfere with the morning dockets which pretty much require all three prosecutors in the court being present.

Not so under the Lykos Administration.

Rather than utilize her senior prosecutors that actually have the training and experience to teach younger prosecutors just fine, Lykos brought in her own special lecturer -- a lady named Lisa Blue.

Ms. Blue is no doubt an impressive and knowledgeable speaker, but one has to wonder about the timing of her speech.

One also has to wonder whether or not the budget-strapped District Attorney's Office actually paid for Ms. Blue to come speak to the troops.

The courts were short-handed this morning as prosecutors were required to attend the class. It was poor planning and poor planning.

But what was the most disturbing element of the whole speech was it's underlying theme -- apparently Ms. Blue stood for the proposition that it was the job of the Assistant District Attorney's to make Elected-District Attorney Pat Lykos "Look Good".

A sentiment that Lykos can clearly get behind.

I just want to know if any of the prosecutors had the sense of humor to stand up and say "Good God, lady, we're prosecutors not miracle workers!"