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For more than 25 years CSAC has been celebrating county innovation through our Annual Challenge Awards. During that period we have spotlighted nearly 1,000 county programs. But when California shut down in March due to the COVID-19 crisis – and California’s 58 Counties turned their focus to protecting our communities — we felt it was important to delay this year’s program that was initially going to launch in April.

The pandemic has altered our lives in many ways over the past four months. It has taken away a number of aspects of our daily lives. But it has not stripped away county ingenuity, passion and commitment. And we’ve received inquiries from numerous counties on when we will once again be accepting entries for the Challenge Awards. With that in mind, we will be launching the 2020 awards program next week.

This year entrants will find two changes to the awards program: entering will be completely online and there will be a new category to reflect the emphasis counties have had to put on disaster/emergency response and management.

“Been a long time since I rock and rolled.” – Led Zeppelin

Ever since voters passed Proposition 25 back in 2010, state budgets have been pretty boring. I mean, sure, the Governor wants to save a little more, the Legislature wants to spend a little more, but all differences were resolved fairly easily and it all rolled along like smooth jazz or adult contemporary. Enya, even. This year, though, it’s back to rock ‘n’ roll.

In 2019, the CSAC Support Hub for Criminal Justice Programming developed and piloted an analytics tool for juvenile hall facilities utilization with Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara Counties. Using this analytics tool, Santa Cruz County is now examining how COVID-19 has impacted juvenile hall bookings, lengths of stay, and alternatives to detention to improve community intervention programs in the future.

Celebrated annually during the first week of May since 1985, Public Service Recognition Week honors those who serve our nation as federal, state, county and local government employees. As direct service providers administering many state and federal programs, California’s counties and their employees play huge roles both in our everyday lives and during emergencies like COIVD-19 when we need services the most.

Property taxes have been in the news as of late as many of those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic worried how to meet the twice-annual deadline, the most recent being April 10.

But of the numerous articles that ran, one important success story was missed. The CSAC Finance Corporation rolled out its Easy Smart Pay property tax payment program in Kings County in time for the April 10^th deadline to allow a one-time online payment option during a time of crisis. 

Each April, the National Association of Counties (NACo) celebrates National County Government Month. This year’s theme – “Counties Matter” – could not be more appropriate given the COVID-19 crisis that has placed counties on the front lines, not only here in California but across the nation. While now is not the time for celebration, it is a time to honor our counties for the incredible work they are undertaking to protect our residents.