Blog

While this is my first year serving as a First 5 commissioner, I have long been a supporter of all the great things First 5s do. This work has never been more important as families with young children across our counties struggle during COVID-19. Families are struggling to care for ill family members, work when childcare isn’t available, and pay for food and rent after losing jobs. Children and adults alike are stressed by broken routines, social isolation, and anxiety at home and at large.

The following blog post was written by Henry McCann and Van Butsic for the Public Policy Institute of CA. The commentary also appeared in  in CalMatters on July 2, 2020. View the original posting here.

The following post is an excerpt of a larger article written by Charlie Ban for County News, a print publication for the National Association of Counties. Read the full article here.

Three months into the COVID-19 pandemic, more than two million U.S. residents have seen the virus take root in their lungs, but a much larger share have felt it affect their minds.

It’s Thursday, June 4, and I am sitting in my office at CSAC for the first time in 79 days. Executive staff has gone above and beyond to ensure the office is clean and safe. Guidelines based on State and CDC recommendations have been developed; physical changes have been made to ensure each staff member has his/her own workspace. Staff on-site are being staggered to reduce the numbers on any given day. Even those on hand are taking the necessary precautions – wearing masks, washing hands repeatedly and social distancing.

Voting is the cornerstone of our representative democracy. The ongoing disruption of COVID-19 means the Presidential election in November will look quite a bit different from previous years, so county registrars—planners by nature—have had a wrench thrown into their process. County supervisors and other community leaders can be a big help making sure their local registrar of voters has everything they need to make the elections run smoothly.

2020 has become a year of perpetual disruption and change. From the initial onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the statewide “stay at home” order, to a $6 billion budget surplus vanishing into a deficit estimated in the “tens of billions,” one thing’s for sure: The COVID-19 pandemic means the May Revise state budget scheduled for this Thursday will be uncharted territory for California.

We are in times that hardly could have been anticipated. Yet we hope the practices, tools and knowledge gained through CSAC Institute for Excellence in County Government courses have helped county executives, elected officials and managers better respond to the challenges.