In the southwestern corner of sprawling San Bernardino County,
hard against the San Bernardino mountains, there’s a rustic old
fire camp. It’s almost quaint when you first see it, but it
doesn’t take long to realize that the crews training there are
engaged in serious business. They are training to fight wild land
fires in the rugged mountains just to the north—and with the
drought in its fourth year, they are already busy.
All over California water purveyors are restricting when people
can water lawns and other ornamental plantings. That makes sense
to me. As the four-year drought intensifies, we just don’t have
the luxury of lush green lawns anymore. And people are watering
less— either on their own, or to comply with the new
restrictions. But I think Counties have a larger role to play in
making it even easier to comply.
There’s a perception that government is inefficient, that a
seemingly endless bureaucracy creates wasteful spending. Those
with that opinion obviously haven’t stopped by the Ventura County
Government Center, where a collaborative project among
departments is resulting in more efficient and effective services
for area residents at a time of increased demand.
The trip north on Highway 101 to the Humboldt County seat of
Eureka is a gorgeous drive. Towering redwoods and green ferns
line the meandering road. But for county residents who want to
attend a Board of Supervisors meeting to discuss the county
budget, that trip could be anything but relaxing.
In Alameda County’s unincorporated neighborhoods of Cherryland
and Ashland the crime and unemployment rates are higher than
anywhere else in the county. Along with those alarming statistics
run the side effects of poor health and various public safety
concerns. So it may be surprising to some that the conversation
has turned to urban farming.
Nineteen-year-old Mitch Blake squints through the hot afternoon
sunlight at a gnarled tree limb overhanging a creekside path and
pushes his hard hat higher on his forehead. He signals two
members of his crew to come over and they discuss whether they
should break out the chainsaw or not. After a few minutes they
decide that the limb doesn’t need to come down quite yet but they
note its location to check on it later in the year.
When it comes to innovative programs, the creative wheels are
definitely turning in the Sacramento County Probation Department.
As part of the county’s Adult Drug Court program, clients with
transportation issues can earn donated bicycles. This incentive
has improved attendance while helping clients get back on their
feet.
Having transportation – even of the two-wheeled variety – allows
clients to regularly attend Drug Court programs and other
mandatory courses, get to their jobs on time and just participate
in other aspects of everyday life we often take for granted.
“Passion” isn’t a word commonly used in conjunction with
technology. But “passion” is what has made Nevada County’s
Collaborative Technology Center a reality — and a success.
Chief Information Officer Steve Monaghan wanted to create a
technology center in Nevada County for years. He sees first-hand
the technological constraints rural county residents face — even
with something most of us take for granted, like connecting to
the internet. But a multi-million dollar price tag for a
technology center was always a stumbling block. Steve, though,
never shelved his idea, and an executive staff retreat motivated
him to find a way to make it happen. And he did that by working
collaboratively with different government agencies and the local
community.
In Stanislaus, members of the county family are following this
motto through volunteer work at local elementary schools.
It’s called the Employee Mentor Program and it’s made a
difference for the past 16 years. Once a week for the
entire school year, volunteers meet with the same student during
the lunch hour. They serve as role models, advisers, teachers and
even friends to inspire the identified at-risk students.
Addressing climate change across an entire government structure
isn’t easy. So when the Alameda County Board of Supervisors
decided they wanted to reduce the county’s carbon footprint 15
percent by 2020, the Sustainability Team drafted a Climate Action
Plan—a blue print if you will, for how they would reach the goal.
They knew that it would take a team effort.
We take our roads for granted – that is, until we start hitting
some teeth-rattling potholes. It’s no secret that the condition
of our local streets and roads is getting increasingly
dire. In the next 10 years the local system is facing a
$78.3 billion funding shortfall. And so Public Works Departments
are starting to look at new, innovative approaches to road
maintenance and repair.
There is at least one biblical reference about turning water into
wine—and there’s a whole chapter about flooding. Both of those
things happen all the time in Napa County. Okay, the grape vines
have to help turn water into wine, and now, even the flooding may
be a thing of the past! Napa County is about 75 percent of the
way through a multi-year, multi-project flood control program
that has not only reduced the threat of flooding, it’s become a
collaborative model for approaching multi-agency public works
projects.
It’s only been a couple of years since airlines started offering
WiFi on airplanes—but we have quickly become accustomed to having
it. Think about that. You’re in an aluminum tube, 30,000 feet in
the air, traveling at 600 miles an hour—and with a device that
cost about as much as your plane ticket, you have the sum total
of human knowledge at your fingertips. OK, most of us just watch
cat videos, but if you wanted to study quantum physics, or read
Plato you could do that, too!
Telehealth – or the delivery of health care information and
services through communications technologies like high-speed
internet (also known as broadband) – can expand access to care,
improve the quality of care and reduce costs. These benefits may
be appealing to counties responsible for delivering public health
services.
One of the laws of physics dictates that you can’t create more
energy than you expend—but one of the laws of economics says that
you can create more value in energy efficiency and local
generating capacity than it costs to build the project. That was
the critical factor that Yuba County put to work when the aging
HVAC system in the County Courthouse needed to be replaced.
As a second-generation Stanislaus County walnut grower, I can
tell you that there are a few things I can count on and a whole
lot of things I can’t. For example, I can count on the sun
shining about 260 days a year here in the Central Valley. And I
can still count on my 83-year-old father to put in a harder day’s
work than I do most of the time. Both of those things help our
trees grow and our business flourish. I just wish the rain was as
reliable.
There’s a centuries-old quote that reads, “In vain have you
acquired knowledge if you have not imparted it to others.”
For the past few months, the CSAC communications staff has been
on the road acquiring knowledge about county best practices. We
have gone from the roads of Los Angeles County to the drug courts
of Sacramento County. We have learned about a youth ecology corps
in Sonoma County and a collaborative technology center in Nevada
County. Our travels have taken us up and down the Golden State,
from the rural byways of Humboldt County to the superhighways of
the Inland Empire.
Everybody wants a healthy, vibrant community to call home.
Inclusive land-use planning may help counties achieve this goal
and address common annoyances such as long commutes, traffic
congestion and poor air quality.
At CSAC, we try to visit as many of our 58 counties as we can
every year. We don’t usually get to all 58, but we try. So we
were somewhat in awe last week to read about Jennifer and
Jonathon Riehl of Michigan, a couple in their early 30s who
recently finished visiting every county in the contiguous United
States. That’s 3108 counties across 48 states. They did it all in
nine years, putting more than 500,000 miles on the same green
1999 Dodge Intrepid.
“A popular government without popular information or the
means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy,
or perhaps both.” – James Madison
California’s 58 counties have long valued transparency and
accountability in government. Our local elected officials
embrace, even promote, the ability of their constituents to
participate in the process and the access of residents to public
records and information. Counties like San Mateo and Los Angeles
and the City and County of San Francisco are leading the effort
in the era of open data, establishing websites where records and
information can be easily accessed by a simple keystroke.
Counties have assuredly let the sun shine in.
