Ask Santa Cruz County Chief Probation Officer Scott MacDonald
about the value of thinking outside the box and his eyes light
up. If you want someone to promote the effectiveness of the
current corrections system, then you better find someone else to
talk to. MacDonald is quick to repeat the quote that “the
corrections system needs to do more correcting and less
collecting.”
At a recent CSAC Institute course, the topic was county
information technology services. A key message delivered during
the course was how counties need to work toward better use of
information technology to efficiently deliver services to
residents.
In talking with the students in Solano County’s “Money Matters”
program for foster youth, there is a common theme among them:
they are getting it. For the first time, they are learning about
personal finance and the integral role it will play in their
future success.
There’s a well-known quote that reads, “It’s the simple things in
life that are the most extraordinary.” In the case of Calaveras
County’s behavioral health cell phone program, this simply holds
true.
Monterey County’s KickStart Ex-Offender Re-Entry Employment
Program is about providing ex-offenders with the tools to find a
job. Through a series of workshops, ex-offenders learn everything
from writing a resume and dressing for an interview, to how
to show contrition for their offenses. But the value of this
program runs much deeper — it’s changing the outlook
ex-offenders have of themselves and their lives.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will be in the spotlight next week
as the U.S. Supreme Court hears legal arguments on a variety of
fronts. The Court will listen to challenges to the ACA for six
hours over three days, March 26-28. It has been nearly 60 years
since the high court spent that much time to hear one case;
typically the court spends an hour hearing arguments. The case
has also attracted more briefs than any other in history (170+).
Today the CSAC Board of Directors voted to take a support
position on Governor Brown’s ballot measure, the Schools and
Local Public Safety Protection Act of 2012, which guarantees
funding in the state constitution for vital public safety
programs realigned from the state to counties in 2011.
“From the day Governor Brown took office he has been working
toward ensuring counties have the resources and flexibility
necessary to serve the 38 million Californians who depend on us,”
states Mike McGowan, CSAC President and Yolo County Supervisor.
Today, the Women’s Foundation of California and the California
Budget Project released a joint
paper, Falling Behind: The Impact of the Great Recession
and the Budget Crisis on California’s Women and Their
Families. Major takeaways from the report include:
Single mothers were hardest hit by the recession and recent
budget cuts contributed to sharp increases in poverty.
The law requires the Secretary of State to release registration
numbers as of 154 days before statewide elections. She released
them today.
You can read in all the other news reports about how many
Republicans there are, how many decline-to-state voters, yaddah,
yaddah. But what you won’t hear from the news is that the
Secretary’s report also breaks down registration by Supervisorial
district.
That’s right, you can check out the party registration in your
district (or your boss’s district). Not that I’m suggesting local
races aren’t nonpartisan.
For the state’s General Fund, four months are head and shoulders
more important than the rest. From highest to lowest: April,
June, January, and December.
Let’s hope April, June, and January bring in the cash, because
December didn’t do so hot.
State Controller John Chiang announced today that cash receipts
in December were below all expectations.
This week, CSAC is distributing a new, annual publication to
county leaders titled the “2010 & 2011 Member Benefits &
Participation Review.” This piece was developed by CSAC to
provide our members with insight into what programs and services
their specific county is taking advantage of and how they are
benefiting the county and its leadership.
The county-specific reports look at six areas:
Finance Corporation program participation, including programs
utilized and their benefits to the local community.
Advocacy benefits, including fiscal relief from specific
legisl
Become the change you want to see – that was a common theme among
the two speakers who highlighted this morning’s General Session.
CSAC 1st Vice President and Yolo County Supervisor
Mike McGowan set the stage when he told the packed house that in
2012, “there is an opportunity for us to make change and seize
the day. Our chances for success lie within ourselves.
The 117th CSAC Annual Meeting kicked off in grand
style this afternoon with an engaging, insightful and humorous
address by former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie
Brown.
There has been a lot of media attention this week focused
on Penn State – its administration and its football
program. Who knew what, and who told whom, and when. Of course,
lots of whys.
Perhaps instead of football coaches, the story that deserves to
be discussed – in fact, must be discussed – is the prevalence of
sexual abuse of children in the United States. Researchers
estimate 15-25 percent of girls and 5-15 percent of boys
are sexually abused in this country . Let me rephrase: as
many as 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys. Those figures are
astounding.
This week the federal government released a new “Supplemental
Poverty Measure.” It doesn’t replace the current calculation, but
it “provides us a different angle on who is in economic need,”
according to Rebecca Blank, U.S. Commerce Department
undersecretary for economic affairs.
The official poverty measure – developed nearly 50 years ago –
took one analyst’s guess at a family’s cost for food and
multiplied it by three. Simple, right? Maybe…too simple?
