I'm working on a report to the Board of Supervisors on the subject of the Youth Commission. Here are completed parts of that report:
The Board of Supervisors approved the Youth Commission in April 2010, and it was up and running by September, 2010. Students were selected for a two year term of service and only one of the original Commissioners left the Commission. The rest (plus two alternates) remained for the entire two year term which ended in May of 2012. The Commissioners came from four County Schools, viz., Sonora Elementary, Sonora High, Summerville High, and Tioga High. The current roster of Commissioners is as follows: Emma Holloway, Megan Holloway, Luke Houghton, Kendra Jamar, Kelsie Klaahsen, Kristin McCluskey, Camilla Richardson, April Robles, Jared Smith, and Katie Young. We had mentors from the public who volunteered their time to work with Commissioners. Here are their names: Ron Kopf, Amanda Klaahsen, and Mari Brabbin. John Keiter, Superintendent of Summerville High School District, also participated as a mentor for a short period of time. Other key people working on the Youth Commission include County staff: Alicia Jamar, Daniel Richardson, Sarah Carrillo, and Carlyn Drivdahl.
Here is a summary of the learning experiences offered to Commissioners during the first two year session:
1) How to run a meeting using a posted agenda with a quorum present. How to develop and approve a set of by-laws. How the Brown Act works. How to listen to other people's ideas and build on them. How to bring an idea to a vote. 2) What the Community Resources Agency offers the public in the way of service. How the Housing Division of the Agency works. How Code Compliance is accomplished, from referral to enforcement. 3) What the Human Services Agency offers the public in the way of services. 4) What the Sheriff's Department offers the public in the way of services. 5) How the Public Health Department works with agencies both inside and outside the County government to bring information, training, and services to the public. 6) How the private sector works with government to help bring Physical Education activities to schools that cannot afford to offer them. 7) How to prepare letters of support for grant proposals. 8) How to change attitudes and behaviors which may produce bullying on school campuses or at school sponsored activities. 9) How to recognize leadership behavior in one's self and in others.
The first two year session of the Youth Commission is now history. We are in the process of building a program for the next two years. I am pleased to give this positive report and believe that as we move along with the development of the Youth Commission, we will see more ways to include greater numbers of students in it. The potential for good which results from the Youth Commission activities is unlimited.
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Just a few additions here and there, and this report will be ready to go to the Board of Supervisors.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
A Day in the Life of Supervisor Bass
Let's take Monday, May 15, 2012, as an example. I had four "must attend" meetings scheduled that day. None could have been easily postponed so I decided to take the Tim Gunn approach and "make it work." I did have enough time to read the background packets on each meeting, so I was prepared.
Meeting 1: From 10 AM to noon, the Board of a Joint Powers Agency (called "Area 12 on Aging) was conducting a business meeting in a shared session with the group's advisory council, followed by a meet-and-greet-lunch. The location was the Union Hill B&B out at the Pedro Wye. I'm a member of the JPA Board, assigned to represent the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors. Other members of that Board include Supervisors Merita Callaway from Calaveras County; Jim Allen from Mariposa County; and Richard Forster of Amador County. The Area 12 meeting was organized by Pauline White, who is the Executive Director of the organization. Merita is the Chair of the JPA Board this year. Tuolumne County (at my request) assigns two Supervisors to the Area 12 Board, so either John Gray or I attend the meetings. Sometimes both of us do, such as on May 15. I'm very happy to be a part of Area 12 and try to help them out anyway I can. When the meeting and lunch ended, John Gray and I went back to our respective offices in the County Building. I had a half hour or so to get ready for Meeting 2.
Meeting 2: This meeting started at 1:30 P.M., and I had to leave it at 2:45 P.M. to get to my next one. The name of the group holding the meeting is Central Sierra Child Support Agency. Like Area 12, it has a Board consisting of Supervisors from counties in the region. Evan Royce and I are the assigned Supervisors from Tuolumne County and we meet on a monthly basis with these folks. The actual meeting location was in San Andreas, so I had to participate via telephone conference call. Things got set up for me to be a part of the meeting, and we went over some "housekeeping" type items during the time I was there. Tuolumne County used to have its own Child Support Department, but decided to join three other counties in a JPA arrangement in order to save money. This change came about nearly two years ago, and some of the organizational work still remains to be done. We have an outstanding person at the helm of this agency. She is Adele Hendrickson and she used to run the Tuolumne County Department before it joined the JPA. Now she is in charge of all the counties in this new effort. We are lucky to have her working for us.
Meeting 3: I left the Child Support Agency meeting at 2:45 PM and walked from there (County Building at 2 S. Green) up Washington Street to City Hall. I had to allow fifteen minutes for the walk because I had a knee replacement in January and am still recovering. What used to seem like a small distance (County building to City Hall), takes on a new meaning when you are working with a new knee. Anyway. I made it to the City's Conference Room by 3 PM and got the meeting started. I am the Chairman of this particular committee which is a state-mandated oversight committee set up to monitor activities of the City of Sonora as it goes about the task of dissolving its Redevelopment Agency. Present at this meeting were City staff members, including the Chief Administrative Officer Tim Miller, and a group of stakeholders from local agencies. These agencies include County Schools, TUD, City of Sonora, Tuolumne County, and Columbia College. This group has met twice and only just begun to go over the documents we will need to conduct oversight. This meeting included some good discussion, helped along by a "special counsel" who came in from Sacramento to answer technical questions about the dissolution process. I was out the door of City Hall by 4:30 PM.
Meeting 4: I had anticipated that this evening meeting (which started at 6 PM) might be a little emotional since it was the final meeting of the Youth Commission as currently constituted. The next session of the Commission won't be until September, and it will have new members because more than half of the ones who have been with us for these past two years are graduating from high school or otherwise moving on. Attending the meeting were Commissioners Kristie McCluskey, April Robles, Jared Smith, Luke Houghton, and Kendra Jamar. We had a quorum! The Commissioners were joined by Todd Stolp, our Public Health Officer; Sarah Carrillo, our attorney; Craig Pedro, our substitute secretary; and myself, our Board of Supervisors' liaison. We reflected on the two year experiment that was the Youth Commission. It was the first-ever Youth Commission for Tuolumne County government and the students knew that they were trailblazers. They learned (among other things) how government systems work. They learned about the Brown Act and creating By-Laws to keep our meetings organized. They learned about each other too. One thing I contributed to their experience was a different way to think about leadership. I asked the Commissioners to be aware of "leadership moves" that they saw people making in their school settings or the community (A handshake? Maybe a fist-bump?). I think that noticing the component parts of leadership helped them think about it more accurately than they might have otherwise. We had a "leadership report" based on their observations at every meeting from every Commissioner. This final meeting was co-chaired by Luke Houghton and myself, and we had one last "trip around the table" to talk about leadership. Then it was over and it was 7 PM and the long day (May 15) came to close.
Not a moment too soon!
Meeting 1: From 10 AM to noon, the Board of a Joint Powers Agency (called "Area 12 on Aging) was conducting a business meeting in a shared session with the group's advisory council, followed by a meet-and-greet-lunch. The location was the Union Hill B&B out at the Pedro Wye. I'm a member of the JPA Board, assigned to represent the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors. Other members of that Board include Supervisors Merita Callaway from Calaveras County; Jim Allen from Mariposa County; and Richard Forster of Amador County. The Area 12 meeting was organized by Pauline White, who is the Executive Director of the organization. Merita is the Chair of the JPA Board this year. Tuolumne County (at my request) assigns two Supervisors to the Area 12 Board, so either John Gray or I attend the meetings. Sometimes both of us do, such as on May 15. I'm very happy to be a part of Area 12 and try to help them out anyway I can. When the meeting and lunch ended, John Gray and I went back to our respective offices in the County Building. I had a half hour or so to get ready for Meeting 2.
Meeting 2: This meeting started at 1:30 P.M., and I had to leave it at 2:45 P.M. to get to my next one. The name of the group holding the meeting is Central Sierra Child Support Agency. Like Area 12, it has a Board consisting of Supervisors from counties in the region. Evan Royce and I are the assigned Supervisors from Tuolumne County and we meet on a monthly basis with these folks. The actual meeting location was in San Andreas, so I had to participate via telephone conference call. Things got set up for me to be a part of the meeting, and we went over some "housekeeping" type items during the time I was there. Tuolumne County used to have its own Child Support Department, but decided to join three other counties in a JPA arrangement in order to save money. This change came about nearly two years ago, and some of the organizational work still remains to be done. We have an outstanding person at the helm of this agency. She is Adele Hendrickson and she used to run the Tuolumne County Department before it joined the JPA. Now she is in charge of all the counties in this new effort. We are lucky to have her working for us.
Meeting 3: I left the Child Support Agency meeting at 2:45 PM and walked from there (County Building at 2 S. Green) up Washington Street to City Hall. I had to allow fifteen minutes for the walk because I had a knee replacement in January and am still recovering. What used to seem like a small distance (County building to City Hall), takes on a new meaning when you are working with a new knee. Anyway. I made it to the City's Conference Room by 3 PM and got the meeting started. I am the Chairman of this particular committee which is a state-mandated oversight committee set up to monitor activities of the City of Sonora as it goes about the task of dissolving its Redevelopment Agency. Present at this meeting were City staff members, including the Chief Administrative Officer Tim Miller, and a group of stakeholders from local agencies. These agencies include County Schools, TUD, City of Sonora, Tuolumne County, and Columbia College. This group has met twice and only just begun to go over the documents we will need to conduct oversight. This meeting included some good discussion, helped along by a "special counsel" who came in from Sacramento to answer technical questions about the dissolution process. I was out the door of City Hall by 4:30 PM.
Meeting 4: I had anticipated that this evening meeting (which started at 6 PM) might be a little emotional since it was the final meeting of the Youth Commission as currently constituted. The next session of the Commission won't be until September, and it will have new members because more than half of the ones who have been with us for these past two years are graduating from high school or otherwise moving on. Attending the meeting were Commissioners Kristie McCluskey, April Robles, Jared Smith, Luke Houghton, and Kendra Jamar. We had a quorum! The Commissioners were joined by Todd Stolp, our Public Health Officer; Sarah Carrillo, our attorney; Craig Pedro, our substitute secretary; and myself, our Board of Supervisors' liaison. We reflected on the two year experiment that was the Youth Commission. It was the first-ever Youth Commission for Tuolumne County government and the students knew that they were trailblazers. They learned (among other things) how government systems work. They learned about the Brown Act and creating By-Laws to keep our meetings organized. They learned about each other too. One thing I contributed to their experience was a different way to think about leadership. I asked the Commissioners to be aware of "leadership moves" that they saw people making in their school settings or the community (A handshake? Maybe a fist-bump?). I think that noticing the component parts of leadership helped them think about it more accurately than they might have otherwise. We had a "leadership report" based on their observations at every meeting from every Commissioner. This final meeting was co-chaired by Luke Houghton and myself, and we had one last "trip around the table" to talk about leadership. Then it was over and it was 7 PM and the long day (May 15) came to close.
Not a moment too soon!
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Liz On The Road
In Ireland, there is a "marching season" in late Spring. For me, that same time of year seems to be taken up by "marching" around to events that display programs or honor people/groups who work to make things better in our community.
I'll start my report by describing a stop last night at the Elks Lodge. With Craig Pedro as my escort, I attended the 90th anniversary of the Lions Club. The Lions have been in Sonora since 1922. It is a club which has a dedicated group of members who work hard to make communities better for local people and for people around the world too. The Lions are famous for their work in helping people with eye problems of all sorts. One thing they do in this regard is collect and distribute used eyeglasses to people who can't afford them. The mission of this club is uplifting and their members are "can-do" people. My friend Bill Dunlavy was there. Also talked with Dusty and Pat Rhodes. Club President is Jack Harris, who is a person I worked with when I was employed by the Sonora High School District many years ago.. The Master of Ceremonies for last night's event was Chris Bateman. My part in it was to read a Resolution that the Board of Supervisors passed on May 1 proclaiming the good work this club does. It was a great home-town evening!
On May 1, my fellow Supervisors and I attended the groundbreaking for Phase II of the Bypass. This event was held at the CalTrans office (which is a hard-to-find converted house across the street from the shopping center at Highway 108 and Standard Road). Gregory Oliver gave me a ride to the groundbreaking site so we were able to catch up on some issues we thought would come up at the Housing Policy meeting we were both scheduled to attend on May 3. At the groundbreaking, there were a few speakers before the Supervisors were supposed to turn the ceremonial dirt over with shovels. The "dirt" turned out to be sand, much to my relief. I thought John Gray's speech was great. He talked about progress being linked to saving lives on what is now a dangerous stretch of road. Because he is a person who was born and raised in Tuolumne County, I set great store by what he says. He has the perspective that so many newcomers lack.
The ceremony took about an hour and it was a little hot out there, but I'm glad I was able to attend. I agree with John Gray. Things that make life less dangerous for people are on my "Yes" list.
One last stop on my "march" was an open house held at the new Day Reporting Center on Highway 49, just outside of town. This happened on April 30. The Tuolumne County Probation Department invited me to come to this event and see how things are working out. The Center is located in the remodeled Social Security building. The program at the Center is an alternative to county jail for some inmates. I met with one of them who had been charged with the duty to explain the Center's activities to the open house visitors. I thought she did very well, although by her own admission, she was nervous and not used to public speaking. There were two employees of Mariposa County there. One of them said that their county had not even started a program like Tuolumne County's. They had come over to get an idea of how to do this. I can report that things looked pretty good at the Center when I came by. The strong advocate we have in Tuolumne County for getting this facility up and running (with the goal of a model program built within budget) is Probation Department Director Adele Arnold. She and Judge Eric DuTemple are to be commended for the work they have done to achieve this goal. Others have worked on this as well. In fact, for a long period of time, many members of the community worked on a committee that directed the progress of the Center
That's all of Liz On The Road for now. Thanks for joining me!
I'll start my report by describing a stop last night at the Elks Lodge. With Craig Pedro as my escort, I attended the 90th anniversary of the Lions Club. The Lions have been in Sonora since 1922. It is a club which has a dedicated group of members who work hard to make communities better for local people and for people around the world too. The Lions are famous for their work in helping people with eye problems of all sorts. One thing they do in this regard is collect and distribute used eyeglasses to people who can't afford them. The mission of this club is uplifting and their members are "can-do" people. My friend Bill Dunlavy was there. Also talked with Dusty and Pat Rhodes. Club President is Jack Harris, who is a person I worked with when I was employed by the Sonora High School District many years ago.. The Master of Ceremonies for last night's event was Chris Bateman. My part in it was to read a Resolution that the Board of Supervisors passed on May 1 proclaiming the good work this club does. It was a great home-town evening!
On May 1, my fellow Supervisors and I attended the groundbreaking for Phase II of the Bypass. This event was held at the CalTrans office (which is a hard-to-find converted house across the street from the shopping center at Highway 108 and Standard Road). Gregory Oliver gave me a ride to the groundbreaking site so we were able to catch up on some issues we thought would come up at the Housing Policy meeting we were both scheduled to attend on May 3. At the groundbreaking, there were a few speakers before the Supervisors were supposed to turn the ceremonial dirt over with shovels. The "dirt" turned out to be sand, much to my relief. I thought John Gray's speech was great. He talked about progress being linked to saving lives on what is now a dangerous stretch of road. Because he is a person who was born and raised in Tuolumne County, I set great store by what he says. He has the perspective that so many newcomers lack.
The ceremony took about an hour and it was a little hot out there, but I'm glad I was able to attend. I agree with John Gray. Things that make life less dangerous for people are on my "Yes" list.
One last stop on my "march" was an open house held at the new Day Reporting Center on Highway 49, just outside of town. This happened on April 30. The Tuolumne County Probation Department invited me to come to this event and see how things are working out. The Center is located in the remodeled Social Security building. The program at the Center is an alternative to county jail for some inmates. I met with one of them who had been charged with the duty to explain the Center's activities to the open house visitors. I thought she did very well, although by her own admission, she was nervous and not used to public speaking. There were two employees of Mariposa County there. One of them said that their county had not even started a program like Tuolumne County's. They had come over to get an idea of how to do this. I can report that things looked pretty good at the Center when I came by. The strong advocate we have in Tuolumne County for getting this facility up and running (with the goal of a model program built within budget) is Probation Department Director Adele Arnold. She and Judge Eric DuTemple are to be commended for the work they have done to achieve this goal. Others have worked on this as well. In fact, for a long period of time, many members of the community worked on a committee that directed the progress of the Center
That's all of Liz On The Road for now. Thanks for joining me!
My Yes I'm Coming Back List
Everyone who shops locally works off one of these lists. Maybe yours is unwritten but something like it lurks in the recesses of your mind. I decided to put my lurking list into print and see where it led me. So here's where I am on this issue: I'll be back to Wright's Tire Shop, Sun Waelty Auto Repair, The Thai Restaurant, Lighthouse Deli, Kathy's Cleaners, WalMart, CVS, Save Mart, Safeway, Staples, Camacho's, Studio 280, and Simply Delish. Compiling the list was hard because l'll bet I left someone out.
Under analysis: All of the businesses on my list walk the walk when it comes to customer service. All of them have owners and/or employees who take time to either talk to me or help me out with a purchase. All of them have services or products I want.
The fact is that I love to shop so I get around to lots of places all over the County. Another fact is that I want to be treated well. I don't want to feel dismissed or patronized. If I do wind up feeling like that, I don't go back no matter what's for sale.
I got to thinking this way when I visited Simply Delish, a new cupcake shop at 365 S. Washington Street in Sonora. It is close to Day-O drive-through coffee shop. The owner and producer of the products in the shop is Vonnie Hilton. A nice lady with a great product! As I left with my purchase this past Saturday, I said to her that "I'll be back soon." That comment became the basis of this blog, and that only means that you never know where you will be or what you will be doing when an inspiration visits you.
Under analysis: All of the businesses on my list walk the walk when it comes to customer service. All of them have owners and/or employees who take time to either talk to me or help me out with a purchase. All of them have services or products I want.
The fact is that I love to shop so I get around to lots of places all over the County. Another fact is that I want to be treated well. I don't want to feel dismissed or patronized. If I do wind up feeling like that, I don't go back no matter what's for sale.
I got to thinking this way when I visited Simply Delish, a new cupcake shop at 365 S. Washington Street in Sonora. It is close to Day-O drive-through coffee shop. The owner and producer of the products in the shop is Vonnie Hilton. A nice lady with a great product! As I left with my purchase this past Saturday, I said to her that "I'll be back soon." That comment became the basis of this blog, and that only means that you never know where you will be or what you will be doing when an inspiration visits you.
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