Deputy Public Defender Rewards Recovering Youth With Travels

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Life for many of the Stony Knoll Youth Services teenagers has been troubled, even rough. They are all recovering drug addicts with cases in the San Diego Superior Court Juvenile Delinquency Drug Court.

Certainly, a 17-day trip to London, Paris and Germany was not something that some of these teenagers even dared to dream about before March 23 when it became a reality. Not everyone who went through the drug court system was invited to come along either, only those who had successfully completed the program or were close to graduating.

The San Diego County Juvenile Drug Court program is a nine-month program that intensively supervises juvenile drug abusers who are non-violent, but have repeated failures with drug-treatment programs. The youth receive incentives for positive behavior and a series of graduated sanctions for noncompliance.  The program is led by a team of judges, probation officers, juvenile recovery specialists, a deputy district attorney, and a deputy public defender. The team meets weekly to discuss each teenager’s progress and determine their progress.

Deputy Public Defender Daniel Ybarra has been assigned to the juvenile drug court since its inception in 1998 as its only defense attorney. He started the youth trips to reward those teenagers who were most successful.

Kaitlynn Lewis, 17, in Mission Valley had just graduated from the program in January but had been told in December that she could go on the trip.

“It was an amazing opportunity to have. It was all I could think about for the three months until we left. I kept saying, ‘I’m going to Europe!’” Lewis said. “I felt honored that he took me.”

Ybarra dreamed up the idea of the trips in 2001 after he took a small group of teenage boys from drug court on a camping trip to Julian. He realized that many of these teenagers had never traveled far beyond their own neighborhoods and he wanted to offer them something special.

“I wanted to do more than threaten these kids with juvenile hall if they were not compliant,” said Ybarra. “I wanted to take them places.”

The teenagers shed their tough exteriors when they travel, said Ybarra. They are all appreciative and polite to the people they encounter, he said. The experience shows the teenagers there is a world beyond San Diego and California and even the United States.  

Using his connections, Ybarra has managed to arrange trips to Kake, Alaska as well as New Zealand, Hawaii and Europe. Ybarra said his trips are not focused on tourism, he always arranges some form of community service project for the young travelers. The teenagers also meet and stay with community members. Ybarra raises money for the trips year-round, sometimes even while on the trip itself. The donations mostly come from the law community, including his Harvard law school peers across the country.

The trips make a big difference in the lives of the teenagers who are chosen to go, Ybarra said. It gives many of them a sense of self-worth and some have even called the trips life-changing. He requires all of them to keep a journal while on the trip, and those entries have detailed new perspectives and introspections, and a sense of hopeful anticipation for the future.

For Lewis, drug court has been about transforming her life. She started doing drugs at age 10, dropped out of school and moved on to heroin and methamphetamine before landing in the system. Based on her admittedly poor life choices prior to drug court, she never thought she could travel and be sober and happy.

Now, she plans to start college in June and join the U.S. Army. The trip was a reward for her hard work.

Lewis liked Paris the most because they got to interact with other teenagers there and she learned that people are the same no matter where they live.

“We got to tell our stories at the high school, and that was my favorite part because it might prevent someone from taking the same steps I did. You never know who you’re helping,” Lewis said.

Ybarra said he genuinely cares about the teenagers and often hears back from them years later thanking him for investing in them.

“A lot of kids that we work with have had a lot of bad things happen to them growing up. Some of my kids didn’t have a lot of support or not enough,” Ybarra said. “I want them to know if they do well there are benefits, and that life is more than their small neighborhoods here and what they know. There is a lot more then what is here. I think we are successful in planting that seed.“

Everything is Coming Up Roses

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What do Dick Clark, Henry Fonda and Julia Child have in common? They all live in Virginia West’s garden.

Of course, we are talking about roses bearing their names and they are three of more than 140 rose plants West’s co-workers visited this weekend.

“They look magnificent,” said West, who has worked with County Mental Health Services for the past 28 years. “I wanted to share my love for roses.”

West brings roses to work every week, but decided to open her home and garden to co-workers at the Mission Valley facility. About two dozen people showed up.

“It’s been a tradition to have open gardens,” said West, referring to the motto of the San Diego Rose Society, which she joined a few years ago to learn more about roses.

West began cultivating roses 7 years ago. She started with a few plants that were in the front yard when she and her husband Mark moved into the house eight years ago.

She moved those roses to other parts of the house to make space for her collection of what she now calls Patriot Place, an area with roses named  4th of July, Purple Heart, Firefighter and America, among many others.

To that she added Stars and Stripes, a space for roses bearing famous people’s names or multicolored roses such as Rock ‘n Roll, Berries ‘n Cream and Candy Land. Along a low-laying wood fence is her Easy Series, a group of 18 rose plants with names like Living Easy, Easy Does It and Easy Going.

Her collection kept growing and now includes an area for mini-rose plants. The hill in her back yard is also fully covered with rose plants in strategically-placed planters. At the very top of the hill is Altissimo, a tall bush that blooms a simple rose with just a few petals.

Why roses?

“They bloom 10 months out of the year and snails don’t like them,” said West, who can easily name all 148 roses in her garden.

She admits her hobby is “intense” and requires a lot of her time, but she loves it. On weekends she spends hour after hour fertilizing, trimming dead buds, and picking up petals.

“I enjoy being outside because when you are out, you get to meet your neighbors,” said West, whose rose garden is easily accessible to people walking by. “I just like to show it off.”

And her neighbors appreciate it.

“They’re so beautiful,” said a neighbor during her routine walk. “I smell them every day.”

 

Employees Generous with Gift of Life

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Hundreds of local patients are getting critically needed infusions thanks to County employees.

Turnout at this year’s County Employees Blood Drive, which wrapped up Tuesday, far exceeded expectations. The nonprofit San Diego Blood Bank, which worked with County employees to organize the event, reported collecting 225 pints of blood. The projected total this year? 156 pints.

“We’re thrilled to see so many County employees come forward and make these precious donations,” said Supervisor Greg Cox, who was among those who donated blood. “These are gifts you cannot buy. Yet they are invaluable.”

So what kind of difference will the donations make in the lives of trauma patients and people suffering from life threatening blood disorders?

“One blood donation can help up to three patients, so you can multiply the total donation by three to get the number of patients whose lives have been touched by County employees this month,” said Lynn Stedd, the nonprofit’s Community Relations & Marketing Director.

County employees donated the blood at five events this month, held at the County Administration Center, County Health & Human Services Agency offices on Rosecrans and in Chula Vista, County Operations Center and the North County Regional Complex in Vista.

In all, 210 people donated 225 pints of blood, according to Stedd. The donations will go to patients around Southern California.     

Fleet Services Division Rated in Top 100 of Government Fleets

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Did you know that there are approximately 38,000 public sector fleet operations in North America? Did you also know that the Department of General Services Fleet Management Division was just recognized by Government Fleet Magazine as being in the top 100 of those fleets?

The 100 Best Fleets annual award program recognizes and rewards peak performing fleet operations in North America. Currently in its seventh year, 100 Best Fleets identifies and encourages ever-increasing levels of performance improvement within the fleet industry. This year fleets were rated in their performance in 12 categories including: Accountability, Technology Implementation, Resource Stewardship and Competitive Pricing. The program solicited applications from over 19,000 fleets and performance was judged by an independent panel of recognized Fleet Managers including former winners.

This recognition by the government fleet community is further validation of the hard work and high quality services provide by San Diego County’s Fleet Management team. “We are very proud to be in the top 100” said Sharyl Blackington, the Department of General Services Fleet Operations manager. “We are looking forward to the announcement of the top 20 at the Government Fleet Expo & Conference in June.”  

High quality and cost effective fleet services are essential to keeping County departments operating and serving the public. Fleet Management operates a fleet of approximately 3,900 vehicles and mobile equipment including: fire apparatus, law enforcement, snow plows and lawn mowers as well as cars, trucks and vans.

County Law Enforcement Race in the Desert

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Despite temperatures that reached 111 degrees in the day and 127 degrees on the blacktop, San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies and San Diego County Probation officers put on their running shoes for a nonstop 120-mile “Baker to Vegas” relay race through the desert last weekend.

The official time for the Probation Department was 17 hours, 10 minutes and 13 seconds, while the Sheriff’s Department time was 17 hours, 19 minutes and 59 seconds. Official individual runner’s times have not yet been posted.

Members of both teams said the heat was incredible.

“It’s never been this extreme,” said Probation team captain Linda Yoakum-Latimer. “I don’t think we beat our time from last year — which was our goal, but not in 111 degree temperatures.”

Yoakum-Latimer said they were just happy that none of their runners or volunteers required medical attention for heat stroke or dehydration.

The heat did sap one of the probation team’s runner, who was replaced by Probation Chief Mack Jenkins. The chief was more than happy to step in as an alternate. He has run  for the San Diego Probation team in previous years and he has a competitive side.

Before Jenkins came to San Diego County, he served as the team captain for the Orange County Probation Department team. Well, that just means the Orange County Probation team had extra fun ribbing Jenkins about the fact that their team beat San Diego County last year -- and this year too unfortunately.

Yoakum-Latimer said they plan to come back strong for next year’s race and strip Orange County’s team of bragging rights. Jenkins is also planning on running a leg on his own next year, not as an alternate, she said.

Despite the pulverizing heat, the Sheriff’s Department team actually bettered their final time from last year’s competition by 2.5 hours, said Sheriff’s team captain Denese Deal.

The team captain said their volunteers had to be really watchful of their runners to make sure that no one started weaving or showing other signs of heat illness. They caught one team member just in time and replaced the runner with an alternate.

“The heat was incredible. Hundreds of people went down because of the heat,” she said.

So, why would thousands of law enforcement officers from across the nation, including teams from Berlin and Hamburg Germany, take part in this punishing course?

“It’s challenging. If you enjoy running, it’s tough,” said Deal.

Team members train to run on the team. They must also take into account the harsh conditions including terrain, altitude and extreme temperatures, she said. The course even includes a 10 mile uphill segment, but Deal said her runner was “outstanding” this year, just like he was last year.

In the end, she said it’s all about teamwork.

“It’s the camaraderie,” Deal said. “You get to show your pride as a San Diego Sheriff’s deputy.”

Attention All Car Buffs!

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Get into gear and head on down to the County Administration Center’s first employee car show. Different makes and models will be on display all day Friday, April 27 on the south lawn. CAC employees can register a Hot Rod, truck, motorcycle or any other special vehicle of interest, especially vintage cars, in CAC Room 411 or email Bruce.Pennings@sdsheriff.org before 4 p.m., Wednesday, April 25.  

A certain Board supervisor plans to bring out his prized 1933 Packard Club Sedan. You can also expect to see a 1929 Ford with a Chevy 350 engine, 1953 MG, a 1966 Corvette 427 coupe, a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 with a drag pack on it, some Harleys and more.

How did this all come about? Well, some car buffs carry pictures of their treasured, classic, or just face it, cool cars in their wallets and can’t help but brag about them. They swap stories and next thing you know retired Sheriff’s Deputy Bruce Pennings was wondering. “How many employees have them?” says Pennings. “Only way to find out is put on a car show.”

For CAC employees interested in bringing out their cars, Pennings says don’t worry about dings, scratches or security. He’ll be keeping an eye on them and other security will be out there too.  

 While this is a car show, it isn’t a competition so don’t expect a trophy. As Pennings says, it’s just a day employees can drive their prides and joy to work and safely show them off. Interested? Sign up or come on out. Guess who owns which vehicle, daydream about owning this one or that one and swap stories. You’ll be in good car company. 

Mental Health Media Campaign Hits the Streets

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Early Saturday morning, April 21, more than 3,300 walkers took their dedication to the street for the annual National Alliance on Mental Illness Walk. The event helps reduce stigma toward mental illness by raising awareness, as well as raising money to fund mental illness advocacy, research, education, and support programs both locally and nationally.

Mayor Jerry Sanders, honorary Chair of the event, and HHSA's Behavioral Health Services Director Dr. Jennifer Schaffer both spoke to the walkers before the kickoff.

Schaffer then joined Alfredo Aguirre, Mental Health Services Director, and other BHS staff for the walk through the park. Team “It’s Up to Us” - named after the County’s successful mental health awareness campaign - boasted 62 walkers who raised $3,045. All the walkers combined to raise more than $150,000.

Probation, Sheriff’s Teams Compete in “Baker to Vegas” Relay

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Runners make their way through the desert during the 2011 relay.

It’s not obvious why anyone would run a race 120 miles through barren desert, from nondescript Baker, Calif. to Las Vegas.

But a team of 20 runners and about 20 volunteers from our Probation Department and a separate Sheriff’s Department team will head to the high desert this weekend to join thousands of members of law enforcement from around the world in the “Baker to Vegas” relay race challenge.

When the Probation team starts running about 4 p.m. Saturday, the forecast says it will be 103 degrees. Most of the team will stay up all night running, too.  They won’t sleep, but at least it’ll be cooler.

“This is like the craziest thing I’ve ever done with law enforcement people,” said Linda Yoakum-Latimer who is Probation’s team captain. The Senior Probation Officer said she’s spent much of the year organizing fundraisers for the team’s entry fee, transportation and other costs.

The chance to meet peers from around the world and the grueling format makes Baker to Vegas a uniquely absurd, fun and competitive race, Yoakum-Latimer explained.

“It’s very positive; it’s very upbeat,” she said.

The format of the race sees 20 runners each passing a baton for 20 different legs of the 120 mile race. Not all legs are equal, with the longest 10.7 miles “straight uphill,” Yoakum-Latimer said, and the shortest, about 4 miles.

Volunteers in cars follow each runner and deliver runners to the start of the next leg, where the baton is passed.

“The volunteers are as important as the runners,” Yoakum Latimer said. And, she said, logistically the volunteer end and driving are almost as frantic—and a great time.

“This is what we do for fun; we go out in the desert and we drive like crazy,” she said.

Yoakum-Latimer said Probation has participated in the relay race for 14 years and has gotten pretty competitive.  Time trials at Miramar Lakes decided which members of the department would run. The team’s fastest runner, James Parison, a Deputy Probation Officer who works at East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility, did a 6.9 minute mile in his time trial. He’ll take the 10.7 mile leg.

The team will compete in the “mixed” category, with six women and 14 men.

Not everyone in the department understands why their colleagues participate. Some people think it sounds too grueling, too crazy. But Yoakum-Latimer said, no matter how you view Baker to Vegas, the event generates a lot of conversation in the Probation Department and creates a common interest outside the usual workaday subjects. Friday, members of the department wore any “Baker to Vegas” team shirts they had from past events and showed their support for this year’s team.

The race weekend culminates in an awards ceremony and party in Las Vegas Sunday night.

“The energy there is amazing; people have been up all night and yet, there’s so much energy,” Yoakum-Latimer said. “It’s all about what they’re going to do next year, how they’re going to do even better.”