Employee Wellness Program Celebrates 5 Years
/With the new year, comes new opportunities to get and stay healthy. See what's in store for the 2017 Employee Wellness Program as it celebrates five years of existence!
InTouch - New Year, New Changes!
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Happy New Year, everyone.
I hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday season. As much as I enjoy that time of year, I also love the clean-slate feeling you get when turning the calendar.
Much will be new about this year besides changing the date.
We will soon have a new president and administration in Washington. Until the transition takes place, we won’t know what that will mean in terms of actual new policies. With the presidency and majorities in Congress under one party, the federal government may attempt to make sweeping changes very quickly. Changes could affect us in any number of ways at the local level. At this point, about all we can say is we’ll be watching developments carefully.
Closer to home, we have a new supervisor. We welcome Kristin Gaspar to our County family and look forward to working with her as our new District 3 supervisor. She was the first elected mayor of the City of Encinitas, where she was also on the city council. She has served on the Encinitas Educational Foundation and is a former president of the Encinitas Rotary Club. She has three young children and previously worked as the chief financial officer of Gaspar Physical Therapy.
Besides what she brings to her new job personally, her arrival is noteworthy for a couple reasons.
One is that this marks the start of regular change on our board. In two years, we’ll have two more new supervisors, as the term limits voters approved a few years back begin to affect our board seats. Then two years after that, two more board members will be termed out so we’ll see another two new faces. By the time Supervisor Gaspar finishes her first term, she will be the senior member of the Board of Supervisors!
We’ve been enjoying a run of nearly a quarter century of stability on our board. As an organization, we’ve gotten to know their expectations, and they’ve gotten to know how we operate. We have developed trusting relationships and understand how to work collectively to achieve common goals. Now the age of turnover is dawning, and the new era will take a little adjustment. We must push to solidify this Board’s legacy by carrying out their final term initiatives while also preparing for continuous shifts in future policy and priorities due to term-limit turnover.
A built-in state of flux has been a fact of life for many governments, and now it is for us as well. We’ll adapt.
Another major change Supervisor Gaspar represents is generational. She’s barely beyond the cutoff for classification as a millennial! Her colleagues on the board – like myself – are boomers. And we all know there is a big difference in the way different generations think and act. I’m certain exciting policy and procedural discussions are ahead.
It’s not just generational change on the Board of Supervisors you need to consider. Generational transition is happening throughout the County. It wasn’t long ago that we were talking about the coming millennial generation. Well, they’re here. A full third of our County workforce is now millennials. And, over the next decade, millennials will account for approximately 50 percent of our employee population. Don’t be fooled by stereotypical jokes about millennials. In fact, millennials are, hard-working, committed public servants, whose contributions in the workplace are growing. They are already stepping into leadership roles across our organization.
Government will probably never have the employee churn of private industry, but we’re also not as static as you may think. Nearly 32 percent of our employees have been with the County four years or less. That’s a lot of fresh members in our ranks, all needing to learn the ropes and understand what it means to work for the County. At the same time, they bring new ideas, curiosity and enthusiasm to what we do.
So, yes, of course, we’ve always had change. Now we’re going to experience even more of it. It’s important to realize that and be prepared. Get limbered up mentally, because we’ll likely need to be more flexible than we’ve ever been.
With that, get ready – change is exciting. Let’s go 2017!
Recent InTouch columns
Happy New Year, However You Say It!
/We boast many different cultures, here at the County. Many of us speak various languages, but we all have one common wish for our colleagues: a happy New Year!
Sidewalk Survey App Walks Away with IT Innovation Award
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Gary Ross (left) and Mikel Haas (right)
Our 2016 IT Innovator of the Year is helping to make the County more pedestrian-friendly.
Gary Ross, a senior GIS analyst, was recognized earlier this month for creating an app that greatly streamlined an evaluation of the walkability of more than 800 miles in the County’s unincorporated area.
In July 2015, the Department of Public Works was tasked with evaluating existing sidewalks and pathways around areas such as parks, schools, libraries, shopping centers and community centers. It required surveyors walk all those miles to examine and record the conditions. But rather than have them log observations in the field then re-enter the info back at the office, DPW teamed up with Ross in Land Use & Envirnoment Group's GIS unit to customize an existing software application to capture survey data in the field. So now there’s an app for that!
“I listened to what DPW needed and modified the app to collect the data we truly needed,” said Ross. “Surveyors could easily gather information on sidewalk materials, widths, grades, obstacles, driveway cuts and ramps along County-maintained roadways.”
A prototype of the app was developed over six weeks and tested by staff in Alpine over the summer. During testing, staff identified missing field entry options and coordinated with the LUEG GIS team to further enhance the app.
With the final app version completed and in hand, literally, four contract surveyors walked the routes with tablets and entered data into the app. The exact geolocation was determined with the use of a high power GPS unit connected to the tablet. Surveyors shared data collected daily with DPW through Wi-Fi and in just seven months all 800+ miles were covered.
In addition, the app helped increase accuracy of the recorded data and cut the labor costs for processing it.
Chief Information Officer Mikel Haas said the survey seemed overwhelming in scope—but with this application went from a “slog to a sprint.”
“Obviously a couple of field workers with clipboards wasn’t going to cut it,” said Haas.
Haas said that by sharing ideas, collaborating between departments, thinking innovatively, and using knowledge and skill, Ross came up with a solution and that makes him the IT Innovator of the Year.
The survey results were just the first step for DPW. The department has used the data to create a priority project master list and sidewalk improvements started last month. Crews began patch work on existing sidewalks throughout the County.
In addition, DPW has used the analysis results to apply for grant funding. It recently received notice that it was awarded a $7 million Caltrans grant for pedestrian and bicycle lane improvements in Lakeside.
Time is Running Out!
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Don’t forget to spend any remaining Flexible Spending Account dollars and Health Reimbursement Account dollars. Expenses for approved medical and dependent care expenses must be made by Dec. 31, 2016. See the list of qualified expenses, and make sure claims and receipts are submitted to ASI Flex by March 31, 2017. Also, you may be able to roll over some of your unspent 2016 Health Care Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Reimbursement Account. Find out how.
Maintain, Don't Gain Results
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More than 1,600 participants recorded their steps, water consumption and weight over eight weeks during the “Maintain, Don’t Gain” challenge. The Employee Wellness program recommended healthy habits to get us through the holiday season. More than 80 percent of the participants that logged a final weight maintained or lost pounds.
Check out the successes of the fourth quarter program above and visit Employee Wellness on InSite for additional information on programs.
Shoutout to DPW Road Crews
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While most of us were nestled all snug in our beds, Public Works' road crews were working long shifts over the holiday weekend, clearing mountain roads of snow and other messes left by the storm.
Probation Delivers Holiday Cheer
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San Diego County Probation officers delivered holiday meals and gifts to several good boys and girls on Thursday. Chief Adolfo Gonzales and the department partnered with the National Latino Police Officers Association, the Lowrider Community of San Diego, and Foodland store to donate and collect the items. Probation officers then surprised 12 families selected by San Marcos Elementary in San Marcos, Lincoln Acres School in National City and Montgomery Elementary School in Chula Vista.
Probation adopted the three schools in an effort to encourage education and school attendance, and build relationships in the community.
County Meteorologist's Holiday Weekend Forecast
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Rand Allan, DPW meteorologist
The Department of Public Works has its own meteorologist as part of its flood control staff. Here's Rand Allan's forecast for today and the rest of the holiday weekend.
Residual moisture from yesterday’s storm continues the chance of rain this morning, mainly in the form of widespread drizzle. Radar shows scattered showers approaching from Los Angeles in advance of a major winter storm, to arrive late morning/early afternoon.
Rainfall chances increase through the evening with heavy rain arriving later in the evening and continuing overnight. With the soils already saturated from yesterday’s rain, localized flooding during the early morning hours may be more of a problem with this storm.
Rain switches to showers mid-day on Saturday switching to showers mid-day and ending late Saturday night. The snow level falls rapidly with this storm, with snow levels near 5000’ overnight falling to 3000’-3500’ tomorrow afternoon. Snow amounts will generally be 2”-4” from 3500’ to 5000’ and 4”-8” above 5000’.
On County News Center: Be Prepared if You're Headed to the Snow
Strong winds will likely create blizzard-like conditions in the mountains with wind-chill temperatures well below freezing. If you don’t have to go outside during this storm….DON’T. Also, if you are out and about during the storm and encounter flooded roads or streams flowing over low water crossings, Turn Around, Don’t Drown.
Expected rain amounts will be around 1” coast to 2”-3” mountains, and ½” deserts.
Christmas Day will be partly cloudy and cold (white Christmas in the mountains!). Temperatures will slowly increase throughout the week. Weather models show a cutoff low pressure system drifting down the West Coast on Monday to settle offshore from San Diego. There is too much uncertainty in the models at this time to know when or if we will get any rain from this system.
Below: A DPW snowplow drive talks about keeping roads clear during snow earlier this year.
Gallery: ERGs Party for the Holidays
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County Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) had a jolly good time at a joint holiday party this weekend. The joyous festivity was open to all employees. If you missed all the merrymaking, take a trip down candy cane lane and view the gallery. Learn more about the nine ERGs on InSite.