Update for July 2

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Message from Helen Robbins-Meyer, Chief Administrative Officer

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You’re probably aware we’ve seen several discouraging trends recently in tracking COVID-19 activity in our region. Cases have shown big jumps. Hospitalizations are up. We’ve hit several of our “triggers” for modifying the health order. In response, we’ve closed bars that don’t serve food and directed restaurants to shut at 10 p.m.

We’ve also had an increase in the number of County employees testing positive. The percentage of our total workforce is very low, but it’s still a cause for concern.

Because of these external and internal trends, we’re pulling back on the opening of County facilities. We were planning to reopen library branches Monday, but we’re putting that on hold. We’re also going to close offices at the County Administration Center to most public services. That includes the Treasurer/Tax Collector and the Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk. They’ll be open today, then close the rest of July. We’ll see what the trends are like at the end of the month before deciding whether to reopen again

We’re also asking nonessential employees to continue to telework as much as possible and pausing any additional reopenings to the public.

It’s frustrating to take a step back, but the numbers show this virus remains a growing health threat. We’ll have an ongoing balancing act between wanting to reopen and taking prudent steps to protect the public’s and our employees’ health.   

We can all help stem the increase by taking the measures we’ve been talking about all along. Wash your hands. Wear a face covering – evidence continues to grow showing their effectiveness. Maintain social distancing. We can’t stress enough that gatherings with others outside your household are still not allowed. That means no inviting people over for backyard barbecues or big beach get-togethers on Fourth of July. I hate to come around every holiday with that same message, but it still holds true. This virus passes from one person to another, so the best way to stop the spread is to stay apart.

I thank all our staff directly involved with the COVID response who will stay busy in that effort over the long Independence Day weekend. I hope the rest of you will enjoy the holiday and celebrate safely.

Catching Rays to Pay off at County Facilities

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A view of solar panels on the Registrar of Voters building and the Chesapeake parking structure at the County Operations Center.

A view of solar panels on the Registrar of Voters building and the Chesapeake parking structure at the County Operations Center.

A crowning achievement at General Services – the department energized the County’s largest photovoltaic (PV) system to date, a 2.2-megawatt system, at the County Operations Center. That means solar panels will generate enough clean renewable power to provide nearly 25% of the electricity used by the entire COC campus.

On top of that, a 400-kilowatt battery system was installed on the campus’s north side. The battery system will offset SDG&E’s increased rates during periods of high demand. The battery will switch on as needed each day when campus energy use gets too high, eliminating most of those costs.   

Between the solar panels and the battery, the system is expected to cut the COC’s annual electricity bill up to $370,000 each year.

Under a power purchase agreement, Sun Power built the COC system and will operate and maintain it at no cost to the County. In turn, the County will buy all the renewable power generated at a price well below current and anticipated future SDG&E rates.

The project started last July and involved the installation of more than 6,300 PV panels atop the roofs of all four campus office buildings, the Registrar of Voters building and the new carports on the Chesapeake parking structure. 

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The County also energized a 175-kilowatt system at the Rancho San Diego Sheriff Station. Renewable power will offset more than 60% of the site’s energy use.

“The County reached a milestone with the completion of these two projects,” said Energy and Sustainability Program Chief Charley Marchesano. “The total amount of onsite generated renewable power increased to 10% of the total County facility demand which is a 2020 goal in our climate action plan.”

And there is more to come. A solar project at the Edgemoor Skilled Nursing Facility should go live later in the summer. And two more at the East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility and the North County Regional Center are scheduled to come online this fall.

Once they are all on board, the County’s renewable onsite power will increase to 18 or 19% of the County’s total energy load. That figure puts the County well within reach of the ultimate goal to generate at least 20% of the total energy load from onsite renewable sources by 2030.    

PerkSpot Deals: Summer Savings

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Make the most of your summer with savings! Find PerkSpot deals on everything from sunglasses and flip-flops to steaks and seafood for grilling. These discounts are sure to make the season sensational.

PerkSpot offers benefits and discounts through more than 400 service providers and retailers. Go to SDCounty.PerkSpot.com and shop. If you are new, click on “Create an Account” to register.

Team Up on Microsoft Teams

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Good-bye to Skype! All County employees now have access to Microsoft Teams to chat, call, meet and collaborate in one place. This Friday, June 26, Teams will become the primary communication and collaboration platform for the County and will replace Skype. But don’t worry, Skype will still be available with limited functions.

What You Need to Know

  • You will now have the ability to chat and have audio/video meetings with the Sheriff, District Attorney, Perspecta, and AT&T employees through Teams.

  • All of your Skype meetings will be automatically converted to Teams meetings.

  • The audio conferencing add-in phone numbers for Skype will automatically convert to Teams audio conferencing add-in phone numbers.

  • Skype will still be installed but will not auto-launch. However, Skype will look a bit different and you will no longer have the capability to chat. You can still use Skype to join Skype meetings or you can use a browser. Skype will be removed sometime later this calendar year.

  • All the current Teams capability will remain the same.

Interested in learning more? Attend a training. LMS - End User Training will be offered at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 23. LMS - Teams Basic Training will be offered at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, June 25.  Also check out the other Teams training available on LMS.

Update for June 19

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Message from Helen Robbins-Meyer, Chief Administrative Officer

As we head into Father’s Day weekend, let me take a moment to acknowledge all the fathers out there, especially for your efforts these last few months. Many parents have had extra child care duty on top of full-time jobs, and had to make it all work out of their homes. Thanks, dads, for finding ways to get it done.

Beyond this recent stretch, thanks to our dads for a lifetime of support. All of us who’ve enjoyed a caring, dedicated father have been immensely blessed. They guide us, directly at first, and their character serves as a model we rely on the rest of our lives. Our gratitude is eternal, even if Father’s Day rolls around just once a year.

Like other recent occasions, we’ll have to celebrate our dads at a distance this time around. We’re measuring a variety of indicators of COVID-19 activity that might prompt us to roll back reopening. One indicator for action, or trigger, is new community outbreaks. That includes things like gatherings at people’s homes. We hit that community outbreaks trigger yesterday. And while we’re not immediately imposing any restrictions in response, we are sharing with the public a strong reminder of the need to avoid gatherings and practice social distancing.

We all need to follow that direction, and that unfortunately means skipping family get-togethers for  Father’s Day. It’s hard, but it’s what’s the current circumstances call for.

Do what’s right, even when it’s difficult. Protect others. Those sound like values fathers try to instill in their children. Living by those words is fitting tribute to the fathers and father figures in our lives. Everyone, stay strong, stay safe and Happy Father’s Day!

Shining a Light on Juneteenth

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The County Administration Center will be illuminated in red, yellow and green tonight in honor of Juneteenth. The holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

The Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery on Jan. 1, 1863. But it was not until June 19, 1865, that enslaved African Americans in Galveston Bay, Texas were notified by Union troops that they, along with all other enslaved black people in the state, were free. The day has grown into a time to celebrate, gather, reflect on the past and look to the future.

The National Museum of African American History & Culture describes Juneteenth as a monumental yet often overlooked event in our nation’s history. The museum has more information about the holiday.

County Wins 54 NACo Awards, Two Best in Category

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The County Public Defender’s Fresh Start Program is one of two programs that won a Best in Category Achievement Award. The program allows some San Diegans with prior non-violent criminal convictions to apply for jobs that they previously may not ha…

The County Public Defender’s Fresh Start Program is one of two programs that won a Best in Category Achievement Award. The program allows some San Diegans with prior non-violent criminal convictions to apply for jobs that they previously may not have been considered for due to their criminal record.

Congratulations to our County groups! The National Association of Counties recognized 36 of our many programs with Achievement Awards, which commend leading-edge government programs.  Two of them, the Fresh Start Criminal Record Relief Program and the Medical Examiner’s Open Data Portal were presented with Best in Category Awards.

The Public Defender’s Fresh Start program is designed to educate and advocate for people previously convicted of non-violent crimes who looking to move past their mistakes and start anew. A criminal record creates barriers to employment, housing, education, volunteering, and other forms of civic engagement. Public Defender attorneys investigate clients’ criminal histories, develop comprehensive Fresh Start case plans, and seek all appropriate conviction relief. The goal is for the person to have successful community reintegration, improve access to employment, housing, education, and other forms of civic engagement, reduce recidivism and improve community safety.

The ME’s Open Data Portal released more than 22 years of death record information online in March 2019. The data is available for the public, media, and any other agencies that work in academia, public health or public policy, who can take the data, analyze it, and provide valuable insights back to the department and even advance broader changes to improve public health and safety. Since its release, this data set has been viewed over 16,000 times and downloaded nearly 600 times, making it the most popular data search on the County’s data portal.

The Medical Examiner’s Open Data Portal also won Best in Category for the NACo Achievement Awards. Here, a county employee browses a data set on the site.

The Medical Examiner’s Open Data Portal also won Best in Category for the NACo Achievement Awards. Here, a county employee browses a data set on the site.

Among other programs awarded were the County’s Public Health Nurse Residency Program, which provides a comprehensive learning experience with valuable guidance for nurses who are newly licensed and for nurses new to the field of public health. The program develops a team of professional Public Health Nurses who are trained to respond to public health crises including outbreaks and natural disasters. The program has been highly successful in attracting nurses who seek additional support and professional development during their transition to the public health nursing practice and represent the ethnicity and culture represented in the community’s diversity.

The San Diego County Probation Department won an award for developing a credible messenger mentoring program called Resilience, which hires people formerly or currently in the justice system to mentor justice-involved youth and young adults to help them resist reoffending. The youth can better relate to mentors with similar backgrounds. The six-month program includes two weekly group meetings with an evidence-based journaling curriculum and weekly mentee/mentor one-on-one meetings, and is building positive relationships between mentees, mentors, probation officers, and within the community.

A San Diego County employee training program, “Generation Island,” also received an award for addressing the five different generations --from the Silent Generation to Generation Z-- working together in County workplaces in a fun and informative manner. The goal of this training series is to encourage employees to be understanding of other points of view in order to work more effectively together, a key component of the County’s diversity and inclusion efforts. The course gives the learner an overview of the generational “signposts” that each generation experienced in their formative years, and shows how those early experiences can shape a particular generation’s behavior and explores how workplace dynamics can be affected.

San Diego County won in ten categories. The full list of winning categories and programs can be found on a searchable database and are listed below:

 

Category: Children and Youth

  • Child and Family Team Meeting Facilitation Program

  • Child Welfare Services: Family Visit Coaching

  • Outdoor Outreach

  • Urban Beats

  • Youth Civic Engagement: Empowering and Building Resiliency in Youth

  • Code Compliance Community Outreach

 

Category: Civic Education and Public Information

  • Better Outreach and Education: Disabled Veterans’ Property Tax Exemption

  • Citizens Academy

  • Super Saturday Program

  • CEQA Training for Community Members and Stakeholders

 

Category: Community and Economic Development

  • Doubling Down on Affordable Housing

  • High School Diploma Program

  • Accessory Dwelling Unit Incentive Program

  • Borrego Valley Groundwater Sustainability Plan

  • Service and Celebrating a City- Art Night Encinitas

 

Category: County Administration and Management

  • Self Sufficiency Services Through GWOW

 

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety

  • Fresh Start Program*

  • David’s Harp Interns

  • Resilience Community Mentoring Program

  • Resilience is Strength and Empowerment (RISE) Collaborative Court

 

Category: Health

  • Accessible Depression and Anxiety Peripartum Treatment (ADAPT)

  • HHSA/HART Joint Operations East Region

  • Peer Assisted Support Services (PeerLINKS)

  • The Center for Child and Youth Psychiatry

  • Improving the Well Being of Residents and Workers in Disadvantaged Communities

  • Simultaneous Dengue Virus 1-4 Testing

 

Category: Human Services

  • Alzheimer’s Response Team

  • Cloud-Based Call Center Technology

  • Las Colinas Liaison

  • Virtual Reality Training for TANF

 

Category: Information Technology

  • Medical Examiner’s Open Data Portal*

  • Automated Performance Reports Workflow in SharePoint

  • Software Development for Water Submeter Test Bench

 

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training

  • Community Fair

  • Discipline Case Support

  • Diversity and Inclusion Digest

  • Generation Island

  • Health and Human Services Agency Workplace Security Training Video

  • Intramural Sports

  • Public Health Nurse Residency Program

  • Searchable Discipline Database

  • Whole Self Workshop

  • Ranger Academy

 

Category: Risk and Emergency Management

  • Countywide Early Earthquake Warning ShakeAlert Test

  • School Protection and Evacuation Plan

 

Category: County Resiliency: Infrastructure, Energy and Sustainability

  • Electric Vehicle Roadmap

  • Green Streets Guidance

  • Preparing for an HLB Quarantine

Category: Library

  • Homecoming Out

  • Rural CERT at the Library

Category: Parks and Recreation

  • East Otay Regional Trail Alignment Study

  • San Dieguito Regional Park ADA Playground Improvement

  • Santa Ysabel Nature Center

Category: Planning

  • Capital Investment Model