County Joins Parade Honoring Dr. King

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The San Diego County Sheriff's Department marches past the iconic County Administration Center.

San Diego County Sheriff's and Probation departments marched in the 37th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Parade on Sunday. The parade down Harbor Drive honors the legacy of the late civil rights leader. Participants included bands, colleges, churches, and peace and youth organizations.

Sheriff Bill Gore waves to the crowds.

A Sheriff's Department vehicle was also in the parade.

San Diego County Probation participated in the celebration.

Get Fit 4 Life

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Just in time to help you keep your resolution to get healthier in the New Year, registration is underway for Employee Wellness’ Fit 4 Life program.

“This new and exciting challenge is designed to help you improve your fitness and maintain a healthy lifestyle,” said Employee Wellness Coordinator William Erese. “It can easily be tailored to all fitness levels from beginner to fitness fanatics and can accommodate everyone.”

The eight-week program runs from Jan. 23 to March 19. Plus, Erese says, this program is the perfect way to train for the Amazing Race this spring. You can even invite a co-worker to the challenge and help keep each other motivated.

Log Your Progress: In this challenge, participants can choose from one of four activities: walking / running, cycling, swimming, or weight training. If you are unable to complete any of these activities – don’t worry. The Fit 4 Life program is able to convert almost any physical activity to calculate points.  Each day, participants log their exercise and intensity level—light, moderate or vigorous.

Level Up: There are three levels to go for! If you exercise for 20 minutes three times a week, you can achieve Level 1 with ease. If you exercise for 20 minutes, four times a week, you can reach Level 2 with no trouble. And if you exercise for 20 minutes, five days a week, you can attain Level 3 with confidence.

Sign up Now: Registration begins Jan. 17 to Feb. 3. Sign up online.

Employees requiring accommodation can email DHRWellness.FGG@sdcounty.ca.gov.

More Volunteers Needed to Count the Homeless

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550.

That’s how many employees the County would like to have volunteer to count the region’s homeless.

To date, about 400 County employees have signed up for this year’s Point-In-Time Count, so 150 more people are needed to give their time Friday, Jan. 27 from 3:45 a.m. to 7 a.m.

If you’re interested in volunteering, the deadline to register is 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13.

Before you register, review the registration guidelines and FAQs and then obtain approval from your supervisor via the supervisor approval form.

Once you complete your supervisor approval form, you can register on the WeALLCount campaign website. After you register, you will complete a short LMS training.

The homeless count is so important, the Board has authorized employees to participate on paid County time.

The results of the homeless count are used to apply for federal funding to help the homeless and find solutions on how to best serve this at-risk population.

Last year, there were 8,692 homeless men, women and children in the San Diego region, the fourth largest homeless population in the nation behind New York City, Los Angeles and Seattle.

Volunteers work in teams in specific locations and simply tally how many homeless people they see.

Last year, the 497 County employees who participated accounted for about a third of all volunteers.

Time is short, so if you are interested in participating, register for the count as soon as possible.  

PerkSpot Alert: Get Started at the Gym for Less

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It’s easier than ever to keep your New Year’s resolution to get fit! Several gyms, including 24 Hour Fitness, Curves and Gold’s Gym, offer discounts to County employees. Visit PerkSpot and search for deals in the “Health & Wellness” category for further details.

PerkSpot offers benefits and discounts to County employees through hundreds of service providers and retailers, from movie theaters to florists and jewelers. Using PerkSpot is both easy and free. Simply go to SDCounty.PerkSpot.com and shop. If you are new, click on “Create an Account” to register.

Each month, one of the most popular PerkSpot deals will be highlighted on InSite.

Note: The YMCA waives registration fees for County employees year round!

Resolution Accomplished

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She had this New Year’s resolution for decades.

Not for 2017.

That’s because Crecencia Garibo-Soto, a licensed vocational nurse with the Health and Human Services Agency Central Region, learned to ride a bike at the age of…62.

Garibo-Soto’s desire to ride a bike started when she saw her brothers ride theirs while growing up in Acapulco, Mexico. But her parents could not afford to buy her one.  

When she moved to the United States, Garibo-Soto finally got a bike, but she could not balance it. She stopped trying, thinking she would never be able to learn.

But her dream never went away. At the age of 40, her son, Mario, bought her a bike and she tried again. She fell–twice.

Worried she would injure herself, Garibo-Soto’s son convinced her to stop.

Her desire to learn never went away.

Last year, she was talking to her co-workers at the County’s Public Health Center in City Heights and expressed her desire to learn how to ride.

Her co-workers advised her to take classes. One of them went even further. In April of last year, Jorge Lopez surprised her with a bike he got at a Goodwill store.  She learned that the San Diego Bike Coalition offers classes, so Garibo-Soto decided to enroll.

“After about five lessons, I was able to pedal the bike for a short distance,” said Garibo-Soto, adding that she can now cross riding a bike off her bucket list. “I got very emotional. It was a wonderful feeling. Since I learned, I feel stronger, lighter and happier.”

Garibo-Soto continued to practice and even went on her first group ride, but felt her riding was not at the same level as the other cyclists. She continued to improve her control and skills. Garibo-Soto carries her bike in her vehicle wherever she goes. At lunch she rides her bike, while her supervisor, Public Health Nurse Manager Jackie Kersey-Hardrick, walks beside her

“So far, my longest ride has been five miles,” Garibo-Soto said, who has lost 14 pounds since she started cycling and will be sending a photo to her son overseas.

Garibo-Soto still has trouble riding up and down hills so she stays on streets with little traffic. She is also getting better at letting go of the handlebars to use hand signals.

Today, Garibo-Soto rides with Walk+Bike Chula Vista. You can also find her riding around her neighborhood and on a bike path on J Street close to the Chula Vista Marina.

What are her resolutions for 2017? Buy a new bike and ride the 14 miles to and from work.

Will she accomplish them?

“Hopefully,” said Garibo-Soto, who also aspires to learn to kayak. “I will try my best.”

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!  

 

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