DGS Electricians Wire Up Stand Down Event for Veterans

Mike Brass (left) with his team of DGS electricians

This weekend, hundreds of local homeless veterans will make their way to San Diego High School for a three-day intervention program that connects attendees to services and the community.

Known as Stand Down, a military term that refers to relaxing after a state of readiness, the annual event provides homeless veterans with an opportunity to take a break from life on the streets.

Organized by Veterans Village of San Diego, Stand Down brings in more than 150 service providers and 3,000 volunteers.

One County department plays an essential role in the event. The Department of General Services (DGS) provides temporary electrical power setup and removal services to the event site.

Senior Electrician Mike Brass is assisting with the event setup for the 20th time this year. Brass and his team of five DGS electricians coordinate with County inspection authorities and San Diego Gas & Electric to power up the event.

“When we get there on Monday morning, it’s an empty field,” said Brass. “Our team is basically in charge of wiring up the area so that the service providers can do their job once the event starts on Friday.”

Brass and his team kick off the setup efforts by laying out temporary service cables to wire a temporary kitchen, hair salon, as well as a health clinic and courtroom.

Around mid-morning on Monday, the Marine Corps starts setting up tents that are used as sleeping quarters for the veterans during the event. Once the tent city is established, Brass and his team wire up the event’s command center and set up the temporary lighting and electricity for the sleeping tents.

The DGS electricians are available throughout the week to finalize the setup and assist service providers with troubleshooting any potential issues. After the event concludes on Sunday, the team returns the next day to disassemble the electric setup.

It’s a job Brass really enjoys because it gets him away from his routine tasks at the workshop, but more importantly because he knows he is making a difference in people’s lives.

“Stand Down brings homeless veterans into a safe place, where they’re taken care of and I feel honored to participate in this event,” said Brass. “They watched over us and now it’s our time to look after them.”

While DGS helps with the set-up, several County departments provide services at Stand Down, including HHSA’s Office of Military & Veterans Affairs, Child Support Services, the Public Defender’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office.

For more information about Stand Down, visit http://www.vvsd.net/standdown.

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How to Get Better Zzzzs

Have you ever struggled to start your day after a restless night? The County’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) has the help you need to feel your best. It’s not a short-term solution like a cup of coffee, but guidance to improve your quality of sleep over time.

The sleep program can teach you how to quiet your overactive mind come bedtime, build healthier habits, and make sure your body associates your bed with sleeping.

To get started, visit our EAP and register for myStrength. (To sign up at home, visit anthemeap.com and enter signup code “County of San Diego”.) Once registered, search for “sleep” lessons.

The program is just one of the many EAP resources available to County employees, dependents and household members. The Department of Human Resources provides EAP as part of its commitment to promoting health and well-being. This benefit is confidential, free and provides valuable assistance during challenging times, as well as day-to-day concerns.

Professionally trained staff are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to offer a broad range of services in areas such as:      

·       Parenting: Adoption, developmental stages, childcare, well-being and education

·       Aging: Planning for the future, aging well, housing options, grief and loss, caregiving

·       Mental Health: Personal growth, communication, addiction and recovery, relationships

·       Wellness: Healthy eating, recipes, health specific to age and gender, medical care

·       Working: Effective managing, career transitions, workplace productivity and safety

·       Living: Consumer tips, fraud and theft, legal, immigration and relocation abroad

For free and confidential assistance, call EAP at 888-777-6665 or visit them online. (Please note Sheriff’s Department sworn staff has access to their EAP by contacting The Counseling Team International at 800-222-9691.)

Also read: EAP Now Offers Video Visits with Therapists

These Race Results Are Amazing

More than 900 County employees participated in the Amazing Race at the County Operations Center in April, and the results are in!

The first place finishers are:

Level 1

Team: Hakuna Masquata from the District Attorney’s Office

• Karl Peralta

• Anna Marie Francisco

• Elaine Bissett

• Connie Han

Level 2

Team: Can’t Wait for Lunch from California Children’s Services

• Susan Devencenzi

• Chris Chung

• Teresa Ciullo

• Brian Lambe

Level 3

Team: Watershed Warriors 4-Eva aka WWF from Public Works

• Reynaldo Pellos

• Christopher Lawrance

• Luke Campanella

• Ryan Jensen

Here are the results for all of the amazing racers in Level 1 (Move and Have Fun), Level 2 (Push Yourself), Level 3 (Bring It On!)

If you have any energy left in your tank, run the course again with highlight videos from level one, a livestream from levels two and three, and photo gallery of all levels.

It’s never too early to start your training for the Amazing Race next year. Take an on-site fitness class, stock up on healthy foods from the employee farmers market and participate in the quarterly wellness challenges. Learn more about Employee Wellness activities on InSite.

Gallery: Celebrating Philippine Independence Day

The County of San Diego Filipino-American Employees’ Association marked Philippine Independence Day with a celebration at the County Operations Center earlier this month. The annual holiday commemorates the Philippines independence from Spain in 1898.

The joyful event provides CSDFEA an opportunity to share the Filipino American culture with fellow employees. This year’s theme was “Paglalayag: Possibilities. Opportunities. Discoveries.” Paglalayag is the Filipino term for voyage or journey. To represent this concept, the employee resource group used the visual of a vinta, which is a traditional boat from the Philippine island of Mindanao.

See a photo gallery of all the fun, food and festivities.

Learn more about CSDFEA and County's employee resource groups on InSite.

Don’t Fall for Phone Scams

PHOTO COURTESY OF sAN DIEGO sHERIFF’S dEPARTMENT

They call it the “Warrant Scam” because often the swindler who calls you is informing you of an outstanding arrest warrant. The criminals may tell you he or she works for the San Diego Sheriff’s Department or perhaps another local law enforcement agency.  The caller may also claim to work for the IRS and is calling because you have a fine or debt.

In all these cases, you will be strongly urged to resolve it with a payment over the phone. And just for good measure, the criminals try scaring people with a threat of arrest or additional financial penalties if it is not taken care of immediately.

Never send anyone like this a payment by phone or provide your financial information. San Diego County Sheriff’s fraud investigators warn that nearly every kind of call like this is a scam.

Recently, these calls have been making the rounds, even catching some County employees at their desk phones.

In one recent call to Steve Jonas in Creative Services, the criminal identified himself as a lieutenant with the Sheriff’s Department, who coincidentally, or not, works in the Fraud Division. As the caller told Jonas that he had failed to appear for a Grand Jury trial and now had an active bench warrant out, Jonas did a search on the County’s InSite page for the name given to him and was surprised to find a lieutenant by that name working for the Sheriff. This made him think that perhaps it was a real call, but luckily he stayed alert for red flags.

Jonas asked the swindler what address the original grand jury notice had been sent to and was given a previous address as well as two incorrect ones. He was told he would need to take the payment to Sheriff’s Central Division, 9621 Ridgehaven Court in Kearny Mesa. Jonas checked that and saw that it was indeed the correct address for the Sheriff’s Department.

Then it really started getting odd: Jonas was instructed to buy a special money voucher at Ralphs Supermarket because they did not accept credit cards or checks or debit payments. The swindler also told him he needed to be in constant contact with him and asked him for his cell phone number. The swindler immediately called him on his cell phone and instructed him to hang up his work phone. He told Jonas he was now in the federal tracking system and would be subject to arrest if he hung up.

At this point, Jonas knew it did not seem real, so using his work phone, he called the number for the real sheriff’s lieutenant who promptly answered his phone.

“I held the phones close together and told the shyster, ‘Wow, you don’t sound anything like the real you!’ And he hung up,” Jonas said.

Sheriff’s Lt. David Gilmore, the lieutenant whose name is being used, said the criminals in these kind of scams “prey upon people, who are really good people” and want to do the right thing. He notes that San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and courts or IRS would not reach out to anyone by phone such as this and require payment by phone.

Criminals can easily do a search online to obtain some true information such as real names and addresses, so that alone can’t be a reason to trust someone, Gilmore said. Lately, the criminals have used his name, but there have been other lieutenants whose names were used in previous years. 

If you receive one of these calls, note the phone number where the call came in if possible, the date and time, then hang up and email the County Technology Office  service desk sdcounty@service-now.com.

To learn more about these scams and how to protect yourself from them, visit the San Diego Sheriff’s Department’s Financial Crimes page which includes how to protect yourself from scams and short videos on various scams.

County Employees: Please Respond to ShakeAlert Test

Your help is needed on June 27 to help local, state and federal emergency officials test ShakeAlert, the Earthquake Early Warning system.

At 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 27 a wireless emergency alert will send out the ShakeAlert test to all mobile phones in San Diego County. This will be the first countywide official test of this system.

Everyone, including County employees, is asked to go to ShakeAlertSD.org before 11 a.m. and be ready to note the exact time including seconds as seen on the web page’s clock. Then just answer a few short questions to help emergency officials improve the system.

It should only take a few minutes.

1. Go to ShakeAlertSD.org before 11 a.m. on June 27 and click on the link at the top of the survey to open the atomic clock.

2. Get the ShakeAlert WEA message on your phone. Note the exact time you got the alert down to the seconds (e.g. 11:00:04 a.m.).

3. Complete the short survey and submit. It will take less than five minutes.

Why is this important? Emergency officials are testing to see if earthquake early warning alerts could be sent over the Wireless Emergency Alert system and are trying to determine how long it takes before people receive the alerts. Seconds count in an emergency and the goal is to give people those seconds to quickly protect themselves from imminent shaking in an earthquake. The warning could prevent injuries. People may be able to drop, cover and hold on, or step away from glass windows or other potentially dangerous items that could fall on them during shaking.

The message will be sent in English, but it can be accessed in Spanish on the ShakeAlertSD.org website.

Please help make this a successful test of ShakeAlert by participating in this important collection of public feedback.

Save on Staycation Adventures

Photo Credit: San Diego Zoo

Get discounts on admissions to some of San Diego County’s most popular attractions this summer. PerkSpot is offering County employees up to 40% off LEGOLAND California, up to 35% off SeaWorld, and up to 20% off Aquatica San Diego and the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park admission.

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.

Air and Water: Meet Erin Carpenter, APCD's Skimboarding Inspector

Erin Carpenter will tell you she’s got a pretty cool job, working to protect the public and our local air quality as an inspector with the County Air Pollution Control District.

But Carpenter’s also had a pretty cool sideline—as a trailblazing, female, competitive skimboarder.

Carpenter, 32, has been with the County for about five years, working first as an inspector with the County’s Vector Control program, which monitors animals like mosquitoes, rodents and ticks that can transmit disease, and with APCD for the last year.

An air quality inspector 1, Carpenter works with APCD’s Mobile Source Program, which protects the public by monitoring and reducing diesel particulate pollution emitted by trucks, buses and heavy equipment.

Sometimes that means working with CHP to check trucks at weigh stations. Other times, she’s traveling to talk with business owners and conduct inspections, investigating air pollution complaints, issuing violations and citations, preparing enforcement reports and documents, and answering questions from the public.

“It’s interesting interacting with people,” she said, “and I feel like we’re making a difference.”

While she spends her days testing the air, Carpenter has spent years testing the water, standing atop a board, skimming over the incoming ocean into short-set waves and becoming one of the first female professional skimboard competitors.

Skimboarding is a little like surfing. But instead of paddling out into the ocean to ride the waves back in, you start by racing down the beach on foot toward the water, dropping your skimboard, jumping on and “skimming” on the incoming water into the waves. Beginners are happy to hydroplane along the shoreline. But the best skimboarders ride into waves, perform jumps and tricks and, like surfers, ride the breaks back in as far as possible.

“So, it’s fun to begin with,” Carpenter said,” because you’re like gliding on water—that’s pretty cool. And then you’re like, ‘Oh, I can, like—jump!’ And it’s even more fun. And then you catch a wave and you feel the power of it. You ask people who surf what they like about that. It’s kinda the same thing, just slightly different.”

Carpenter didn’t glide into skimboarding or her science-related occupations in a straight line, but from an angle.

She grew up in Berkeley, California, far from the skimboarding-friendly waters of Southern California. Instead, she was a street skateboarder who occasionally got to water ski and wakeboard when the family visited their lakehouse in Minnesota.

Likewise, Carpenter didn’t aim for science. She studied art. Carpenter earned a bachelor’s in art at UC Riverside, studying “drawing, photography, stuff like that.”

But college indirectly introduced her to both scientific work and skimboarding. To make money during the summer, Carpenter worked with the Northwest Mosquito and Vector Control District in Riverside. And a boyfriend introduced her to skimboarding, even making her first board out of wood.

Erin skimming big surf. (photo courtesy of Chris Beletsis)

“I was like, ‘awww, this is really cool,” she said.

After graduating in 2009, Carpenter moved from Riverside to San Diego to be closer to her grandmother—and the beach. Suddenly, she went from being able to skimboard “off and on,” to being able to do it every day, sometimes multiple times a day. And, even though skimboarding “is like 99 percent guys,” Carpenter said the locals took her under their wing, gave her advice and showed her techniques.

“So, I was kind of watching them, hanging out with them, practicing a lot, falling a lot and kinda picked it up,” she said.

Fast, too. By 2010, a friend encouraged Carpenter to start competing. At that time, Carpenter said, there was a small amateur girls division. However, in the ensuing years it “ramped up”  into a professional competition. Again, friends pushed her to move from amateur to the professional realm with the United Skim Tour (UST).

Carpenter modestly says she’s never won a first-place prize, but she has won a second, a third and fourth place in different tournaments, competed in Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Santa Cruz, and ranked as high as 5th overall in point standings in the UST’s women’s division in 2014. Erin also introduced her wife, Lorena, to the sport as well. Lorena now also competes in the UST.

Of course, the downside to physical competition is the inevitability of injuries—and not just getting dinged up by a flying skimboard, wiping out, or being pounded into the sand by the surf.

Last year, Carpenter had to have hip surgery.

“Yeah, I had hip surgery, at 31,” she said with a sardonic chuckle. “I just got back on the board like a month ago.”

Carpenter said right now she doesn’t know if she’ll ever compete again, but she’s pretty sure she’s going to continue to skimboard.

“It’s highly addictive,” Carpenter says with a big smile, her voice rising in a sonic ‘you know?’ “The only way I can describe it, is the better you get, the more fun it is.”

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This story came to us from an employee’s suggestion. Suggest a Story

County Connection – June 2019

On this episode of County Connection, see how to prepare for a wildfire, learn how to compost, take a virtual hike, see what the buzz is all about in Escondido and get some tips for avoiding being scammed at the gas pump!

Deadline Near for Employee Wellness Incentive

Don’t miss receiving an extra $100 in your paycheck.

If you have not already, you have until June 30 to submit your signed Wellness Incentive form and confirmation of completed online Health Risk Assessment to Employee Wellness.