2024 Bucket List

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How will you live life to the fullest in 2024? Whether you want to go back to school, learn to play the ukulele or eat pizza in Italy – we want to know what’s on your bucket list for the new year.

If you’d like to send your bucket list plans to communications@sdcounty.ca.gov, we may share them here on InSite.

Taryell Simmons
HR Services Manager
Human Resources

Bucket list: Thanks for this exciting opportunity to share my bucket list for 2024. One special adventure that comes to mind is a Disney cruise with my family. My wife and daughter have been discussing this magical experience, and I'm eager to make that dream come true. Plus, none of us have ever been on a cruise ship before, so this will be an entirely new and thrilling experience for us!

Fernanda Lopez
Group Communications Officer
Health and Human Serices Agency

Bucket list: After completing the Spartan Trifecta this year, my goal for 2024 is to do another trifecta but with the San Diego Triathlon series.

Deb Mosley and daughter

Deb Mosley and daughter on New Year’s Eve

Deb Mosley
Deputy Director
Environmental Health and Quality

Bucket list: I feel like there are so many places in San Diego county that are amazing and my family (husband and 3 kids) has not yet explored. I would like to go to 6 new places this year with my family in San Diego county – whether it be a new park, museum, or restaurant. Just something new to explore and see.

Also, I was given some sourdough starter last summer by a family member who brought it all the way from the Netherlands to share with me knowing how much I wanted to make start making my own artisan sourdough bread. I have yet to make any fresh sourdough bread with it because I have been too busy or just have not made the time. I have been keeping the starter alive in my refrigerator so it’s ready to go. This year I want to make sourdough bread at least once a month.

Thomas Bush
Procurement Professional
Purchasing and Contracting

Bucket list: I have one Major Bucket Plan, walk again! 

Teresa A Rogers-Marsh
In-Service Education Coordinator
Behavioral Health Service
Edgemoor DPSNF

Bucket list: My Bucket list is both personal and professional.

Professionally I am going to obtain certifications for NC-BC (Nurse Coach Board Certified) and HN-BC (Holistic Nurse Board Certified) through the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation in 2024. My personal bucket list is to visit one Caribbean island this year.

Benevic Mallari
Human Services Specialist
Centre City Family Resource Center

Bucket list: More travel and healthy diet.

Rachel Kinney
Human Resources Analyst
Human Resources

Bucket list: This year I plan to push my limits and truly challenge myself mentally, physically and emotionally in new and exciting ways that also allow me to help my community as I am signed up for the 2024 Trailblaze Challenge with Make-A-Wish San Diego!

I will be hiking 28 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail in one day! This scenic trek provides participants an opportunity for adventure, fun and fitness while making a direct impact on the lives of children in our community battling critical illnesses. I’ll have to train intensively (this is longer than a marathon!) and fundraise as I prepare for the event at the end of May; wish me luck!

Cynthia Williams
Office Assistant
Self-Sufficiency Services - Document Processing Center

Bucket list: I went on a Pacific Coastal cruise in 2023 to celebrate 65th Birthday! This trip was amazing and it opened my mind to complete more of my travel dreams. This year, I plan to take a cross country trip on Amtrak to visit a few friends and primarily to see my daughter in North Carolina. Looking forward to checking this one off on my bucket list. 😊  I’m also working on health goals so I’m more prepared to travel. Love seeing different places and meeting friendly people from so many backgrounds.

Marcus Mathis
Information Technology Analyst
Environmental Health and Quality

Bucket List: Continue or finish seeing every Major League Baseball stadium and affiliated stadiums in the U.S., Mexico, and Dominican Republic. Marry off my 2 little girls when they are 30 years old, retire from the County of San Diego after 15 years, and walk on the moon holding my wife’s hand.

Napoleon S Ochoa
Office Assistant
Child and Family Well-Being

Bucket list: Reunite in Moab, Utah with my Marine Corps brothers and sisters, after almost 30 years, for this year’s reunion.

Araceli Casas
Supervising Office Assistant 
Medical Care Services

Bucket list: Since 2019 Hubby and I started our bucket list to visit all 132 Pueblos Magicos in Mexico. We have visited 56/132, we are hoping to visit 9 this 2024! We are also looking forward to our Alaska cruise and hopefully incorporate a handful of National parks in Utah. 

Shaina Lee
Health Advisor
Public Health Services – HIV, STD & Hepatitis Branch

Bucket list: My 2024 goal would be to better improve my interpersonal relationships with my coworkers – both in the clinic and within my immediate department. The last four years I have dedicated almost all my mental capacities attempting to “tiger parent” my daughter. However, after an intense 4 years of starting preschool early and endless trial/error within children’s classes and programming, she’s shared with me her life goals: she wants to be a butterfly or Super Mario when she grows up… Any who, mentally checking in to have casual conversation at work would be a change of pace (I’m a flower power mom now).

Griselda Reyes Gonzalez
Poll Worker Recruitment
Registrar of Voters

Bucket list: My bucket has the 3 most important items in my life at this moment. Find a full Time job.Get a VISA for my 3.6 Yr old, adopted son (got him when he was 16 days old). And see my two kids Graduate this year 2024!!

Rheana Corirossi
Library technician 3
County Library

Bucket list: I purchased an online 8 module course “how to make sourdough.” I want to make my own starter and create the perfect loaf.

Josh Alfaro
Office Assistant – Immediate Needs
North Coastal Family Resource Center

Bucket list: This year I want to eat healthier, spend more time with my family, and finish my accounting degree… but my most ambitious goal on my 2024 bucket list is to become a published author!

The first issue of my comic, Kontra – Against Evil is almost finished! Kontra is an original Filipino horror comic about a young monster huntress who goes on a quest to slay an aswang. By the end of February, it will be published. I can’t wait to check this off my bucket list!

Your View: Holiday Bowl Parade

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Boutros Chihwaro from General Services shared this photo from the 2023 Holiday Bowl Parade as a Sheriff’s Department vehicle participating in the parade passed by the County Administration Center.

Share your photos! If you see a coworker getting the job done, a beautiful sunset over your office or a wonderful County program being offered—snap a pic and submit it. Be sure to include information about the photo and your name. One image will be posted to InSite every week and may be shared on social media.

See more of Your View photos.

Your View: Beautiful San Diego December Days

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Jamie Fejeran with the San Diego Sheriff’s Department shared this bright and renewing sunrise as seen from the Sheriff’s Headquarters in Kearny Mesa, while coworker Sonya Higginbotham, shared this nearly bare Sycamore tree and skyline on another gorgeous December day.

Share your photos! If you see a coworker getting the job done, a beautiful sunset over your office or a wonderful County program being offered—snap a pic and submit it. Be sure to include information about the photo and your name. One image will be posted to InSite every week and may be shared on social media.

See more of Your View photos.

Volunteers Needed to Help Count People Experiencing Homelessness

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person enters information into a smartphone with people laying on the street in the foreground

According to last year’s Point-in-Time Count, there were more than 10,000 people experiencing homelessness in San Diego County.

Help us with this year’s annual Point-in-Time Count, scheduled to take place from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 25. Volunteers are asked to participate in one of the available shifts.

This count helps our region apply for federal and state funding to help serve this vulnerable population and measure our efforts to reduce homelessness.

The annual Point-in-Time Count is our region’s effort to count the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night of the year—to talk with them, collect information to help understand the scope of the homelessness issues in the region, people’s circumstances and their needs.

You can be part of that effort by volunteering a few hours of your time—paid for and on the clock, thanks to approval by the County Board of Supervisors.

The deadline to sign up is 5 p.m., Monday, Jan. 22. However, employees who receive the OK to take part from their supervisors are encouraged to register as soon as possible because deployment sites fill up quickly. You can review the FAQs and then obtain approval from your supervisor via the supervisor approval form, if you are interested in participating. (The FAQs and supervisor approval form may open in your downloads folder.)

Once you get approval, please sign up here.

After you’ve signed up, you will receive an email receipt for this event. In the email there will be a link to a training for you to review from the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, which is leading the local Point-in-Time Count effort.

Morning shift volunteers are asked to arrive at their deployment locations by 3:45 a.m. to give themselves time to become familiar with a mobile counting app that helps us conduct a more accurate count and receive your count area map.

The 2024 count, as directed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will again entail an “engaged” survey-based approach, where people on the streets will be surveyed as they are encountered, rather than just an observational count.

This will be the 10th year that County employees have volunteered to take part in the count. The Regional Task Force on Homelessness reported last year that the 2023 count found 10,264 people experiencing homelessness—a number they said should be considered a minimum—across the county, a 20% increase from the 2022 count.

In the 2023 count, roughly 170 County employees helped and are again encouraged to take part in this important effort. Members of the public can also join the count. If you know family or friends who would like to participate, they can sign up to volunteer.

So, if you’d like to help make a difference in addressing this important issue, please volunteer.

Rewind: Emerging Leadership in Our Workforce

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Watch the Rewind video now.

If you missed the Emerging Workforce Association’s virtual panel of Emerging Leadership on Dec. 14, you can watch it now!

Hear leaders share their experiences of growing within the County as a millennial, networking best practices, the power of intentionality and more in this Employee Resource Group Fireside Chat.

Panelists:

  • Nadia Binderup, Intergovernmental Affairs Director, Sheriff’s Department

  • Brynn Viale, Deputy Director, Aging & Independence Services

  • Anita Walia, Agency Operations Chief, Housing and Community Development Services

Resources:

The panelists were unable to get to all the questions in this lively session. However, they answered the rest of the questions in this post-event Q&A.

These ERG conversations, held in partnership with the County’s Equity Diversity and Inclusion team, will be hosted by an employee resource group and rotate quarterly. Stay tuned for the next one!

County Employee’s Impressive Holiday Lights Display

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James Bryant, Chief of Departmental Admin Services with the County Auditor & Controller, goes all out for the holidays.

For nearly 20 years, he has been putting up his holiday lights display at his home where he synced his lights with holiday hits to create the dazzling show. Each song takes eight to 12 hours to program.

Bryant’s display has caught attention before and was even featured by NBC San Diego when the news station hosted their morning show in front of his home.

He normally puts up his lights on Thanksgiving and keeps the show going through New Year’s Day.

The current show has a run time of one hour, 26 minutes. Bryant says tons of people come to see the display, with some staying to watch the entire show. Songs in the playlist include “Amazing Grace,” “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?,” “The Greatest Show” and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”

Bryant lives in the Windingwalk community of Chula Vista. His holiday display has inspired several of his neighbors to put up their own displays, turning the neighborhood into a popular holiday destination.

Candy Cane Lane was a big inspiration for him. “I wanted to live on a street that created that memory for other people and now we are doing that,” Bryant said.

Delivering Joy to Children

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County employees across the enterprise participated in a Toys for Tots collection to benefit children. The group donated a bounty of Barbie dolls, plush animals, LEGO sets, remote control trucks, games, balls and so much more to the Marine Corps Reserve charity drive. The Marines will then provide the toys, books, and other gifts to children in need during the holidays. All the donated toys were taken to the County Operations Center last week where festively dressed Department of General Services staff loaded it all up in County vans to deliver to a distribution hangar at Miramar Airport.

Don’t Lose Out on Using Your FSA Dollars

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There are just days left in the year which means time is running out to spend your Health Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) dollars on approved medical expenses.

Employees have until Dec. 31 to use their FSA/HRA dollars on doctors’ office visits, prescription copays, eyeglasses, contacts, dental work and many other health expenditures. For a complete list of eligible purchases, please refer to ASI Flex. 

All documents and supporting receipts are due to ASI Flex on or before March 31, 2024, for 2023 eligible expenses.

In addition, you may be able to roll over some of your unspent 2023 funds into 2024. Employees can carry over up to $610 into their 2024 Health Care FSA or HRA. The $610 is a combined amount for the FSA and the HRA.

If you are not sure how much you have left in your FSA or HRA, check your account balance through ASI Flex’s website.

Reminder: Dependent Care Flex Spending Account dollars do not carry over

For more information on the Department of Human Resources’ Benefits division, visit their website on InSite.