The African American Association of County Employees has a new look. The employee resource group, which celebrated their 10-year anniversary this month, released a new logo on Wednesday.
Learn more about AAACE on InSite.
The County Administration Center was lit Tuesday night to recognize Kwanzaa.
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.
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.
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:
Emerging Workforce Association (EWA) webpage
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!
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.
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.
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.
A message from Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer:
Can you believe we’re at the end of another year? As busy as everyone has been, the time was bound to fly by. The year was action-packed – and it was achievement-packed.
We cut ribbons on a Live Well Center, affordable housing units, a library, and sports facilities. We broke ground on a community center, a fire station, and a psychiatric health facility. Added mobile probation centers and neared completion of the next Youth Transition Campus phase.
We preserved more land and pushed ahead on getting greenhouse gas emissions to zero. We put computers, naloxone, and pool alarms in the hands of people who need them. Carried out extensive homelessness outreach and added firefighting resources.
Those are a few new highlights, and they come in addition to the vast number of things we do to protect and enrich our community every day. Since we’re in the midst of the holidays, I wanted to point out a few ways the County is helping San Diegans celebrate the season.
At Edgemoor Skilled Nursing Facility, residents are enjoying a variety of holiday performances throughout the month. Activities include making ornaments, trivia games, Elf on the Shelf, and a visit from Santa.
At our Youth Transition Campus, Probation staff put together a holiday event for the youth that included cocoa, desserts, and a live performance by the San Diego Symphony! For a lot of the young people, it was the first time they’d been to a live concert.
Probation, Sheriff and District Attorney staff kept up the long-running Shop with a Cop, taking local kids out to buy gifts. Police officers are bringing toys to Polinsky Children’s Center. These events all help build positive relationships with law enforcement.
We held our annual giveaway of refurbished County computers to foster families, and through Promises 2 Kids and Emmanuel Faith, we’re holding celebrations for young people in foster care. Sheriff’s stations and County airports are collection points for Toys for Tots, and the DA’s CARE Center is hosting a toy giveaway.
County Library and Parks and Recreation are bringing ways to celebrate to communities all around the county: Santa visits, gingerbread house decorating, tree-lightings, a festival with snow, a singalong, musical performances, and more.
Then there are many of you in your individual offices and our employee resource groups holding your own fundraisers and drives to benefit our residents.
The holidays are a time we do a little extra for the people in our lives who mean a lot to us. As you can see, that extends to those we serve and our mission. You’re not complying with some state or federal mandate to be festive. You put the effort into these celebrations because you care deeply about the people who enjoy them. That I get to spend my days working with you, seeing the commitment you demonstrate, is all the gift I could ever wish for.
Take pride in everything you’ve accomplished this year, and I hope you’ll make the most of the holiday season. May your days be merry and bright, and your nights warmed by the company of loved ones.
Thank you and happy holidays!
Katrina Westley, a County Park Ranger with County Parks and Recreation shared this cool photo of lenticular cloud formations over Agua Caliente County Park.
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.
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