By: Gary Sloan
It is with great embarrassment and regret that this scribe neglected to take notes during the extraordinary excellent meeting that occurred last Thursday. Perhaps it was my awe in seeing Chris Gallagher as our greeter who was compared to Matt Lauer of ABC by our speaker. While I am sure that it was meant as a compliment, Chris Gallagher’s protestation of such comparisons with a celebrity accused of sexual malfeasance was priceless. As usual, Lucky Sandhu introduced our greeter, who had a terrific thought for the day, if I could only remember it. But I must say that the flag salute and patriotic song was performed with expert execution. Chris shared that he was a Wealth Manager with great experience and that his claim to fame was being married to a wonderful woman and being able to live with both loves of his life, Renee and Cash (his dog).
There were a number of announcements centered upon the Christmas Tree Lot. John Tatum shared a story about a satisfied customer and Chris Gayler sent a sign-up sheet for those that were not digitally connected but wanted to participate in this critical fund raiser. Chris also emphasized that need for more help on Saturday afternoon and evening. It turns out that most of the club would be at the Rotary Christmas Party at Brent Tucker’s place boozing it up and eating our way to oblivion. Lucky thanked Brent for hosting the party again this year.
In the interest of time, Lucky warned all individuals who had a birthday or anniversary in November, that they would be recognized accordingly and in due time. Instead, Lucky recognized Ed Duarte for his long years of service. As one of four original Charter Members, Ed regaled the club with his memories and little known club history. Among those memories was the time his wife won the big raffle (a trip to Hawaii) at the now defunct Carbo-load Fund Raiser. She refused to give it up until Ed promised to take her to Hawaii which apparently he did not pay-off until many years later. Yes, Ed is still happily married.
Terry Koehne announced that if you have not signed up for the Chamber Awards Dinner you are out of luck both because it looks like it is a sold out affair and secondly, you will miss Terry as the master of ceremonies again this year. Hopefully, Terry will seek an alternative writer for his jokes and stories this year.
The club awarded a Grant to the Diablo Symphony. This grant is to be used for under-privileged kids in the Antioch-Concord region where music programs have been decimated. This program introduces kids to classical music and musical instruments. In addition to a free concert, kids are encouraged to try the instruments out in a “petting zoo” and meet with the musicians. A sound system is desperately needed to communicate with school assemblies in which the Diablo Symphony musicians donate their time and effort to spread the gift of music to children. Barbara Komas and Rosemarie Krovosa shared the benefits with enthusiasm and verve. No members asked if this was the program even though the presentation was a bit longer than most. Lucky gave these Diablo Symphony representatives the wrong check but later corrected the oversight when this scribe pointed out the minor infraction.
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Our speaker Contra Costa County Sheriff, David Livingston, was introduced. I wish I had recorded the amazing statistics so in the absence of data I referred to the internet and Contra Costa Sheriff website where I found surprisely the same information that the Mr. Livingston elegantly articulated.
The Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff is the largest law enforcement agency in Contra Costa with over 1,100 sworn and professional employees dedicated to providing the highest level of law enforcement and customer services. The Office of the Sheriff offers a full range of services to over 1,000,000 residents in the 715-square mile county. The duties and mission of the Sheriff’s Office are unlike most police agencies. Responsibilities include unincorporated area policing, contract cities (Danville, Lafayette, and Orinda) and special districts, air support (helicopters), marine patrol, dispatch, investigations, coroners, county detention facilities, custody alternative, court security, forensic services, police academy, and Office of Emergency Services.
Here are some annual Office of the Sheriff statistics:
- Over 600,000 calls for service come into Dispatch.
-Nearly 60,000 of them are 911 calls.
-Over 26,000 people are booked into the Martinez Detention Facility.
-Over 20,000 incident reports are written.
The Office of the Sheriff works closely with our many partners in the community to include residents, businesses, schools, leaders, and private and governmental agencies to prevent crime and improve the quality of life.
The Sheriff shared that the most controversial issued recently faced by the Department involved detaining illegal immigrants who have broken the law. Under the Detention Services Intergovernmental Agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, United States Marshals Service, provisions were established in 2009 that outline procedures for the housing of and billing for federal detainees under the care of the Office of the Sheriff. The housing of detainees is part of a long-standing contract with the Marshals Service to house prisoners in available beds at WCDF. ICE is part of that contract and pays for the Sheriff’s Office to house an average of 200 ICE detainees each day, provided we have the space for them to use.
These detainees are not persons who have been arrested by Office of the Sheriff personnel or are necessarily involved in criminal court proceedings in Contra Costa County, but instead are detainees ICE has brought to the facility in need of housing. This allows some ICE detainees to remain in the Bay Area, closer to their families, rather than at a remote jail somewhere out of the county or the state.
The program with ICE generates approximately $6 million in gross revenue each year and approximately $3 million in net revenue; this revenue reduces the local taxpayers’ burden for the overall operating costs of the Office of the Sheriff.
Mr. Livingston talked about the detention facilities his department was responsible to oversee. He answered questions which ranged from capacity to recidivism rates.
What are the Average Daily Populations (ADP) and rated capacities of the three jail facilities?
Martinez Detention Facility (MDF) ADP: 688 Rated Capacity: 695
West County Detention Facility (WCDF) ADP: 764 Rated Capacity: 1096
Marsh Creek Detention Facility (MCDF) ADP: 68 Rated Capacity: 188
The Custody Services Bureau also manages a Custody Alternative Facility, which supervises an average of 425 clients under various monitoring programs including electronic home detention, work alternative, county parole, alcohol monitoring, and pre-trial release.
What type of inmate is housed at the West County Detention Facility?
The WCDF is a medium security, campus style facility consisting of two-bunk cells in a dormitory setting. Inmates are free to leave their cells to use the central restroom facilities and attend daily programs often located outside of their housing units. Numerous inmate rehabilitation programs and classes are offered throughout the day; inmates leave their buildings to attend schools in the center of the facility. The design and function of the facility also affords greater amounts of free time out of one’s cell.
Due to the setting of the buildings and program locations at WCDF, certain special-needs or high security inmates at MDF would either pose a security risk or a danger to themselves or other inmates if assigned to WCDF; subsequently, they are unable to be housed at there.
How many people are booked into the jail in Contra Costa County?
Approximately 26,000 people are booked into the jail in Contra Costa County each year. Most come from the various local police departments throughout the county. 26,612 inmates were booked into the jail in 2016; that is a monthly intake average of 2,218 inmates and a daily intake average 73 inmates. The MDF is the only jail facility in the county where arrestees are initially booked into custody and once admitted into custody, inmates can be housed at any of the three facilities depending on their classification. The Classification Unit strives to house inmates in the least restrictive housing environment possible in relation to any safety concerns and with consideration of inmates’ special needs.
After taking intelligent questions from Rotarians ranging from solving the drug crime problem to reducing the recidivism rates, Lucky gave Chief Livingston a Certificate indicating that we were donating to the San Ramon Library on his behalf.
A bottle of Zinfandel was won by Barry Toby, the only guy who does not really need another good bottle of wine. The blue marble was drawn by a Rotarian whose identity escaped me.
AND NOW FOR THE MOST IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT OF THIS NEWSLETTER:
We will be meeting at the Senior Center next Thursday. If you come to Crow Canyon Country Club, you will be bored and hungry. So let’s celebrate the season by giving joy to our elders and sing a few Christmas Carols.
Have a Happy Holiday!
Gary Sloan
Forgetful Scribe