Meeting Recap - June 21, 2016

Posted by Linda Geery on Jun 23, 2016
 
President Dave started his last meeting by thanking Ron Crane (DCA Partners) for hosting the wine reception, Kevin Williams (KVIE) and Sulaf Al Ajeeli for assisting with music and video, Bob Miller (First US Community Credit Union) and LaToya Wong for their assistance with the set-up.
 
John Wood (McGee & Thielen Insurance Brokers) offered our “Thought for the Day” on Intuition– John suggested that as a society we honor the servants but have forgotten the gift. “Intuition is a sacred gift.”
 
John McIntyre (Mercy Foundation) announced guest, which included 2 scholarship recipients Tyhrena Howerton & Destani Ross and several visiting Rotarians, including three from other countries.
 
Greeters were Callee Setzer (Setzer Forest Products) and Don Ellwanger (Sperry Van Ness).
 
President Dave introduced the head-table: Jim Streng (Streng Bros Rentals), Matthew Cate (our speaker), President-Elect Dan McVeigh (Downey Brand Attorneys), Jim Mattesich (Greenberg Traurig) (our new member), Rick Eytcheson (Capital Public Radio), and Bruce Hester (Colliers International).
 
 
Meeting Sponsor Bruce Hester donated his three minutes to Rick Eytcheson. Rick shared that CPR is in a critical phase, they have added a significant number of a new staff. Their audience is rapidly growing, and they have their highest ratings in history. They’ve gone from 40 people to 75 and are bursting at the seams. They need to raise funds – 34,000 people have sent in money for something they could have had for free!  Rick thanked listeners and hoped that they are also current supporters. If you are not a listener, give it a try.
 
Jim Leet (Boutin Jones) and President Dave awarded the following RCOS Foundation recognitions:
 
Gary McDonald (Lighthouse Counseling & Family Resource Center), 1st Paul Harris, John Wood, 2nd Paul Harris, Dennis Smith (Tsakopoulos Management Company), 2nd Eddie Mulligan, Paul Bystrowski (Hub International) 8th and 9th Eddie Mulligan.
 
New member Jim Mattesich was introduced to the club by PE Dan McVeigh, who along with PP Thom Gilbert (Gilbert Associates) co-sponsored Jim. Jim is an attorney with Greenberg Traurig and community leader.  He’s been married for 40 years to his wife Patty Garcia and they have 2 children.  He is a graduation of San Jose State University and Hastings Law.
 
Two of the seven scholarship recipients were present and President Dave recognized their efforts.  Additionally, President Dave thanked the committee for their hard work.
 
President Dave and Heidi Hershenhouse (Land IQ, LLC) awarded the “Service Above Self” Award to Officer Jose De La Cruz.  Officer De La Cruz volunteers hundreds of hours working with youth in the community.
 
Bob Daly (Financial Network Wealth Advisors) and Gabriel Gendron (Lyon Real Estate) presented a check representing the proceeds from our Pony Express Marathon to Jenny Williamson & Denise Belacera of Courage Worldwide and Kevin Camron of Alpha K-9.  Final numbers aren’t in yet, but it’s anticipated that the final net proceeds will be between $80-90,000.
 
Announcements:  PP Beverly Brautigam (Brautigam Financial Services) announced her annual pool party, July 10th @ 3:00 PM.  PP Susan Sheridan made an announcement on behalf of the Sacramento Century Challenge, October 1st – sign-up to volunteer.  Bob Miller announced Golf 4 Kids, August 8th; we still have a few sponsorship opportunities. Also, we need golfers and volunteers to sign up to make the day a big success.  President Dave reminded the club that his Demotion Dinner is Tuesday, June 28th, 5:30-7:30 at the Sacramento Automobile Museum, the cost is $25.00
 
For those that donated blood this past year, the Club has a pin for you!
 
President Dave announced that it was Cindy Pringle’s last official meeting; however, she will be at President Dave’s Demotion Dinner.  Cindy is retiring after 6 ½ years.  She thanked the Club and the members and committed to continuing to volunteer on behalf of Rotary.  Thank you Cindy for your hard work on behalf of our club and the members!
 
Steve Shiflett purchased a new “old” house and donated $300 on behalf of Jim Streng, Mik Miklaus (Integrity Mortgage) and Elfrena Foord (Foord, Van Bruggen, & Pajak) for their assistance during the process.  Heidi Hershenhouse donated $100 to her EM for making the CFO of the Year List. Michelle Amaral (Dick James and Associates) donated $100 each towards her next EM & PF in honor of her great aunt’s 100th birthday.  Jim Craig and PP Brian Van Camp (ADR Services) each donated $100 in support of Sac High, “Go Dragons”.  Dan McVeigh donated $100 to new member Jim’s first Paul Harris. Barbara Thompson (Sky Ridge Ranch) donated $100 in honor of her 5th grandchild. Paul Bystrowski donated $1,000 in honor of his father-in-law (Paul Stone’s), 90th Birthday and the fact that he is now a co-owner in a winery with his son and daughter-in-law.
 
Jim Streng announced our speaker, Matt Cate, Executive Director of the California State Association of Counties. Mr. Cate provided an overview on “Understanding Criminal Justice Reforms in California”. 
  • At one time California had the largest prison system in the free world.  However, there have been significant changes in the last five years.
  • Historical challenges – California has the most crowed prison system, the largest budget, highest instance of inmates returning to prison and lawsuits brought as a result of incarceration.
  • Much of the overcrowding issue was in part due to “3 Strikes”.  California prisons were at 200% of design capacity.  Overcrowding makes it impossible to do any rehabilitative work and to provide adequate care.  Lack of rehabilitative work contributes to a higher instance of reoffending and returning to state prison. 
  • California spends 3% of our annual budget on the UC and CSU systems, compared to 10% on our prisons.
  • The CA 2011 Criminal Justice Realignment was the result of a decision by the US Supreme Court, which mandated that low level offenders be moved out of the State Prison System and into the County Jail System.  Early results showed a decrease in spending, but it was offset by an increased allocation to the counties.  So effectively a net wash from a budgetary impact.
Mr. Cate indicated that property crime has increased, but violent crime is about the same. He indicated that violent crime is at its lowest level since 1967.  Further, he said our kids are safer now than they were in the 1970’s.
 
  • Another big shift was caused by Proposition 47, which required that those convicted of drug possession crimes be charged with misdemeanors. The result is no prison time, but rather jail time.  The same is true for theft when the value is less than $950; additionally, the “3 Strikes” rule is not relevant. He also mentioned that the rules were applied retroactively. The result of Proposition 47 was a decrease to both the prison and jail populations.
On the horizon, the Governor has a proposal that would mandate a “base term”, after which, the length of the sentence would be determined by the parole board. The proposed structure may motivate inmates to do well because they are motivated to get out of prison.
 
Coming Up: June 28th, President Dave’s demotion.  July 12th the installation of President-Elect Dan McVeigh.