The Pulse for the Week of May 15th, 2023
There’s a New Marshal in Town
Perhaps one of the few things on which both William Barr and Merrick Garland can agree is that Lasha Boyden should be the U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of California. Barr designated her for the post in 2020 and Garland re-designated her in 2022. The first African American woman to serve as a U.S. Marshal in California, Boyden will be our guest speaker on Tuesday, May 23rd, at the Annunciation Greek Church, 600 Alhambra Boulevard. Doors open at 11 a.m. There is a wine reception at 11:45 a.m. The meeting starts promptly at 12:10 p.m. Your reservation is needed by the close of business Friday, May 19th. Please keep an eye out for the invitation email and register right away. And bring a guest or prospective Rotarian!
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Recap of the May 16th Meeting
Reported by Paul Keefer
Fulfilling Campaign Promises
Can Be a Bumpy Ride
Past President JOHN FRISCH (Senior Managing Director/Newmark) introduced our guest speaker, District 3 Sacramento County Supervisor Rich Desmond. Desmond, a fifth-generation, Jesuit-educated (both the high school and Santa Clara University) Sacramentan, told Rotarians that being a county supervisor is indeed every bit as challenging as being at the State Capitol, where he was a commander for the California Highway Patrol and Chief Sergeant-at-Arms for the legislature. He said his primary focus during his first two years in office has been on fulfilling campaign promises.
And Desmond did not shy away from the two hot topics on the minds of most attendees: potholes and homelessness. In both cases, he was clear in terms of the problems and their root causes, as well as potential solutions. Desmond said that perhaps the greatest barrier to getting things done for his district is the fact more than 90% of it is in the unincorporated portion of the county, not in a city. This, he maintained, makes it nearly impossible to fund all the projects that are needed. Cities like Sacramento and Elk Grove receive state monies for projects directly, and they also get a piece of the money the county receives from the state. District 3, with 315,000 citizens, 90% of whom don’t reside in a city, only gets “one bite of the apple while the cities get two,” he said. The disparity, he said, contributes to Sacramento County’s $900 million backlog in maintenance projects; the worst in the state, but less of a problem in cities. Desmond cast some blame toward SB-1, the “Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017,” for not taking care of the unincorporated communities. He mentioned that, lately, he has become more of a fan of incorporation because of this disparity. Desmond said he has scheduled four community meetings in late May and early July to discuss transportation and roadways. Information about those meetings can be found by clicking here.
When addressing homelessness, Desmond explained that he uses a “Four-C” model for thinking about the issue and potential solutions: coordination, capacity, consequences, and compassion. He said that the City of Sacramento and Sacramento County have a much more productive relationship regarding this crisis now. He also said that two transitional housing opportunities are being put in place to help alleviate homelessness, but also pointed out that just giving someone a home doesn’t solve the problems that caused them to become homeless in the first place.
Thought for the Day
NORM MARSHALL (President/Headwaters Construction) waxed poetic as he delivered the Thought for the Day. “Life revolves around humor, or humor revolves around life,” he said. Then, as the audience pondered this chicken-or-egg challenge, Norm then hit us with this: “A frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller. He can see from her nameplate that her name was Patricia Whack. So, he says, ‘Ms. Whack, I'd like to get a loan to buy a boat and go on a long vacation.’ Patti looks at the frog in disbelief and asks how much he wants to borrow. The frog says $30,000. The teller asks his name and the frog says, ‘Kermit Jagger, my dad is Mick Jagger, and that's OK, he knows the bank manager.’ Patti explains that $30,000 is a substantial amount of money and that he will need to secure some collateral against the loan. She asks if he has anything he can use as collateral. Kermit says, ‘Sure. I have this,’ and produces a tiny, pink, porcelain elephant, about half an inch tall. Very confused, Patti explains that she'll have to consult with the manager and disappears into a back office. She finds the manager and says, ‘There's a frog named Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you and wants to borrow $30,000. He wants to use this as collateral.’ She holds up the tiny pink elephant. ‘I mean, what the heck is this?’ And the bank manager looks at her and says, ‘It's a knick knack, Patti Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man's a Rolling Stone.’
Head Table
After the moans subsided, President LINDA GEERY (CFO/California Lawyers Association) introduced our illustrious head table, which in addition to herself, included Chair of Day JOHN FRISCH, Rich Desmond, and Meeting Sponsor SURENDER SINGAL (Retired Engineer/US Army Corps of Engineers).
Meeting Sponsor
Meeting Sponsor SURENDER SINGAL donated his three minutes to Sacramento Children’s Home and President-Elect TODD KOOLAKIAN (Director of Philanthropy/Sacramento Children’s Home), who presented a video depicting the importance of the Crisis Nursery through an interview of a client who faced homelessness and motherhood. Through the Sacramento Children’s Home, she was able to navigate her way to employment and independent living while knowing her child was in great hands in the Crisis Nursery.
Rotarians helping Rotarians
President LINDA Thanked our Greeters, who included DENNIS SMITH (Consultant/Commercial Real Estate Consulting), ELKE VON SCHLOSSER (VP/Schlosser Properties), and Clayton Lee (C.K.L. Trust). She also thanked PAUL “Scoop” KEEFER (Executive Director/Pacific Charter Institute) for being the Pulse reporter, JOHN “You didn’t see me coming” SWENTOWSKY (Owner/Swentowsky Photography) for offering his professional skills, and GARY BAZLEN (Business Development VP/Ampac USA Inc./Orange Daily) for sponsoring the wine reception.
We Had Visitors
Sergeant-at-Arms KATHE NATHAN (Retired/Merchants Bank of Commerce) introduced our five visitors. They included Rod Malloy, guest of ROBYN DELONG (Realtor/Coldwell Banker); Anne Lawrence and Bill Wygant, guests of MEGAN WYGANT (Executive Director/CLARA Studios); Glynis Butler-Stone, guest of DANIELLE MCGARRITY (Development Director/Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento); and Rio Rey, guest of LARRY CARMICHAEL (Social Services Officer/Salvation Army).
We Have a New Member!
President LINDA formally inducted our newest member, SHANE HESKETT. Sponsored by PAUL KEEFER and MIK MIKLAUS (Mortgage Broker/Integrity Mortgage), Shane is Sales Manager for Caltronics Business Systems. “I’m confident Shane will make a great Rotarian,” said Keefer when introducing him.
Club Announcements
President LINDA reminded members about the annual BBQ Swim Party on August 27th, hosted by Past-Presidents HAL BARTHOLOMEW and BEVERLY BRAUTIGAM.
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President LINDA also provided a brief recap of the recent District 5180 Conference at which the Club won four awards and was well-represented by JAMIE FURLONG (Managing Partner/Legacy Investment Real Estate) and DEE JOHNSON (Retired/State of California), who put together an excellent exhibit featuring our Honduras WASH project.
RICK DAVIS (Colonel/US Air Force, Retired) announced that June 6th meeting will be Armed Services Day, recognizing our members who served in the armed forces. If you served, please contact Rick or Executive Director STEVE HEATH and provide your name, branch, rank, dates that you served, and if possible, a photo of you in uniform and your rank. Also, plan on bringing any memorabilia to share with the club on that day.
President-Elect Nominee BOBBY REED (CEO/Capitol Tech Solutions) announced that the Golf 4 Kids event—both the golf outing and post-golf dinner—the previous Friday were a great success and thanked all of the club members who helped make it a success. In particular, he singled out JAMIE FURLONG, BRYAN MURRAY (Commercial Risk Manager/USI Insurance Services), Past-President JIM LEET (Attorney/Boutin Jones), MATT PAGE ((Partner/Lucas Group Financial Planners), JUSTINO SANTANA (Nonprofit Business Development Manager/eFundraising Connections) and MEGAN LAURIE (Director of Development & Marketing/UCP of Sacramento & Northern California). Click here to view photos of the Golf 4 Kids event.
Club members are invited to attend Delta Night, a fun fundraising event being hosted jointly by the Clarksburg and East Sacramento clubs on June 3rd at Miner’s Leap Winery. For information, click here. Proceeds will go toward youth programs and anti-human trafficking efforts.
Rotarian Spotlight
Past President DIANE WOODRUFF (Retired Chancellor/California Community Colleges) again did an outstanding job of spotlighting two long-time club members. She told the audience:
“JEFF STONE has been a member of our club for 27 years. Jeff has been a commercial insurance broker since 1980 and is currently Vice President of Hub International. He is also the past president of the Insurance Brokers and Agents Association of Sacramento. He holds the prestigious CPCU designation, which is the equivalent of a CPA in the insurance world. Jeff is also going to be serving as Treasurer of our club next year during President-elect Todd’s term. An interesting fact about Jeff is that he is a sixth-generation Sacramentan. In fact, his great-great-grandparents built a house here in 1852 and Jeff recently hosted a family reunion there. Although Jeff has been in our club for 27 years, he is not the first one in his family to join our club. Both his dear father, PAUL STONE, and his grandfather, MERVYN STONE, were members of our club, as well as brother-in-law PAUL BYSTROWSKY, father-in-law FRED CORFEE, and cousins JOHN DOWDELL and ERNIE FARRINGTON. Jeff is a talented musician and I know you have seen him play his bass guitar as a member of our Rotary Rockers. But, before the Rotary Rockers, there was a group in this club called the Rotary Rooters. In 1986, Past-President BRIAN VAN CAMP recruited Jeff to join the group and he played hundreds of gigs with the band for more than 30 years, raising a lot of money for the club. Here is a cute picture of Jeff and Brian from that time. Jeff is the young man in the back and Brian is in the lower right corner of the picture.
Jeff has a number of hobbies, including restoring vintage sports cars. Here is a cute picture of Jeff and his father Paul riding in a Jaguar E roadster. Jeff, I remember fondly how you took such good care of your dad in his later years. A fun fact about Jeff, he was a performing member of the Sacramento Unicycle Club. Jeff, I want to see you on that Unicycle. Finally, one fun story about Jeff. He went on a Rotary ski trip to Heavenly Valley and ended up in the hospital with a torn ACL. He said while that was not fun, he DID enjoy being visited in the hospital by the entire busload of Rotarians, who entered the ER with wine bottles in hand.”
“Past President SUSAN SHERIDAN has been a member of our club for 29 years. She was President of our club nine years ago and started the Sac Century Challenge with Todd Andrews. It has raised almost $700,000 to date. Susan is a lawyer and, before she retired, was the first woman partner in a major law firm in town—and then was the managing partner with Knox, Lemmon, Anapolsky, and Sheridan. She focused on employment law and represented small businesses on general business matters. Besides Rotary, she has been very active in other community organizations. She was Chair of the Habitat for Humanity board and served on that board for 10 years. She has also served on the boards of the Senior Gleaners, Girl Scouts, and Sacramento Children’s Chorus. What you may not know about Susan is that she has a very adventurous spirit. In fact, I think she is fearless. Would you believe she spent a month driving over 2,500 miles through the African countries of Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe? She has also climbed Mt. Whitney and Half Dome in Yosemite. She led 20 women on a Habitat trip to Nicaragua to build two houses for women who were the sole supporters of their families. In addition, she chaperoned 16 teenage girls on a two-week backpacking trip through the jungles of Costa Rica and then bungee-jumped off an old railroad bridge in the middle of the jungle. Who does that?
I never knew how fearless Susan was until I was on a Rotary trip with her in New Zealand. We came across a famous bungee jumping area and we dared Susan to jump and said we would pay $1000 to Rotary if she jumped. I’ll be darned if she didn’t do it and we had to pay up".
Gems for Giving
SARAH HODGE (Regional Affairs Representative/Association of California Water Agencies), Past-President BRIAN VAN CAMP (Owner/Van Camp ADR), STEVE SHIFFLET (Retired/California State Parks), and Past-President DIANE WOODRUFF all made Eddie Mulligan contributions, and President-Elect TODD KOOLAKIAN made a contribution toward his next Paul Harris fellowship before heading out of town to attend the Rotary International convention in Australia.
--Photo Gallery—
(Snapshots of the meeting, courtesy of John Swentowsky)
