Author Matthew Crider
Rotary meeting
June 5, 2020
By Matthew Crider
El Presidente Tim rang bell at 7:03, and Chuck Snipes lead us in stunning rendition of Smile and America the Beautiful.
Our special guest speaker was Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez, speaking on how the Sheriff's Office serves the residents of our County. Sheriff Lopez is a visiting Rotarian, visiting from Capay Valley.
Don Saylor, an honorary member, also was visiting;
President Tim called for announcements.
This week, Rotary Davis Sunrise was notified that we received a grant for $3,500 for food security
We received also thank you cards from clubs we’re supporting, such as Progress Ranch. We also received an email from Yolo County Crisis Nursery Center regarding gift baskets for families. The club also received a touching thank you card from the club in Nakuru Kenya. David Copp shared pictures from clubs in Kenya, where our club helped the Kenyan Rotary clubs, where we donated $600 and helped support 35 families for a month. A hearty round of applause from everyone ensued.
Other Announcements:
Brody Hamilton thanked folks that participated in Sip n Support. There were 30 people who participated and parted with their money for some great wine. Brody said that he made arrangements so that everyone else could buy wine, with 25% of proceeds going to the club. He said he will send information about.
Clay Brandow announced that he was able to make a wine purchase after the event, and there are a few more wines available. He purchased the wine online, but the Russians and Ukrainians didn’t get his credit card information (or so he believes).
President Tim then called for Sergeants, and the Sergeant of the day was none other than the Honorable Will Portello, Esquire.
First Sergeant Will called for Happy Bucks™
Keith Wattenpaugh was happy because yesterday (June 4) was last day in instruction for the on-line spring quarter at UCD. Things went well, according to Dr. Wattenpaugh.
Ken Firestein was happy for the folks who helped with Linux operating system, whatever that is.
Manny Carbahal was happy because on Wednesday (June 3) Manny’s son and daughter had a daughter, so Manny and Debbie are grandparents now. Manny’s new granddaughter is named Inez, but no further details were forthcoming.
Clay thanked Meaghan Likes and said she didn’t miss any of the masking of the egg head sculptures at UCD.
Don Winters was happy because both grandchildren were visiting for a week. He hasn’t seen them in 11 weeks because of the pandemic and quarantine, so it’s a great visit.
Patsy Inouye was happy because for the last few months, she woke up to Jock Hamilton “taking pictures” of her “day lilies.” What a difference punctuation makes!
Not content with all the Happy Bucks™ flowing in, Next Sergeant Will started fining people.
First he asked if anyone had cut their own hair during quarantine. A few brave souls raised their hands and were fined $4.
Will called on Andrew Newman, who got his boat out on the Delta, but had to send someone up the mast, which is approximately 30 to 40 feet. Andrew’s daughter was the one who went all the way to the top. Andrew was fined $5 for child abuse.
Will showed everyone a screen shot of Chuck Snipes lying in bed during a recent Rotary meeting. Sargent Will stated it did not meet the decorum one should expect from Rotary, and Chuck was fined $5.
Will then called on Meaghan Likes: Apparently Meaghan and Intuit has a little love fest going on. Intuit makes QuickBooks Online and other products for bean counters. Meaghan gets paid to say that they make great software. Meaghan’s picture is on flags that Intuit has rolled out as part of a marketing campaign, so Will fined Meaghan $10. It’s unclear whether such a fine is tax deductible as a business expense. Meaghan, being the good sport she is, added another $10 because she also is on Hulu and YouTube commercials for Intuit.
Will also fined Lori, Brian, Jacques, Ray, Andrew for having a “secret” Rotary meeting in Lori’s back yard. This was the renewed Saturday morning Peet’s coffee group, which met for the first time since lock down. Everyone was excited to be together in person, but they were each fined $5 anyway. That’s the cost of a good latte.
Someone did a late introduction for visiting Rotarian Gloria from Uganda.
Then Lori introduced Sherriff Tom Lopez. Sheriff Lopez is a Rotarian, Mason, Elk, and a couple of the other clubs. He also had a previous career as a fireman. He comes from Woodland, is a long-time resident of Esparto, and is a 5th Generation resident of Yolo County.
Sheriff Lopez said that the Sheriff’s office has 300 employees and 50 volunteers, with a budget of $49M annually. According to the Sheriff, this will probably change with the economic downturn after COVID, and the budget may be reduced by at least 7.75%. His office is trying to work through the budget to maintain level of service in the County.
Sheriff Lopez said the Sheriff’s office has 3 divisions: Admin, Detention, and Field Operations.
City residents are used to have their own police departments. Police are patrol-based, patrol and detectives. The Sheriff’s Office does that, plus more. They have a jail. They also have responsibilities in the Courts and animal services. The Sheriff’s Office also contracts with the cities in Yolo County. They are looking at moving into joint powers agreement (JPA) where cities will sit on the board and have say and input into how the field services and animal shelter are being run. Sheriff Lopez did a shout out to Lucas Frerichs and Brett Lee and the Davis City Manager: He said they met to come up with programs to offer the City of Davis that they don’t offer anywhere else.
Sheriff Lopez discussed how the Sheriff’s Office is a paramilitary organization like most police departments. This means that there is a rank structure. However, he stated that is pretty much where it ends when comparing to the military.
Sheriff Lopez took office in mid-2019. His goal was to bring the organization together and allow employees to have input.
The Sheriff’s Office largest division is the detention center. There are 2 jails. Both are on the same campus. The county has been fortunate because it applied for and received grant funding from AB 900 for $42 million that added extra programming areas for the current jail and to renovate some older areas. The jail was built in 1987, and at the time it was state of the art. However, as time has gone by, things have changed. One of the changes was AB 109, which allows inmates to serve time in county jails who normally would serve time in state prisons. The jail used to only have inmates with them for 1 year. Now, however, the jail could have longer-term residents. The jail is now housing people in their facilities for up to 13 years. There are different problems in housing people longer because they have different needs. The jail provides classrooms, training, and other services to people who are held in the Sheriff’s custody.
Sheriff Lopez talked about a grant the Sheriff’s office received to tear down current Limburger Unit and rebuild it. The Limburger Unit was built in the early 1990s and is more of a residential facility and not a hardened unit. It was initially built to house low level offenders, such as drunk drivers and so on. The inside has sheet rock, and inmates continually kick or punch holes in the walls, which becomes a maintenance issue. Sheriff Lopez was hopeful there will be a groundbreaking during the summer on the new construction, which he anticipated will take 18 months.
In March, COVID struck. Sheriff Lopez said that the Jail is just like a small city, with all the problems of a small city, particularly when it comes to diseases like COVID. The jail has had a communicable disease program / protocol for years. According to Sheriff Lopez, when COVID struck, the Sheriff’s Department started taking inmates temperatures and developed an isolation area in the jail to keep them away from general population if they had symptoms .
Sherriff Lopez said he received a 30-day and then a 60-day order to release inmates who are nearing the end of their term if they can be released earlier to deal with jail overcrowding issues in light of COVID. The Sheriff’s Office has released 26 people since mid-March.
Before COVID, the jail could hold 455 inmates. At the beginning of COVID in mid-March, the jail had 291 inmates. Now it has 190. Sheriff Lopez said that the jail has been able to single-cell everyone who is in custody.
The jail also instituted a mask policy so that all inmates and staff are wearing masks in day areas or exercise areas. According to Sheriff Lopez, there hasn’t been a single case of COVID in the Jail. The Sheriff’s Office is doing everything they can with staff to keep COVID from coming in, such as instituting medical questionnaires, and taking staffs’ temperature as they come in for their shifts.
Sheriff Lopez talked about the Black Lives Matter protests. He acknowledged that strong feelings are present in Yolo County. He doesn’t feel that what happened to George Floyd was appropriate. He supports peaceful protests, but not looting and damaging businesses. Sheriff Lopez hopes to continue to engage with the community to make things better in Yolo County.
President Tim called for questions:
Lori Raineri asked whether Yolo County Sheriff’s Officers have been deployed to help other jurisdictions with protests, and if so, what happened? Sheriff Lopez said that the Sheriff’s role is to coordinate the mutual aid program with other jurisdictions. Yolo County received a request for mutual aid from Sacramento and deployed 10 officers to help the City of Sacramento. Sheriff Lopez said, however, that he also has to be mindful of needing resources in Yolo County and cities within Yolo County.
Regarding peaceful protesting Sheriff Lopez feels that it’s all a matter of listening to yourself; if things are not what you expected them to be, you may want to leave the protest. There is always that avenue to allow you to get your feelings out as part of a community.
Dick Bourne asked about climate change: How does California’s goal to get to carbon neutrality by 2045 impact the sheriff’s office. Sheriff Lopez said that the Sheriff’s office is off the grid and has a megawatt of solar. The Sheriff’s Office was the first campus in the county to receive solar. They have CNG vehicles but were finding that were having to refuel the vehicles a few times per shift, so it didn’t work that well. The Sheriff’s Office is doing everything they can to reduce their vehicles from idling. However, according to the Sheriff, it’s difficult to shift to electric vehicles because the deputies cover a large area. Some of the Sheriff’s deputies are putting on 300 miles a shift. The Sheriff’s Office has swapped out buses from diesel to another type of engine that releases less exhaust. Sadly, Sheriff Lopez said the current budget won’t allow for Tesla vehicles in the near future.
Some of the deputy training is more focused on communication and defusing situations, because the County is so remote and backup could be 15 to 20 minutes away. The Deputies have to deal with situations much differently as a result. Also, the Sheriff’s Office has a resident deputy program where a deputy lives in the community they work in. This program went away under the previous sheriff, but Sheriff Lopez is bringing it back. Currently, there is 1 resident deputy living in Capay Valley.
With that, President Tim presented Sheriff Lopez with a book to sign for the library. Tim rang the bell, and the meeting concluded.