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The Public Has Spoken - Er...Kind of!
What can I possibly say here? The fact that all three Supervisors up for reelection will be unopposed surely must say one of three things about our current County Government
I really have no idea which of the above three explanations makes the most sense and I would gladly welcome my readers' thoughts on the subject. As for myself, I am very content with my current retirement status, even if it was pretty much forced upon me, so I guess that would position me under thought number 3 above.
My apologies for being so remiss in getting back to acknowledging comments from my readers! However, the Jackson Lions Club Student Speakers Contest is now behind me and Dandelion Days, such as they were, are done for another year, so hopefully I will be able to find a bit more time to devote to this endeavor.
Posted at Mar 21, 2012 11:09 AM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[2]
So What has Really Changed In County Government?
I really am sorry to talk with so many of the current County employees and have them all say the same thing. Each and every one of them tells me that it is sooo depressing working for the County these days. I know that job security weighs on all their minds and I would guess that if you ask management or the Supervisors they will tell you it's all about the money. However, if it is just the budgeting side of things that is causing all the problems why does the County feel that it has to kowtow to all the latest and greatest trends in technology, business management (or lack thereof) and organizational structures?
For example, when I started working for the County in late 1998 (less than 15 years ago) I became the third member of the IT Dept. Networking was in its infancy as far as Amador County was concerned and Ruth Cornell, Anthony Giron and myself were scrambling like mad to catch up with the curve. Our mistakes and missteps quickly became legendary throughout County offices, but no one got upset or critical of our efforts and we had a really good time learning on the job.
Case in point - One of Anthony and my assignments was to install new routers and high speed hubs in the data room which at that time was located up at 500 Argonaut Lane. Of course, this work had to be done after hours so we started in about 6:00 pm. We had a vague idea of what needed to be done and we had instruction manuals so we started in and unplugged all 150 some odd cables before we realized that we had not marked the individual cables so we knew where to replug them in to their new equipment. Here we had cables up to our knees and very little idea what to do with them. We were both laughing our heads off over our stupidity when the door to the server room opened and our boss, Ruth came in and was totally flustered by the mess! By the time we explained the situation, she had sat down on the floor of the server room and was laughing along with us. We finally convinced her that we had an idea how to fix the problem and finally about 10:00 the next morning, all was back up and working properly. However, from 8:00 am until the problem was resolved, I believe every single employee in the admin building had stopped by the server room to laugh at and with us.
The main point here is that no one was upset, frantic because their computer was temporarily out of order or looking around at whom to blame. We were all employees working together to do the best job we could. What in the world has changed? Perhaps more importantly, why have we let it change the way we all worked together for the public good!
Posted at Feb 23, 2012 07:25 PM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[4]
Main Street Stories
Most who have had some type of interaction with County Government, have some complaint or horror story to tell and it amazes me that the majority of the tales I hear are issues that it would be so easy for the County to avoid or rectify. Here's one story that I have also had the opportunity to witness myself back in my days of being employed by the County. A member of the public walks into the Land Use section of the Administrative Building on Court St. He needs to find out the zoning on a particular parcel of land and he has no idea which department holds the information he needs.
For those readers who have never had the necessity or curiosity to visit the Admin Building, the Land Use sector is located to your right as you enter the main door. It is a large 'U' shaped area occupied by The Building Department, the Planning Department, Environmental Health and Public Works. As this individual stood in the middle of the 'U' trying to decide which of these departments held the information he was looking for, he counted six (6) individuals around the area with their heads bent down, all seeming to do their best to ignore him. Finally one of these six (6) individuals called out to him to ask if they could help. Never dawned on the employee to walk up to the counter and greet this member of the public and inquire how they could help. Nope! Just shout across and see what the 'interrupter' wanted. That's exactly what this individual told me he felt like.
I personally witnessed this type of incidence over and over from fellow employees. I have no idea the cause, but particularly in the Administration Building, it takes very little time for an employee to absorb the attitude that they are working for some 'authority' directly above them, and totally lose sight of the fact that they are public employees whose main job is to assist the public, even if indirectly. On several occasions, I had misinformed members of the public call the IT department with questions regarding some difficulty they were having with their personal computer. Now granted, the IT Department is there to support the other governmental departments, not the public, but I could never agree with my managers' attitude that it was wrong to even talk with the individual. I would argue that if it were a simple question, why not take the two minutes to answer it and foster some goodwill. But his attitude was we could not under any circumstances do this, because we had no way of 'billing' back the individual for our time. He never seemed to get the idea that it was the public that paid our wages in the first place!
What's Your Story?
Posted at Feb 21, 2012 07:22 PM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[2]
Back to Local Government
Well, enough about the Lions Club and their Speech Contest! But, hey, it did keep me out of trouble for a while, at least. Now back to more important matters. Is everyone out there aware that the filing period for election to the Board of Supervisors opened on February 9th and closes on March 9th?
The following Districts are up for reelection on June 5th of this year:
That means that there is not a whole lot of time out there for qualified candidates to step forward and challenge the existing regime! And it sure looks as if some new blood is needed on the Board. Take this piece of info for example:
From what I could find digging around on other County websites, Amador County is one of the very few Counties still utilizing a 'Furlough Friday' schedule. The few Counties I did find with shortened work weeks, did so by using a staggered time off policy department by department, thereby being able to continue to provide public services five days a week. Now if my information is correct, the County's current letter of understanding with the union expires on June 30th, 2012. Wouldn't it be just like our current Board of Supervisors to very carefully refrain from addressing this issue until after the June 5th election. I think the public will deserve to know where each candidate stands on this issue prior to the election. Let's make the candidates give it to us straight up! Are we really that broke? Or is there something else going on out there that we are unaware of as pertains to providing full services to the citizens of Amador County.
Posted at Feb 19, 2012 01:37 PM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[5]
Final Thoughts on the Lions Club Speech Contest
When last I left you, readers, the Inter school competition had just completed. I talked with the four finalists and gave them their instructions and tickets for the Lions Club Speech Competition. It was not until I arrived home and started looking over the sign in sheet from the school competition that the significance of the results hit me. Of the ten individuals who signed up for the school speech event, six were from Amador HIgh and four were from Argonaut High School. Yet when I reviewed the rosters from the December Workshops, 36 students had attended from Argonaut and only four from Amador.
In addition, was the variable that my daughter and I had visited every senior Government Class and every senior English Class to explain the importance of the competition as pertained to future scholarship eligibility. We did not visit a single Amador High classroom as I had been under the mistaken impression that the UPCountry LIons 88 Club had been concentrating on Amador High. My mistake, as The UPCountry 88 Club did not even host a Speakers Contest this year. However, in the end, all four winning contestants were from Amador High School.
I was stunned and a bit discouraged to realize that all the work we had put into Argonaut HS had been in vain. On top of that, I received a phone call from the Argonaut Campus accusing us of having been partial in our ranking of the the winners for the school contest and that Argonaut was always pushed aside. Well, I have to admit that I went from being discouraged to being just plain angry. Argonaut had been given every advantage conceivable going in to the schools competition and yet only sent four students to the competition, one of whom had not even prepared a speech. Are there so few students interested in our $5,000 scholarship that it was not worth spending a bit of time to prepare a 5 - 10 minute speech on a predetermined topic? Remember, they only had to compete, not win or place, at the school level competition. And we do not even know if any of these students are intending to prepare a scholarship application. Might be it will just be too much work for them. If so, our Club will not even make the award of this particular scholarship this year.
By the way, the winner of our Lions Club Speech Competition was a Sophomore from Amador HIgh - Kinsey Prestia-Young. Way to go Ms Young! We look forward to your next level of competition.
Posted at Feb 15, 2012 02:43 PM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[0]
County News Flash - Rumor
Heard on the street today!!! Everybody's favorite Power Administrator from Behavioral Health has been placed on Administrative Leave! Can anyone confirm? Come on - How about some details? I really have an interest in this one!!!
Posted at Feb 14, 2012 04:08 PM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[0]
Schools Preliminary Speech Contest
As 4:00 pm on January 30th approached, I was very apprehensive! What if no students had volunteered to participate in the inter schools competition? The whole exercise would then have collapsed. When I arrived at the Amador Learning Center at Independence High, I was surprised to find that there were no parking spaces available on the site and I had to back track up to the ARCs building to find a spot. When I entered the classroom, I thought I had walked in to the wrong location. The room was packed with all sorts of individuals. Ms. Chapin-Pinotti had done a fantastic organizing job. There were 10 student speakers, three judges, several parents and a few just plain observers.
The students had already drawn lots for their order of speaking. The three judges were administrators from the District Office and had no working relationships with the students. The judges used a rubric for scoring that was identical to the one we would be using at the Lions Club Competition. All the students did a great job and you could tell that they had put a lot of work into their speeches. The judges retired to a separate room after the students had completed their speeches to tabulate their results. I had been sitting with another observer who was a ministry talent scout for a church in Placerville. It turns out this church awards scholarships to particular religious colleges and scours the area looking for candidates whom they think have the abilities to become Ministers. What was most interesting was that both of us keep our own scoring sheets and when the judges returned with their rankings, both the minister and I were in 100% agreement with the judges, except for the fact that they ended with a two way tie for third place. After hearing the results, I agreed with the Jackson Lions Club inviting the four winners to our Club Speech Contest scheduled for the following Monday.
I'll follow up with the results and some tough questions in my next post.
Posted at Feb 14, 2012 01:09 PM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[1]
The Importance of Student Participation
I will agree that the manner in which the Jackson Lions Club integrated the Speakers' Contest and their Scholarship Program was a bit confusing, but I think enough effort was put into clarifying it to the School Site Administrators and Scholarship Coordinators for them to recognize the importance of having their students participate. In a nutshell, the requirements went as follows: Any student wishing to apply for one of the Jackson LIons Club Scholarships would have to have participated in one of the following:
It is important to note here that a student need only fulfill the above requirements once during their high school career.
There were, however, special requirements as regards the Jackson Lions Club $5,000.00 Bert Smallfield Memorial Scholarship!
Hopefully, I didn't lose any of you along the way with this explanation! Also keep in mind that these were incentives for just the Jackson Lions Club Local Scholarships. In addition, the Speech Contest carried its own rewards along the way, culminating in a $24,000 Scholarship to the California State winner.
Posted at Feb 13, 2012 04:13 PM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[0]
Speakers' Contest Followup
Can it really have been a month since my last posting? I would like to thank my readers who have continued to look for up to date postings. At last the Jackson Lions Club Speakers Contest is behind me and I have a bit of time to breathe and catch up on local news and to even digest my own thoughts looking back on the project. Overall, it was a wonderful experience and I feel that I learned so much. So let me take this time to present an overview of the project.
After the workshops which took place on December 10th, I had an opportunity to talk with one of the members of the Amador County Unified School District Board. They had heard stories of some of the changes implemented by the Jackson Lions Club as regarded the Speech Contest and their Scholarship Program. So we talked for almost an hour and I explained what had taken place to date. The next day, I received a phone call from the Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti, asking if I could take a few minutes to meet and bring her up to speed on our revised program.
It was a very good discussion and Ms Chapin-Pinotti was very enthusiastic and even offered to have the District Office take over the responsibility of conducting a preliminary all-schools competition to provide us with the top three or four competitors for our Club contest. Needless to say, I was absolutely delighted and made it a must to attend the competition which was held on January 30th, 2012 at the Amador County Learning Center. The District Office sent out a US Postal Letter to every senior student in the school district and to the local school administrators announcing not only the competition, but the changes to the Jackson Lions Club Scholarship Program which made participation at any level, including the workshops, a prerequisite for application for any of the scholarships.
Now, we're talking about $14,000 worth of scholarships for this academic year.
I believe you will be quite surprised at the results of this attempt to motivate the students and advisors to recognize the value of dipping into the deep waters of Public Speaking and Presentation. Stay tuned for future posts with the results!
Posted at Feb 12, 2012 11:33 AM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[0]
Scenes from the Public Speaking Workshop
I mentioned in my previous posting how impressed I was with the talent and enthusiasm of the young adults who participated in our Lions Club Speech Workshop. I'd like to take a moment to share just a couple of examples with you. One of the instuctor's exercises was to place some 40 odd tickets in a bucket with each ticket bearing one 'most boring thing in the world' item. The students each picked one ticket from the bucket. They then were given 60 seconds to think about their boring item and try to arrange a 'swap' with another student if they thought it necessary. They were then given 5 minutes to prepare a three minute 'impromptu' skit about their 'boring' item. Once time was called, individuals were selected at random to present their skit. The results were so great, we ended up doing everyone's skit. Here are just a couple of my favorite selections:
A young man presented his skit on 'Laundry'. He started off by disclaiming what a terrible topic this was to prepare an 'impromptu' on until he stopped to realize that learning to do 'Laundry' was what really separated a boy from a man. Learning to separate the darks from the lights, when to use hot or cold, how much detergent and what type really made him feel that he was no longer an adolescent. He had us all rolling on the floor in laughter.
And then there was the young lady who took us through almost three minutes of describing the final scenes of her favorite movie of all time, "Titantic" and how terrible the image was of the beautiful Leonardo DiCaprio slowly descending into the depths of the icy North Atlantic. And we were all mesmerized and bewildered trying to figure out where she was going with all this. And then she hits us with a single punch line that drew her the award for best "impromptu"! "And to this day, I can not look at a 'Head of IceBerg Lettuce' without breaking out in tears". I don't believe there was a single one of us in the room who had seen that coming! 'IceBerg Lettuce'.
Who'd have thunk it?
These were just two of the many great rewards I gathered over my day with these amazing students.
Posted at Jan 13, 2012 07:21 PM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[0]
Jackson Lions Club Speakers (Contest Continued)
My, my, my....Has it really been almost a month since my last posting. What, with all the work on the Lions Club Speakers Contest, the busy holidays, and a bad knee that has kept me laid up for a couple of weeks, time has just flown by. I am happy to report that the Public Speaking Workshop that we put on December 10th, went very well. We had forty (40) students attend the event and by all the comments we received, the students seemed to have had a great time and came away with an improved attitude towards public speaking. My sincere thanks to my daughter, Sara, who had the ability to really energize and involve the students.
However, most important to me, was the ability to come away from the event with a new enthusiasm for the attitude and abilities of these students. I had been led to believe that one of the reasons that the interest in the Public Speakers Contest had waned over the years was that the students were lazy, uninterested in the real world, etc., etc.,...Nothing could be further from the truth! The forty students I watched perform during the workshop were energetic, highly motivated, eager to learn and extremely talented. And they love doughnuts!
My next surprise was to receive a phone call from the ACUSD Director of Curriculum, Elizabeth Chapman Pinotti, asking me to stop by her office and update her on the progress of our efforts. As a result of our interview, she has agreed on having the School District Office, take over the in-schools preliminary competition to select the District's best three finalists for our Club competition. The in-school competition will take place on January 30th, 4:00 pm, at the Amador County Learning Center, next to Independence HS at Sutter Hill. Needless to say, I am anxious to attend and see how many students will be competing in this preliminary round.
Posted at Jan 05, 2012 10:57 AM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[1]
Now for Something Completely Different
Several days ago, I posted an entry highlighting an upcoming Jackson Lions Club sponsored public speaking workshop. Well, I am happy to report that we hosted about 40 students during the two sessions held Saturday the 10th. It was a success by just about any standard one wants to employ. However, I must admit that I probably came away from the day with more knowledge gained than any of the students. To fully explain, I need to fill readers in a bit more on the background of this event and the goals of the Jackson Lions Club.
I have been told that many years ago, the Speakers Contest was quite a successful event, but that more recently, it has faded away to almost nothing. When I inquired why this had happened, I received mostly criticisms of the students, faculty and administration at the High Schools. I heard everything from 'the students are lazy and apathetic', the 'Teachers don't care', and 'the schools won't even talk with us'. These criticisms just didn't resonate with me, particularly after conversations with my daughter, Sara, who is a doctoral candidate at CU Boulder, about her experiences teaching freshman classes in Public Speaking. So, with the support of many members of the Jackson Lions Club, as well as my daughter, I accepted the chairmanship of the Speakers Contest and decided to try a whole new approach to the Speakers Contest.
More to follow ....
Posted at Dec 18, 2011 11:00 AM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[0]
Correction to Previous Post
Mea Culpa! I did indicate in my previous post the Jackson PO Box 1027 was even beyond the numerical range of Jackson PO Boxes. It has been pointed out to me that this is not true. That the numbers do exceed this limit. I stand corrected!
Posted at Dec 17, 2011 01:48 PM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[0]
Too Funny for Words - The End of the Saga
For those of you readers who have been following the tale of the withheld Blue Shield rebate, the story has finally come to end, albeit in an extremely comical manner. I received notes and comments of thanks from other retirees who had already received their refund checks from the County totaling about $540.00. I was pleased to think that maybe my harping on the subject had helped a bit in getting the refunds released prior to Christmas.
But Wait!I still had not received my check as of this morning. I started to smell a rat so I proceeded to march down to the Auditor's Office and inquire as to why I had not received my check yet. I was politely informed that my check had been the first one processed and had gone out about 10 days ago, so it must have become 'lost in the mail'. Being the eternal skeptic that I am in regards to Amador County Government, I inquired as to whether there was any written record of the transaction and if the check had indeed become lost, how to get a replacement issued. I was informed that I would have to wait 20 days from today, if the County were to issue a stop payment on the original check.
The Auditor Technician then retrieved actual photocopies that had been made of all the issued refund checks. I knew things were not good when she browsed through the stack of paper and did indeed find the photocopy of my check. "You still do receive your mail at PO Box 1027?", or some such number. I replied "No" and gave her the correct PO Box number. "Oh! Then you've changed PO Boxes then?". "No, I've had the same PO Box here in Jackson for the last 38 years". Then as she looked more closely at the copy, I saw her eyes widen and her mouth drop open, and I knew there was trouble ahead. The check had somehow been issued to me at PO Box (whatever it was) in Jackson, AK 95642. For those of you not quick on your state abbreviations, AK is Alaska. How in the world they managed to get both the wrong PO Box and the wrong state, but the correct zip code is totally beyond my comprehension, but then this is Amador County Government.
Of course, some of the blame must rest with the US Postal Service, as the zip code, which is supposed to be the primary determinant, was correct. But then again, the PO Box number was outside the range of Jackson numbers. But even stranger is that there is no Jackson, Alaska as far as I have been able to determine. Talk about weird!
So now we were back to the question of how to get the check replaced. I was again informed that I would have to wait for the check to be returned to the County as 'undeliverable'. That could be months! Hey, it's $540.00 and it's almost Christmas! I demanded to know who could order a stop payment and issue a new check and that I would beat down their door and get the approval. The technician finally took the matter to the Auditor, Joe Lowe, and got the authorization to issue a replacement check and that it would be ready for me to pick up around 4:00 pm. I had to sign an affidavit promising to never cash the original check if it should suddenly appear one day, but that was okay. The new check has been deposited and all is right with the world, at least until the next County screw up. :-)
Posted at Dec 13, 2011 06:46 PM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[1]
Public Speakers Workshop Announcement
My apologies to any readers I might have remaining. I have been terribly remiss in keeping up with this Blog, but with the holidays plus other projects, there just never seems to be enough time to do everything. So much for all that free time once you retire. I would like to pass on a note about one particular project I am involved with for the Jackson Lions Club. For any of you out there who have students in any of the area high schools, you need to note that the Jackson Lions Club has made some major changes to its scholarship programs.
Any students who are interested in attending either the morning or afternoon workshop should immediately contact their Career Technician/Scholarship Counselor at their respective school.
Remember! To be eligible for the top Jackson Lions Club Scholarship, students must have participated in the Speech Contest at either the school screening level or the actual Lions Club competition to be held on February 6th. Anyone having questions can feel free to email me at a_mcclellan@sbcglobal.net for additional information.
Posted at Dec 06, 2011 12:36 PM by Art McClellan in General | Comments[0]