www.youtube.com/watch?v=353AnezgADQ

1. Attend a Board meeting in Twain Harte, Tues., Feb. 9, at 6:30 pm at the Twain Harte-Long Barn Union School District Office (Telele Lodge – auditorium), 18995 Twain Harte Drive;
2. Attend a Town Hall meeting in Tuolumne on Weds., Feb. 10, at 6:30 pm at Summerville High School’s library; and/or
3. Take a survey online at www.TuolumneCounty.ca.gov.

The Board would like District 3 residents’ opinions on the following:

• What are the greatest needs within the County right now?
• What are the highest priority County services?
• What are the main issues the County should be planning for in the future?
• How should County leaders go about balancing future budgets?

County staff will draft a 5-Year Strategic Plan reflective of citizen input for Board consideration. Citizens will be asked to comment on the draft plan once completed. The Board will adopt the final 5 year strategic plan in 2010.

The Board is preparing a first-ever 5-year strategic plan to guide our direction and management efforts and would like your input.

We’ll post an online survey you can take between Jan. 26 and Feb. 23rd  (at www.tuolumnecounty.ca.gov) and hold a series of Board meetings in each supervisorial district to hear from you.

Meetings schedule

Specifically, the Board will ask you to answer a few questions:

1. What are the greatest needs in the County now?
2. On what services should the County place highest priority now?
3. What main issues should the County be planning for in the future?
4. How should the Board go about balancing future County budgets?

For more information, please call the County Administrator’s office at 209-533-5511.

I look forward to hearing from many of you in the upcoming weeks. Thanks for your help as we work together to make Tuolumne County better for our children and our future.

Sonora - The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors wants input from residents on what they feel are the most important things the County should be doing over the next several years. Your input will help staff develop a first ever 5-Year Strategic Plan for the County.

We’ve scheduled a series of special Board meetings in each supervisorial district. The schedule is:

• January 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the Willow Springs Club House;
• February 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the Board Chambers;
• February 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Black Oak School/Telele Lodge
• February 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Groveland Community Hall; and
• February 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Church of the 49er Social Hall .

Can’t attend any of those dates? Some districts (including District 3) will hold additional Town Hall meetings to get further input – we’re planning a Town Hall meeting in Tuolumne, as well.

There will also be a basic survey you can complete any time from January 26 through February 23 online at www.tuolumnecounty.ca.gov.

We’d like your opinion on the following:

• What are the greatest needs within the County right now?
• What are the highest priority County services?
• What are the main issues the County should be planning for in the future?
• How should County leaders go about balancing future budgets?

After the special meetings are held and responses received to the survey, County staff will draft a 5-Year Strategic Plan reflective of citizen input for Board consideration. Citizens will be asked to comment on the draft plan once completed, and the Board will adopt a final plan within the next several months.

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The Summit, put  on by the Cities Counties Schools (CCS) Partnership  (which represents California’s 7,930 local elected officials), is being presided over by our friend CCS Chair/San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon. We are meeting to identify potential solutions to the state’s chronic problems, including deficits, late budgets, and an inability to deal with critical issues such as water, energy, education, and health services.

Local governments, still waiting for the Governor and legislative leadership to announce a budget deal, are extremely concerned about that deal’s impacts on services and local people. We’re hearing that they plan an unprecedented raid on local folk’s revenues – Prop 1A funds, transportation $$, and other “creative” funding responsibility shifts - to partially close the very large budget deficit. That’s not right. So the Summit is about creating a framework for change in the state/local relationship and in how governance and finance work. Reform!

California is ripe for reform. I’d like to know what you think about some of the options we’re debating. None of these have been adopted or embraced by the CCS Partnership yet – they’re all on the table. Tomorrow we’ll get into work groups and see if we can’t prioritize and agree on these and other options. This is by no means a complete list of everything under consideration – but we don’t want to wear you out. Please tell us. What do you think?

http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/129390363DD2B784/

The Tuolumne County RCD, the county, MotherLode Land Trust, and the USFS made their presentations to the Stewardship Council yesterday. The Stewardship Council is the multi-interest stakeholder group tasked with giving away some of PG&E’s land (and funds) under the terms of a bankruptcy settlement agreement administered by the California Public Utilities Commission. Summaries of the proposals can be found on the Stewardship Council’s website at http://www.stewardshipcouncil.org/.

The TCRCD, county, and MotherLode Land Trust collaborated on a proposal that puts forward 3 different ownership/management configurations for local ownership and management of Kennedy Meadows. Despite diligent effort on the part of those organizations and the USFS to collaborate in a way agreeable to all, ultimately the USFS is not legally able to share ownership or management decisions and put forward its own proposal. The local organizations do not feel it is within the best interests of Kennedy Meadows to have the USFS as owner or manager of the parcel and although they were invited and considered it, did not participate in the USFS’ proposal.

The Stewardship Council will meet in committee over the next few months to evaluate the proposals. Their planning committee will announce a recommendation to the entire Stewardship Council at their next public meeting in Redding on April 30th.

Government reform time

And finally, to kick off our new video section, here’s an interesting clip from California Forward, a bipartisan effort to “transform our state government through citizen-driven solutions to provide better representation, smarter budgeting and fiscal management, and high quality public services so all Californians have the opportunity to be safe, healthy and prosperous in the global economy,” (http://www.caforward.org/).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKXpvSms6V4

What do you think? Please click on “Comments” below and tell us!

 Is it time to get tough with our state (and federal) leaders? What do you think?

When we listen:

1. we have more information upon which to base our opinions, and

2. we validate each other.

We’re hoping you’ll attend a District 3 Listening Session to tell Teri your thoughts on a number of important issues. Given the slowdown in the economy and the state’s shaky fiscal condition, it’s especially important for us to know what you feel county government’s priorities should be.

Hard decisions may have to be made in next year’s budget.

In 2006, over 500 District 3 residents (at 9 Listening Sessions) told Teri their top priority for county services was the condition of our roads. Close behind were public safety services: fire and law enforcement.

Is that still true? Tell Teri!

February Listening Sessions

Tuolumne
Tues., Feb. 19, 7:00 pm
Tuolumne Memorial Hall
Hosted by Tuolumne Township Group

Mi-Wuk Village
Weds., Feb. 20, 10:00am & 6:30pm
Mi-Wuk Village Library

A Listening Session is being scheduled in Twain Harte in March. More information will follow.

To schedule additional Listening Sessions in your District 3 community, please contact Teri at 533-5525.

For more than a year I have been asking people to let me know what services they think are most important for the county to provide its citizens. I’m still asking. If I have asked you before, I’m checking back in. Go ahead and tell me again – I’m listening! And don’t forget to tell me why you think so.

Of that $27 million “discretionary pot,” the Board currently funds $13.6 million to justice and law enforcement, $642,00 to roads, $615,000 to fire, $5 million to other services including libraries, recreation, and departments like community development (planning, building, and related departments), and $7.8 million on TGH. Over the last few years, a significantly larger share has been diverted to TGH (up from $757,000 in FY 98).

On the other hand, TGH has a strong following of devoted employees and clients. Many worry about what will happen if TGH is no longer around to serve the indigent. Despite the existence of Sonora Regional Medical Center and its stated willingness to take on the provision of care to indigent residents, people worry about the future of health care in Tuolumne County.

What to do?

The options are few and their impacts will be debilitating, devastating, and disastrous, no matter which option is chosen. Despite that fact, 1 option will of necessity emerge as the lesser of evils, likely on April 10th.

If you’d like detailed information, background information and options can be found in a series of reports. Read about each of the options and their impacts in detail in the March 20th Camden reports entitled Healthcare Models: affordablity, impacts, and opportunities and TGH Transition on the county’s website at (http://portal.co.tuolumne.ca.us/psc/ps/TUP_ADMIN/ENTP/c/TU_DEPT_MENU.TU_DOC_LIST.GBL?Page=TU_DM_CONT_VIEWER&Action=U&CONTENT_PNM=EMPLOYEE&CATGID=1480&PortalNVContType=F&PortalNVContId=7253).

Depending on which option the Board chooses, TGH expenses will go up or down in the immediate future (see Option Choices table, below). A recent article in the Union Democrat, TGH puts 88 county jobs on the line, detailed the sobering reality: our economy be impacted as we cut jobs – either at TGH, in General Fund Departments, or both – depending on the funding option chosen by the Board of Supervisors.

In a nutshell, the options and some impacts are:

Option 1 – status quo model

Continue to operate TGH at the current level, eliminate 88 jobs in general fund departments and 0 jobs at TGH, figure out how to pay for upcoming years as we go (see Cost Table below), plan for and find funding for significant building upgrades and/or replacement to comply with state licensing requirements and handicapped access requirements, residents will continue to have access to 2 area hospitals.

Option 2 – non acute model

Continue to operate long-term care, adult day health care, the psychiatric facility, and the health and wellness clinics, eliminate all other TGH services, eliminate 68 general fund jobs and 50 (7 non-medical) TGH jobs, access to acute care will be limited to 1 hospital.

Option 3 – privatization model

Close acute care and in-patient psychiatric services, continue long-term care operations while identifying business or agency to assume responsibility for continued operations, turn over clinic services to private providers, eliminate 153 TGH jobs (79 non-medical), 0 general fund jobs, access limited to 1 hospital in Tuolumne County.
Option Costs through 2012 (does not include building costs) in millions (Source: see Camden Group report, TGH Transition here)

Option 1 – status quo

FY 2008 $ 8.3
FY 2009 $ 9.3
FY 2010 $ 19.2
FY 2011 $ 15.2
FY 2012 $ 16.2

Option 2- non-acute
FY 2008 $ 7.1
FY 2009 $ 4.8
FY 2010 $ 4.8
FY 2011 $ 4.8
FY 2012 $ 5.0

Option 3 – privatization
FY 2008 $ 4.5
FY 2009 $ 2.1
FY 2010 $ .9
FY 2011 $ 1.0
FY 2012 $ 1.0

County Administrator, Craig Pedro, has informed the Board that given existing conditions the general fund will only be able to divert $3.0-4.5 million to TGH next fiscal year…

Potential ballot measure turned down by BOS

Despite the fact that many have called for the opportunity to vote on the issue of creating a hospital district to operate and fund TGH, the Board voted not to allow for a ballot measure to do so. The Board (unanimously) did not feel the County has the time to wait the approximate 1.5 years before funding begins to be generated from a tax measure. Further, it seemed highly questionable and unlikely that 2/3 of Tuolumne County voters would agree to tax themselves to continue TGH since close to 30% of patients leave the county for hospital services and the historical trend of voters here has been to turn down tax measures resoundingly.

Weigh in, please

I encourage you to attend an upcoming Beilenson Hearing on either March 27 (1:30 pm) or April 2nd (6:00 pm) in the Board Chambers at 2 South Green Street in Sonora to weigh in on the decision. We need to hear from you. Our decision will have impacts that touch us all.

Hard choices. What would you do if you were on the Board?