City News

Parent University

2011-03-01T05:55:17Z

It’s no secret that the teenage years of life can be full of stress. There is enough anxiety, worry, and frustration to overwhelm you– and that’s just if you are the parent of one.

This is where Elk Grove Unified School District’s Parent University offers a helping hand. Aimed at connecting them with their child's education, the Parent University provides classes with useful techniques for parents as their children head into some of the most tumultuous and formative years of their lives.

Edward Harris, Jr. Middle School,recently hosted one Parent University class deemed, “Communicating with Adolescents & Resolving Conflicts, Bullying, and Sexual Harassment.”

On a cold, shiver-inducing evening, nearly 100 parents and their children filled the school’s multi-purpose room to learn a little bit more about building patience and understanding.

“Parents need to understand that their adolescents are going to transition from child teenage mode,” said Edward Harris, Jr. Middle School principal, Felicia Bessent. “Parents can often be confused on why a child can become so emotional, and we want to help them understand.”

The evening was prefaced with a short video about the cognitive process of a 10-year-old boy, who was considered a child prodigy. After the video, Bessent emphasized to the group that although this child was very bright, he still had to struggle with normal adolescent behavioral changes.

“We need to learn to talk out of differences and get through the emotional parts, but then we have to lead [our children] to the logical process of dealing with their problems,” she said.

Several other faculty presenters outlined the importance of identifying messages within children’s verbal and non-verbal communication patterns. Throughout the one-and-half hour presentation, parents and their children sat through power point lectures on conflict resolution, acted out parent/child communication scenarios, and participated in listening actives.

“I liked the non-verbal communication tips,” said Shawanna Kennedy. Kennedy is the vice president of the Parent Teacher Association at Edward Harris Jr., where her daughter is enrolled.

She added that she spent 10 years working for the California prison systems, and knows the importance of redirecting bad behavior.

“This helps engage with our children one on one, and helps us understand them,” Kennedy said of the class. She added that parents who are too busy to involve themselves in their children’s lives are headed for problems.

Most of the session was geared towards keeping parents in the loop and making them aware of resources like conflict mediation, which is provided by the school’s counselors.

“We advise parents that conflict mediation meetings are very successful in resolving problems,” said Bessent.

Bessent says that most of the conflicts between middle-schoolers are due to rifts amongst friends and uncertainty about the student’s own physical appearance. “This is a very self conscious age,” she added.

Bessent kick-started the Parent University campaign at Samuel Jackman Middle School, before opening it up at several other schools within the district.

The classes take place once a month throughout the school year, are free, and even offer elective credits for students when they attend with their parents. On-site translators are also available for parents who speak Spanish, Cantonese, or Vietnamese.

Bessent said she was particulary excited about this month's class, “Jump Start to College,” because Edward Harris Jr. is part of GEAR UP – a state and federal program aimed at helping lower-income students prepare for and enroll in college.

“The program is special because it builds a partnership with the school and the parents,” said Bessent. “It prepares the students not only for secondary education, but it places more emphasis on getting children and parents to realize that getting ready for college begins in middle school.”

More information on the Parent University can be found by contact the Elk Grove Unified School District at 916-686-5085.

New public works contractor in Elk Grove

2010-12-29T02:02:31Z

The city of Elk Grove, which outsources its public works services rather than hiring its own staff, is expected to see a new primary contractor take over the city’s municipal service reins this week.

Last October, the city council approved awarding the multimillion dollar contract to Willdan Engineering, a firm that provides outsourcing services to cities nationwide. The company outbid Interwest Consulting Group, the city’s largest primary contracted services provider since 2002.

Interwest previously provided 45 employees to the city for ongoing public projects and is working with both the city and Willdan to transfer some of those workers.

According to Richard W. Shepard, Elk Grove’s public works director, 29 out of those 45 staff members will be retained in the transition.

Shepard said staff members who will not be retained are a combination of engineers, technicians and administrative workers. He added that some of them have chosen to remain with Interwest or have been laid off.

According to Mort August, deputy director of Willdan Engineering, the company is finalizing its staffing plan this month.

“We are in the process of finishing recruitment and will be taking over operations right after Christmas,” August said.

Under the supervision of the department of public works, Willdan will now manage the city’s operation and maintenance needs, including repair and improvements to city streets, lighting and drainage systems.

The new three-year contract with Willdan officially begins Jan. 1 and is expected to save the city more than 30 percent in total costs. The contract also allows up to three optional one-year extensions.

“The primary reason for choosing them was that they were less expensive,” Shepard said.

The new contract is valued at an estimated $3 million per year in staffing costs, with potential for reaching $12 million per year in subcontracting costs, Shepard said.

Shepard added that the process of choosing Willdan as the city’s primary service provider was competitive.

According to a report prepared by Shepard for the City Council in October, the hourly rate for a senior engineering provided by Willdan would be $98.35, as opposed to $135 per hour currently paid for a senior engineer from Interwest. Willdan also offered similarly lower rates for its mid-level engineers and inspectors.

Rather than continue managing its own subcontracting and renew current contracts for Interwest, Willdan and other providers, the city chose to consolidate all of its public works needs through one group.

Although the owner of Interwest offered to match the lowest bid, Shepard’s report recommended choosing Willdan as the city’s sole contractor. According to the report, Willdan appeared to be slightly more qualified in city development functions.

According to August, Willdan is planning on opening an office in Elk Grove within the first 30 days of operation.

In the past four years, Willdan Engineering has provided subcontracted plan-reviewers and surveyors to Elk Grove. The company also contracts with several other Northern California cities and counties, including Rancho Cordova, Woodland and Sacramento.

Willdan Engineering is a subsidiary of Willdan Group, Inc., a publicly traded company that also provides outsourcing services to in Southern California, New York, Texas and Florida.

Both the public works department and Willdan have confirmed that the transition efforts are going smoothly.

Shepard said the city is focused on concluding major construction on Sheldon Road and the Grant Line water project, both of which are “sensitive” to a smooth transition.

August said he could not yet comment on what major projects Willdan plans to manage for the city in the near future. Instead, he said his team is focusing on the staffing changes. However, August added that residents of Elk Grove should expect a high quality of service.

“We’re looking forward to taking a bigger role in Elk Grove and excited about the opportunity to provide our services to the city,” August said.

Environmental groups continue pesticide reform push

2010-12-01T01:00:08Z

City officials and leaders from local environmental groups held a press conference this morning to present their priorities for pesticide reform to the incoming administration for Governor-elect Jerry Brown.

City Councilmember Rob Fong joined a coalition of farm workers’ rights, children’s health, and other environmental groups to promote a plan they call, “Healthy Children and Green Jobs: A Platform for Pesticide Reform.” The group’s plan focuses on creating “green agricultural and pest-management jobs,” while advocating against the use of controversial agricultural pesticides like methyl iodide.

“It is a really important push to get pesticides out of our environment,” said Councilmember Fong, who help start a pilot project to rid the use of pesticides in Fremont Park. Fong said he would like to see Sacramento take a leadership role in promoting healthier environmental practices throughout state.

“Governor Brown has a unique opportunity to set California on the right course by harnessing the power of agriculture and green jobs,” said Fong, “Investing in healthy children and healthy farms will pay dividends for years to come.”

Paul Towers, a representative for the environmental group, Pesticide Watch, said that city officials like Fong have taken a major role in educating consumers and advocating against the use of chemicals in landscaping and food-growing.

“Consumers throughout Sacramento who live near the fields and purchase and eat strawberries have the right to know about the dangers of pesticide chemicals.”

Towers says that pesticides pose potential health risks to farm workers and consumers and have been linked to cancer, breathing difficulties, and learning disabilities.

Over the past year, his group’s biggest concern has been pressuring the state to ban the use of methyl iodide in strawberry farming.

The methyl iodide pesticide was created to phase out another fumigant, methyl bromide, which was black-listed by the international environmental community for releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases.

Earlier this spring, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation proposed the approval of methyl iodide with a set of restrictions aimed to prevent potenial groundwater contamination and limit its use around schools and medical facilities. According to representatives from the DPR, a final decision on the pending registration of methyl iodide will be made by the end of the year.

Photos courtesy of Pesticide Watch

Gone with the wind: But where?

2009-10-28T22:01:01Z

For a few days, at least until Tuesday's winds came blowing in, the streets of Sacramento’s central city area were looking clean. The colossal mess left by the Oct. 13 storm was taken care of, for the most part. The giant fallen elm trees had been hauled away. Loose piles of branches and Mother Nature’s other castings were nearly all swept up, leaving the question: Where did all that clutter and debris go and where will all this new mess go?

Chances are that the old 100-foot tall elm tree that fell on a home on the 3400 block of J Street two weeks ago, could end up powering someone’s HDTV.

“Typically we recycle all the wood waste, grind it up into woodchips that are then converted into electricity at wood waste plants,” said Michael Root, an analyst at the city’s Urban Forestry Division.

Root, who added that not a day goes by when someone doesn’t point out the obvious relationship between his name and his line of work, said the cost of the cleanup far exceeds the energy savings, but there are other cost-saving benefits to alternatively disposing urban wood-waste.

“The main effect is the lowered cost of recycling the wood-waste, as compared to land-filling it,” Root said.

The cost savings is about half, according to Root. The city could cough up anywhere from $40 to $45 per ton to landfill the waste, as opposed to $20 to $25 per ton to have it handled by wood-waste recyclers.

Woodchips not burned in power plants are also spread around for weed suppression at recreation areas like the American River bike trail, or could be used to fill in the grounds at places like the dog park in Sutter’s Landing, Sacramento’s old landfill on the levee.

Root says approximately 100 to 125 trees went down in the Oct. 13 storm, but the total cost of the cleanup so far has not been determined. By comparison, the last big storm of January 2007 knocked down over 500 public and privately owned trees, costing the city a total of $128,425 for removal and disposal.

With most of the major cleanup of this month’s earlier storm completed by last Friday, Root says the city will move into the next phase: damage assessment.

Luckily, Root said, most of the more mature trees that fell during this year’s storm slowly uprooted and came to rest along buildings sides, rather than cracking and crashing down.

In one such instance near the McGeorge School of Law in Oak Park, a Chinese elm lifted up, then nestled itself along a library building. Buildings and grounds director Paul DeMersseman said the storm looked calamitous but caused no major damage.

“It looked like a tornado came through here,” DeMersseman said. He said that no damage was done to the building other than broken roofing tiles, but some tree branches hit a few parked cars in the area.

So, before fallen elms like the one near McGeorge become the power source to recharge some Californian’s iPhone, they are fated to one of the city’s ulmas purgare — or tree purgatories.

Sitting temporarily in empty lots around the city, these giant bark-covered carcasses await their final destination — either back to the earth or to a tree’s equivalent of cremation at one of the surrounding region’s wood-waste plants.

According to information provided by the California Energy Commission, there are three such facilities in the Sacramento region —one in Woodland and two in Lincoln. Combined, they can generate up to 71 megawatts of power — enough to power about 63,000 homes.

However, these plants don’t serve publicly owned utility companies like the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. According to SMUD officials, Sacramento gets its wood-waste electricity transmitted down from a 55 megawatt plant in Washington.

In the big picture of California’s energy production, urban wood-waste makes up a small portion of the state’s electrical output.

Including anything from old palettes found in landfills to uncontaminated leftover materials from construction sites, urban wood-waste is considered biomass – a renewable energy source that also include agricultural and other solid wastes. In 2006, biomass contributed about 2 percent to California’s electricity mix, according to the CEC.

Given the relatively low output of electricity from wood-waste, Luanne Leineke of the Sacramento Tree Foundation says she thinks all the expired trees from the city’s urban forest would better serve if mulched and returned to the soil.

“Mulch is wonderful,” Leineke said. “It’s organic material, full of organisms that are all great for future things to grow.”

According to Leineke, mulch helps to oxygenate the soil while keeping it impacted. If more mulch were used to replant new trees, Leineke said, they would grow stronger and less susceptible to storm damage.

Dr. Bruce Hartsough, professor at the UC Davis department of biological and agricultural engineering, agreed but said a balance needs to be struck.

“There’s uncertainty on both sides,” Hartsough said. "Fossil fuels are a finite resource - wood can provide an alternative - but there’s a trade off between how much you burn for energy and what you mulch.”

According to Hartsough, using woodchips for mulch is a viable option, but the practice operates in a niche market. “If you tried to take it all and sell it for mulch, you would saturate the market,” he said.

Hartsough, who has researched the potential benefits of forest biomass, says that while energy is currently the lowest-value market for wood products, branches and limbs that are too small for lumber are well suited for energy purposes.

Putting it into perspective, Hartsough added that in the end, California uses some pretty advanced technology to perform a very primitive task: burning wood for heat.

“In less developed countries around the world, about 80 percent of wood is used for heat and cooking,” Hartsough said. “It is a primary source of energy still.”

While researchers and policy-makers further debate about what do to with all the wood-waste, Sacramentans will do like they do every stormy season — continue to pick up the mess.

In the meantime, Root says the Urban Forestry Division is working on updating their tree inventory. He said soon the city will switch to a new Graphic Information System that tracks every public tree, allowing them to instantly determine which trees are public and which are private.

“In the next storm, we’ll immediately know what type of tree it is, and immediately know what type of service to dispatch,” Root said.

Strong-mayor idea scoffed at town hall

2009-10-06T21:36:54Z

Participants at last night’s town hall meeting on the city charter expressed their skepticism about Mayor Kevin Johnson’s strong-mayor initiative and raised questions about the mayor’s potential voting power if the initiative passed.

During the discussion portion of the meeting, members of the Charter Review Committee confirmed with the audience that if the strong-mayor initiative were to pass, it would immediately create a 9th District whose council seat would be held by the mayor, until a new councilmember could be voted in, in 2012. The mayor would continue to get one council vote, in addition to executive powers including the power to veto and ability to appoint the city manager.

“That’s like a hulk mayor, it’s more than strong,” said Constance Slider, one of the night’s most vocal participants.

Slider, a lifetime Sacramento resident and director for a policy advocacy group, said she had concerns about the current mayor attempting to “change the system in mid-stream and co-opting the office.”

“You don’t need to change what’s not broken,” she said

Slider added, “We need to explore the cost in potential litigation [of the strong-mayor initiative], and as a tax-payer I’m not prepared to bear the burden of that.”

About 30 community members from around the district six area gathered at Tahoe Park Elementary School to hear the Charter Review Committee explain the differences between the strong-mayor initiative, and committee’s alternative charter amendment recommendations to be delivered to the city council next month.

Most of the committee’s tentative recommendations would leave the current charter intact, but would amend it to allow the mayor to appoint the city manager upon confirmation by the city council.

“Some people say this is a modest proposal,” committee member Alan LoFaso said of the tentative recommendations, “But small changes have significant impact on what the roles of the city’s government members will be.”

LoFaso, who helped guide the evening’s town hall meeting, said the public is just starting to become engaged in the details of the proposals.

“We need more time to get involved in the changes we need,” LoFaso said. “There’s nothing inherently wrong with Sacramento city government that creates a crisis; we’re in the realm of small improvements.”

Originally, the charter committee had until late January 2010 to present its recommendations to the council, but the deadline was moved ahead to allow the council more time to make a final decision on how to react to the mayor-backed initiative.

Committee members directly asked the town hall attendees whether they thought the council should place a competing charter amendment on the June 2010 ballot, or spend the majority of their efforts trying to defeat the initiative through other means.

One alternative recommended in the discussion was to create ballot measure that would establish a charter commission to explore what amendments would best suit the short and long-term needs of Sacramento.

Only one town hall attendee spoke up in favor of the mayor’s proposal last evening.

Brian Salazar, a state worker and 20-year resident of Sacramento, said he believes the current system doesn’t match the needs of the city.

“I think the city council has too much power and is ineffective,” said Salazar. He added he would like to see changes made to K Street, the downtown mall, and the revitalization of the arena plan.

“The city needs to try it out for a generation,” Salazar said. “If it’s a complete disaster, [the charter] could be changed back.”

The charter review committee has more town halls and meetings planned throughout the month. More information on the meetings and amendment recommendations can be found at www.cityofsacramento.org/charter

According to the charter committee’s presentation, over 11 hours of testimony have been gathered at town halls and from academics and other government organizations.

The mayor also has an open town hall website hosted by the Sacramento Bee.

A call put in to the mayor’s office for comment was not returned in time for the posting of this article, but will be included in the comments section below when returned.