STATE OF THE COUNTY ADDRESS

February 13, 2008

With 13 years of experience on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and a 27 year track record as an elected official, you are no doubt acquainted with Greg Cox’s legacy of outstanding leadership and his deep commitment to San Diego County.

Please allow me a moment to share with you what’s gone on behind the scenes.  When I was younger, my dad would ask my sister or me if we wanted to run a few errands with him.  Those errands would generally include a stop at the bank or the post office.  We’d take our empty water bottles and soda cans to the recycling station where we would cash them out for a few dollars – which were immediately spent on lunch at Rubio’s.  Then he’d say, “Well, since we’re already out, let’s drive down and check out the new ball fields in the Tijuana River Valley.”  Then we’d drive past the new transitional housing units built for 18 year olds aging out of foster care.  And then we’d take a look at the Bayshore Bikeway.  Next thing we knew, my sister and I were in for a three hour tour of South San Diego County, complete with commentary on what it used to look like and what he envisioned it could become.

More than a decade later, I know what to expect when my dad asks if I’d like to “run a few errands.”  It still includes the recycling and Rubio’s stops, but it now may mean driving out to see the group home for deaf foster kids or the new drainage system that will prevent the annual flooding of Central Avenue in Bonita.  His dedication to the community is constantly reflected in his errands, like checking up on the Sweetwater River Valley staging area, bike paths and horse trails – where he recently learned how to use a digital camera.

Greg Cox’s wealth of knowledge, proven leadership and reliability benefit all the people of San Diego County, whether it is demonstrated through a neighborhood project or a major life saving undertaking, like Reverse 911.  All of these initiatives increase our quality of life and make San Diego a great place to live.

With his integrity and wisdom, Greg Cox has inspired countless people, from students he taught in the 1970s to the constituents he serves today.  As his daughter, I can think of no higher compliment that someone could pay to me, than to say that I am just like my father. 

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the Chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, Greg Cox.

Thank you, Emily, I’m equally proud to be your father. I simply could not do my work without the tireless support of my family. You’ve met my daughter Emily. Unfortunately, my daughter Elizabeth could not be here tonight. But my wife, Cheryl, and my father-in-law, lifelong community volunteer John Willett, are here and I want to acknowledge and thank them.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It is with enormous pleasure that I welcome you to the 2008 State of the County in this newly renovated, beautiful Balboa Theatre. Tonight, this theater rich with history will host a vision for the future of a vital, dynamic region.

As Chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, I feel privileged to stand here representing the more than three million people of our region, and fortunate to help lead a County government that works, works well, and works for a lot of reasons.

It works because of the 17,000 employees who make up our County workforce, a diverse group of San Diegans who are committed to exceeding the expectations of taxpayers.

It works because of the great relationship we share with our community partners: non-profit agencies, hospitals, volunteers, local businesses and the many local governments that work side by side with the County to serve the public.

And County government works, because of the nine people sitting behind me on this stage tonight: a team of highly respected public servants with a depth and breadth of experience and maturity. They understand that protecting the public is our most important job; they realize that using precious tax dollars wisely and efficiently is what we were hired to do; and they recognize that running government like a well-managed business is not just what you, the taxpayers desire, but what you, the taxpayers demand.

However, let me be brutally honest right from the start tonight: the good work we have done at the County of San Diego is at risk.

This is due to many of the same threats battering our national economy. The meltdown in housing, rising unemployment rates, sharp increases in prices for fuel and consumer goods, and the turmoil in our financial markets are all creating havoc for the County and all local government agencies. Continuing economic problems means fewer tax revenues at a time of greater demand for services. It is not a problem that we can fix at the local level, but one we must acknowledge and be prepared to address.

On top of this, we once again find the State of California in a crisis mode that will challenge local government’s ability to serve its residents. Simply put, state government is in a mess…again…and is facing a budget shortfall that could approach 15 billion dollars or more. Years of unchecked deficit spending by the state and a complete lack of fiscal discipline by state decision-makers have placed all public agencies in real jeopardy….again. We’ve heard all this before. Like a scene from the movie “Groundhog Day,” California’s budget problems keep repeating themselves in an endless loop. Governors and legislators come and go, but no one seems to be able to fix the state’s management and spending systems to avoid these problems.

This should matter to everyone in this region because the state’s red ink will trickle down quickly to all California counties and cities. To paraphrase a popular slogan, what happens in Sacramento doesn’t stay in Sacramento. Many County programs are mandated and funded by the state. That means any cuts in state spending will have serious repercussions here in San Diego.

We will face some difficult decisions at the County, including potential cuts in programs and services to correspond with state funding cuts. But we will make the hard decisions wisely and timely. Unlike the State, we will not put off tough choices or set off a downward spiral by using one-time money for ongoing expenses. That is what separates our County government from other, dysfunctional governments.

And we will not face this threat alone. I plan to face the challenge by standing together with our regional allies.  I intend to work shoulder to shoulder with Mayor Jerry Sanders and the mayors of the other 17 cities to develop a regional legislative agenda that protects San Diegans from bearing the brunt of the state budget mess. Our goal will be to stop the “divide and conquer” tactics used by the state whenever funding to cities and counties is threatened. We will go to Sacramento in force. We will stand strong and speak as one region, with one voice. One region…one voice. That is my goal this year and that is the offer I extend to my fellow elected officials in this region.

I’ve had the unique privilege of serving as both President of the League of California Cities as a former mayor, and President of the California State Association of Counties as a supervisor. I intend to personally work through both organizations to see that mistakes made by state government don’t undermine the effectiveness of local government.

Despite these challenges and uncertain times, I am proud to report tonight that the state of the County remains strong. We are strong because we do things differently here at the County of San Diego. We impose on ourselves a fiscal discipline that you won’t find in many governments. We demand that outcome and results, not process and paperwork, be our primary focus. We maintain our taxpayer owned facilities, invest in technology and infrastructure and we constantly anticipate and prepare for the needs of our region. We identify and manage risk. We don’t hide it and we don’t run from it.

My colleagues and I lead a large and complex government that is relatively unknown to many San Diegans, even though the range of services we provide is enormous. Of course, most of the time, invisible government is good government. It’s a good thing when government can effectively work for the people it was intended to serve, without fanfare, and without scandal. But it’s a fact that County government serves and protects the public in hundreds of ways.

Tomorrow on Valentine’s Day we will marry over 200 happy couples. Thanks to our County Assessor / Recorder / Clerk Greg Smith, who never stops striving for new and better ways to serve the public, almost half of all the wedding ceremonies in the County are performed in ceremonies at the County.

County government is truly “cradle to grave.” We issue birth certificates, inspect restaurants and protect environmental health and regulate air quality. We administer health and welfare programs and protective services for children and the elderly.

Our employees rescue stray animals and nurse them back to health so that they can be placed in loving homes. And our employees put on their uniforms, leave the safety of their homes and patrol the streets so that our families can sleep soundly at night.

We activate and coordinate the region’s Emergency Operations Center in times of crisis. And yes, we operate a Medical Examiner’s office and issue death certificates. Like I said…cradle to grave.

County government clearly works. But don’t take my word for it. Look to Wall Street, where both Fitch and Standard & Poor’s awarded us an AA+ bond rating, the highest of any urban county in California. Under the management of Treasurer/Tax Collector Dan McAllister, the county investment pool of funds earned a AAA rating from Standard & Poor’s. And that agency also rated the County’s retirement system AAA, establishing it as one of the best run public pension systems in the nation.

It’s no secret that the County’s high standard of performance was tested, and literally tried-by-fire late last year. But in the face of those devastating fires, the government and the people of San Diego County have shown the nation, and the world, that preparation, good communication and unrivaled heroism can successfully overcome danger and disaster.

Things could have been much worse if we hadn’t learned some hard lessons from the fires of four years ago. We needed to invest in such things as radio communication upgrades to dramatically enhance the ability of our first responders to talk to each other seamlessly in the field. We needed to end dueling press conferences between jurisdictions and speak with one voice so that our region’s leaders were better able to keep the public and the media informed about life-threatening dangers and life-saving opportunities.

We needed to secure technologies like Reverse 911 and our new Alert San Diego systems that enable us to notify whole neighborhoods about the need to evacuate. Sheriff Bill Kolender and I recommended these investments that gave us the ability to quickly evacuate whole communities. As a result, we moved more than 515,000 people out of harm’s way, the largest fire evacuation in the nation’s history.

After the 2003 fires, we also needed a better way to dispense accurate information during and after a disaster.

Last year, the County added disaster response to 2-1-1’s arsenal of services. And just in the nick of time. During the first week of the fires, 2-1-1 was transformed into a state-of-the-art call center that answered more than 110,000 calls. I’d like to thank those in the community who spent countless hours answering phones and providing critical information to neighbors in need. I’m also grateful to the corporations that provided technical support and supplies to make the call center run effectively under the most difficult of circumstances.

Firestorm 2007 showed all of us that 2-1-1 is a critical resource to the people of this region. That is why this year, I will be working with all 18 cities in the County to incorporate 2-1-1 into their annual budgets. And I won’t stop there. Many of you in this theater who have been great corporate citizens in the past can soon expect a call from me as well.  2-1-1 can and will meet the needs of all our cities and communities in this region and it deserves much greater financial support from all of us.

Civic-minded corporate partners did step up to the plate during the fires. The County drew heavily on their technological expertise. Because the County’s technology is outsourced, we were able to immediately rely upon the vast resources of partners like Northrop-Grumman, EDS and AT&T to maximize our response capability…just an example of a public-private partnership that works for you.

For all the preparation that made our response to Firestorm 2007 so effective, the real recognition and thanks goes to the real heroes: the firefighters and first responders who bravely risked their lives to save people and property. I know some of you are here tonight and on behalf of a grateful region, I thank you.

I also want to assure every San Diegan that this board is fully committed to protecting this region. Despite the fact that providing fire services has not been a mandate or a core function of County government for over three decades, this board is directing eight and a half million dollars a year into improving fire services in backcountry communities. We have purchased two fire-fighting helicopters and 30 fire engines. We have strengthened ordinances requiring brush clearance and implemented strict new building codes for fire protection. We’ve spent tens of millions of dollars to remove dead and dying trees. We’ve invested $20 million in upgrades to our Regional Communications System. In total, we’ve invested more than $117 million in enhancement of fire services.

And we will be doing more! Although the County is not in the fire protection business, we understand that we have a role to play. Last month, Vice Chairwoman Dianne Jacob and I initiated a comprehensive analysis of a regional proposal to reorganize fire protection services in the unincorporated areas of the county, where wildfires start. Supervisor Ron Roberts and Mayor Jerry Sanders also formed a Regional Fire Protection Committee to advise the Board of Supervisors on options related to equipment, funding and oversight.

This Board of Supervisors will have decisions to make, and we will make them this year, but only after carefully identifying the funding, weighing all points of view and considering all the consequences.

As I mentioned earlier, the economy and the state budget crisis will undoubtedly make this a tough year. But because our finances are solid, and because our general management system requires us to plan strategically, this County will continue to invest in its infrastructure. We will do this because this Board of Supervisors does not sacrifice the future for short-term gains.

Next week, we will break ground on a state of the art $85 million Medical Examiner / Forensic Center in Kearny Mesa to allow us to better cope with large-scale disasters. The facility is designed to be shared with the County Veterinarian’s office to allow for combined forensics expertise and quick response to human and animal-borne threats like avian flu and West Nile virus. And, by the way, we will pay for it in cash!

We also plan to replace all our aging facilities at the County Operations Center before they become outdated and prohibitively expensive to maintain. And we are replacing the aging Las Colinas Detention Facility for women with a more modern facility desperately needed to address our future needs.

We opened nine new libraries in the past five years. During 2008, we will begin or complete work on libraries in Alpine, Encinitas, Fallbrook and Ramona. I am working with the people of my district on a new library/park/community complex in the unincorporated community of Lincoln Acres.  As society moves at light speed into the digital information age, these libraries will give our children the tools and resources they need to compete in this fast-changing world. But more than that, libraries have also evolved into vital hubs of the communities they serve, providing everything from adult literacy programs to concerts and poetry readings that feed the mind and nourish the soul.

Technology is a wonderful thing. Technology, used correctly, makes all of our lives easier. Here at the County, we invest in technology to make our employees more productive, to constantly improve your access to services and to make your lives easier. This spring, we will roll out a new County web site that will be cleaner, clearer and far more user-friendly. The redesign will include a new search engine to make it easier for you to find the services you need and want. In addition, you will be able to get multilingual, customized service and a new e-mail subscription program. For example, if you’re a surfer, you can sign up for warnings about beach contamination. If you want to adopt a pet, you can sign up to get notices about new arrivals at County shelters. As always, our goal is to serve you online, instead of in line.

The County champions innovation and we will use technology to provide better health services to children with physical limitations and chronic health conditions or diseases. This year, the County will launch eQuest, an information technology system that will allow hospitals, doctors and other medical providers to make and track referrals electronically. This system replaces a cumbersome, inaccurate and time-consuming paper system. The tens of thousands of referrals we get now will be filtered through an efficient, accurate, rapid electronic system to allow us to help more children in less time. This is how we do things at the County.

This year, I will focus intently on County Parks. I want to encourage San Diegans to spend more time outdoors, enjoying the beauty of our region and making our vast array of County parks their personal playgrounds. We added nearly 15,000 acres of park land in the last ten years. That includes a chain of expansive river parks that stretch from the mountains to the sea, and reach from the San Luis Rey River Park that Supervisor Bill Horn champions in the north to the Otay Valley Regional Park and Tijuana River Valley Park in my own district in the south.

In a rapidly developing urban area, our Board acted decisively to allow people to savor our beautiful coastal, desert and mountain terrain. This year, I will aggressively seek funding for more park land, as well as open space. In 2006, voters approved Proposition 84 to provide $5.4 billion for safe drinking water and to make improvements to state and local parks. I will fight to get San Diego’s fair share of the grants set aside by Proposition 84 for regional and local parks.

For those who love to ride bikes, this will be your lucky year. Plans call for completion of a major portion of the Bayshore Bikeway, a 24-mile bicycle route going completely around San Diego Bay.  The 2008 segment will be a critical connection in the City of San Diego between Chula Vista and Imperial Beach, leading up to the Silver Strand and Coronado. Once completed, the Bayshore Bikeway will be the standard by which top-level bicycle trails are measured nationally and a showcase for residents and tourists alike.

In 2008, the County will step up efforts to deal with the effects of climate change. Environmental protection, fighting pollution and thinking “green” comes naturally to the County. We have been measuring and regulating air quality and hazardous materials for decades now. Encouraged by Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, the County promotes energy conservation and resource-efficient building design. In 2008, we will promote the Green Building Incentive Program that encourages homeowners and builders to use environmentally-sound construction practices.

We will make sure the County always practices what it preaches.

Solar energy systems at County facilities have generated over a million kilowatt-hours of electricity since they were installed. The renovations and new buildings planned for the County Operations Center will all be done to LEED Silver standards, using recycled materials, cool roofing and drought-tolerant landscaping. To save energy, twenty-fivepercent of our eligible vehicles are being converted to alternative fuel.

Next week, the County will co-host a “Green Purchasing” conference for all cities, schools and special districts in the region. This conference will allow us to learn from each other and expand programs that work.

Environmental and public health services are at the core of what we do here at the County. We are fortunate to have world class partners in the health field, including a safety net of community clinics and top tier hospitals, university affiliated and private.  Just this year, Sharp HealthCare won the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige Award for quality.  Kaiser Permanente, a tireless partner with the County, contributed more than $1 million to community clinics for indigent health.  And internationally-renowned Scripps has taken emergency medicine to a new level by being designated as administrator for the state’s first Mobile Field Hospital Program.

Mobile Field Hospitals are a new and innovative way to respond to an emergency anywhere in California. Whether it’s a major earthquake that takes out several hospitals, a mass casualty event, or a natural disaster, one of the three Mobile Field Hospitals will be able to deploy and be operational anywhere in California within 72 hours.

These hospitals will function like any other hospital. They’ll have 200 beds, emergency triage and operating rooms, Intensive Care Units, radiology, pharmacy, and even a lab.  Both the County Office of Emergency Services and the Public Health Department will be partners in this project.

Mobile Field Hospitals are the future of disaster response. This year, I will be pushing the state to test and demonstrate the next mobile field hospital exercise right here in San Diego, where we are at the forefront of disaster response.

 It’s no secret that I hold a special place in my heart for foster children. These are the true innocents, kids who have been abused or abandoned by their own parents.  Foster children are our responsibility. We must do everything possible to ensure their success. It’s not just about removing children from an abusive home. We need a comprehensive approach that gives them a fighting chance to succeed.

As a former educator, I can tell you that graduating from high school is essential to every child’s success as an adult. Unfortunately for our region’s many foster teens, graduating from high school is tremendously difficult.

Foster children may move as many as 10 times between and 9th and 12th grade. Each move can involve new teachers, new classes, a new school and a new school district. Maintaining any continuity in education is near impossible.

Back in 1995 when I joined the Board of Supervisors, the high school graduation rate for foster teens was barely 50 percent. This Board demanded improvement, and today the foster teen graduation rate stands at just over 76 percent. That’s good, but we can do better!

This year, through a grant from The Stuart Foundation, we will partner with the County Office of Education to launch a new program -- “School Success.” This program will allow for a new breed of social workers to tackle the difficulties foster children face at home and at school. They will bridge the communication divide between school and social workers and stay with our foster children until they graduate from high school. It holds the promise that every foster child who wants to succeed in school, will succeed by overcoming the bureaucratic obstacles they faced in the past.

While children and the environment are truly core functions of County government, so too, is law enforcement. It remains our top priority and we continue to improve our ability to safeguard the public.  One important example is the Sheriff’s Rapid Response Team at the Crime Lab that will remove criminals from our streets through the use of DNA analysis.  We will arrest them, we will prosecute them and we will lock them up.  Under the leadership of District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, our deputy district attorneys are prosecuting criminals with a 94 percent conviction rate.

Public safety requires greater emphasis on improving our ability to plan and respond to emergencies and disasters and we have worked to achieve that by making nearly $1 million in improvements to our Emergency Operations Center. As a result, the Emergency Management Accreditation Program bestowed its accreditation to our County Office of Emergency Services, making it the first and only government agency in California to receive such an honor.

This year, innovations like the field hospital and mass notification systems will be augmented by establishing a Law Enforcement Coordination Center to be used for all emergencies, including terrorist attacks. Right now, law enforcement agencies share information from their different offices. The Center will be a two-story building that will bring together law enforcement and intelligence agencies from throughout the region under one roof to share critical information that can be pieced together to avert disaster.

And we are also developing a critical infrastructure plan to ensure the region’s most important facilities, public and private, are provided all necessary protection and security.

We’re employing new GIS – or Geographical Information Systems – to improve our response in emergencies. County GIS provided tremendous help to our firefighters and first responders during the fires and enabled our Office of Emergency Services to coordinate evacuations to emergency shelters.

In 2008, we will expand our use of GIS to map our power, water and natural gas systems. That will give us better ability to protect our region’s key resources during an emergency.

San Diego County has a rich and flourishing social and commercial relationship with our neighbors across the US-Mexico border. Almost $30 billion in trade and commerce is conducted in our border region, the busiest land border crossing in the world.

Several months ago, I traveled with a delegation of local officials to Washington D.C. seeking federal funding for a third border crossing at East Otay Mesa and for SR 905. We also pressed federal officials for increased customs and border security.

We were encouraged to learn that a key presidential permit for a third border crossing will likely be approved in the first half of this year. That’s great news! I intend to return to Washington this year to keep the pressure on federal officials to make the third border crossing a reality.

I will also work closely with cities and other agencies to urge the state legislature to approve a recommendation of $400 million in funding for improvements to trade corridors in our border region. This is money our region desperately needs and deserves.

County government works. And it works because of the hard work, creativity and ingenuity of a lot of people; starting with Walt Ekard, our highly respected and extraordinarily talented Chief Administrative Officer. It also works because of our public-spirited community partners and thousands of gracious and generous volunteers. With the help of all San Diegans, we kept this region working when disaster struck. And standing together, we can keep this region working every day for everyone, no matter what we face in the future.

If you’re asking what you can do to help, I have plenty of suggestions. Sign up to be a poll worker. Register to vote by mail so that ballots can be counted in a timely fashion. Prepare for the next emergency by completing a family disaster plan. Register your cell phone to receive warnings and evacuation notices from our new mass notification system. Sign on for the County Water Authority’s 20 gallon a day challenge and conserve water. Volunteer and support nonprofit agencies that help to make this County work. And how do you do any of this? Just call 2-1-1 and ask.

We will face great challenges this year, challenges that will affect each and every one of us. But we will face them together and, together, we will keep this County working. Remember, we don’t have to change the whole world, just our part of it.

I cannot conclude tonight’s address without recognizing the contributions the courageous men and women of our armed forces make every day on the other side of the world. We will never be able to thank them enough. May God bless them and bring them home safely.

May God bless this beautiful County of San Diego…and…may God bless America. Thank you and good evening!