- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Director of the UC Cooperative Extension office in Yolo County, Kent Brittan, has found a way to maintain the jobs of county-paid staff even as the Board of Supervisors cut the organization's budget 11.4 percent compared to last year. The five people will each cut their hours - and therefore their pay - by 20 percent, according to a story in the Davis Enterprise.
That means no one loses a job, but also that the Woodland UCCE office will be closed on Mondays. The reduced schedule will affect all extension programs, from the county's 4-H program to pest control on farms and at the Davis Community Gardens, Brittan said told reporter Jonathan...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Last weekend, the director of UC Cooperative Extension in Ventura County, Rose Hayden-Smith, wrote a note on her Facebook page about the possibility raised by Gov. Schwarzenegger of selling off state-owned assets to ease the budget crunch. The Ventura County Fairgounds is on Schwarzenegger's short list of properties to go on the block.
Positive feedback prompted Hayden-Smith to write out her objections to the idea and post them in her ANR blog. The Huffington Post then picked up the article, titled "Of California, Fairgrounds and Things I Can't Afford to...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
More crime and fewer prosecutions, more unchecked abuse, more untreated disease, more mentally ill people in jail and the virtual elimination of UC Cooperative Extension in Sacramento are the consequences presented to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors of current budget scenarios, according to an article in today's Sacramento Bee.
"Tearful mothers, elderly veterans, disabled residents and others pleaded for the programs and services on which they rely," wrote reporter Robert Lewis of the scene at the Board's second of three budget workshops.
Susan Gallagher, executive director of Mental Health America Northern California, called the cuts...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Across the nation, 4-H programs are threatened by cuts in state and county spending, according to an Associated Press story by John Seewer distributed widely last week. The article recounted the dire situation in Ohio, Tennessee, Louisiana and Minnesota. Today, the Fresno Bee localized the article for California by adding comments from the assistant director of News and Information Outreach for ANR, Pam Kan-Rice. (The story does not yet appear on the Bee's Web site. If it is posted later today, I'll add a link here.)
According the print version, Kan-Rice told the newspaper that...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
An article in the Martinez News-Gazette said "vocal lobbying by the Contra Costa 4-H members and their parents" influenced the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors to maintain its funding support for UC Cooperative Extension until June 30.
Indicators had been that funding would end immediately. The board's decision gives the program time to seek “other funding mechanisms," wrote reporter Greta Mark, attributing the comment to "4-H officials."
Mark wrote that supervisor Gayle Uilkema told the newspaper the board planned to discontinue its "$352,000 in annual funding to the 4-H in an...
