In the newest revision of the California budget, released on May 27, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed to eliminate funding for Community Based Adult Services (CBAS) as early as July 1.
CBAS programs aim to provide seniors with alternatives to nursing facilities and other institutions. This includes the Community Bridges organization’s Elderday Adult Day Health Care program, which supplies Santa Cruz County seniors with everything from at-home nursing care to healthy meals.
“Shutting the doors of CBAS affects all generations,” Lois Sones, Elderday’s program director, said in a press release. “CBAS serves primarily low-income, Medi-Cal eligible seniors and adults with disabilities. Families of our participants especially need CBAS now so they can return to work to contribute to our workforce and our economy.”
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, the nonprofit sector has been hit hard—and social services, in particular, are looking at major cuts across the board. In Santa Cruz County, the city of Capitola released its proposed budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, which included the elimination of funding for all community-based social service providers, including Community Bridges.
It is a move that will have a big effect, as Capitola’s demographic is more than 20% of seniors.
“As we see local jurisdictions propose cuts to community-based organizations at the same time demand for food and support services is increasing, we are faced with tough choices,” said Amy Hanley, Community Bridges’ Marketing and Communications Manager. “We all need to consider the community impact if services or staff are reduced.”
This week, the city of Watsonville released the first draft of its 2020-2021 budget proposal. Funds for social services went from $200,000 to $134,000—a 33% drop. Hanley said that Scotts Valley’s proposed elimination of services is similar to Capitola’s, and the city of Santa Cruz might not be far behind. Santa Cruz County has also proposed a recommended budget for 2020-2021, and funding for its Core Investment Programs was cut by $83,220.
Karen Delaney, executive director of the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County, said that her organization is bracing for the impacts of such large cuts.
“Whenever there is a disaster … nonprofits like ours are called on to provide more services than ever, but if we lose funding we will be able to do less,” Delaney said. “There will likely be longer waiting lists for Lift Line rides, less meals delivered to seniors …. Why are those things less important than cleaning the streets and watering parks?”
Delaney said that jurisdictions might need to rethink how they operate.
“We understand, as a nonprofit, what it’s like to not have enough money,” she said. “I think in the next couple of years, it’ll be time for all institutions to think more like nonprofits. To find creative ways to survive, while supporting their most vulnerable residents.”
Delaney said she has seen a lot of support and generosity on an individual level, with people continuing to volunteer and donate their own funds.
“We have a very generous community,” she said. “People have been overwhelmingly supportive and willing to help. We want to see that on the city and county level, too.”
As for Community Bridges, the organization is looking at ways it can fill the gap in funding to continue its programming, especially Meals on Wheels and Lift Line. They are also urging the community to contact their state senate and assembly members to express their opposition to the elimination of CBAS programs.
Hanley said that it was important for everyone—organizations, agencies, municipalities—to find a common ground.
“While we are all in this together, we are not all in the same boat,” Hanley said. “The people that Community Bridges serves… are disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 crisis and they are going to continue to need the support of this community in the coming months. Tough economic decisions loom ahead for all of us, but we urge our local leaders to partner and work collaboratively with nonprofits to ensure that the needs of their residents are met and the services they need survive this crisis.”
In Santa Cruz County, the beginning of June means the beginning of a new phase in the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over the weekend, the county’s plan for moving forward was approved by the California Department of Public Health. That means county health officials are this week concentrating on efforts not only to reopen the local economy and help local businesses comply with the state’s guidelines, but also to initiate an ambitious plan for testing and contact tracing.
Margaret Lapiz, who was enlisted in April to head the SAVE Lives Santa Cruz County program, says the county has about 55 people trained and ready to go in its contact tracing program, which is well above the minimum number needed for effective tracing.
“We have a robust plan for contact tracing that is well underway,” says Lapiz, a longtime health care executive hired by the Community Foundation, which is funding the SAVE Lives effort. “But what we need to do is to ramp it up dramatically.”
Contact tracing is epidemiological detective work, a method to isolate a node or outbreak of an infection and trace it back to its source.
Professionals with backgrounds in health care have been put through a vetting and training program to engage in both contact tracing and case investigation. “This is generally expertise that has been in the domain of public health departments for a variety of communicable diseases: HIV, STDs, when we went through the H1N1 (pandemic),” Lapiz says.
Lapiz says that the program has brought in roughly half of its contact tracers from the staff of the county’s health department, and half from community groups such as Salud Para La Gente in Watsonville and Santa Cruz Community Health Centers. “We’ve had conversations with Cabrillo College to use their students in a number of their health-care disciplines. We want to make sure that we have a diverse group of contact tracers: first-in-family students, bilingual and bicultural teams.”
The program is also enlisting the efforts of promotores, lay people and volunteers with a tradition of providing health-care information and guidelines in Latino communities.
Though Lapiz is pleased with the force she and her team have compiled, she says she does not want to discourage others from volunteering. “We have other ways to deploy volunteers who we could capitalize on for expertise and availability. But we are well-positioned right now for contact tracing.”
Jen Herrera, the county’s chief of Public Health, says that contact tracing is a vital step in the control of the spread of Covid-19. The county automatically gets the result of every Covid-19 test—positive, negative or inconclusive—and from that one data point, tracers can launch an investigation.
“Once we get notified of a positive result, that immediately starts our investigation,” Herrera says. “We’ll contact the positive case and initiate the investigation within 24 hours. From there, we determine if there are contacts that need to be contacted. Our goal, our charge, is to follow up on every single positive case in the county. We have a high bar for having enough contact tracers to do containment in our community.”
According to data last updated Tuesday, June 2, 41 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the county in the previous 14 days, with 219 total cases since the outbreak began. There have been no deaths in the last 14 days in the county.
In late May, four clusters of positive cases were reported in Watsonville, which were traced to large family gatherings, including many individuals who traveled in from out of the area.
“Because we know how quickly (Covid-19) spreads, we have to respond quickly,” Herrera says. “From what we learn from our initial investigation, we reach out to whoever has been in contact and, depending on their levels of exposure, we encourage testing. If they are positive, then we look at their contacts. It becomes this web of people who are connected, a cluster.”
Part of the public’s general preparedness for safety during the pandemic, said Herrera, is keep track of their own contacts, just in case that information is needed by tracers.
“How easily can you remember exactly where you’ve been and who you interacted with in the past two weeks?” she says. “That’s a nice marker (to keep track of). As we reopen, that’s just something to consider. There’s going to be a lot more movement of people, and we ask people to still maintain their social cohort bubble.”
In the months since she came forward with a sexual assault allegation against former Vice President Joe Biden, former Santa Cruz resident Tara Reade has faced increased scrutiny.
As reported by GT last month, Pregnant Mare Rescue owner Lynn Hummer has accused Reade of being a persistent scammer, with an account corroborated by Aptos attorney Kelly Klett. Reade downplayed those accusations to GT, choosing not to address them directly. “Some particularly ugly sections of the national press came to my community to dig up as much dirt as possible and spread it across the whole country,” she says via email.
Reade adds that she isn’t sure when or exactly how exactly her relationship with Klett soured, as the two were exchanging pleasant Facebook messages as recently as last year. Things were more complicated with Hummer, about whom Reade declined to say much, other than how she remembers the nonprofit owner being cruel around the time that Reade’s mother died in 2016. Hummer says she knows what Reade is referring to, but says that Reade has exaggerated the details to make the events sound more dramatic. This was around the same time that the dust-up over a horse doctor bill for Charm came to a head. Each of the women says they don’t want to get pulled down into the mud at the other one’s level.
Some Monterey Bay locals, however, have come to Reade’s defense.
“Tara was always kind. She was a good listener. There were many times we would get into conversations about what I was going through or what she was going through. She’s always been an animal lover,” says local horse trainer Genae Kindscher, whose mother Gina shared similar sentiments with Politico last month.
Kindscher never heard Reade speak of Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States, but she believes her friend.
Reade, who still owns the horse named Charm that she adopted from Watsonville’s Pregnant Mare Rescue, says she has fond memories of her time in Santa Cruz. “Santa Cruz is a beautiful place, and I was so fortunate to live there,” Reade, who lives in northern California, writes via email. “The beaches are a treasure for everyone. The arts and music culture is so fun too. I will always consider Santa Cruz one of my favorite places.”
Reade says she is worried that the treatment she’s gotten from the media will make the decision that much harder in the future for victims who think about coming forward with their stories.
She notes that she doesn’t have her own public relations team to counter Biden’s publicists and supporters, including the pro-Biden Krassenstien brothers, who initially broke the story about Hummer on Medium.
“It’s really hard that people are going to tear me apart. But it doesn’t change what happened. This happened in 1993. I was harassed, and I was assaulted, and history will look back on the journalism from this time and judge it,” she tells GT by phone.
Overwhelmed by threats and online harassment, Reade says she is “a poster child for why victims don’t want to come forward.”
“This is destroying my life,” says Reade, who did not speak with GT for our initial story. “I’m not suing Biden. I’m obviously not having any effect on his campaign. His campaign is fine. I tried to come forward in 1993 and in 2019 and now. I just hope it gets easier for the survivors.”
Some former acquaintances of Reade have taken calls from a private investigator and spoken with him. Hummer says the investigator wouldn’t say who his client was, although he insisted it wasn’t the Biden campaign.
Reade was born locally and has other ties to the Monterey Bay. As GT reported, Reade served as an expert witness in domestic violence cases in Monterey County.
More recently, Monterey County Weekly reported that Reade had a long history as an expert witness in such cases, getting called to testify in at least 20 cases over a ten-year span, according to one court transcript.
Two weeks ago, CNN reported that Reade lied about obtaining a degree from Antioch University. That opened up questions about whether Reade had misrepresented herself on the witness stand and also prompted defense attorneys to begin reviewing convictions that had been obtained with Reade’s help. On May 21, Reade’s attorney Douglas Wigdor—who provided GT with comment for our initial story—announced that he was no longer representing Reade. On May 26, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office announced an investigation into whether Reade had lied under oath.
Reade has gotten a new lawyer, and she says she’s looking into what she says is a miscommunication with Antioch University. Whatever happened with her undergraduate education, it did not stop her from enrolling at Seattle University School of Law and graduating, although she never became a lawyer.
Some have questioned elements of Reade’s story that have evolved over time—most notably how she initially claimed to be a victim of sexual harassment at the hands of Biden and then later came forward with claims of sexual assault in a semiprivate Senate hallway. Biden has denied all Reade’s claims. Reade says it took a long time before she felt comfortable going public with her full experience about Biden and even longer for the media to start listening.
Some skeptics have pointed out that Reade praised Biden’s work on preventing violence against women and boasted about her own part in crafting that legislation—perhaps even inflating her role. Some have asked why a victim would talk so positively about their own abuser. It’s perhaps a cruel twist of irony that Reade, in her days as a domestic violence expert witness, testified about the complexities behind why abuse victims often lie and defend their abusers for so long.
On Monday, the New York Times released an in-depth article detailing much of Reade’s life story. A culmination of more than 100 interviews, it featured many perspectives—aggrieved acquaintances who say that Reade never repaid her debts, a classmate who saw Reade’s sadness, friends who knew her kindness, those who believe her, those who don’t. “In the dramatic retelling of her life story, she has also shown a tendency to embellish,” the Times wrote.
The Washington Post interviewed Intercept Washington Bureau Chief Ryan Grim, who was instrumental in pushing journalists to take Reade’s story seriously. Grim stands behind that decision. He would not say whether he personally believed Reade’s allegation.
“That’s the wrong question to ask,” he told the Post. “The question for the media should be, ‘Do you believe she has a right to be heard?’ I think we in the media should continue to report out her story. Our job is to put the evidence in the public domain and let the public decide what to do with it.”
Santa Cruz County is about to move one step closer toward figuring out what to do with its old freight rail corridor.
On Thursday, June 4, the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) will evaluate a short list of options for the coastal corridor, a rail line that runs more than 30 miles through the county—all the way up to Davenport. When it comes to transportation policy, the most contested section stretches from Watsonville to Santa Cruz. That’s where a fight has simmered over the past few years about how best to move people to and from work. The RTC’s long-stated intention has been for a bike and pedestrian trail with a passenger train running alongside it.
Many bicycle advocates argue that there isn’t enough room or money to accommodate a fully functioning passenger train without giving the trail short shrift. Groups like Santa Cruz County Greenway and Trail Now called for the RTC to instead rip up the train tracks and replace them with trails for bikes and pedestrians only.
In January of 2019, the commission approved a 10-year contract with the freight rail company Progressive Rail. In approving the Unified Corridor Study that same day, the group all but agreed to prioritize doing public transit, like trains, on the corridor. A vote from the commission kickstarted the Transit Corridors Alternatives Analysis, which is weighing different options for the rail corridor and will be the subject of discussion on Thursday.
Three months ago, the analysis identified 25 possible transportation options to study. In advance of Thursday’s discussion, RTC staff is recommending that the commission narrow the list down to just four preferred rail trail options—bus rapid transit, electric light rail, an electric commuter train, and a mix of the train and bus options.
Together, the commission and the RTC’s staff are evaluating the various options according to a long list of criteria. Most of the criteria fall into one of three categories: “equity,” meaning that the mode of transportation is equitable, safe and reliable; “economy,” meaning that it’s fiscally sound, while supporting businesses and jobs and, lastly, the “environment.”
The commission is scheduled to see results of the high-level analysis of the pared-down options in September, according to a staff report. The full analysis is scheduled to be finished in January of 2021, two years after the study was initially approved.
Greenway and Trail Now supporters have expressed frustration that a trail-only option did not get serious consideration, although some activists have expressed openness in the past to the bus-rapid transit concept. Train supporters—from groups like Friends of the Rail and Trail and the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation—continue to advocate for the train options.
At its March meeting, the RTC approved $1.4 million in repairs to the rail line’s train tracks. Ripping up those tracks could open up legal questions, like whether the RTC must pay back the $11 million in state money that it took to purchase the rail line several years ago.
That doesn’t mean that the leading options currently are particularly affordable. According to last year’s Unified Corridor Study, the county’s transportation strategy going forward would cost a projected $950 million. Where much of that money would come from is unclear.
Due to social distancing guidelines during the Covid-19 pandemic, Thursday’s RTC meeting will be at 9:30am via teleconference. To join, go to zoom.us/j/83234221839 or call 669-900-6833. The conference ID is 832 3422 1839.
In order to support our local wineries, purchasing their wine is essential at this time. There are many bargains out there right now. You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to get a good bottle of wine.
Alfaro Family Vineyards and Winery is offering no-contact curbside pickup from noon to 3pm Monday to Saturday or by appointment. Try their terrific estate Gruner Veltliner—a six-pack is $132.
The Vinocruz people in Soquel are happy to announce that they are now open every day from noon to 7pm for takeout or delivery (with certain restrictions). They are doing their best to serve the local community with amazing food, wine, beer and cider, and they look forward to seeing your smiling face masks!
Kathryn Kennedy Winery is doing full cases at “well below retail.” Wine purchases are to be picked up at the winery by appointment only as the winery is not normally open to visitors.
Muns Vineyard is doing stay-at-home specials right now, including delivery locally at no charge. For pickup advance orders at the vineyard, it is requested that all visitors wear a mask and observe social distancing. Credit cards are charged remotely to avoid direct contact.
Stockwell Cellars on the Westside has ongoing case sales, including their California Quarantine Red Blend and their Rosé of Pinot Noir. And as the folks at Stockwell say: “It’s time for Rosés again. It will put the roses back in your cheeks.”
Santa Cruz County Superior Court plans to resume jury trials in late summer, a little more than two months after they were temporarily suspended due to Covid-19.
Presiding Judge Paul Burdick announced on March 17 that all jury trials—including criminal, civil and probate —would be postponed through at least April 17.
Court officials later moved many criminal hearings to the courthouse steps as a way to further slow the spread of the virus. Those hearings have since moved back inside, and three criminal courtrooms will open next week, both part of the court’s multi-phased approach to resuming services, said Court Executive Officer Alex Calvo.
With trials now expected to resume in August, the court must find a way to impanel juries while keeping them safe, Calvo said.
A 10-member task force made up of court officials, prosecutors and defense attorneys meets weekly to hammer out the details, Calvo said.
The upcoming changes will affect most aspects of trial operations, starting with calling as few as 15 jurors for the selection process, as opposed to the 80 that normally pack the courtroom, Calvo said.
“We’re expecting the jury trial selection process to take much longer,” he said.
Once impaneled, jurors will be spaced apart in the courtroom to comply with social distancing guidelines, he said.
The court will likely begin sending out jury summons in July.
“We need to get the word out to the jurors about the steps we’re taking to make them safe, and also the fact that jury trials are the cornerstone of our democracy,” Calvo said. “The right to a trial by one’s peers has not gone away, and will not go away. We’re going to need jurors to come in and take part in what we feel is an essential and crucial part of our democracy.”
The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the protests that have sprung up nationwide in its aftermath have us all thinking about the media narratives around people of color in this country—or, at least, they should. There is a long and ugly history of reductionism, ignorance and discrimination, a shameful failure to understand and report on black lives that has directly contributed to the lack of understanding among so many white people of why the very phrase “Black Lives Matter” is so important.
Sometimes there is malicious intent, yes, but sometimes there is something less nefarious and more insidious—not a purposeful deceit, but a lack of context or an oversimplification. This storytelling shorthand is more ubiquitous than ever in our current clickbait-obsessed media landscape, but I think Ryan Masters’ cover story on Sean Davis this week demonstrates how important it is to tell someone’s story in a holistic way. I don’t think there was anything “wrong” per se in the retellings of Davis’ story in the national media after his son Ashtyn Davis was drafted into the NFL in April. But they didn’t tell the whole story, and I think it’s appropriate that the community newspaper in Santa Cruz rectifies that to reflect how important Sean has been to so many people in the Santa Cruz community.
Also, be sure to read our coverage of the protests in Santa Cruz and Watsonville in this issue, as well as online. With so much going on that our readers need to know, we’re continuing to deliver daily coverage of everything that affects Santa Cruz County at goodtimes.sc, so follow us there.
Andy Mills’ full participation on Saturday with a couple of other officers, in response to a woman’s individual initiative for the community to gather at the town clock, as a citizen and a person of faith was a distinct act of citizen leadership, as was our mayor’s. Mills’ critique of the current state of policing in the United States was a beacon of wisdom, truth and hope in the abysmal moral void in the U.S. White House. It is a clear call from one of the best of his profession to overhaul the entire concept, practice, and institution of policing.
The 400 years history of all the little compromises spawned by the “Great Compromise” on slavery by which we established a very tenuous union have resulted in a body of punitive and inequitable laws, courts, economics and policing practices that we must all do our part in the overhaul of every public and private institution of health, education, housing. I rejoice any time one of our public leaders shows up and speaks up where and when it really matters.
Having said that, there is always the distance between where we are and where we still need to go.
Darrell & Karen Darling | Santa Cruz
More Work to Be Done
Thank you for your cover story about Pride (GT, 5/27). I came to Santa Cruz County in 1998 and knew no one. One of my first actions was to involve myself in the Diversity Center. I was fortunate enough to be selected to serve on the Diversity Center Board of Directors in 2003. I served for three years. I have supported the DC with time, money, physical effort and serving in a variety of appointed positions to promote our agenda.
Last year, I was honored to be selected as a “hero of the community” in Watsonville at the Diversity Center Gala in October.
I worked very hard to overturn Pajaro Village’s homophobic practices and remove two members of the board of directors.
Earlier this year, I took hundreds of signatures from Santa Cruz County residents to the Board of Supervisors to ask them to establish an LGBTIQ public commission. So far, it has been eight weeks and I have heard nothing.
If this county is to be truly diverse, and show true pride in our GLBTIQ population, we need a forum to advise the five white, straight males on the Board of Supervisors about our community’s needs, concerns and health issues. A commission would accomplish just that.
With all due respect to the board, they have not lived a GLBTIQ life, and have little personal experience with our issues. They are not aware of the personal struggles our population has with the Covid-19 virus due to the fact that many of our members have compromised immune systems.
And, on a personal note, the fact that I could not even get a return phone call or email from my doctor as I suffered through the Covid-19 virus alone in February made me realize that many of us are really alone in our struggle for survival.
Create an LGBTIQ public commission so we can advise this not-to-diverse board of supervisors to treat us with dignity. Contact your county supervisor to help us make this a reality. Let us make 2020 the year of vision for the needs of all people in our community.
Steve Trujillo | Watsonville
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
From the overlook at Pyramid Beach. Photograph by Rachel Wolfe.
Submit to ph****@*******es.sc. Include information (location, etc.) and your name. Photos may be cropped. Preferably, photos should be 4 inches by 4 inches and minimum 250dpi.
GOOD IDEA
SURFING THE WEB
World Oceans Day is Monday, June 8, and it will kick off a lineup of family-friendly virtual events hosted by Save Our Shores. The nonprofit’s Oceans Week will promote ongoing ocean awareness and advocacy. Most online events will have a donation-based sliding scale for admission. Tickets for Save Our Shores’ June 12 screening of the newly released Australian film2040: Join the Regeneration and the follow-up Q&A is $12 per ticket. Visit saveourshores.org for more information.
GOOD WORK
POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT
A 53-unit affordable housing development planned for the heart of Freedom Boulevard in Watsonville received a $2 million loan, thanks to the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership and Housing Trust Silicon Valley. The development would bring affordable housing for families earning 20-60% of the area median income, which, in Santa Cruz County, is roughly $78,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. The project must still receive approval from the Watsonville Planning Commission and the City Council.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
Because in-person events across Santa Cruz County have been canceled or postponed following the shelter-in-place order, Good Times is compiling a weekly list of virtual events hosted by local artisans, artists, fitness instructors and businesses. To submit your virtual event, send an email to ca******@*******es.sc.
ARTS
IRWIN 2020: COLLECTIVE SOLITUDE: The Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery is excited to introduce IRWIN 2020: Collective Solitude, the 34th annual Irwin Scholarship Award exhibition, which showcases the work of a select group of UC Santa Cruz’s most promising young artists: Aaron Martinez, Anastasia Oleson, Angel Gonzales, Chloe Murr, Dominic Ramirez, Edgar Cruz, Emma McWaid, Jocelyn Lee, Joshua Zupan, Morgan Tomfohr, Natalie Del Castillo, Rodrigo Ramos, and Veriche Blackwell. Collective Solitude features 13 artists whose works speak to this extraordinary period in history characterized by tremendous isolation and yet also incredible communal action. Their art addresses the many effects that distance has on individual, group, community, and worldwide levels. With confidence that such great constraints generate new and creative ideas, Collective Solitude aims to explore our present, estranged world where everyone is experiencing some form of loss and separation while working diligently and finding unique means to come together and support one another. Opening celebration: Wednesday, June 3, 6-7pm. RSVP at art.ucsc.edu/sesnon/irwin-2020. Virtual exhibition: June 3-30. For more information, visit art.ucsc.edu/sesnon.
MARTY O’REILLY – ‘UPSTREAM’ LIVESTREAM: Live music and conversation, discussing creativity, place and livestreaming during the era of Covid-19. Hosted by Marty O’Reilly and featuring Kat Factor, Moha Aoualou, Chris Lynch and Salif Kone. Friday, June 5, 6-9pm. Livestreaming at bit.ly/ebbflow20.
CREATING DYNAMIC RESILIENCE IN THE PROFESSIONAL DANCER: A VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE: Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center presents “Creating Dynamic Resilience In The Professional Dancer: A Virtual Roundtable.” The Roundtable will feature TWDCC’s Founder and Executive Director Cat Willis as moderator, and three former principal dancers with world-renowned Garth Fagan Dance: TWDCC Artistic Director and Virtual Theater Soloist, Micha Scott, Bessie-Award winner Sharon Skepple-Mayfield, and Evidence Dance’s Annique Roberts. The Premiere of Virtual Theater was a huge success for TWDCC, reaching over 2,000 viewers between its initial, live showing and its continued digital presence. TWDCC’s second installment of Virtual Theater will tackle the vital question of how we, as dancers, can diversify our resiliency tactics. We will explore what it means to develop “dynamic resilience” as a professional dancer. TWDCC’s Founder will explore how the panelists, through years of dancing at an elite level of performance and artistic demand, have developed techniques to maintain and nourish their resiliency. What are the tools the panelists use to get through tough periods while continuing to perfect their work and performance? Questions will be submitted from selected students pursuing professional careers in dance. Friday, June 5, 5pm. Visit tanneryworlddance.com/virtual-theater for more information.
VIEWABLE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA: CABRILLO GALLERY EXHIBIT ‘SIX YEARS SMITTEN: OBJECTS OF ADORNMENT.’ We miss seeing you take your time so generously with the artwork in our gallery. But this too shall pass, and we will be able to gallivant around to different venues again someday and bump elbows. In the meantime, we hope you are making the most of hunkering down at home; tidying up, being creative, or continuing work remotely. Since there are more than 150 pieces in the show, we are posting regularly on Facebook and Instagram so you can get a daily inspirational dose of the artwork. You don’t even have to join Facebook to just tune in and see the images. They are available to everyone; you can sidestep the prompt that comes up to join or log in.
DNA’S COMEDY LAB VIRTUAL COMEDY Who says comedy has to be in-person to be funny? We can still laugh over the internet. DNA’s Comedy Lab is hosting live standup (sit down?) in online Zoom meetings, plus their open mic and Sloth Storytelling Show, all online. Visit dnascomedylab.com for more information.
CLASSES
SALSA SUELTA IN PLACE: Free weekly online session in Cuban-style Salsa Suelta for experienced beginners and up. Contact to get a Zoom link. Thursdays at 7pm. Salsagente.com.
PARADIGM SPORT LIVESTREAM CLASSES LIVE While we are sheltering in place, one of the best things we can do for the health of our minds is to move our bodies. When we move together as a community, connected by the desire to inspire and promote wellness, we encourage, motivate and lift each other beyond what we might think is possible. Every day at noon. 426-9500. paradigmsport.com.
TOADAL FITNESS ONLINE CLASSES Toadal Fitness is streaming live classes and workouts that don’t require much if any, workout equipment. You must be a member, so visit toadalfitness.com to sign up. Members can get access to classes at toadalfitness.com/online-classes to take a class.
KIDS EXERCISE CLASS Stuck at home? Don’t let that stop your kids from getting quality exercise. Tune in for a fun, creative way to exercise at home! This class meets state curriculum guidelines for children’s physical education. Classes taught by bilingual trainers (English and Spanish). Our collective health is critical now more than ever! We all need to be healthy to boost our immune systems and fight this virus. We may all have to socially distance in the physical sense of the word, but we do not have to be entirely separated and isolated. All you need is a streaming device, water, Wi-Fi, and a positive attitude. Tune in to our online fitness and education sessions. Pay what you can, and together we will make a stronger, healthier, more resilient community of wellness. We hope to partner with you on your journey to optimal health to keep this going as long as possible. Please RSVP, then use this link to join our sessions: zoom.us/j/344330220. Contributions are via: Paypal: ja***@***********re.com. Venmo: @santacruzcore. Every day at 11am. 425-9500.
COMMUNITY
IF LATIN AMERICA VIRTUAL APPETIZERS: We can’t do the IF Latin America Dinner this year, so please join us online for IF Latin America Appetizers. A live conversation with leading Mexican nonviolence educator and activist Pietro Ameglio. Bring your own Mexican appetizers (recipes provided) and your questions/comments for Pietro. Relatives of the disappeared during the IV National Search Brigade on the Zoom call, Pietro will give an update on Mexico in the time of coronavirus and on their work, including their “ViralizeSolidarity” social media campaign. And he looks forward to your questions and comments. Whether or not you can join us for the free online conference, please donate generously to support the visionary nonviolent social change work in Mexico of Pietro Ameglio and his co-workers, including the youth-led Peace and Nonviolence Collective. Checks may be made payable to IF and sent to: 160 Sunflower Lane, Watsonville, CA 95076. To donate online, visit integrities.org. Please indicate donations are for “Mexico Nonviolence.” To register for Latin America Appetizers, please send an email to: if************@***il.com. We will send you login information along with a couple of Pietro’s favorite Mexican appetizer recipes. For more about Pietro’s work, visit integrities.org/nonviolence-in-mexico.html. Thursday, June 4, 7pm.
CASA ONLINE INFORMATION MEETING: CASA of Santa Cruz County needs caring adult volunteers to speak up for the best interests of children who are involved in the Juvenile Dependency Care System (foster care) because they have been abused or neglected. A volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) spends time with one child each week, getting to know them and gathering information from everyone involved in the child’s case. In-person information meetings have been postponed in order to uphold the safety and well-being of you and your loved ones. In the meantime we’re hosting virtual information meetings! Please go to casaofsantacruz.org/signup to sign up, and you’ll receive a confirmation email with details and the link to the online meeting. If you have any questions you can email yo***@*************uz.org. Monday, June 8, 2pm.
GROUPS
HEALING CRYSTAL BOWL SOUND BATH Relax, empty out and soothe our nervous systems in these uncertain times of great change. While humanity is laying low, nourish your spiritual immune system with high resonance alchemical crystal vibrations! Support all aspects of your being. Ride the wave for one hour with Sonic Vibration Specialist Michele for a deep journey with harmonic, alchemical crystal bowls and chimes. Feel free to sit up or lay down in a restorative pose to receive this uniquely relaxing expression of compassion. Immerse yourself in healing crystal bowl sound resonance and Michele’s angelic voice. Singyoursoulsong.com. Every Monday at 7pm. Online by Donation: eventbrite.com/e/harmonize-w-alchemical-crystalline-sound-immersion-tickets-102214323794.
VIRTUAL GUIDED MEDITATION Reduce stress with meditation and maintain a healthy lifestyle during social distancing. Join us for a free virtual session. It’s been a tough week. In our lifetimes we have never faced a public health crisis like this one. As a locally owned small business, this situation is particularly overwhelming and stressful. Yet, we are also grateful. Grateful for our amazing cohort of practitioners that want to help as many people as they can. Grateful for our dependable back office and administrative support team. And, most of all, grateful to you, our community who has helped my dream of co-creating a community of wellness become a reality. Without you, there is no Santa Cruz CORE! Please RSVP, then use this link to join our sessions: zoom.us/j/344330220. Contributions are via: Paypal: ja***@***********re.com. Venmo: @santacruzcore. Every day at noon. 425-9500
VIRTUAL YOUNG ADULT (18-30) TRANSGENDER SUPPORT GROUP A weekly peer support group for young adults aged 18-25 who identify as transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, agender, or any other non-cisgender identity. This is a social group where we meet and chat among ourselves, sharing our experiences and thoughts in a warm, welcoming setting. Our meetings will be held on Discord during the Shelter in Place Order. For more info, contact Ezra Bowen at tr***@*************er.org.
LGBTQNBI+ SUPPORT GROUP FOR CORONAVIRUS STRESS This weekly LGBTQNBI+ support group is being offered to help us all deal with stress during the shelter-in-place situation that we are experiencing from the coronavirus. Feel free to bring your lunch and chat together to get support. This group is offered at no cost and will be facilitated by licensed therapists Shane Hill, Ph.D., and Melissa Bernstein, LMFT #52524. Learn how to join the Zoom support group at diversitycenter.org/community-calendar.
OUTDOOR
LIGHTNING TALKS WITH 2019-2020 STUDENT RESEARCH AND EDUCATION AWARDS RECIPIENTS: Each fall, the Seymour Marine Discovery Center and the Institute of Marine Sciences hold an open competition for UC Santa Cruz students to encourage research and education projects in the marine sciences. Top projects receive Student Research and Education Awards, which provide funding to support the continuance of students’ work. The Seymour Center and IMS are pleased to now share these projects with the public. Join us online as the 2019-2020 Student Research and Education Awards recipients present their marine science projects during a live webinar, “A Special World Oceans Day Presentation: Lightning Talks with 2019-20 Student Research and Education Award Recipients.” Project topics range from elephant seals to macroalgae to global sea surface temperatures, each presenting real issues in the world of marine science and showcasing UC Santa Cruz undergraduate and graduate students’ global impact in addressing them. Lightning Talks with 2019-20 Student Research and Education Awards Recipients is offered at no charge with advanced registration. Please consider supporting the Seymour Center by becoming a member or giving a donation today. Become a member: seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/get-involved/join. Make a donation: seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/get-involved/donate/make-a-donation. Monday, June 8, 11am. Visit the Seymour Center’s website to register in advance for the webinar (required): seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/learn/college-students.
LIVE FEED FROM THE AQUARIUM It’s not recommended to go outside a lot at this time, but that doesn’t mean the outside can’t come to you. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has its live feeds up and running, from the jellies to the aviary. Log on to montereybayaquarium.org for more information.
NOON IN THE PARK Tune in to our livestream at noon! facebook.com/countyparkfriends. Walk a walk with us; we host virtual storytimes, special guests with yoga, music and more. Every day at noon.
When the New York Jets called Ashtyn Davis April 24 to inform the standout Cal safety and Santa Cruz High alum they’d be taking him with the No. 68 overall pick of the 2020 NFL Draft, the small group of family members gathered at his aunt’s Soquel home erupted with joy and relief.
Big-time buzz had surrounded the hyper-athletic safety throughout his senior year at Cal, but a late-season injury had limited his much-anticipated performance at the NFL Combine, keeping Ashtyn from exhibiting his world-class speed. When the Covid-19 pandemic cancelled his Pro Day workout, NFL scouts were forced to rely on existing tape. Most draft pundits placed Ashtyn in the late second or early third round. Others warned his draft stock could tumble.
In addition to speculation about his health and experience, the media insisted on suggesting Ashtyn’s success was a direct result of his father’s addiction issues. Sean Davis, 51, used alcohol and drugs from an early age, habits which devolved into sporadic crack cocaine use as a teenager and eventual full-blown addiction. After his third stint at the Janus treatment center in Santa Cruz, Sean finally managed to hang on to a sobriety date: Oct. 20, 2008. “Ten days after Ashtyn’s 11th birthday, which I’d completely missed,” Sean says now.
When The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman approached Ashtyn’s family to write his insightful August 2019 profile, they decided as a unit to address Sean’s addiction. “We were concerned it could be a distraction, but knew it also had the potential to help a lot of people,” Sean says. By the time the Pac-12 Network produced a 10-minute video about Ashtyn, Sean’s disease had become a dominant narrative of his son’s story.
“I understand the angle. The kid who overcomes a background of addiction is a story that’s familiar to people, but here’s the truth: Ashtyn would be in the NFL whether I went off the rails or not. I guarantee you that. He was driven by a force far greater than his dad,” Sean says.
“Oh yeah, he would have been successful regardless,” agrees Ashtyn’s mother Christine. “But he also made some tough decisions based on the fact that he carries the addiction gene on both sides of his family. Abstaining through high school had a big impact on his social life.”
Fortunately, Ashtyn was also born with an astonishing focus and determination to win, according to his mom. His journey as a student-athlete is evidence enough. After graduating from Santa Cruz High in 2016, Ashtyn walked on as a track athlete at Cal Berkeley, then turned down a scholarship because the money came with a no-football clause. So he simply walked on to the storied Cal Bears football program while continuing to run track. By his junior year, the hard-hitting ball hawk and explosive kick return specialist had earned a football scholarship as well as first-team All-Pac-12 Conference honors.
Ashtyn finished his senior year as a top-three safety prospect in the 2020 NFL Draft and a finalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, which honors the nation’s best walk-on football player. And track? Ashtyn won the Pac-12 110-meter hurdle title and was named second-team All-American as well as an Indoor All-American in the 60-meter hurdles.
Make no mistake: Ashtyn Davis has the talent to make a major impact on America’s biggest stage. And although the media will probably continue to use Sean’s past to explain Ashtyn’s near-mythical rise to the NFL, the father has established his own quiet legacy: a critical impact on hundreds of lives in Santa Cruz County’s recovery programs.
Something Amiss
“As an eight-year-old boy, my great-grandfather Henry Alston Davis escaped slavery in the Carolinas and made his way north to freedom in North Brunswick, New Jersey,” Sean Davis says. “Two generations later, my father Roy Davis was born in 1928.”
Roy had already served overseas in the U.S. Navy, played semi-pro football, and picked up a sizable heroin habit when he met Susan Lysik, a young art student, at a gallery opening in the city. The couple dated for two years, but racism and New York’s easy access to heroin drove them to hitch a ride to California in 1967.
“People would spit at us as we walked down the street in New York. I wouldn’t always notice, but I could feel him stiffen. All those questions of race, they weren’t supposed to matter anymore, but they still did,” Susan says. “Of course, I was also naïve enough to think that we were headed to this golden land without drugs.”
Since Roy and Susan’s ride was headed to Santa Cruz, that’s where the couple settled down. A year later, Sean was born at Dominican Hospital. But the family didn’t remain a unit for long. Roy’s substance abuse eventually wore Susan out, and the couple separated when Sean was still a toddler. But Sean wasn’t separated from his beloved father for long. Roy remarried, moved to Ben Lomond, and Sean enjoyed transferring back and forth between his mother’s house and his father’s new family, which included two step-siblings.
Susan wouldn’t let Sean play football. An uncle had died in a pick-up tackle game, according to family lore. “Our family just wasn’t into spectator sports. I grew up on skis,” Susan says. Instead, Sean did Santa Cruz State Junior Lifeguards and children’s theater. At school, he was a goofy class clown who lived to crack up those around him. “He was always this radiant, bright ray of sunshine,” says his mother.
Sean also found drugs early, smoking weed for the first time as a student at Bayview Elementary. By the time he attended Mission Hill Junior High, he regularly shoulder-tapped for beer and devoted his Saturday nights to The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Sash Mill Cinema.
As a senior at Santa Cruz High, Sean seemed to have it all. The class vice-president had already been accepted into UCSB and begun hanging out with a cute freshman named Christine Mahutga. The high school sweethearts would eventually fall in love and produce Ashtyn and his younger sister Lexi a decade later. By all accounts, Sean’s friends and classmates perceived him as happy, relaxed, and totally at home in his skin. But something was amiss.
“You’d call it an identity crisis, I guess. I went on this quest for, I don’t know what, for black culture in Santa Cruz. I found criminal culture instead, and wound up confusing the two,” Sean says. “Not long after that, I smoked crack for the first time with Able Al from down the street.”
Sean was careful to keep his new social circles separate from his high school world, but by the end of his senior year, crack had already become a problem. He felt fortunate to be able to leave for college in Santa Barbara.
“He definitely had two different personalities—Sean at school, and Sean away from school,” Christine says.
“I knew Sean was looking for something,” says his mother Susan. “I just didn’t know what to do about the black side of things. That was supposed to be his dad’s department. I had friends with mixed children who moved away from Santa Cruz so they could grow up in a mixed culture, but that wasn’t possible for me.”
The Legend of CODE III
At UCSB, Sean grew dreads and designed his own independent curriculum in Black Studies and Environmental Studies, eventually writing a 300-page thesis on ethno-environmentalism after living in the West African countries of Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, and Benin. “In a nutshell,” he says, “my thesis was about how different cultures view themselves in respect to the surrounding life and landscape.”
After graduation in 1991, Sean enrolled in an Ethnic Studies master’s program at San Francisco State while living in Santa Cruz and working construction, partly to be close to his father. Roy, now in his 60s, had kicked heroin but struggled mightily with liquor and tobacco. Eventually, Sean’s stepmother moved Roy into the El Centro Apartments on Pacific Avenue, made sure his SSI check was forwarded to the correct address, and moved on with her life.
“There was nothing more she could do,” Sean says. “I’d regularly stop by to smoke weed with him in an attempt to keep him dry, but most nights he drank until he passed out. He’d fall down steps. He’d forget to unplug his oxygen machine while he smoked and blow himself up,” Sean says. “It sucked.”
Meanwhile, the Rodney King riots were fresh in the nation’s mind. A new type of “alternative rap” channeled the collective anger, promising social justice and good times with Anthrax-heavy guitar riffs and militantly danceable rhythm sections. When two friends asked Sean to front a similar-sounding project, he jumped at the chance. A uniquely Santa Cruz take on the genre, CODE III incorporated surf-punk and reggae. Over the course of its two-year run, the band built a local following opening for major acts like Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine, and Body Count at the Catalyst.
“We tried hard to break into the scene. At one point we had choreographers, videographers, photographers. All seven of our members had elaborate character bios,” Sean says. “We’d just started playing San Francisco venues like Slim’s when it fell apart. I was the glue that held the band together, but the drugs loosened my grip on things until I had to let go.”
As CODE III wound down, Sean’s 66-year-old father received his final SSI check on Friday, Dec. 2, 1994. Two days later, Sean found him dead on the floor of his apartment from asphyxiation, airways blocked and alcohol in his system. Confronted by the rigid corpse of his father, another victim of the disease of addiction, Sean crumbled. “Crack owned me after that,” he admits.
By January of 1995, CODE III had disbanded. Their first-and-only CD was completed and mastered, but it would never be officially released. In short succession, Sean dropped out of grad school, lost his job, and was booted from the house by his mother, setting him out on a 13-year period heavily underscored by drugs and alcohol.
Sean Davis’ band CODE III brought the rap-metal crossover sound to the Santa Cruz music scene in the early ’90s.
Lost and Found
Even when Sean’s addiction was at his worst, bright spots existed. He married Christine in 1995 and remained present for Ashtyn and Lexi a vast majority of the time. He built his family a home in Bonny Doon and always worked to financially support his children. He was also instrumental in the decision to let Ashtyn play youth football.
But this wasn’t Christine’s first rodeo. She’d already watched her father kick a nasty crank habit in the 1980s. She knew Sean was nowhere near recovery. When her own sobriety was threatened by Sean’s habits, she knew it was over. After seven years of marriage, she and Sean separated, freeing Sean to tumble into ever greater voids of moral, spiritual, and physical depletion. “In the end, I willed my life down to the size of something that fit in a crack pipe,” he says. “That’s what this disease does.”
On Oct. 20, 2008, after years of being crushed by self-imposed crises he could neither postpone nor evade, Sean Davis surrendered. He entered Janus for a third time and sought guidance from a grizzled old New Yorker known to the Santa Cruz recovery community as “Pops.” “Pops comes in and announces, ‘Bottles, bullets, mayhem, and murder. I’m Pops and this is my story,’” says Sean. “Well, I listened to every word he said after that.”
After 30 days in residential treatment, Sean moved into a sober living environment, sharing a 150-square-foot basement room with two other men in recovery. Hour by hour, meeting by meeting, day by day, Sean began to rebuild his life, including his career as a tree-care specialist. “I had to relearn how to do tree work. I had a bad case of the nerves when I restarted. Believe me, it’s a lot scarier climbing 150 feet into the air and blowing out a 50-foot treetop when you’re sober,” he says.
Free of the obsession to use, Sean approached service-based, community recovery with the same single-minded purpose his son would employ to reach the NFL. Over the past 11 years, he’s worked directly with hundreds of men, bringing his message of hope to the Water Street jail, Roundtree Men’s Facility, the Camp in Scotts Valley, the Salvation Army, and Si Se Puede, among many others. Every other Sunday for the past 11 years, he’s spoken to the residential clients at Janus, bringing them toiletries and socks.
“Santa Cruz County is a great place to get loaded, and an even better place to get recovery,” Sean says. “We have a really strong community here.”
Vince, 50, is one of many men in Santa Cruz County who credit Sean with helping save his life. After a four-year term in federal prison in the 1990s for selling acid, Vince spent most of his adult life either shooting heroin and drinking on the streets of Santa Cruz or locked up in one county facility or another. He’ll have four years sober in August.
“Myself, I have a highly distinctive personality. Sean was the first human being I could connect with. Whenever I need to talk to him, I can call him. He’s there. And not just for me. Everyone. Anyone who asks,” Vince says.
Of course, recovery rates are grim, and many addicts never do. Like most in recovery, Sean’s personal list of dead friends and associates is long, which only deepens his gratitude for life.
In 2016, on Sean’s eighth sobriety birthday, Ashtyn and Lexi showed up at their father’s door with matching sobriety tattoos commemorating his sobriety date in roman numerals.
“I was proud and in awe and completely stoked, but I was also looking at the date tattooed there … I mean, you know how recovery can be. Nothing’s guaranteed,” Sean laughs. “But they said, ‘It doesn’t matter if you relapse. This is the day we got our dad back.’”
The following Saturday, Sean went to The Gilded Lily on Mission Street and had Tristan ink a third, identical tattoo on his own forearm.
Ignoring the Chatter
Five minutes after Ashtyn spoke to the New York Jets by phone, ESPN broadcast the pick on air with an introduction that was later criticized for its lazy (and callous, considering Sean’s past) stereotypes: “OK, this is a fascinating pick because Ashtyn Davis has been referred to by Peter King, among other people, as the mystery man in this draft,” jabbered analyst Trey Wingo. “What is he? His hometown is Santa Cruz, California, which is known for two things: surfers and smoking weed. Ashtyn Davis says, ‘I don’t do either one of those things.’”
In addition to being utterly substance-free, Ashtyn is also nearly implacable, which will come in handy under the white-hot lights of the New York media market.
“He’s always ignored negative press. He calls all the chatter, both good and bad, poison,” Sean says. “He never would’ve made it this far if he listened to any of that.”
Yet the one thing Ashtyn can’t ignore is a challenge, according to his mom.
“That’s Ashtyn in a nutshell,” Christine says. “It’s actually something we had to monitor as he got older. There’s no off switch with him. My dad would push him by sending YouTube videos of people doing these crazy acrobatic things with a message: ‘Bet you can’t do this.’ Of course, Ashtyn would always pull it off. Every time.”
It’s this dogged determination and pure physical ability, Christine says, that will make Ashtyn a favorite among the New York Jets coaches.
“He watches so much film. And not just the safety position. He studies multiple angles, different players and positions. He’ll spend hours [observing] tape on a quarterback, looking for an advantage,” she says. “He’s every coach’s dream. Just tell him it can’t be done.”
While uncertainty continues to obscure the 2020 NFL season, here’s one thing you can count on: Eventually someone’s going to tell Ashtyn Davis he can’t win a Super Bowl. Watch out.
Even in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting stay-at-home health orders, Santa Cruz County Elections Clerk Gail Pellerin never considered halting weddings at the county building. That made her an outlier among county clerks in California.
“I was one of the only ones at one point, so we got very busy, with people coming in from all over the state,” Pellerin says.
She adds, “There’s a lot of essential reasons why people are needing to get married, so I didn’t see any reason why we should close our doors.”
The demand for Pellerin’s wedding services has been steep. At one point, she was doing a ceremony every half hour, she says.
“There were couples that were facing visa issues,” she says. “There were couples where one of the partners had lost their job, and in order to get health benefits, they needed to get married.”
Pellerin was accommodating the rush during an already busy time in her office. Santa Cruz County’s health order went into effect while she and her colleagues were in the thick of counting votes from the March 3 election. Now, she’s gearing up for the November election, which for California will be conducted almost entirely by mail.
In the meantime, Pellerin has been happy to help couples go through with their wedding plans. Their reasons for tying the knot amid the Covid-19 pandemic are often personal.
“There are people with health situations, other than Covid, who are in a situation where they’re feeling vulnerable and they want to have that legal relationship with the love of their life,” Pellerin says. “I’m happy I can be here to do that. That’s something I can do. I’m not a doctor. I’m not a nurse. I’m not law enforcement. I’m not a farmer. I’m not any of those other essential things, but I can keep love alive.”
MARRY GO ROUND
Many of the happy couples who strolled into the county building have had great personal stories, Pellerin says.
One bride showed up with “a Covid bouquet” that a friend had made for her. It was wrapped in facemask, complete with hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes and also a few white roses.
From an emotional-wellbeing perspective, it’s been important for many couples to carry on in spite of the uncertainty that surrounds them, Pellerin says. One couple planned to wed in Hawaii before their ceremony got cancelled. “So they showed up in their aloha wear and got married under the trees in Santa Cruz. It’s a pretty close second to Hawaii,” Pellerin says.
Pellerin’s staff has worked to make the office as safe and insulated as possible from the novel coronavirus.
One of Pellerin’s colleagues came into the office one weekend and installed plexiglass dividers to protect staff. Pellerin ordered masks from Etsy. Some volunteers made extra masks and dropped them off. Pellerin has gloves ready for anyone who wants them. The staff also purchased as much disinfectant spray and as many disinfectant wipes as they possibly could to stock up, she says.
When she does ceremonies, Pellerin says she uses a face shield, instead of a facemask. A mask would fog up her glasses, which she needs in order to read her officiating speech.
She’s modified that speech, which now makes references to the shelter-in-place orders and to the current pandemic. At the end of the ceremony, she tells each of the two partners to take a deep breath and focus on where they are in the moment. In the midst of this pandemic, a couple’s love is something to draw strength from, Pellerin explains.
“It’s just nice to take that moment away from all of the chaos and heartbreak and tragedy happening in the world and find that centerpiece, that center of love,” Pellerin says.
Another essential service in these times is handling the paperwork for fictitious business names, which entrepreneurs need in order to apply for loans, she says. While Pellerin navigates the pandemic, most county elections staffers have been working from home. For several weeks, the only ones in the office were Pellerin and Senior Account Clerk Daisy Willaims.
Other employees were routed to emergency response efforts. Assistant County Clerk Tricia Webber worked on managing quarantine hotel rooms for the homeless.
Emma Gordon, who manages precincts, mapping and petitions for the department, helped get a Watsonville homeless shelter for veterans up and running. Pellerin checks in regularly with her reassigned colleagues, all of whom will be coming back by August to prepare for the election.
Several weeks ago, Pellerin heard from Gordon that the shelter needed bath towels and toothpaste. Pellerin jumped into action.
“I went to Costco and got bath towels and toothpaste and drove it out to them, because in the beginning, there were lots of unknowns, and there was a lot of difficulty getting the supplies everyone needed,” says Pellerin, who views all of her fellow county staff as all part of a big family. “But they’re up and functioning really well now. We all have to work together. We can’t expect one person or one department to do it all. We all have to do our part, and everyone was doing that.”
Pellerin says the precautions she has taken around the office have paid off, as she recently went to go get tested in Watsonville—a really easy process, she says—and the test came back negative. After the test, Pellerin tweeted that the test “definitely is a nose tickler!”
The swab had to far up enough up her nose that it made her eyes water, she tells GT.
“It was a little uncomfortable. If I did it again, I’d probably be a little bit more ready for it,” she says.
FALLING IN LINE
This November, California’s election will be conducted almost entirely by mail, in line with an order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom aiming to limit the spread of Covid-19. As a result, the Elections Department will be mailing out 166,000 ballots on Oct. 5.
“I don’t think it’s going to be that difficult,” Pellerin says. “We already have close to 120,000 people that were getting ballots by mail in March, so we’re adding another 46,000. So it’s not a huge leap.”
Pellerin says the county will be expanding the number of drive-up ballot drop-off boxes.
She advises voters to make sure that they’re registered at the right address. Also, if they sign up for informed delivery from the Post Office, they will know what mail is coming and what to expect in their mailbox.
November ballots should arrive by mid-October, and Pellerin says, if voters don’t receive them, they should call their Elections Department.
“We can send you a second one,” she says. “If you’re a person who prefers to show up in person to vote, by all means, you’re going to be able to do that. We just want to make sure you do it safely. It’s going to be utilizing the physical distancing and the masks.”
Meanwhile, Pellerin is trying to figure out how to run an election-day phone bank—without cramming a dozen people into a small room.
Pellerin’s companion through it all is her hypoallergenic miniature labradoodle Darwin, who she’s had since January. Pellerin says she wasn’t planning on getting a puppy, but then, she learned that Darwin was born on the anniversary of her husband’s death. She says he provides her with emotional support.
He’s even become something of an ambassador around the county building, she says.
“I think every office should have a dog,” Pellerin says. “They’re stress relievers.”
