After a nationwide search, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors chose a healthcare leader with experience in the county by appointing Anna Roth as the new director of Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS) January 30.
Roth has served as Chief Executive Officer of Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and Health Centers for nine years. She succeeds Dr. William B. Walker, who served more than two decades as Health Services Director and over three decades as County Health Officer.
“We are pleased to announce the selection of Anna Roth as our new Health Services Director,” said David Twa, Contra Costa County Administrator. “Anna is a seasoned Health Services executive working in CCHS for nearly 25 years and we look forward to her leadership in addressing the many issues facing the health department in the coming years.”
Roth holds a master’s degree from the University of California, San Francisco, and a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University. She is a registered nurse with more than 30 years of healthcare experience and is an Institute for Healthcare Improvement Quality Improvement Fellow. Roth is a renowned leader in system redesign and innovation and a strong advocate for the inclusion of patients, families and the community as full partners in the delivery of health services.
“We congratulate Anna on her appointment and look forward to working with her on healthcare issues that impact our residents,” said Karen Mitchoff, Chair for the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors.
In addition to Roth’s healthcare experience, she’s also held executive leadership roles locally, statewide and nationally as board member and chair of both the Essential Hospitals Institute and the California Health Care Safety Net Institute. Roth is also a lecturer at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
CCHS is the largest department of county government in Contra Costa, with more than 4,400 employees and an annual budget of $1.8 billion. CCHS includes primary, specialty and inpatient medical care, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, public health programs, environmental health protection, hazardous materials response and inspection and emergency medical services, as well as a county operated health maintenance organization, the Contra Costa Health Plan.
More information about Contra Costa Health Services is available at cchealth.org.
Read More![](http://contracostaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Richmond-sideshow-suspects.jpg)
Genesis Diaz-Castaneda and Juan Vargas arrest photos from Sunday, Jan. 27, 2017. Photos courtesy of KTVU Fox2 News.
Both suspects are 18 years old
The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office has filed multiple felony charges against Juan Noel Vargas and Genesis Castaneda, both of Patterson, CA that stem from a street sideshow in Richmond. Charges against Vargas include Attempted Murder of a Police Officer and Assault with a Deadly Weapon. Castaneda was charged with Accessory After the Fact, Conspiracy and Falsifying a Police Report.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, January 28, 2018, Richmond Police Officers responded to the intersection of Marina Way and Regatta Blvd following calls from residents concerned about a large crowd and multiple cars spinning donuts at the intersection. As law enforcement arrived on the scene, participants in the sideshow began to disperse. An Officer exited his patrol car and approached on foot. Vargas rapidly accelerated, the Officer was hit and the force of the impact projected the Officer into the air and against the windshield of Vargas’ car.
The Offficer was transported to a local hospital where he was treated for significant injuries including a dislocated shoulder and a head wound which required staples.
The suspect vehicle was abandoned and found a few blocks away. Visual inspection revealed damage to the windshield and body panels to the vehicle.
The defendants are currently in custody awaiting arraignment on the filed charges.
See a report with video by KTVU Fox2 News, here.
Read MoreTold they should focus on job training and housing in 2018 and beyond, during Tuesday retreat in Pleasant Hill
By Daniel Borsuk
The unveiling of a new citizens organization designed to inject more citizen involvement in the county’s budget development process was torpedoed by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Jan. 30.
During a board retreat at the Pleasant Hill Community Center, supervisors informed representatives of the two-month-old Contra Costa Budget Justice Coalition that since 82 percent of next year’s proposed $3.4 billion 2018-2019 fiscal budget will come from federal and state funding sources, those funds are mandated for either health services at 55 percent and the sheriff-coroner at 27 percent and there is no room for discussion from the public.
The county’s current fiscal year budget is $3.1 billion.
Supervisors are scheduled to adopt the proposed budget on May 8. They have scheduled a public hearing on the budget on April 17 with the possibility a second hearing on April 24 if one is needed.
Supervisors told coalition representatives that it would essentially be a waste of time to make a pitch about the budget either at the public hearing or by scheduling meetings with supervisors in their district offices.
“We have a lot of restrictions on our money,” said board chairperson Karen Mitchoff of Pleasant Hill. “Go ahead with holding your community meetings about the county budget, but they will be limited.”
“We have very limited money,” District 5 Supervisor Federal Glover said. “Our health and safety funds are mandated by the federal or state government agencies.”
“I am always open to have the public engaged in public policymaking, but we have to face the fact that our budget is mostly funded through mandated categorical sources, “said Supervisor John Gioia of District 1.
“We understand that the budget is already stacked up with required mandated funding, but there is still some flexibility in the process,” Dan Geiger of the Contra Costa Budget Justice Coalition and director of Human Services Alliance of Contra Costa told the Contra Costa Herald. “We are asking the board to give us some say.”
“We will likely do what we have initially planned to do and that includes meet individual supervisors in their district offices to discuss budget issues,” Geiger said. “We will also attend the April 17 public hearing.”
Geiger said the objective of the organization, which began with nine non-profit organizations in December and is growing with the potential 48 new organizations, is to open up the county’s budget process.
The new coalition aims to practice its “values-based budgeting principles” that promote safety and affordable housing, stable employment with fair wages, sufficient healthy food, essential health care, access to critical social services, quality early care and education.
Geiger said formation of the Contra Costa Budget Justice coalition occurs at a time there is mounting uncertainty about the future of federal funding coming out of Washington for the upcoming 2018-2019 fiscal year and beyond. Those budget priorities include housing, health care for low income residents, children and youth services, and mental-behavioral health.
Economic Outlook: Housing Shortage and Job Training
The economic focus in Contra Costa County in 2018 and beyond should be on job training and housing county supervisors were told by Christopher Thornberg, Director of the University of California at Riverside Center for Forecasting and Development.
The economist presented his yearly Economic Outlook Focus on the Contra Costa Economy during the board of supervisors’ retreat.
While the nation’s economy experienced “good growth in 2017” at 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter, Thornberg said California, and especially Contra Costa County is facing two economic problems, a shortage of trained workers even though since 2010 there has been a phenomenal number of job openings and a severe housing shortage.
“We are running out of trained workers,” he said. This is due to an increasing number of trained workers retiring. Thornberg suggested as a partial solution to the worsening employment crisis is raising the Social Security retirement age requirement age by two years from 70 to 72.
“In Contra Costa County you have the jobs. There are a lot of job openings. Job training and housing should be your focus,” he said.
Thornberg said it is up to the supervisors to find ways to address the housing crisis with rising housing prices.
“We’re seeing a tighter housing market in Contra Costa County with the median house price at $550,000, “he said.
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A fire burns at Sims Metal Management in Richmond, CA Tuesday night, Jan. 20, 2017. Screenshot of video by ABC7 News.
By Jimmy Lee, Director of Public Affairs, Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
The mission of the Community Warning System (CWS) is to ensure the public gets emergency alerts as quickly and completely as possible once we receive the proper information from the requesting agency. CWS is not an internal notification system for a city or affected jurisdictions.
In regards to yesterday’s fire at Sims Metal Management shop located at 604 S. 4th Street in Richmond, CWS received all of the necessary information from Richmond Fire for an alert at 5:55 PM. There was no request to activate the sirens. The first alert was sent at 6:08 PM through the Telephone Emergency Notification Sys-tem (TENS), which includes phone, text, and email alerts. It is also posted on social media and websites. (See the ABC7 News story about and video of the fire, here).
As the fire continued to burn and produce smoke, and due to a shift in winds, the shelter-in-place needed to be expanded. CWS worked to get updates to additional shelter-in-place areas as they were requested by Richmond Fire and Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Program.
The second alert went out at 6:44 PM, the third alert went out at 7:57 PM, and the last one went out at 8:50 PM. These alerts went to expanded areas at the request of Richmond Fire and the Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Program.
After the situation became somewhat stabilized and it was believed no additional shelter-in-place areas would be needed, a comprehensive map was created that included all affected are-as and was posted in on our website and Facebook page and sent directly to the media.
“In yesterday’s incident, the CWS worked as designed — alerts were sent once all the information was received from the requesting agency,” said Assistant Sheriff Mark Williams. “Mayor Butt’s statement that it took an hour to get out the first alert after receiving the necessary information from Richmond Fire is totally inaccurate, misleading, and presumptuous.”
CWS continually reviews it system and procedures in an effort to improve delivery of alerts. CWS encourages all county residents to receive alerts by registering at http://www.cococws.us and to follow CWS on Twitter and Facebook at CoCoCWS.
Read MoreAt the corner of happy, healthy and higher prices? Violations attributed to human error.
The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office announced on Tuesday that its Consumer Protection Unit joined with the District Attorneys of Santa Clara, San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties in a civil law enforcement action against Walgreen Co., the operator of more than 600 Walgreens stores in California. Walgreens, a nationwide corporation, has its headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois.
The civil action was based in part upon scanner inspections conducted by local Weights and Measures offices, including the office of Contra Costa County Department of Agriculture Division of Weights & Measures, Humberto Izquierdo Director. The District Attorneys alleged that Walgreens violated state law by charging customers more than the lowest posted or advertised price for items.
The alleged violations also included Walgreens’ failure to comply with laws prohibiting selling or offering to sell infant formula or baby food after the “use by” date and over-the-counter drugs after the expiration date has passed. These violations were discovered as a result of inspections by the County Environmental Health Services Divisions and District Attorney Investigation Units. The Santa Clara County Superior Court approved the Modified Stipulated Judgment on January 29, 2018.
“It seems that Walgreen’s couldn’t get their act together here, more than other counties,” said Deputy District Attorney Gary E. Koeppel of the Consumer Protection Unit. He was the lead Deputy DA from Contra Costa County, prepared much of the documentation and was the main contact for negotiations with Walgreens’ law firm in San Francisco. “We were having probably a larger problem here in Contra Costa.”
Without admitting wrongdoing, Walgreens agreed to pay $2,250,000 in civil penalties and costs. The judgment also prohibits violating applicable laws and requires Walgreens to institute a compliance program. That program includes procedures to ensure the removal of infant formula, baby food and over-the counter drugs prior to the “use by” or “expiration” dates. The program also requires procedures to ensure that consumers are charged accurate prices, such as removal of shelf tags from store shelves prior to expiration and adjusting charges at point of sale to reflect the lowest advertised, posted or quoted price on the sales floor for in-store purchases.
The present Modified Stipulated Final Judgment “superseded” or replaced a 2013 pricing violations judgment against Walgreens, by adding new injunctive, compliance and civil penalty and costs provisions to address the new pricing and expired product violations. Walgreens cooperated with prosecutors during the investigation and the resolution of this case.
District Attorneys work with Departments of Weights & Measures to protect consumers from pricing errors and with Environmental Health Divisions to enforce laws prohibiting the sale of certain expired products. Consumers should always check receipts to verify that they are charged the correct price and make sure that the products they purchase are not beyond their expiration dates.
“If there’s a tag on the shelf that indicates a price and when scanned it indicates a higher price, it’s a violation,” Koeppel said. “The provisions in the state Business and Professions Code are clear. You have to sell it at the lowest, advertised price, even if it has expired. If it’s still on the shelf at the lower price with a tag in black and white, they have to sell at the expired price.”
“The County Agriculture Department’s County Weights and Measures are responsible for this, including gas stations,” he added.
“During the course of our negotiations over the scanner violations we did an undercover operation with our health departments throughout the state and we came up with about 33% of the stores that came back with over the counter pain medication and baby formula that had expired dates,” he stated.
Part of the injunction includes the requirement that at least 90 days before the expiration on pain medication and 30 days for baby formula Walgreens must remove those items from the shelves,” Koeppel explained, “Then other requirements such as posting of conspicuous signs.”
“Regarding the scanner violations, we’ve had this term placed in other injunctions with other big box stores, requiring managers have to walk through the aisles once a week and pull expired tags,” he continued. “Plus, they’re required to keep records whenever customers complain any time prices are higher and enter that data into a system that keeps track of scanner price modifications, when the shelf price was lower than the scanned price.”
Asked if the stores are required to provide a periodic report, Koeppel replied, “No. But, Weights & Measures has the right to go in any time and request a copy of the report.”
He wanted to point out that “Walgreens has been very cooperative and primarily blame the violations on human error,” due to “the turnover in employees and difficulty training them. Nothing constitutes an intentional violation. For clarity, they’re not alone. I’m not going to name other stores. But, scanner violations are very common in big box situations. It’s been pretty rampant, over the years. Unintentionally, for the most part.”
Asked about the liability the stores face, Koeppel responded, “It’s a big, potential liability issue with the baby formula and pain medication if someone got sick. But, from our discussions with experts, the best would be weaker potency, not greater health risks.”
Allen Payton contributed to this report.
Read MoreOn Friday, January 26th, 2018, Viktor Nikolaevich Kabaniaev, a 54-year old ballet instructor who has worked in Contra Costa and San Mateo County was arrested at his San Mateo home on a warrant for 16 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14 for events that occurred in Contra Costa County.
At the time of his arrest Viktor Kabaniaev was working at the Westlake School for the Performing Arts in Daly City.
“The victim was various courageous to come forward,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Paul Graves. “It reminds us that when teachers and coaches are instructing our children, when they violate that trust we need to take it very seriously. Parents need to remain vigilant when their children are being instructed by other adults.”
“We hope there aren’t any other victims, but if there are we hope they too can find their voice,” he added.
When asked where the incidents occurred in the county, Graves said he would not share that information for the protection of the victim.
Anyone with information about this case can call the hotline at 925-256-3541.
Allen Payton contributed to this report.
Read More![](http://contracostaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Trevor-Michael-Berryman-Mercedes-1024x461.jpg)
Suspect Trevor Michael Berryman and the Mercedes police say he was driving. Photos by San Ramon Police
By San Ramon Police Department
On January 18th, 2018, the San Ramon Police Department responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked on Minerva Way. Upon arrival, Officers located a vehicle with apparent bullet holes, as well as a blood trail leading away from the area.
During the subsequent investigation, Detectives learned that the driver of the vehicle had been shot earlier in the evening in San Ramon and received medical attention at a local hospital. During the course of the investigation, the subject alleged to be responsible for the shooting was identified as a 21-year-old San Leandro resident, Trevor Michael Berryman. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Mr. Berryman for: 664/187PC – Attempted Murder and 182PC – Conspiracy.
The vehicle that was used during the commission of the crime is a black, four-door, 2009 Mercedes-Benz, license number: CA 6UWK467.
If anybody has any information related to this case or knows the whereabouts of Mr. Berryman and or his vehicle, please contact the San Ramon Police Department at (925) 973-2779.
In a post on Facebook on Thursday, Jan. 25 by Matthew Sherman, who claims to be the suspect’s brother, he wrote:
Some of you have seen the recent report about my brother and this terrible situation. Our family has been receiving calls, texts and messages regarding the situation with questions, so allow me to clear some things up. Yes, this is my brother and yes he is a suspect in this crime. He is still innocent until proven guilty. Our family is cooperating with San Ramon police to help in any way we can. Trevor is still missing so if you see him, please tell him to call me, his sister, his dad, any of us. We’re doing all we can to help come to a peaceful resolution. Please respect our families [sic] privacy in (t)his issue and keep judgment to yourself. The comments I’ve seen on the multiple news outlet reports is sickening. I never thought I’d be on the side of a report like this proclaiming “he’s a good kid from a good family”, however, that’s the God’s honest truth. Our family is now, and always will be, supportive of all law enforcement and we will do all we can to help get to the bottom of the truth.
Allen Payton contributed to this report.
Read MoreBy Jimmy Lee, Director of Public Affairs, Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
At about 12:47 AM today, a Deputy Sheriff was doing a room check at the Martinez Detention Facility (MDF) when he noticed an inmate was unresponsive in his bunk. The Deputy immediately called for medical assistance and started CPR.
Medical staff at MDF continued life-saving measures. An ambulance and the fire department responded to MDF. The inmate was later pronounced deceased. The inmate is identified as 45-year-old James Darryl Cooper of Vallejo. On January 18, 2018, he was booked into MDF on a warrant for domestic violence. He also had three arrest warrants from Solano County. His death appears to be medically related. An autopsy will be conducted to try to determine the cause of death.
The officer-involved protocol was initiated. Investigators from the Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff and the DA’s Office are conducting an investigation into the death.
Read MoreApprove purchase of five new fire trucks for Con-Fire
By Daniel Borsuk
Without a whimper of a protest from a non-franchised solid waste hauler, Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to make it costly to operate a business in the county.
At the request of District 1 Supervisor John Gioia, supervisors agreed to raise the performance bond to $50,000 from $20,000 even though at one point the supervisor from Richmond attempted to press on the need to lift up the performance bond as much as $100,000.
In addition to paying for the annual performance bond, anyone conducting business as a non-franchise waste hauler in the county would have to pay $229 for an annual permit per vehicle and meet other rules the Contra Costa County Health Services Department has developed.
Independent trash hauling operators would also be subject to annual inspections and would have to adhere to other rules county supervisors established in an ordinance passed last November.
The non-franchised waste haulers ordinance is set to go be enforced in March. County officials are uncertain how many non-franchise trash haulers there are in the county because they work undercover in warehouses and illegally dump loads usually under the cloak of darkness and in out-of-the-way unincorporated parts of the county.
“I’ve been working on this issue in North Richmond for 20 years, and if they (i.e. homeowners) can hire someone to haul their trash for $20 versus $70 they’ll do it for $20,” said Gioia. “The question is whether we are setting the bar too low.”
The supervisor contends his District 1 in West county and District 5 in East County represented by supervisor Federal Glover tend to be hit the hardest by non-franchised solid waste haulers who illegally dump trash in unincorporated areas thereby forcing the county to spend thousands of dollars to clean up sites.
“If you make it too expensive, “warned Supervisor Candace Andersen, whose District 2 gets perhaps the least amount of trash illegally dumped by non-franchised haulers, “there will be more of a need for haulers to resort to the black market.”
District 3 Supervisor Diane Burgis, who has observed hundreds of paint cans litter Marsh Creek Road, commented, “These people can do a lot of damage with one load. Twenty thousand dollars for a performance bond is nothing. I’d like to set it higher. “
At the suggestion of Board Chair and District 4 Supervisor Karen Mitchoff, Gioia and other supervisors agreed the $50,000 performance bond would be a good start to assess independent trash haulers not affiliated with either of the two major trash haulers, Republic Services and Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery. Both companies played key roles in compelling the supervisors to approve the ordinance last year.
District 5 Supervisor Federal Glover of Pittsburg said the problem of trash dumped by non-franchised haulers on vacant lots is a countywide problem, not mainly an East and West county issue. While he supports raising the performance bond to $50,000, he said the board of supervisors needs to be proactive and needs to monitor how the non-franchised trash haulers respond to the new ordinance.
Board chairperson Mitchoff requested that Marilyn Underwood of the Contra Costa Health Services Department, the department enforcing the ordinance, to give the board a progress report in March once the ordinance becomes enforced.
Fire District to Acquire 5 New Trucks
The Contra Costa Fire Protection District will add sorely needed new fire equipment with the supervisors 5-0 consent action approval to buy five new fire engines from Golden State Fire Apparatus Inc. at a price tag not to exceed $4.6 million. The new vehicles will be delivered to the CCFPD in January 2019.
Supervisors voted to acquire four Type I fire engines and one 100-foot aerial ladder truck from Golden State Fire Apparatus to help alleviate an aging fleet of 35 Type I engines with an average age of 9.3 years per vehicle. All engines that are more than 10 years old, Fire Chief Jeff Carman reported, have more than 100,000 miles. Four Type I engines targeted for replacement each have more than 125,000 miles. One engine sustained a catastrophic motor failure while responding to a state mutual aid response in Southern California this fall.
The new aerial apparatus truck will be the fire district’s 10th ladder truck.
The county has arranged a 10-year lease agreement through PNC Equipment Financial LLC worth an amount not to exceed $4.6 million with annual payments of $460,000 at an annual interest rate of 3.5 percent.
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