END OF THE YEAR MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT FORD

We are at the end of 2024. What a year this has been. We’ve had to endure adjustment after adjustment after adjustment. This year has been like a storm for some of us. We’ve been in landslides, flooding, storms, earthquakes, tornadoes, and things of that nature. This is what 2024 has felt like.

With all the turmoil going on within the department’s leadership and within the union leadership, 2024 has been a year of complete uncertainty and just outright madness. Leadership at 9150 has treated us like outsiders and has shown us no mercy or grace. The leadership at 9150 has come in with a Corporate America style of leading the department and this style of leadership has been a complete failure. Our work schedules have been changed with no regard to our personal life outside of probation. Some of our time off request like vacation have been denied. Some of us have been moved from field area offices to the juvenile halls, and some of us have been sent home to burn our own time for having medical restrictions, some of us have been threaten with discipline for not coming to work.

We have been forced to work in a toxic work environment where we have been assaulted by the youth in our care and there have been no consequences or very little for these violent attacks against us. 9150 has taken the do as I say or else style of leadership. The County is desperate to solve a staffing crisis that was created by the Board of Supervisors and 9150 leadership.

With our union, we have a new president (me) and new vice president (Chambers), and several other new members to the executive board. Our executive is split on how to get things done. We have me and others trying to change the way we deal with the department and act more aggressively while the other half wants to do business as usual. So, it is constant going back and forth on what to do and what approach to take. Adjustments are being made both with the department and within the union leadership. These are storms that we are fighting against. As I look back from January to December 2024, I can truly say this has been a struggle. As president, my stress levels have increased. It has been a journey maneuvering through all this madness. Looking back, we weathered the storms and are still standing (barely) but we are here and ready for 2025.

2024 was a year of learning, building, and eliminating some relationships. Going into 2025, we’re going in with a new approach. We are going to do what unions do and that is fight like our lives depend on it. I’m optimistic about what 2025 will bring.

For those of you who have said, “IT’S TIME FOR ACTION” Let’s see if you answer the call and show up.