With the Cold War long over, the County is trading in its cramped and outdated Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for a new $37 million building to coordinate the response to disasters. It will also serve as a home for the County's  9-1-1 public safety dispatchers, a secure data center and the daily offices of the San Mateo County Office of Emergency Services and Division of Homeland Security of the Sheriff’s Office.

As part of Cities for Action, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors joins a broad coalition of cities and counties that are filing a friend-of-the-court amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Texas today, urging the Court to overturn a lower court’s decision and allow President Obama’s executive action on immigration to move forward. The brief, signed by 118 cities and counties representing 35 states, argues that the nationwide injunction blocking implementation of the President’s executive action on immigration was erroneously entered and should be reversed because it places millions of families in our cities and counties at economic and personal risk. Locally, six Bay Area counties have signed on to the amicus brief, including San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, Santa Clara, Sonoma and San Mateo Counties along with the major municipalities of San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento.

"No day is ever routine - one call may be a minor traffic accident, while the next is a frantic voice screaming for help." Rarely will you ever get a chance to meet the hundreds of people who call for help, yet they'll depend on your voice, your directions, and your knowledge to get through an emergency.

In October of 2014, our Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance to ban smoking in multi-family dwellings in the unincorporated areas of San Mateo County. That ordinance began in January 1, 2015 with new multi-family dwellings; in January 1, 2016, it expanded to include existing multi-family units. We sincerely hope to improve the health of the residents in the County.

A story from the San Mateo Daily Journal that was published on 1/13/2016 and reposted here along with my kudos to the Elections Office for their new online e-filing system for campaign disclosure forms. It's a step that is in keeping with the online world in which we live!

My staff and I celebrated the holidays with the staff of the County's Human Services Agency (HSA) and the Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS) Division and their clients at their remodeled facility in Belmont on January 13th. We served and shared a classic Thanksgiving Dinner!

On January 5th, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors unanimously elected Supervisor Slocum to be the President of the Board. He noted how honored he was by their confidence in him and was pleased that Supervisor Don Horsley was elected Vice President of the Board. He thanked outgoing President, Supervisor Carole Groom for her leadership over the past year noting her compassion for the residents, enthusiasm for the County and steady, guiding hand through complex issues.