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Residents and partners applaud apprenticeship work, press for election oversight and report hauling transition issues
Summary
Public commenters at the Jan. 13 meeting highlighted a jail-based apprenticeship graduation and low recidivism among graduates, urged quicker meetings of the Election Advisory Committee to restore public trust, and heard an operational update from WM on a hauling transition affecting roughly 19,000 homes.
Several members of the public used the Jan. 13 board meeting public comment period to raise workforce, elections and service-delivery issues.
Tim Robertson, executive director of the San Joaquin Building Trades Council, told the board his organization is partnering with the county and jail to run an MC3 apprentice readiness program. He said about 50 students have graduated from the jail-based program over the last two-and-a-half years and that graduates show a markedly lower recidivism rate (staff presented the figure as about 5 percent among program graduates, compared with roughly 75 percent countywide for all releases). Robertson asked for continued board support for apprenticeship pathways into construction trades.
Molly Watkins said the county’s Election Advisory Committee had not met since March and urged the board to convene the committee quickly, saying public confidence in elections remains low and asking for an immediate meeting to discuss transparency and process.
Vanessa Barberis, representing WM (formerly Waste Management), provided an update on WM’s recent assumption of hauling for Refuse Service Area C. Barberis said the company began service Jan. 2, launched 12 new collection routes covering more than 19,000 homes, deployed spare trucks and drivers to recover extra curbside bags, and was handling higher-than-normal call volume to process cart deliveries and service changes. She asked residents with ongoing concerns to contact WM directly and thanked county staff for support during the transition.
Other commenters included business and community representatives who asked about county priorities for energy, infrastructure and economic development going forward.
What happens next: These public comments were for the record; the board did not take formal action on these topics during the meeting but directed staff to follow existing referral processes when appropriate.
