The Buzz 10.13.22

FREE SPEECH

As Monterey County Communications Director Nick Pasculli rolls out a county communications policy, next up is a social media guide. “Having uniform policies and guidelines regarding social media usage is critical in creating an environment of transparency and effective and efficient communications to the residents and stakeholders of county,” Pasculli wrote in a report accompanying the 10-page draft policy. The policy includes basic style guidance like how to use the @ symbol on Twitter and abbreviations for days of the week. It also includes guidance on deleting comments – generally, to avoid it. “Social media platforms are considered public forums under the First Amendment,” the draft policy notes. Acceptable reasons for deletions are profanity or hate speech. If you were wondering about things like emojis, the advice is to use them sparingly. A library of county-related GIFs is in development, and hashtags should be county-specific. The Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 on Oct. 11 to incorporate minor updates before approval. “The goal is to make the county more transparent,” Supervisor Chris Lopez said.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“We are celebrating the existence of the Indigenous people.” - Florentina Sanchez at Greenfield’s firs Indigenous People’s Day celebration on Oct. 9. She and other Indigenous residents are members of Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales (see story, mcweekly.com)

GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK

GOOD:

Good news for fire preparedness in Big Sur – work has begun on a fuelbreak improvement project within the Monterey Ranger District of the Los Padres National Forest. Specifically, as part one of this project, crews are using hand tools and chainsaws to cut dead vegetation along North Coast Ridge Road. The plan is to burn piles of this vegetation during the wet winter months. The goal of the project, which is funded by a Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration grant, is to re-establish historic fuelbreaks in the Ventana Wilderness. These fuelbreaks will have the dual-purpose utility of protecting the Big Sur community from wildfire, and reducing the damaging impact to the wilderness of last-minute, bulldozer-created fuelbreaks. The Resource Conservation District of Monterey County will give a presentation about the project during a community town hall at the Big Sur Grange on Oct. 25.

GREAT:

After about a year of negotiations, the 550 nurses who work at Natividad are now members of the California Nurses Association, a bigger and more powerful union than their former Monterey County Registered Nursing Association, and are celebrating their first contract with Monterey County. The four-year contract includes 6-percent raises in the first year and also calls for the creation of a new Professional Practices Committee, comprising RNs who will bring concerns to administrators of the hospital, Juvenile Hall and clinics where unionized nurses work. The new contract also includes not just full-time nurses, but also part-time. “This is a big win,” says Jennifer Jean-Pierre, a nurse in the ICU and chief nurse representative to the CNA. “It’s monumental.” More than 200 nurse members voted on the new contract, and 96 percent of those voting members said yes to ratification.