The County Connection Employee Newsletter

October 2011 Vol. 61

First/Second Quarter 2011

Vacation to Disneyland for first time. Nothing like working on Mater with Daddy.In photo: Ian Van Buskirk, Future CCCTA Mechanic with Daddy, Glenn Van Buskirk, Current CCCTA Mechanic

Do you have a picture to share? Turn into Valerie in Marketing to be featured in the next flyer.

Congratulations to Lisa Rettig for winning the Scavenger Hunt. Check out the Crossworld Puzzle on the back page. Be sure to turn in your completed entry by November 11 to marketing.

HR Reminder:

Open enrollement ends November 4. If you need to make changes, please do so by the deadline. Remember new for 2011 is Blue Sheild NetValue with John Muir.

A man trying to get on an overcrowded bus was pushed off by the people inside. There’s no room,’ they said. ‘It’s full up!’ ‘But you must let me on!’

shouted the man. ‘Why, what’s so special about you?’ they asked. I’m the driver,’ replied the man.

In this issue:First Qtr Shining Stars...........2

Second Qtr Shining Stars......3

Bay Area Healthiest

Employers.............................4

To Your Health.......................5

10K-A-Day.............................6

CERT.....................................7

AnniversariesJanuary-June.....................8-9

In Memory ofWilliams Wright....................10

Save the Date......................11

Crossword Puzzle...............12

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Elizabeth Lauver -AdministrationIn November, Elizabeth will celebrate 8 years with the County Connection. She is the Lead Data Analyst. What does that mean? Data from all routes and runs are collected to determine the ridership numbers. The circle of life at County Connection starts with operators. Operators count

their passengers. Elizabeth gathers data from clever devices to figure passengers per hour and per mile. This data is given to planning and finance. They make suggestions to the board of directors on where to add or eliminate service which determines what routes the operators will bid on. And that completes the circle of life at County Connection.

Elizabeth is a huge asset to H.A.L.O. and is on their board of directors. H.A.L.O. works with local city and county shelters rescuing cats and dogs. With the economy and the large number of people unemployed, your life can change in an instant. H.A.L.O. helps people in need of finding a good home for their pet. Simply contact them to see if your pet is a good match for their program. If a good match is made, they will try to fit the pet into a foster home. If no foster home is available, they will help assist you in finding a new safe and loving home for your pet. All cats and dogs that are adopted through HALO are spayed and neutered. For more information on adoptions and volunteering for this non-profit organization, visit their website at www.eccchalo.org.

Elizabeth is also a regular for Monday Night Football at Legends. She enjoys spending time with the other regulars and the occasional drop ins. Elizabeth wants to remind everyone that the food is cheap and very tasty. What are you waiting for? Come and join us!

Linda Pelligrini - Transportation

Talk about a well-seasoned driver. Linda is one of the original bus drivers here. At the time CCCTA started, it took over the transportation in Walnut Creek where she was a driver. She moved over here and was number 18 on the seniority list. Her first run was route 106, which is now known as the route 6. She drove this route for more than 5 years and it’s also where she met her husband 28 years ago. Now, 30 years later, she is driving route 19.

Linda enjoys cycling three times a week and going on cruises. She tries to take a cruise or big vacation every 3-5 years. Her last cruise was to Mexico this past April. She has also been to Hawaii and Europe, which she hopes to go back to for a month. Linda has two grown children, two step-children, three grandsons and a granddaughter.

In 1986, Linda received the Chairman’s Award for excellence. Even after all these years, Linda is an excellent asset to the County Connection family.

First Quarter Shining Stars

Salomon Negrete – Maintenance

Salomon – AKA Sal – has been with County Connection for seven years, and has the praise of all those who work with or alongside him. Before coming to County Connection, Sal worked for a pool supply and maintenance company, which also requires attention to detail to make sure the equipment works properly and efficiently. Service workers do so much more than keep the buses clean and empty the fareboxes – important safety inspections start with them. Fluid levels, tires, and electrical systems are inspected each night.

It took Sal about year to get the call for an interview after he first put in his application, but feels it was work the wait. “I really enjoy what I do. I feel good knowing that I’ve done everything I can to make sure the buses go out each day in great condition”. Night Manager, Pete Steckhahn, has high praise for Sal – “He really cares about his job, and the agency”. Pete recalls that recently while cleaning the inside of one of the buses, Sal came across an item left on the bus that contained a great deal cash. He immediately turned it in and the item was returned to its owner. The owner was so grateful, which reflected well on all County Connection employees.

Sal has two teenage children, so for now, most of his free time is spent enjoying all their activities. He knows that before he knows it, they’ll be off on their own.

Congratulations Sal. We’re proud to have you on our team.

Gary Hinrichs - Transportation

Gary is a quiet man and doesn’t like a lot of attention. At first he didn’t want to interview but his family made him do it. Gary just celebrated five years with County Connection.

Before coming to the County Connection family, he worked and retired from doing auto body and paint for 35. He says driving is one of his hobbies and that is what he likes most about being an operator.

Gary is a family man who enjoys going to Disneyland. In fact, he loves Disneyland so much; he’s been there twice this year! He likes to work on cars, jet ski, hike, and camp with his family. In his spare time, he helps his son with his pressure washing business. Gary has two grown children who have given him three precious grandchildren.

Congratulations Gary on being selected as employee of the quarter!

Rolando Aguilos - Maintenance

Rolando just celebrated 21 years with County Connection. He got the job as a service worker by accident. While managing a gas station in Pinole, someone asked him to come with them to apply for the position of service worker. When helping his friend fill out the application, Rolando decided to apply too. He was called for an interview and then offered the position. It took him a while to decide to commit to it because he liked the flexibility at the gas station. Once he made the commitment to County Connection, he realized it was the best decision because the money was better and having medical insurance for his family was a huge plus!

Rolando has been married since 1968 and was blessed with three children. He has two beautiful granddaughters and hopes to have more grandchildren someday. Rolando enjoys taking his wife out to dinner and the movies. At

home, he enjoys to garden and has a large amount of rose bushes. He said roses are hard work.

A recent passenger comment on our Facebook page gives the service workers an A+ and says it is safe to say County Connection has the cleanest buses in the Bay Area. It is obvious that Rolando and all the service workers take pride in their job to give our passengers a clean ride.

Congratulations Rolando on a job well done!

Ruben Rivera – Administration

Ruben has been with County Connection for 14 years now, and still whistles while he works (lately, it sounds like “Que Sera” by Doris Day!). Ruben comes in each evening when most when most are going home and tends to the agency’s three main buildings, keeping them clean, tidy, and free of trash. No small task when you consider how many people occupy each of the buildings every day. He’s a quiet person who shies away from attention – getting information was like pulling teeth. But, once you get to know him, you’ll find he’s a pretty funny guy. His co-workers appreciate his thoughtful manners. He’ll stop what he’s doing to open a door, or help with a load.

Ruben has two children that have occupied most of his free time over the years. His 15-year old still keeps him on his toes. But he enjoys a good baseball game and keeping in touch with his family and friends.

Not everyone knows Ruben – but we all appreciate you! Congratulations Ruben on a job well done.

Second Quarter Shining Stars

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This year’s ranking of the Bay Area’s 58 Healthiest Employers brought nominations from some 98 companies representing 146,079 employees in 12 counties around the greater Bay Area. Representatives at those companies were given surveys that resulted in the rankings reported.

To be eligible, companies in this listing had to operate in at least one of these Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano or Sonoma.

For this year’s project, the San Francisco Business Times and the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal collected nominations of companies beginning April 2011. Companies electing to participate provided some basic employee and company data.

With our research partner, Healthiest Employers LLC, we conducted the online surveys of participating companies in May, June, and July. Results of those surveys were tabulated by Healthiest Employers.

The survey comprised of 75 scored questions. Participants included both public and private employers in numerous industries with at least 25 employees in the Bay Area.

Companies were not allowed to enhance their scores with any marketing collateral or promotional material. This ranking is based solely on the results from each company’s survey.

Rankings were based on the scores assigned to each participating company that completed the survey. This year’s ranking of the 58 Healthiest Employers in the Bay Area garnered participation from a wide variety of companies.

Size Categories

The companies were categorized based on the size of their Bay Area workforce.

Largest companies: 2,000+ employees

Large companies: 500-1,999 employees

Midsize companies: 100-499 employees

Small companies: 25-99 employees

Twenty-six finalists were in the midsize category and County Connection ranked 8 with a score of 60.3. American Licorice Co. from Union City ranked number 1 with a score of 75.1.

Congratulations County Connection Employees for participating in the HEALS program and for making us a healthy employer.

Company surveys determined

Bay Area’s Healthiest EmployersBy -Julia Dickinson, research director, San Francisco Business Times

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HealthiestEmployer

Award

Our Employee Wellness Committee just had its quarterly meeting. At that meeting, we were presented with the results of our annul Wellness Expo held in the spring. A total of 39 employees participated in this event. I would like to see our participation increase by at least 20% for next year. Next year’s Expo will be held in the spring of 2012.

We are now planning for next year’s Expo event. As a part of that planning, we want look at ways of increasing the number of employees participating in the annual Wellness Expo. One of things I am doing is asking all department heads, managers, and supervisors to lead by example. This means I will ask them all to participate in the Expo as well as champion it with their respective employees.

Another thing I would like to ask of everyone is for your ideas. What can we do to make you want to participate in the Wellness Expo? What is holding you back? What can we do to make it easier for you to participate? If you have any ideas, please share them with Sharon Porter or myself if you wish.

In case you do not realize it, at the Expo, you will learn about your blood pressure, your cholesterol, your body mass index (% of your body that is fat), your general healthiness, your personal life expectancy, and get a 15 minute shoulder massage! All for free, too! Most health plans would charge you a healthy (no pun intended) co-pay for such services if you did these things outside of the Wellness Expo. So, take advantage!

With many of us now having to work later into life than originally planned as a result of our changing economic conditions, it really behooves us all to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible so that we can truly enjoy our retirement years when they finally come.

And, in order to be healthy in our later years, the tone must be set during our working years. To do that effectively, we need the knowledge of our current health condition. Participating in the annual Wellness Expo is a great way to achieve that.

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To Your Health!

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The goal of 10K-A-Day was to have teams of 4 compete with each individual team member to take 10,000 steps a day. Team members would track their daily progress and turn it into their team captain at the end of the week. The team with the highest number of steps from July 25 to August 22 would receive the cash pot and each participant would receive 6 HEAL points.

Seven teams recorded their steps.

Congratulations to Healthy Footprints:

Maurice Mayberry

Sophia Martinez-Morris

Sonia Grady

Ron Allison

for taking 1,601,078 steps!

This team earned $35.

WAY TO GO HEALTHY FOOTPRINTS and all other participants… may you continue to take many steps!

10K-A-DAY

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The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates people about disaster prepared-ness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional re-sponders are not immediately available to help. CERT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community.

People who go through CERT training have a better understanding of the potential threats to their home, workplace and community and can take the right steps to lessen the effects of these hazards on themselves, their homes or workplace. If a disaster happens that overwhelms local response capability, CERT members can apply the training learned in the classroom and during exercises to give critical support to their family, loved ones, neighbors or associates in their immediate area until help arrives. When help does arrive, CERTs provide useful information to responders and support their efforts, as directed, at the disaster site. CERT members can also assist with non-emergency projects that improve the safety of the community. CERTs have been used to distribute and/or install smoke alarms, replace smoke alarm batteries in the home of elderly, distribute disaster education material, provide services at special events, such as parades, sporting events, concerts and more.

CERT requires a partnership between community members and local government, emergency manage-ment and response agencies. The program does take a commitment of time and resources from all parties. Interested community members should discuss with local government and emergency management offi-cials ways to improve their community’s preparedness capability and how they can be involved. The outcome of these discussions can range from education pro-grams to an active training program like CERT that prepares participants to be part of the community’s response capability following major disasters. It is also important to develop a plan that covers training, main-tenance and activation standards as well as adminis-trative requirements like databases and funding. This plan will act as a guide so that one can evaluate the program and make adjustments.

To become a CERT member, you will have to take the CERT training from a sponsoring agency like an emergency management agency, fire department or police department in the area where you live or work. Contact the local emergency manager where you live or work and ask about the education and training opportunities available to you. Let this person know about your interest in CERT.\

Martha Lee in payroll is part of her local community CERT team. You can become a team member too!

Community EmergencyResponse Team

(CERT)

Information, logo and picture courtesy of Citizen Corps website for CERT.

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3 years: Anne Muzzini

4 years: Fernando Oliva

5 years: Peter Chan, Yolanda Daniels, Eugenio Flores, Ronisha Greenwood, Jeanette Harrison, Sayed Miry, Perry Mofrad, Terrance Pope, Said Sadat, Frankie Wheeler

6 years: Chan Saechao

7 years: Charlotte Hugais, Salomon Negrete

8 years: Jim Brown, Valerie Carver, Jim Allen, Ronald Brander, Gerardo Hernandez, Letty Morris-Scott, Stacy Rossini

9 years: Ernesto Caceres, Sheryl Robinson, Mustapha Sbili, Juanita Proctor-Williams

10 years: Juan Lopez, Sophia, Martinez-Morris, James Treat, Ron Allison,

Joseph Cuevas, Malissa Dean, Adrienne Griscti

11 years: Roxanne Delaney, Fernando Rodriguez, Jeffery Marquez, Maria Yanes, Glenn Van Buskirk

12 years: Lisa Derevyanik, Ja'net Taylor, Felipe Woody

13 years: Benjamin Poaha, Doug Robinson

14 years: Joyce Clark, John Douglas, Miguel Duenas, Michael Moss, Douglas Rose, Ricardo Rodriguez, Arthur Williams

15 years: Maria Arizmendi, Judy Barrientos, Esperanza Cordova-Smith, David Garcia, Angela Jackson, Julie Shipe , Gerardo Cerda

17 years: Hector Meza

Anniversaries

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18 years: Bruce Voltz, Scott Pevahouse, Mary Burdick

19 years: Ron Nick, Patricia, Rogers, Constance Theal, Myron Johnson

20 years: Oscar Palicte, Ronnette Brown, Arlyn Johnson, Thasanai Mahavongtrakul

21 years: Roberto Quezon, Don Avelar, Tone Hayes, Oscar Alvarenga, Juanita Garcia, Virgil Sanchez, Juanita Valles

22 years: Gil Duenas, Stanley Hull, Eric Williams

23 years: Lisa Walters, Sayed Miry, Erwin Osias, Barbara Yencho

24 years: James Shaw III, Richard Church, Roberto Santos

25 years: Robert Douglass, Manolo Andrada, Shyan Lin, June Owens, Sandra Polk, Peter Steckhahn, Rethamae Abdelrahman

26 years: Ossie Robinson Jr.

27 years: John Mitchell, Kenneth Walters, Kathleen Decius, Sharon Porter

28 years: Janet Madrigal

29 years: Sharon Ashby, Mike Foley, Derrick Hamilton, Gregg LaComb, Tia Neves

30 years: Carol Muegge, Linda Pellegrini, Karen Troche, Deborah Walton

January - June

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In Loving Memory of

William Wright

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Save the Date!Thursday, November 17

Annual Thanksgiving FeastCatering by: Sunrise Bistro Catering

More details coming soongreen salad w/ Italian & Ranch dressingsegg & herb rolls with butterturkeygravyherb-sage stuffingcranberry saucehamgarlic mashed potatoessweet potatoesroasted vegetablesapple crisppumpkin squaresmini brownieschololate chip cookiesoatmeal cookiesstrawberry lemonadeiced tea

Menu

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Accross1. area routes 92X, 96X, 97X serve2. allows teachers to take field trips twice per school year3. winner of scavenger hunt from June 2011 Phantom Flyer4. employee login password for website (includes numbers)5. a course in which the bus travels with designated stops and time points6. a point on a bus route at which buses stop and which is often marked by an overhead sign7. the act of passing over, across, or through; passage8. unlimited rides for a calendar month9. a road, course, or way for travel from one place to another

Down1. needed for discount fare when coming from BART, another transit agency, or bus2. a list of times of departures and arrivals3. passenger transportation service primarily intended for mobility-impaired, mentally-impaired, and senior citizens4. impaired, as in physical functioning5. chair mounted on large wheels for the use of a sick or disabled person6. person who travels in a conveyance, such as a car or train, without participating in its operation7. someone age 65 or older

Crossword PuzzleAll entries are due to marketing by November 11.

Winner will be announced the week of November 14.

Name:

Dept:

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