Everything collected was sold by the pound to California Clothing Recyclers and 100 percent of the proceeds went directly to the shelter, whose mission is to change lives by providing a continuum of care for hungry and homeless individuals and families.

So much was collected in the first few weeks of the clothing drive that the Public Defender’s Office quickly ran out of room to store everything. The Yolo County Sheriff’s Department stepped in, offering space in the adjacent holding facility to be used for storage.

“The support local partners threw behind this project along the way was overwhelming,” said Yolo County Public Defender Tracie Olson. “Additionally, when the project ended, it was the sheriff’s deputies who literally formed a line to move the clothing items from the holding cell to the truck that took the clothes away.”

Officers and other employees of the Woodland and Davis police departments each spread the word about the fundraiser and also donated clothing by the truck-full. Yolo County and Yolo Superior Court employees, along with local residents, donated bag upon bag of clothing and other items as well.

“I knew we were going to raise money for a worthy cause, but what I didn’t anticipate was how many people would benefit from this project,” Olson said. “For instance, when Davis’ Short Term Emergency Aid Committee decided to close its clothing closet, board president Cass Sylvia was instrumental in making the connection between STEAC and the fundraiser. We were not only able to help STEAC, but we were also able to ensure that STEAC’s clothing was used as intended, to help people.”

While most of the used items were held for the fundraiser, any brand-new children’s items were donated to CommuniCare Health Centers for distribution to mothers in the Women, Infants and Children program. Also, work boots were given to the Yolo County Day Reporting Center for distribution to probationers and re-entry offenders who are receiving vocational training to secure full-time construction jobs.

“The money we raised isn’t going to solve the homelessness problem in Yolo County, but hopefully it will bring some comfort to those in our community who are struggling the most,” Olson said. “As James Baldwin once wrote: ‘Anyone who has struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.’ ”

The court stated, “Reason and reflection require us to recognize that in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him. This seems to us to be an obvious truth.”

Of all the services Yolo County provides, only the services provided by the Public Defender’s Office are mandated by the Constitution.

The Yolo County Public Defender’s Office represents, in all stages of criminal proceedings, indigent persons accused of crimes. Primarily, the office provides legal services to indigent adults accused of felony and misdemeanor criminal violations, and to juveniles prosecuted for alleged conduct that would be criminal if they were adults.

The office also represents proposed conservatees in mental health proceedings when the person is alleged to be unable to care for him or herself; ultimately another individual, a conservator, may be appointed to make critical life decisions for the conservatee. In some cases, the Public Defender’s Office provides legal services to individuals whose parenting interests may be affected.

Why are these services important? Because Americans believe in fairness. They accept the idea that laws should be applied equally and that punishment should fit the crime. However, many people also believe that they, personally, will never need the services of a criminal attorney, much less a lawyer from the Public Defender’s Office. If they are lucky — in life and all it has to offer — that is true.

What every person should appreciate, though, is that the Public Defender’s Office, in addition to representing people individually, also provides a system of checks and balances on the criminal justice system as a whole. It guarantees that no agency — whether that be the District Attorney’s Office or a police department — is allowed to operate unchallenged and unquestioned. The Constitution is very much a reaction to the events that came before it.

“Our founding fathers were careful to reject any system which vested in a single person or group unlimited powers,” explains Yolo County Public Defender Tracie Olson. “The attorneys in my office seek to ensure that the rights of individuals are not whittled away to the point that the goals of the Constitution are forgotten.”

The Yolo County Public Defender’s Office provides all of these services with a team of 21 attorneys, four investigators and five support staff. In the last fiscal year, the Public Defender’s Office handled approximately 6,798 newly opened or reopened cases: 2,860 felony cases; 3,131 misdemeanor cases; 650 juvenile cases; and 157 conservatorship cases. In 2009, 121 jury trials were litigated countywide.

— Beth Gabor is the Yolo County Public Information Officer.

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Nearly two years into a state-funded grant project, Yolo County shows promising results from its pilot project to collect hypodermic needles and other “sharps” from local residents. The county received $213,000 from the state Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) to establish a collection system for sharps and to educate residents and other stakeholders about product stewardship.

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In 2008, the state banned sharps (hypodermic needles, lancets, etc.) from landfills because they pose a threat to sanitation workers and the general public. Many California cities and counties have struggled to develop a plan to handle this new hazardous waste stream amid budget cuts and personnel shortages.

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Yolo County proposed a pilot project to CalRecycle to implement a convenient and cost-effective method of collecting sharps from the public.

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There is an increased demand for proper sharps management. California has nearly a half-million diabetics who self-inject insulin daily, sometimes multiple times each day. That number is projected to triple by 2050, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Add to this figure the growing number of individuals who are treating medical conditions like migraines, infertility, arthritis and blood disorders with injection medications, as well as those injecting pets and livestock, and it becomes clear that there is a significant need for safe and convenient sharps disposal.

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“Sharps are scary,” says Heidi Sanborn, executive director of the California Product Stewardship Council. “The public wants safe, secure options for disposing of sharps, and we don\’t yet have a statewide collection system that has sustainable funding. So far, the state has failed to enact product stewardship legislation for sharps so counties and cities are doing the best they can.”

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Product stewardship means the producer of a product is responsible for the end-of-life management of that product, rather than relying on underfunded local government programs or garbage ratepayers. Producers have the ability to incorporate the end-of-life management costs into the price of the product and they are also the only party with the ability to make design improvements, such as reducing the amount of packaging used.

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Sanborn said government and waste associations nationwide are calling for stewardship legislation to get producers to share in the responsibility for the products they make.

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“Local government can\’t do it alone. We need help from the producers,” she said.

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Yolo County officials agree.

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“We adopted a resolution in support of product stewardship back in 2008, shortly after the state banned sharps from landfills,” said Supervisor Helen Thomson of Davis, who chairs the Board of Supervisors.

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In an ironic twist, Yolo County recycling coordinator Pamela Hedrick is experiencing first-hand how badly a coordinated statewide sharps collection program is needed.

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“My daughter was recently diagnosed with Type I diabetes and has to self-inject insulin daily,” Hedrick said. “We\’ve seen several specialists and visited hospitals, clinics and pharmacies in three different counties in the last week and we\’ve gotten a different answer to our question about what to do with the sharps from each care provider.

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“In some cases, the information was just wrong. The last thing you need at a time like this is conflicting information.”

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Hedrick noted that Yolo County\’s sharps project has been popular with users. However, the grant funds are limited, and when they run out in April, the county will have to consider if it can afford to continue providing this service.

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“Product stewardship is the most viable alternative,” Hedrick said. “We can\’t keep adding products to our household hazardous waste programs without raising rates. At some point, we have to find a better system.”

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Yolo County used grant funds to purchase sharps containers to give to the public as a way to educate sharps users about how and where they can dispose of sharps. Limited quantities of the free containers remain, but most pharmacies and drug stores sell sharps containers.

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Residents can dispose of sharps at the county\’s household hazardous waste collection facility at the Yolo County Central Landfill on any Friday and Saturday between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. The landfill is on County Road 28H northeast of Davis.

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For more information about the sharps collection program, call (530) 666-8852. Prepaid mail-back containers for sharps may be purchased online at http://www.sharpsinc.com.

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