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The fall is in full effect and the cooler weather has many of us breaking out our winter gear to keep warm. As we make that transition, our team at PCAO is constantly working to build relationships in our community with events and initiatives to make Pima County a better place to live. Find out more about how we do that in our everyday work. Your November Monthly Newsletter has arrived!
The month featured the beginning of a major public safety partnership aimed at keeping school children and their families safe from firearms in their homes. On November 14, 2023, the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board took the first step towards our office providing free gun locks through its schools.
County Attorney Laura Conover and Civil Deputy County Attorney Bobby Yu were on hand for the vote. The board voted unanimously in favor of an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Pima County on behalf of PCAO to provide 10 locks to all 88 TUSD schools.
It’s aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of children and helping to reduce the dangerous situation of improperly stored guns that play such a horrific role in both accidental and suicidal deaths among children.
The free gun locks, which PCAO and our 88-Crime team give out at resource fairs and other public events throughout the calendar, provide an easy way to ensure that guns cannot be fired by accident or in the heat of emotions without first removing them.
The IGA can be finalized on Dec. 5 if it’s approved by the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
On November 15, Laura joined other Pima County workers as the County held its first event showing appreciation for the Native American heritage that plays such an important role in our community.
The Pima County Employee Native American Heritage Month celebration, held at the Historic Pima County Courthouse in downtown Tucson, opened with a powerful prayer ceremony led by Dr. Carlos Gonzales and included a moving poem by Pima County librarian-poet Lindsey Curley describing why we live in this beautiful desert place was moving for those in attendance. Materials with educational information about the Native culture were also handed out.
The People’s Office, you may recall, recently placed a Land Acknowledgement on our website in recognition of the ancient Indigenous cultures who made the Sonoran Desert their home and served as caring stewards of the unique environment.
Laura penned an op-ed that appeared in The Arizona Daily Star on Nov. 20 detailing the significant progress the office has made in programs and initiatives designed to prevent harm from happening in Pima County.
The piece ran on the Star’s editorial page and included the aforementioned gun lock IGA with TUSD, a notable reduction in violent crime – including homicides and domestic violence incidents – as well as efforts to curb fraudulent schemes, court action to protect the right to reproductive health, and more. You can read it here.
The week of November 12-18 was International Fraud Awareness Week. While that week of focus on the ubiquitous problem of fraud is important, PCAO has made fraud prevention and prosecution a top priority since the start of this administration in January 2021.
That was evident in our social media presence this month as we put out a series of fraud prevention tips on our Facebook and Instagram pages. We hit on topics that include elder fraud, scams using Artificial Intelligence, Medicare fraud and more. Those posts can be accessed by clicking the icons at the top of the PCAO website.
How to tell if you see a scam
Carolyn is moving on up!!
Speaking of coworkers who make us proud, we salute Carolyn Dexter South.
For the past five years, Carolyn has served as a victim advocate at PCAO, a job both challenging and gratifying that helps support victims of crime from the time they suffer harm until after the often-prolonged legal process is complete.
She has done that job so well that this month she was promoted to the post of Advocate Supervisor.
Her supervisor in the Victim Services Division of PCAO, Virginia Rodriguez, described succinctly what led to Carolyn’s promotion, including her diplomatic skills, the respect she has earned from partners in her field and the consistently high level of her administrative work.
“Carolyn is incredibly passionate about the work that she does and cares deeply about the victims she serves,” Virginia said.
If helping people through victim advocacy appeals to you, we can use more good help. Visit our website to learn more about both staff and volunteer opportunities.
Volunteering to create a healthy People’s Office
We take great pride in the character and commitment of the people who choose to work at The People’s Office and this month one of our newest hires added to that feeling.
Myrenia Aviles recently joined our team as an Administrative Specialist Supervisor for our Community Justice Board team, which provides some juveniles who run afoul of the law an opportunity to avoid incarceration or other punishment by owning up to their mistakes and taking steps to mitigate the harm they have caused.
Just a few months into that assignment, Myrenia stepped up and volunteered to serve as PCAO’s new volunteer Wellness Coordinator, a position that promotes healthy habits and well-being among our more than 300 employees.
We appreciate you, Myrenia!
We hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season filled with great food and better company. So far this year we hosted a well-attended potluck lunch get-together before the big turkey and football day and enjoyed our fellow employees sharing thoughts about what makes them thankful on paper trees posted in the lobby of the Legal Services Building. There were plenty of thank-you messages to go around! SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!!
The PCAO Community Newsletter is published and distributed monthly.
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