Rotagram for Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Meeting was called to order by President Ripley who thanked everyone for being here today, “good afternoon, everyone. Unfortunately, I don’t have a gavel, so I punched the bell.” He took a moment to thank all those who have been submitting jokes to him because it has been quite a blessing, “even Ken Kaisch, he is getting Ken into the action.” Shout out to Ken Kaisch, who is past president of the Fullerton Rotary Club and a clinical psychologist. “Ken was sharing with me that he picked up a new client and that for their first meeting, the guy shows up butt naked. Ken looked him up and down and says, ‘I can clearly see your nuts!’” This joke received a good pop. How about the worst elephant jokes? “What did Tarzan say when he saw elephants coming over the hill? ‘Hey look, a there goes a herd of elephants walking over a hill.’ What did Tarzan say when he saw a heard of elephants wearing sunglasses coming over a hill? ‘Nothing, he did not recognize them.’” Last joke, “Why do elephants need trunks? Because they don’t have glove compartments.”

For our Commencement Ceremonies, Taz Stalcheski gave us our Patriotic Moment, leading us in our Pledge of Allegiance. Monica Fernandez gave us our Invocation leading us in a poem about gratitude, “may life be full of gratitude, may it be shown in my attitude by the way that I act and with all contexts. Let my appreciation show expressing it quickly, not too slow for those who have helped me along. May the kindness that was show to me be the kindness that I return so easy. May I always lend a hand to a child, woman, or man. You see life as gratitude, as one that makes you appreciate all that is done. You count your blessings every day from the time you are young until you are grey.

Our Recognition/Fine Master today was Brett “the last-minute sub” Ackerman. He was heckled right away so he fined this person $5. “Is Brett Ackerman here?” asked Brett Ackerman. Brett recognized himself for his 10-year Rotary Anniversary. He deemed himself fine free and passed on his fine to Matt Howells who is also celebrating his Rotary Anniversary, so he has a grand total of $10 fine to pay. Joyce Capelle was recognized for her upcoming birthday, “feel free to call her and wish her a happy birthday on November 10th.” He wished James Vanderburg, Irene Lang, and Jim Blake a very happy birthday, although not in attendance. Bill Edman recognized for his one-year Rotary Anniversary. Because Brett thought he did a “sucky” job at collecting funds from recognizing folks that weren’t present, he jokingly picked fights, and fined whoever would engage. This made for a great fine master segment. Leslie McCarthy made a humble brag, she has a new member in her household, her son-in-law. Scott Dowds was asked to explain his upcoming vacation, he was fined $5 because he is going to miss a whole month of meetings. Lastly, he fined folks $5 for not having Rotary Pins. He jokingly fined Pat Hartnett $5 for being a good attorney, “I’ve never fined you before. That’s it for me, unless there are other people that think I suck.” Brett Ackerman did an awesome job as our recognition master, generating some funds for the club.

President Ripley took the stage, “I am worried about this club. We’ve gone from ‘you suck’ to ‘eff’ yourself.” Today’s announcements, President Ripley announced that we are stuck in a holding pattern with the CIA awards money being on hold at $15,700. We have until the end of the year to hit our goal. He went over all the good causes of making a charitable contribution. IF anyone wants to know all the good that comes with making charitable contributions, feel free to email Cathy Gach for more information.

Rick Crane announced the annual Jim Thompson Track and Field City Championship on Saturday, February 24th at Fullerton Union High School.

Leslie McCarthy announced that December 13, 2023, will be our Rotary Christmas Party, “A Christmas Social” from 05:30 pm – 8:00 pm at Coyote Hill Country Club. Cost of admission is $30, please bring one unwrapped toy or gift card per person that will benefit Crittenton and the Boys and Girls Club of Fullerton. Please RSVP to Leslie by phone at 714-984-5497 or by email at lesliemccarthy23@gmail.com. The final RSVP date is Nov. 29, 2023. The Fullerton Rotary Club will not host a weekly meeting on the week of Nov. 22 and Dec. 27 in observance for the Holidays. Please, feel free to email for more information.

Proposed New Members:	Mark, Lee, Radiant Futures, Proposed by Leslie McCarthy
	Erlanson, Lana, Radiant Futures, Proposed by Leslie McCarthy
	Sung, Jin, Oasis Center International, Proposed by Dan Ouweeleen

Our Program at Hand was introduced by Rick Crane. “Joining us today is the newly appointed director or Public Works for the city of Fullerton, Stephen Bise. He is a member of the city’s manager’s executive team and provides day to day management of the public workshop. Before being appointed as a director, Bise served as a city engineer, assistant director of public works. Bise oversees a department budget of $78.3 million with a staff of approximately 185 full time employees. Stephen received his Bachelor of Science from Cal Poly Pomona and is married with 2 kids living in Fullerton. Please welcome Stephen Bise.” He thanked everyone for allowing him to present his infrastructure update on the city, and he promises not to “suck” to the lively bunch, but he does have thick skin. He started by stating that this is his first public sector work since he made the jump from private because he wanted to lend himself to the city of Fullerton. “So that’s why I am here and will continue to be here as long as I can help serve the city I live in of course.” Currently, his department has an operating budget of $78.3 million and staffs 180 something staff members with 198 allotted positions budgeted. He says that they are always actively recruiting so that they can improve their service levels. The Fullerton Public Works Department actively manages the investment the community has made in its infrastructure like streets, buildings, parks, and other facilities that belong to all Fullerton residents. The Department of Public Works provides enhanced coordination of the 3 major components of the city’s infrastructure: Design, Construction, and Maintenance Service Projects. He says that his department inherited the waste collection department and that they have to comply with SB 1383, “It’s a senate bill that establishes new organic waste collections and recycling programs. Its goal is to reduce the amount of organic waste that sent to the landfill by 75% by 2025.” Stephen calls this a huge effort that the city of Fullerton is undertaking and so is the state of California. The Fullerton City Airport also falls under the Public Works Department, which is the only remaining General Aviation airport in Orange County. Stephen thanked the Fullerton Rotary Club for its continuous donations, “thank you for helping us.” In addition to all the good, he also talked about the bad, “Si Fi, I don’t know if anybody knows what that is, but you’ve probably seen the trucks.” Fullerton is becoming a Smart City but at the same time, it has become a constant challenge for him and his team with closed streets and all the construction equipment causing traffic, “It’s a constant negotiation, constant struggle that we need to do, but that’s our job.” He also talked other Capital Improvement street projects like street lights development, street paving, upgrades on bridges, facilities, curb litter, sidewalks, landscape, parking lots and structures, park playgrounds, storm and water systems, “just so many things go through our Capital Improvement Programs.” Several years ago, the city of Fullerton was ranked last in Orange County for road conditions, Stephen says we are moving up, “not quite at the top yet, still at the bottom third of the county.” The third branch in the Public Works Department is Water Engineering which is a member agency of the Metropolitan Water District of Orange County. Fullerton receives its water in two different ways, import water from the Colorado River or the Delta, North Sacramento. “We also pump our water from the basin and that is correlation with Orange County Water District.” The Water Engineering branch’s goal is to serve clean, reliable water to the residents every single day, and that includes 18.3 million gallons consumed daily in Fullerton. As far as fleet vehicles, Stephen says that they are going 100% electric green by the year 2040. He talked about city landscape and maintaining 40,000 street trees making sure that Fullerton stays a Tree City for another 45 years, “We are trying to plant as many trees as we can every year.” To end his presentation, Stephen took questions from club members.

President Ripley thanked Stephen for his presentation and presented him with a certificate in his name to Working Dogs 4 Warriors, a nonprofit dedicated to helping our Nation’s Warriors by training and donating service dogs to Veterans and First Responders. Last thing on the agenda was the 50/50 drawing worth $45. Lucky ticket number 4580 wins the money. “Join us next week, our program is Cal State Fullerton’s new president Dr. Sylvia Alva will be joining us to share her vision for the university. So, invite a friend, please hit that like button and subscribe. Meeting is adjourned.