Jane Teixeira, who has led Intercollegiate Athletics & Recreational Sports through the challenges of the pandemic over the last year, has stepped down from her position to spend time focusing on serious family matters.
Jane Teixeira. | HSU
During her time at Humboldt State, Ms. Teixeira worked to develop safe approaches for student-athletes to practice during the pandemic, and for multiple teams to be able to participate in limited competition in the Spring. In addition, she helped guide efforts to rebrand HSU Athletics, which included a major update of the department’s website.
Ms. Teixeira consistently stressed the importance of performance in the classroom as well as community involvement, and was focused on providing a positive experience for student-athletes by championing giving back to the community and leading social equity change.
The changes are effective immediately. Information on permanently filling the vacancy for Director of Intercollegiate Athletics & Recreational Sports will be provided at a later date.
California agreed to pay OptumServe up to $221 million during the pandemic to coordinate and operate dozens of vaccination sites.But the health care company’s work in at least a dozen counties has been plagued by miscommunication and staffing shortages.
Officials from at least 12 counties complained to the state Department of Public Health about delays and other problems with OptumServe, saying that the problems hampered their ability to get shots into arms, according to state documents obtained through a Public Records Act request.
The company has fallen far short of the up to 100,000 daily vaccine doses it told the state in its contracts that it could deliver. It has helped administer about 370,000 doses since January — just 1.1% of California’s nearly 34 million during that span. At several vaccine sites, OptumServe failed to deliver the minimum 420 doses it pledged to distribute each day.
At least three counties — Lassen, Madera and Tulare — stopped working with OptumServe, are taking back doses and turning instead to community groups for running their vaccination sites. The company still has 30 sites operating in 23 counties across California.
Over the past year, the state awarded OptumServe and its subsidiary, Logistics Health Inc., three no-bid contracts totaling up to $1 billion to run hundreds of California’s testing and vaccine sites.
Included is up to $221 million authorized through September 2021 to work on the vaccination rollout. So far, OptumServe has billed the state $4.8 million for its vaccine contract, according to figures provided by the California Department of Public Health. For its two contracts for running hundreds of California testing sites, the state also agreed to pay OptumServe up to $838 million, and has already paid $282.5 million.
OptumServe is a Minnesota-based company hired by the federal government to manage health care. Its $200-billion parent company, UnitedHealth Group, is the nation’s second-largest health care company.
UnitedHealth contributed $131,000 to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2022 re-election campaign and his standing ballot measure committee during the pandemic in December, raising questions from critics, including Bob Stern, principal co-author of the state’s Political Reform Act, about the use of no-bid contracts with politically connected contractors.
In written responses to questions, OptumServe and the California Department of Public Health acknowledged missteps and attributed some early miscommunication and staffing shortages to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic and the unique challenges of delivering vaccines to all corners of California.
Tulare County health officials told the state that OptumServe had a “lack of knowledge” about the vaccine rollout, citing unstaffed and repeatedly delayed state-contracted vaccine sites. The county recently stopped working with OptumServe, saying that its relationship was so fractured that it was “beyond an ultimatum,” according to meeting notes dated April 20 written by the California Department of Public Health and obtained through a public records request.
Tulare County Board of Supervisors Chair Amy Shuklian, who represents Visalia and surrounding farming communities, called OptumServe’s work “disappointing” and said she wonders whether the company’s problems scared off people with limited time and transportation to get to a vaccine site.
“We need to get some of our money back,” she said, referring to the state’s ongoing contracts with OptumServe.
Riverside County Public Health officials told the state that OptumServe staffers called in sick week after week, and were never reprimanded, the meeting notes say. Last week, the county announced a new Optum clinic has been put on hold with no timetable for opening. An Optum spokesperson said the delay is to ensure the clinic is thoroughly cleaned and construction debris is cleared.
Riverside County spokesperson Brooke Federico said the county “has been satisfied with the partnership with OptumServe” while acknowledging that any new partnerships have issues to work through.
Officials from several other counties also said in interviews that OptumServe’s early troubles were somewhat expected. Contra Costa Health Services assigned a member of its vaccine team to support OptumServe and said issues were to be anticipated when “building a new service in a short time.”
“Despite the expected challenges that come up with standing up a new supply system, no doses were missed and only a very small number of appointments were rescheduled,” Contra Costa Health Services spokesperson Brittany Paris said in a statement.
The documents obtained from the public records request detail problems related to OptumServe’s vaccination sites, not its testing sites, which make up the bulk of the company’s $1 billion contract with the state.
The contracts show OptumServe proposed a quick vaccine rollout across California in January, with as many as 1,260 doses a day at some of its bigger regional sites. Almost 80% of the roughly 370,000 doses Optum has administered to date were during March and April. In some counties with multiple OptumServe sites, the company accounts for 10 to 20% of the total doses administered to residents, far less than community organizations or county health departments that had similar vaccine allocations.
OptumServe, state say problems have been fixed
The California Department of Public Health declined to grant interview requests and instead said in a statement that it enlisted OptumServe and hundreds of other vaccination providers “at a time when we did not have enough capacity to deliver the doses.”
“The state and our partners in the vaccination rollout have learned much along the way, and we strive continuously to improve communication and processes,” the statement says. “Where issues have been raised, we have worked to address them quickly.”
“You can’t hire a business to do this work on the turn of a dime and expect them to be effective.” — Arturo Rodriguez, organizing director of the Central Valley Empowerment Alliance
OptumServe said it has responded to issues raised by county health departments. While it does not inform counties of measures taken against tardy or absent staffers, a statement from the company said, personnel issues are “managed accordingly” and offending staffers are “held accountable.”
“For more than a year, Optum has been honored to support California efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic by mobilizing quickly to provide urgently needed COVID testing, vaccinations and health IT services,” OptumServe said in a statement. “We continually evaluate our operations and make necessary adjustments to ensure California residents receive the high-quality service they expect. We continue to closely collaborate with the state and counties on this important work.”
Blue Shield of California, the state’s third-party administrator of vaccine and testing, said that OptumServe’s state contract pre-dates its involvement and referred questions about on-the-ground issues to the state and OptumServe. But internal emails and memos show that Blue Shield made recommendations to the state about dose allocations to OptumServe sites.
Community groups that are now taking over some of OptumServe’s vaccine work say the state’s plan was flawed from the start, and reflects a misplaced one-size-fits-all approach to the rollout.
“You can’t hire a business to do this work on the turn of a dime and expect them to be effective,” said Arturo Rodriguez, organizing director of the Central Valley Empowerment Alliance, a nonprofit that Tulare County has asked to help coordinate vaccine distribution. He added that consistency and quality of health care services are built over time, with trusted, reputable contractors and community organizations.
Collaboration with community groups has been a key in overcoming barriers to vaccine access, particularly when tech troubles emerge, according to Dr. Courtney Lyles, an associate professor in the University of California, San Francisco’s Division of General Internal Medicine.
“There’s power in combining big tech’s flexibility and capability with on-the-ground knowledge of community-trusted partners,” she said. “That’s the secret sauce to be able to do online things well.”
Problems cited in Central Valley
In January, Optum distributed about 5,000 doses when vaccine supply was still scarce. By late February, Newsom announced 11 new OptumServe vaccination clinics focusing on the Central Valley. Despite concerns about early registration snafus and cancelled appointments, the sites opened in early March.
In contracting documents and pricing models, OptumServe told the state it would turn existing testing sites into vaccine sites in just 11 days from when the contract started. It would staff some of these sites eight hours a day, five days a week. At mass vaccine sites, OptumServe pledged it could dole out more than 25,000 doses per month — at a cost of more than $926,000 per site.
Two key assumptions were baked in: One was the availability of vaccines from the state; the other was how well the state’s MyTurn scheduling system worked.
Counties say lingering issues with both OptumServe and MyTurn have hampered their efforts to get people vaccinated. Californians across the state ended up largely bypassing the state’s $50 million MyTurn site, which has been problematic for residents, health providers and local health departments.
In many places, the projected vaccine targets were never realized.
Tim Lutz, director of Tulare County’s Health and Human Services Agency, said in an interview that each OptumServe site “presented its own challenges,” with some lacking a staffer to handle daily vaccine deliveries and others shutting down early due to overbooking. Some of the OptumServe vaccine events in the hardest-hit agricultural regions in Tulare — such as a farmworker-only event in Earlimart — were delayed for hours or cancelled entirely because of absent workers.
In late April, meeting notes from a call between Tulare County officials and the California Department of Public Health show Tulare provided a page-and-a-half summary of complaints about OptumServe. Two senior state officials working on the OptumServe contract — Nick Picinich and Ellen Badley — were “very aware of how much hand holding” was needed with the state contractor and “acknowledged awareness of how much the county has done and length of time they have gone without responses,” according to the state’s meeting notes recap.
In response, OptumServe pledged to correct on-the-ground issues with its staff. “Optum will be available at the convenience of the group,” wrote LaShonda Cobb, Optum’s director of COVID services.
But weeks later, Tulare County proposed a transition plan to stop using OptumServe and instead rely on community providers and organizations that the county had found to be more consistent. OptumServe still has a vaccination site in Tulare County, but it is no longer working with the county, and county officials are in the process of taking their doses to redistribute to other partners.
Tulare County estimates that OptumServe has administered slightly more than 37,000 vaccine doses, with about 13,800 unused doses of Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines still sitting in storage at the health department. In comparison, the county has administered roughly 274,000 vaccine doses; OptumServe represents 13.5% of its total.
In Kern County, where Newsom initially announced the opening of the new OptumServe sites initiative, Brynn Carrigan, director of the county’s Public Health Services Department, said complications with those sites were, in part, due to problems with the state’s MyTurn vaccine scheduling website. The site delayed opening registration for those locations, making it difficult for residents to book appointments.
Two of the sites were in farmworker communities. Carrigan said at times they did not fully distribute the 420 doses available each day because MyTurn appointments posted on the website too late. The OptumServe clinics still “brought about additional vaccine allotment to our county” when it needed it most because doses were scarce, she said.
Advocates for farmworkers, however, said mass vaccination sites aren’t the best solution for highly transient people who might lack a car.
“It’s very difficult for farmworkers to get to a hospital or a clinic or a vaccine site. It’s important to take the vaccines to where they are,” said Diana Tellefson Torres, executive director of the United Farm Workers Foundation.
Last month, Santa Cruz County wanted to increase its vaccine allotment to 420 doses a day, a goal OptumServe said it would meet back in March, according to state documents. But by the time that doses at OptumServe sites finally increased in early May, demand had already dropped off substantially, county officials said.
Madera County wanted to reach 630 vaccines a day, but capacity was low because MyTurn appointment times opened up too late to be filled, county officials said. OptumServe, which began working with the county on vaccinations in February, now operates its site “largely independent of the county,” a change that was planned from the onset, according to the public health department’s spokesperson Phylisha Chaidez.
In Monterey, the state offered to set up an Optum clinic that could initially administer 750 doses over two days. The Monterey County Health Department reached out to a grower association to help coordinate the efforts but then said hours later the clinic could only do 420 per day. The association passed on working with OptumServe.
Reliance on private businesses questioned
California’s reliance on OptumServe and other private businesses to bolster the state’s public health programs is largely a consequence of municipal and state budget cuts dating back to the 2008 recession, according to Dr. Flojaune Cofer, an epidemiologist and the senior director of policy at Public Health Advocates, a nonprofit lobbying group. Those funding levels have never been restored.
“When the interests of the private companies align with what we need, we are grateful for them stepping in and providing support,” she said. “But it’s not a long-term sustainable strategy.”
California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office recently determined that the state has a budget surplus of $38 billion. California Can’t Wait, a public health initiative, hopes to secure $200 million of that in the state’s general fund to support local health departments. Newsom’s May Revision budget, however, did not allocate funding for public health infrastructure.
“Now is a great time for us to take a step back and ask what are things we need to do to make sure we’re not in the same position in the future and that we’re ready for the next pandemic,” Cofer said.
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Caitlin Antonios, a California-based freelancer who works with the Documenting COVID-19 project at Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation, reported this story while participating in the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2020 Data Fellowship. Bianca Fortis, a New York-based freelancer who works with the project, is a 2020 graduate of Columbia University’s Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.
CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
Constance Jean Secor Jan. 14, 1940 - March 3, 2021
Connie (Granberg) Secor was born at home in Albany, Calif. on Jan 14, 1940 to Betsy Ross
(Bates) Granberg and Harold Oliver Granberg. She had four brothers — Benjamin, Arthur, Frederick
Gordon and Harold — and one sister, Betsy Fitzmaurice.
Connie’s first 12 years were spent living on and off in the Bay Area. In 1951 her family moved to
Portland, Oregon and settled there. Connie graduated from Gresham High School in 1957. She
then joined the Navy, where she became a dental technician and was honorably discharged.
Connie married Bob Secor in 1960, moved to Orick and raised their six children — Benjamin
(Nikki), Julie (Jay), Patti, Betsy (Tim), Bobby (Shen) and Kristine (Jeff). Their family grew to
have 20 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren.
Connie was a loving mother, wife, sister and friend. She was a hard worker while raising her
family. She worked at Orick school, B+J Market, TC’s Orick Market, Bill + Linda’s Orick Market
and since 2007, Orick Community Services District, where she recently retired. She also kept
books for many small businesses in Orick.
Connie had many friends that were special to her. Chief and Linda Williams, Jim and Judy
Hagood, Betty Meyer, Pearl Childs, Marcie Allen, Ron and Regina Barlow and so many more.
Connie enjoyed her life. One of her favorite things was spending time with her sister, Betsy. They
had such a special bond and at times would meet on the coast just to spend time together.
Connie was preceded in death by her father in 1974, mother in 1996, brother Ben in 2003,
oldest grandson Nick and husband in 2010, great-granddaughter Brooklynn in 2011, brother
Frederick Gordon in 2012, brother Harold in 2017 and daughter Patti in 2019.
A special thank you to Hospice of Humboldt for their help and support and to all those who
supported our family while our sweet mom made her final journey home. As mama and Johnny Cash always said, “We’ll meet again.”
There will be a celebration of life at the Prairie Creek State Park, June 20 at 1 p.m. All are
welcome and please come hungry.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Connie Secor’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
Our
beloved Walter Henry Guilbert passed away peacefully on April 29 at St. Joseph’s Medical Center. Walter was born on April 24, 1944
in San Jose. The Guilbert Family would like to thank the
staff at St. Joseph’s Hospital in the Observatory Unit, the PCU and
especially the ICU for their outstanding care, concern and
compassion.
Walter
is survived by his sons Jorn Walter Guilbert of Sacramento and
Rico Marcel Guilbert of Eureka and their spouses, Hamisi and
Jennifer respectively. Brother Norman Howard Guilbert and his wife
Barbara of Montana and five grandchildren Denise, Adriana, Jazmin, Malia
and Jamin, as well as many nieces and nephews.
Walt
was preceded in death by his parents Howard Edward Guilbert and
Lillian Eloise Guilbert (Brown) and his brother Douglas Edward
Guilbert.
Walt
was a graduate of Campbell Union High School in Campbell. He
studied at San Jose State University, where he received a Bachelor of
Arts Degree in Natural Science. Walt was a military veteran who
served in the US Navy as an Electronic Technician on the U.S.S.
Forrestal Aircraft Carrier. He served four years earning an Honorable
Discharge at the rank of E5.
Walt
was grateful for his joyous work experiences throughout his work
history and loved sharing the stories with his family. This included
the companies he worked for, the people he reported to, and the
people who reported to him. Work experiences included him working
side by side with his father Howard, at Lake County Realty as a real
estate agent, tax consultant and broker. He held positions with
Yakima as a Purchasing Agent and Engineering Tech and held multiple leadership positions with Pepsi Bottling Company and Cypress Grove
Chevre. He even started a restaurant, as the co-owner of Frankly
Delicious in Arcata. Walt was respected by those he worked for and
worked with.
Walt
was a great believer in humanity and the environment. He believed in diversity, equity and inclusion for all people. He joined groups such
as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People and was involved in marches and
protests in his college years. Walt had a great appreciation for
nature. He belonged to groups that supported his passions like:
Greenpeace, Trout Unlimited and the Sierra Club, amongst many
others. Walt also was an avid recycler of all things. Walt often
visited the recycle yard with organized containers of 10-12 bins with 7-8 categories of recyclables.
In addition, Walt supported local
publications, belonging to PBS North Coast and received the Eureka Times-Standard delivered on a daily basis to his front doorstep.
Walt
was a big fan of sports. He especially loved college sports over
professional sports, believing college players had more passion for
the game. However soccer was his greatest passion. He shared this
passion with his family early by taking them to several San Jose
Earthquake games in the mid-70s at the old Spartan Stadium. He was
also active in soccer locally, coaching his oldest son on the
Arcata’s Jogg’N Shoppe team in the early 80s, and eventually
starting a league in Clearlake in the mid 80s, coaching both of
his beloved sons. To add to his sports enthusiasm, in his later years
he had multiple TV’s throughout his home so that one could always
be on soccer! Especially the overseas professional leagues.
Walt
loved using his mind and hands to tinker, build and repurpose things.
He remodeled many of the rentals he owned including adding some
additions like the front deck on his home in Clearlake. In his spare
time, Walt also made his own fishing poles and tied his own flies for
his fly fishing expeditions.
Walt
enjoyed gatherings with family and friends, like spending time as a
youth with the Barcello’s and Taylor’s on their ranch. Some of
his favorite things were Friday night beers with Bob Young of Arcata
and his brother Ron, or getaways with Mark and Rhonda Early of
Kneeland to their cabin in Trinity Lake.
Walt
has friends that date back to elementary school that he has
maintained lifelong friendships with. These include: Fred Nooteboom
of Monte Sereno, Jim Carter of Arcata, George Junker of San Jose, and
Hooter Meredith of Cathedral City. This group did many wonderful
things together such as driving from San Jose to the East Coast
in their 20s. They would also do yearly trips with their families
to the Klamath River, camping right on the shoreline through the
access of a private logging road. There were yearly trips to Caples
Lake, California that include trolling for trout and hiking on ski resorts.
Most importantly were the yearly gatherings at his parents’ house
on the lake in Clearlake, affectionately known as “Guilbert’s
ATTHELAKE”.
Rest
easy, Walt, you are missed and loved by many and your sons thank you
for a wonderful life.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Walt Guilbert’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
Harold ‘Hap’
Giacomini, born July 16, 1928, passed away peacefully in his home in
Eureka early in the morning on May 19, 2021. He was with
those he loved and surrounded by the love felt for him in the time
leading up to and through his passing.
Harold was
nicknamed Hap because he was such a happy baby and remained a truly
happy man throughout his long and well lived life. He maintained his
joyous demeanor despite facing and overcoming numerous challenges.
Hap went out of his way to share his good spirit and to lift the
spirits of those around him, often via shared laughter over one of
his hundreds of jokes. No matter what was going on, he always had a
joke to share.
In addition to
his humor, Hap was a talented woodworker, a dedicated dairyman,
enjoyed fishing, and had a passion for a good cookie. Most
importantly, he was kind and patient beyond description. He was
always willing to help anyone who needed it. In moments of darkness,
he was the light. Hap loved his large family tirelessly. He was
loyal to his faith. Those mourning his loss find comfort knowing of
his heavenly reunions with those that he has missed so dearly.
Hap was a
dedicated son, brother, cousin, father, uncle, grandfather and
friend. He was welcomed to Heaven by many people dear to him,
including his wife Laurel, son Edward, step-grandsons Aaron and
Travis, parents Henry and Rose, his seven brothers and one sister. He
is survived by his sons Allen (Roxan) and Timothy (Tammy), daughters
Cindy (David) and Renee (Scott), step-children Dan (Nancy), Rodney,
Carlo (Mae), and Lisa, thirteen grandchildren and five
great-grandchildren, his three sisters Mary Laffranchi, Rose Beall,
and Leona Vertrees, and many nieces and nephews.
A service will be
held for Hap at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church (615 H Street, Eureka) on Thursday, May 27 at 10:30 a.m. He will then be laid to rest next to his wife
and nearby other family members at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Ferndale.
While those that knew and loved him will miss his calm and caring
presence, his laughter, and his jokes, Hap will not soon be
forgotten. He will be remembered when baking cookies to enjoy with
loved ones. He will live eternally in the moments of laughter shared
in response to a good joke.
In lieu of
flowers please donate to:
Hospice of
Humboldt 3327
Timber Fall Court Eureka,CA
95503
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Hap Giacomini’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
On Sunday, May 24th 2021 at approximately 10:48 p.m., Fortuna Police responded to the 1300 block of Ronald Avenue for a report of shots fired. Police contacted a juvenile male who sustained a gunshot wound to the leg. The juvenile was treated and released from a local area hospital and is recovering. During the investigation, police learned that 42 year-old, Fortuna resident, Erik Keith Wood had been identified as the shooter.
Erik Keith Wood. | Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office
While obtaining a search warrant, police attempted to negotiate a peaceful surrender with Erik Wood. A combination of phone calls into Erik Wood’s home by police and use of public address system announcements were utilized to successfully take Erik Wood into custody without incident. Wood was later booked at the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on suspicion of Attempted Murder – (California Penal Code Section 664/187). Additional felony charges will also be filed with the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office.
Although this investigation is still ongoing, it is believed that this shooting may have resulted from the children’s prank known as ding dong ditch, which involves the ringing of someone’s doorbell and running away before the door is answered.
During the execution of the aforementioned search warrant, evidence was located and seized including a 12 gauge shot-gun, which was believed to have been used in the shooting. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Fortuna Police at 707-725-7550.
Any questions regarding this incident can be directed to Casey Day, Chief of Police. Additionally the Fortuna Police Department appreciates the assistance provided by our allied agencies.
Can you believe it’s Monday AGAIN?!? Seems like it happens every week. Anyway, your President of Positivity is demanding you join her and a few special guests for a Eureka waterfront adventure. You’re tired and your legs hurt, you say? No worries! Redwood Cycles, located at First and C streets, was kind enough to lend some eBikes to Michaele and crew (and, for a small fee, they will to you too).
Get on your eBikes and ride, Humboldt! The week has begun!
