Memo of the Week

Snacktime for Ronzo

Mendocino County Memorandum

Date: June 10, 2004
To: All Department Heads
From: James M. Andersen, County Administrative Officer
Subject: Day of Mourning and Remembrance

As you all are aware, President Ronald Reagan passed away on Saturday. President Reagan was our 40th president, and will be remembered for his dedication to public service as both president of United States and the governor of California, for strength in the midst of warm humor and kindness, for serving in the twilight of and facilitating the decline of the Cold War, and for his tremendous popularity with the American people as witnessed by his overwhelming elections to two terms as the president and governor.

President Bush has declared this Friday as a national day of mourning. Pursuant to our memorandum of understanding with all of our employee bargaining units, the board must determine whether or not to declare a paid holiday as a result of the president's declaration. After difficult consideration Tuesday afternoon, and weighing the desire to show sincere and appropriate respect to President Reagan, along with the need to acknowledge the dire budgetary circumstances which we now face and a significant cost of a paid holiday, the board determined that the County would remain open for business this Friday. However, the board directed that the administrative office should coordinate an appropriate time of silence and remembrance.

By way of this memorandum, I am asking that each of you afford your employees the opportunity to spend time in quiet reflection and/or remembrance at 10:00 a.m., for a period of 15 minutes. I understand that without office closures it may be difficult to accommodate an uninterrupted time for all employees, so I asked that you remain flexible to allow them to personally mourn and remember their past president.

Thank you, and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office.

cc: Board of Supervisors; Administrative office staff