Happy New Year CACEO Members!

2022 has been such an incredible year for CACEO. It is because of the hard work of so many volunteers that it was possible. Serving on the CACEO Board of Directors (BOD) is a volunteer position, yet most of the board members you elected treat this work with just as much passion and excitement as they do with their day-to-day jobs. The success over recent years is because of all of you supporting the organization and collaborating together to elevate our chosen profession. Everyone joins the board for different reasons, but we all genuinely care about the profession and the future of code enforcement.  

In 2022, the BOD discussed organizational development and the importance of succession planning for key leadership positions. We established a goal of providing opportunities for leadership and growth to all who wish to serve in these key positions. The BOD also approved a comprehensive governance review for CACEO designed to maximize the effectiveness of how we lead the organization and how we deliver services to our membership. At a future in-person board meeting (members are always welcome to attend) the BOD will review and act upon the results of that review.

The 2022 Code Conference was an amazing success, and the Conference Committee deserves huge kudos for all their hard work. We had such great interest in instructors coming to present this year, that it was decided to extend the conference length by a few hours to provide additional training at no additional cost to attendees. The 2022 Conference was our largest attendance ever and received tremendous positive feedback. The Conference Committee is already working on sponsors and exhibitors for 2023.  Monterey is a popular destination for CACEO and is not only a gorgeous venue, but there are exciting new things that the committee is currently working on to elevate the conference experience for members.

The Officer Safety Committee (OSC) has an exciting plan in place for the coming year, including a comprehensive Officer Safety program that will include all aspects of Officer Safety. Before becoming a code enforcement officer, I was in law enforcement and officer safety is one of my passions. CACEO is excited to be a part of the change to provide more and better opportunities for code professionals to learn tools to protect themselves, communicate better, and work in a safe environment. We should all be proud of the progress made by CACEO including the tireless efforts of Committee Chair Darrell Revier, the OSC, and the BOD as a whole to approve a “guiding principles” document which will help your jurisdiction develop its own officer safety program.

Long time Legislation Committee Chair Matt Silver, wrote SB 296 with the help of the Legislation Committee, and worked countless hours with legislators, staff and members to get additional protections in place for our CACEO members. Code Enforcement Officers now have additional privacy protection available with the passage of the Safe at Home Bill- SB 1131. This steppingstone legislation is an amazing achievement that has been in the works for the past 15 years.

Our Education Committee has put together 29 classes for a total of 98 hours in 2022. 2023 will bring an even more exciting way to get the training to our members with the Online, On-Demand Module Academies up and running by the spring. This was a labor of love for many board members and with the support of our CACEO management it will be launching soon.

2022 was a year for partnerships and we are hoping 2023 will bring more of the same! With the approval of the board, the following partnerships were formed and have been a wonderful addition and a success for our members:

The Resiliency Project- Provides 24-hour mental health resources for Code Enforcement Officers throughout the Country (many members have already taken advantage of this important resource).

Department of Homeland Security- The Blue Campaign, Code Enforcement is one of the first contacts with human trafficking victims.

The Arcuri Group – Providing Code Enforcement Professionals Situational Awareness Training which coincides with SB 296/the Officer Safety Standards Bill.

Women Leaders in Code Enforcement Symposium- Partnered with WLCE and awarded a scholarship to Marisol Aguilera from Chula Vista Code Enforcement to attend the Symposium.

Women’s Wellness in Public Safety Summit- Partnered with the organizers of this summit and awarded two scholarships to Michelle Gomez from Victorville and Amber Zenk with San Jose Code Enforcement to attend the summit.

The Police Credit Union- CACEO has partnered with The Police Credit Union which offers a wide variety of competitively priced loans for Code Enforcement Officers and their families throughout California, including home loans, auto personal loans, and credit cards—plus checking accounts with no monthly fees and ATM fee rebates.

International Faith Based Coalition - to assist on several occasions with donations of school supplies to low-income students in the Northern California region. CACEO’s Membership & Communications Committee has also created a membership brochure that is now used at community events, CACEO courses and most recently at the Cal League of Cities Conference where CACEO was an exhibitor.

Giving back is one of the continued goals for 2023. This will come in many different forms. Continuing our partnership with the International Faith Based Coalition and giving back to the community will be a model for each region to emulate and will be discussed at our January BOD meeting.  CACEO will be offering CACEO shirts with a pink ribbon logo in support of October’s Breast Cancer Awareness month (proceeds will go to a breast cancel charity). Locally, our outreach and giving back will be more deliberate and specific. Last year, we challenged each region to hold more regional meetings or roundtables. THANK YOU for stepping up to the challenge! I enjoyed attending BAYCEN, RivCo, DEN and SANCEO meetings throughout the year. SANCEO met and decided to donate money and gift cards to the Windsor Pointe Project in the City of Carlsbad. This housing is for military veterans who were previously homeless or have mental health struggles. CACEO will be supporting grass root efforts such as these so that CEO’s can be seen in a positive light in the communities in which they work.  The Sunshine Committee will be working with regional directors for their local meetings to help support them in various ways, such as promoting CACEO, providing giveaways and celebrating/supporting our members throughout the state.

The innovative new Public Affairs Committee has been hard at work hiring a professional Public Affairs Company to help further advance the visibility of CACEO and perceptions of what CEO’s really do to improve their community.

The Awards and Nominations committee has been tasked with creating a new BOD onboarding program. This committee will be working side by side with incoming board members to get them up to speed on our rules, regulations, bylaws, and support them during their first learning year! We want all board members to feel like they are a part of the CACEO family and know that we are here for them during the exciting time of being on the board.

CACEO, with the help of the budget committee is financially strong and the BOD is committed to making good financial decisions to ensure the future of the organization and all it does for the membership.

Jamie Zeller

2023 CACEO President