The San Diego County Taxpayers Association presented its highest honor to a Sheriff’s Department program to help incarcerated veterans. The Veterans Moving Forward Program links incarcerated veterans with tailored in-custody rehabilitative services and treatment programs to help keep them from reoffending.
The Veterans program has saved taxpayers at least $550,000 in incarceration costs every year and helped 77 incarcerated veterans who participated in the first year of the program to return successfully to the community. None of them has reoffended.
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The San Diego County Taxpayers Association Grand Golden Watchdog Awards honor government programs which efficiently use tax dollars for public good.
The County’s effort to overhaul the building permit process to make it faster, easier and less expensive was honored in the category of Golden Watchdog. The County of San Diego Planning & Development Services created a web portal that serves as a virtual building permit center. The public can submit plans online and staff can also review and issue permits online.
The streamlined process has saved taxpayers $380,000 annually.
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The County also received a Visionary Leadership Award for the Waterfront Park which converted the parking lot surrounding the County Administration Building downtown into a 12-acre community park on the bay. The Taxpayers Association commended Supervisor Ron Roberts and the Board of Supervisors for their efforts to transform the space and also highlighted the park’s use of recirculated water for the fountains, drought resistant native plants and solar lighting.
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