Acres of Hope representative, Darrell Sarmento, and SCA President Don Sams.

Record turnouts continue. Get your reservations in!

The always lovely BFFs Danell Cassetta, of Restoration Mgmt Co., and Cathrin Nevin, of Carl Warren & Co.

Congratulations to the February luncheon meeting 50/50 Raffle winner, Phil Parcell, of DH Construction.

SCA Immediate Past President Art Coussoulis, of CSAA; Joan Barrett, Market Share listen in to Larry Nelson.

Record February Turn-Out
by Marjorie Hickey
Carl Warren & Company, SCA Board Member

Marjorie Hickey

WOW! Chris Yaw may have said it best when she announced that she was “blown away” by the attendance at February’s Meeting/Luncheon. We really filled the room with such a diverse group of individuals and it was exciting to have so many people in attendance. Let’s keep up the good work making our reservations early and bringing a guest along each time. We sure want to keep the seats filled! Don Sams greeted us with his usual warmth and big smile! It was a rather special moment when Don introduced Darrell Sarmento from ACRES of HOPE,

Chris Yaw announced that bids were now open for the Eagle Sponsorship. The bids were, of course sealed with a minimum requirement of $3,000.00. The Eagle Sponsorship is the highest level sponsorship available at the SCA yearly Golf Tournament. Hole 18 is the place! This is the BEST HOLE as it can be seen from the clubhouse. The Eagle Sponsor receives high visibility signage at the clubhouse itself, their name on each of the golf carts as well special reserved parking for setting up easily. A foursome is included and their very own golf cart as well. At the end of the day, the winner was announced to be Pinnacle Emergency Management, owned by Leo Grover. A very BIG THANK YOU goes out to this firm. The golf tournament is the biggest yearly fundraiser and Pinnacle Emergency Management really stepped up to the plate to be the Eagle Sponsor. Rumor has it that the check has already been turned into the SCA Treasurer! Once again, WOW!

Our speaker was Larry Nelson who is a past SCA President and the quite the expert on Government Torts and the Public Entity Claim Process. As Larry took us through the history of government liability, we heard terms such as sovereign immunity, official immunity, respondeat superior and a few others that might not have been familiar to everyone in the crowd. It was also a good lesson in what a citizen needs to do if he/she wants to present a claim against a public entity such as the City of Sacramento. Evidently, our “City of Trees” is the root cause of numerous types of claims. Our savvy Treasurer, Kelly Denison was brave enough to ask Larry how many claims are denied vs. how many are paid or go to trial. Does everyone remember the answer? “Every claim is denied.” That was an answer that caused a few laughs. Karen Lafferty and Wendy Tucker both of the Special District Risk Management Authority asked some more specific questions about claims that lack merit and the process of rejecting a claim on the 45th day which is called “operation of law.”

All in all, there was much to learn and when we left we all knew a little more than when we arrived. Thank you to Larry Nelson for speaking on this topic in front of the largest crowd ever at the February SCA Monthly Meeting/Luncheon.

SCA President Don Sams thanked guest speaker, Larry Nelson, for his informative talk on dealing with Government Torts.

Bob Morico and Jessica Lujan, of Pinnacle Emergency Management with SCA President Don Sams. Pinnacle won the bidding to be the 2009 "Eagle Sponsor" for the SCA Golf Tournament June 19.

SCA 2009 President Don Sams; Vice President Chris Yaw; and Board Members Cata Jimenez and Steve Drake.

A record-setting crowd (in anyone’s recent memory) of 115 people attended the February 12, 2009 SCA luncheon meeting.

SCA Immediate Past President Art Coussoulis, of CSAA; Joan Barrett, Market Share; and Jack James, of Guardian Environmental.