The San Joaquin County Community Development Department, in collaboration with the Public Works and Environmental Health Departments has completed a guidance document to assist our restaurant and winery businesses in the Unincorporated County to meet social distancing requirements as required by the San Joaquin County Health Officer and/or the Governor.

With COVID-19 outbreaks on the rise in the Central Valley and other key regions throughout the State, San Joaquin County is currently getting word out to residents that its annual Coastal Cleanup Day event scheduled for September 26 this year has been cancelled out of an abundance of caution to protect citizens from the rapidly spreading virus. The County’s Department of Public Works hopes that the annual clean-up event can be rescheduled for the spring of 2021.

San Joaquin County agriculture pumped $5.732 billion into the local economy in 2018 and supported more than 33,000 jobs, Agricultural Commissioner Tim Pelican reported today during a Board of Supervisors meeting as he released the most comprehensive economic analysis to date of a key County industry.

San Joaquin County recently implemented a Chatbot feature on the San Joaquin County website (https://www.sjgov.org). This Chatbot (named “AskSJC”) is part of a smart county platform that provides a modular, open-source, cloud-based set of applications that improves the user experience throughout their digital interaction with the County.

Today, the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Final Budget. The approved $1.9 billion budget includes a $60.5 million increase from the previous year and provides necessary funding for countywide programs and services including special districts. The 2020-2021 Final Budget supports the Board’s strategic priorities including good governance, fiscal responsibility, law and justice, economic development, and water. It also reflects the Board’s directive that all departments establish homelessness as an operational priority, as well as the profound fiscal impacts of COVID-19 to the State of California and San Joaquin County.