Frequently Asked Questions

Your device must be registered and certified by your local county Weights & Measures office if your device is used for the determinization of the weight, measure, or count of any commodity or thing that is sold by the basis of weight, measure, or count; or the determination of the weight, measure, or count of any commodity or thing upon which determination a charge for service is based. Devices used in a determination upon which a charge for service is based include, but are not limited to, taximeters, odometers, timing devices, parcel scales, shipping scales, and scales used in the payment of agricultural workers.

Your scale does not need to be registered or certified by your local Weights & Measures office if the determination of the weight, measure, or count of any commodity or thing that is performed within a plant or business as a part of the manufacturing, processing, or preparing for market of that commodity or thing, or the determination of charges for the transmission of letters or parcels of less than 150 pounds, except when that determination is made in the presence of the customer charged for the service, or the determination of the weight of any animal or human by a qualified health provider, California-licensed veterinarian, licensed physician and surgeon, or staff members within the business operations of, and under the supervision of, a California licensed veterinarian or licensed physician and surgeon for the purposes of determining the appropriate dosage of any medication or medical treatment or the volume, duration, or application of any medical procedure.

Monterey County has an annual Device Registration. All Monterey County Device Registrations expire on December 31^st and must be renewed by January 31^st.

Contact your local Weights & Measures office to register and certify the scale prior to commercial use.

If your device needs repair, you should contact a Registered Service Agency (RSA). RSA’s can repair and place device into commercial use pending inspection by local Weights & Measures officials. RSA listing may be found on the CDFA Division of Measurement Standards website.

Commercial scales should be repaired by a Registered Service Agency (RSA).  Upon completion of repairs, an RSA may place the scale into commercial use pending inspection by a local Weights and Measures official.  If a device is repaired by the owner, the device may not be used until inspected and certified by a County Weights & Measures Inspector.

A: Once a report has been forwarded to our office, the ultimate filing decision will be determined by the filing deputy on behalf of the People of the State of California. Requests made by a victim will be taken into consideration during the reviewing process. If you are a victim of a violent crime, you can contact our Victim/Witness Unit at (831)755-5070 for further assistance. 

A: Incidents should be reported as follows:

Crimes must be reported to the police department or other law enforcement agency which has jurisdiction over the city or county where the crime occurred. Crimes committed in the unincorporated area of Monterey County should be reported to the Monterey County Sheriff's Office.

Crimes involving consumer fraud and environmental crimes should be reported directly to the District Attorney's Consumer/Environmental Protection Unit.
You can reach them at: (831) 647-7770.

Please visit the Monterey County Peace Officer’s website regarding contact information for local law enforcement agencies: montereycountypeaceofficersassociation.org

To file a complaint regarding an officer, please contact the Internal Affairs section of the officer's department. 

No. You may wish to consider contacting a private attorney regarding this matter.

We suggest that you state your concerns and/or complaints in a letter addressed to:
District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni
142 West Alisal Street, Suite A 
Salinas, CA 93901

Either Ms. Pacioni or her designee will address the issue as deemed appropriate.

http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/EconomicDevelopment/housing-inclusionary-programs.shtml

Phone number: (831) 755-5390

No. Anyone may apply for "permanent vote by mail" status. Permanent vote by mail voters are automatically sent a vote by mail ballot for every election. To become a permanent vote by mail voter, you must complete and mark the 'Vote by Mail' box on the vote by mail application on this website, the application on your voters pamphlet or application mailed to you. (Elections Code 3201).

Permanent vote by mail voters will retain permanent status as long as he/she casts a ballot in all statewide elections (Elections Code 3206). If a permanent vote by mail voter fails to cast a ballot in a statewide election, he or she will be removed from the permanent vote by mail voter list and will need to reapply in order to have this status restored

Yes. The Elections Office, by comparing this signature to the signature on your voter registration card, can determine that you are the authorized voter. This is an important protection for you. 
Your signature does not allow anyone to determine how you voted. To preserve the secrecy of your ballot, once the signature comparison is made, the ballot is separated from the envelope and the ballot becomes as anonymous and secret as any other ballot.

If you omit any of the required information from your vote by mail ballot application, the Elections Office will send you a ballot, but will also include a notice that the missing information must be provided in order for the ballot to be counted (Elections Code 3009 and 3019).

There are two ways a voter can return their ballot:

1. By mail (please be aware that postage may vary from one election to another, depending on the weight of the envelope. Please make sure to verify the amount of postage required by reading the instructions enclosed with your ballot and return envelope. 
   Voters who live in a mail ballot precinct will not need to afix postage and their blue return envelope will say “NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES”)
2. Drop off the voted ballot in person to any of the following locations:
   1. Elections Office
   2. Some City Halls in Monterey County (this service is not provided for all elections. Please verify that this service is available by calling Monterey County Elections at 796-1499)
   3. Any polling place in Monterey County on Election Day (ballot must be returned to the County from which it was issued, voters CANNOT drop their ballot off in another county to be forwarded to our office).

However, any voter because of illness or physical disability is unable to return the voted ballot, may designate their spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, or a person residing in the same household to return the voted ballot for them.  Please have the voter complete the flap on the return Vote by Mail Ballot envelope, indicating who will return that ballot.  Voter must sign. See below.

Follow the instructions provided by the Elections Office. Failure to complete your ballot correctly could jeopardize your vote. If you have any questions, please call the Elections Office at 831-796-1499.

You will receive a return envelope to sign and return the ballot. You must use the envelope provided. (Elections Code 3010). Do not place ballots for another person in your envelope!

Vote by mail ballot applications are processed in the period 29-7 days prior to an election (Elections Code 3001). You may submit an application prior to this time, but the Elections Office will hold it until the 29th day before the election.

The elections official accepts applications received less than 7 days prior to an election for 'pick-up' in the Elections Office only.

If during the final week before an election you become ill or disabled or for some unforeseen reason find that you will be away from your polling place on election day, you may request (in writing and signed under penalty of perjury) that an absentee ballot be delivered to you. You may authorize another person to bring you the ballot and to return it to the elections officials after you have voted it (Elections Code 3021).

In order to be counted, your ballot must be received by Monterey County Elections no later than the close of the polls on election day (Elections Code 3017 and 3020). The polls close in California at 8:00 p.m. You can mail it or bring it to the Elections Office or to any worker at a polling place within the county. Ballots received after close of polls cannot be counted. Do not mail your ballot on Election Day! A postmark is not considered receipt by Monterey County Elections.

If you return your voted ballot by mail, you must put the required postage on the envelope. The post office cannot deliver it without the required postage

You must apply in writing to Monterey County Elections (Elections Code 3001).Fill out this form, sign and mail or call 831-796-1499.

An application for a vote by mail ballot is also included in the sample ballot and voter information pamphlet sent to you by the county elections official prior to each election (Elections Code 3022).

Yes, if at all possible, a voice call is best. Our slogan is, “Call if you can, text if you can’t.” Timely information is more difficult to obtain over a text call. Texting 911 is appropriate during situations where a caller cannot speak freely without jeopardizing their own safety. It is also appropriate for callers with hearing or speech impairments.

Please refer to the list of non-emergency lines in the section of our website “POLICE /FIRE AGENCIES” and select the number for which the incident is occurring.  These calls allow the 911 lines to remain available for emergencies.

An emergency is any situation that requires immediate assistance from the police, fire department, or an ambulance. Examples of emergency situations include:

• a fire
• an immediate threat to life or property
• a crime in progress
• a medical condition requiring immediate medical assistance

Stay on the line, do not hang up. If you call us by accident, please let us know that so we can cancel the call, and not send out emergency responders to your location. We won’t be upset to know you are okay and called 911 in error. If you do hang up, our personnel are required to call you back and determine if emergency response is needed regardless.

It takes a special kind of person who wants to serve the public. Emergency Communication Dispatchers are the lifeline between the community and first responders. They are a calming voice that can provide instructions and help during critical situations. They take pride in their profession and are a highly skilled, dedicated group of individuals who work diligently behind the scenes.

The minimum requirements to be an Emergency Communications Specialist are:

• A high school diploma or equivalent
• Ability to type a minimum of 35 words per minute
• 18 years of age or older
• Flexibility – ability to work; days, evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays.

If you are calling 911 from your landline telephone, the address will be displayed. If you are calling 911 from a cellphone or internet phone, a general area will be displayed. The call taker will always confirm your location. Be prepared to provide your actual location.

You should call 911 for any situation involving, police, fire or a medical emergency.

Our 911 Dispatchers are trained to gather relevant information from you in order to ensure that we send out the right kind of services to assist you, whether that is an ambulance, police, firefighters, or a combination of all three. We require specific information in order to ensure that you are given the help you need. We can also provide potentially life-saving instructions to assist you until help arrives on scene.

https://www.mtyhd.org/index.php/services/animal-services/animal-complaints/

https://www.mtyhd.org/index.php/services/animal-services/field-services/

https://www.mtyhd.org/index.php/services/environmental-health/illegal-dumping/

The Building & Planning Services FAQs can be found here: Building & Planning Services FAQs

The Code Compliance FAQs can be found here: Code Compliance FAQs

• Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Stay home when you are sick.
• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue; then throw the tissue in the trash.
• Clean and disinfect frequently any objects and surfaces that are touched.
• Get a flu shot if you haven't already gotten one this season.

Yes, your doctor’s note is sufficient certification to potentially be eligible for Emergency Paid Sick Leave under the provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. However, only the County Health Officer or authorized state/federal official can provide an official quarantine order.  The County Health Officer or designee will notify Human Resources if any of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19, and a worksite has been deemed to have been potentially exposed or are considered a Person Under Investigation. However, you may still be asked by your Department Head or designee to telecommute/work from home or be “excused” if no telecommute/work from home options are available. 

During this pandemic event, if you are sick you should remain home from work, you may be eligible for Emergency Paid Sick Leave under the provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Special Paid Leave (paid at base rate of pay)  under the provisions of the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual (Section 10) or you can elect to use leave accruals, unless authorized to work from home. These leave provisions provide a pro-rated number of hours for less than full-time employees. 

You may be eligible for Emergency Paid Sick Leave under the provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act,  FMLA/CFRA leave because the condition constitutes a “serious health condition” or Special Paid Leave (paid at base rate of pay) under the provisions of the Human Resources Emergency Services Manual. These leave provisions provide a pro-rated number of hours for less than full-time employees. 

Please discuss with your supervisor if temporary telecommuting/working from home or a flexible work schedule is an option based on your duties.  You are eligible to use your leave accruals and may be eligible for Emergency Paid Sick Leave under the provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act or Special Paid Leave (paid at base rate of pay) under the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual (Section 10). These leave provisions provide a pro-rated number of hours for less than full-time employees.  

Check with your supervisor about telecommute/work from home options. If none are available, you may be eligible for Emergency Paid Sick Leave under the provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act or Special Paid Leave (paid at base rate) under the provisions found in the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual (Section 10) when quarantined by the County Health Officer or other government authority due to the Pandemic event. These leave provisions provide a pro-rated number of hours for less than full-time employees. 

Under the provisions of the Human Resources Response Manual Section 10, regular, probationary and temporary employees who are quarantined by the County Public Health Officer or authorized State or federal official due to the Pandemic event, sick or with the Pandemic event symptoms, or excused by the appointing authority and unable to temporarily telecommute/work from home may be eligible for Special Paid Leave hours. The 80 hours of Special Paid Leave shall be pro-rated for less than full-time employees based on their FTE. 

Special paid leave hours provided under the provisions of the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual (Section 10) will be available until the expiration date of the emergency declaration. 

Employees already out on an approved Leave of Absence would not be eligible for Special Paid Leave hours as found in the provisions of the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual (Section 10) and would continue to integrate their regular leave accruals as usual.

You may be eligible for Emergency Paid Sick Leave under the provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act or Special Paid Leave (paid at base rate) under the provisions found in Section 10 of the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual (Section 10).  These leave provisions provide a pro-rated number of hours for less than full-time employees. In addition, the County’s Personnel Policies & Practices Resolution provides the County Administrative Officer authority to grant up to 20 days of paid administrative leave. Also, you can apply to the County’s Donated Leave Bank for leave hours.  Please contact the Human Resources Benefits Division at BenefitsHelp@co.monterey.ca.us for additional information.

Under Section 7 of the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual employees can make reasonable requests to temporarily telecommute/work from home, but the approval is at the discretion of the appointing authority. The Temporary Telecommuting Request form is located on the Human Resources Department website at:  https://www.co.monterey.ca.us/government/departments-a-h/human-resources.

As you know, all County employees are designated by State law as Disaster Service Workers (DSWs) and upon hire, County employees signed an oath confirming their understanding that they are designated as DSWs. This means that when the County declares a local emergency, you may be deployed to different work sites or be asked to perform work duties or tasks that are different from your regular work responsibilities. No one will be assigned duties they are not qualified or trained to perform.

Employees may be eligible for Emergency Paid Sick Leave or Public Health Emergency Leave under the provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Please consult with your Human Resources staff or Benefit Coordinator for additional information. 

Under Section 17 of the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual, if you are a First Responder, you must report to work during this Pandemic event.  First Responders are defined as Mission Critical and include law enforcement, emergency communications, emergency service officials and healthcare personnel. In the event that child and dependent care coverage may become impossible, arrangements may be made in advance for approval from the appointing authority to telecommute, if appropriate. If telecommuting is not appropriate upon approval, mission critical personnel will use accrued leave. Otherwise, mission critical employees must report to work.

Mission Critical personnel provide for and maintain the critical functions of the County including human resources, payroll, finance.   In the event that child and dependent care coverage may become impossible, arrangements may be made in advance for approval from the appointing authority to telecommute, if appropriate. If telecommuting is not appropriate upon approval, mission critical personnel will use accrued leave. Otherwise, mission critical employees must report to work. 

Non-Mission Critical- In the event that non-mission critical personnel have exhausted their options for child and dependent care coverage accrued leave will be used for such an approved absence.

You may also consult with your Human Resources staff to inquire about potential daycare options available to County employees. 

Illnesses associated with a Pandemic are not considered work related.  Employees may not be denied the right to file a worker’s comp claim, however, the claim may be denied by the carrier. 

Work related injuries are to be reported and processed as usual. Contact your departmental HR Analyst or your supervisor for information.

Employees are encouraged to check the EDD website for information regarding Unemployment Insurance claims and filing processes.

Employees with serious illness including COVID-19 are encouraged to apply for disability benefits. During the pandemic event the State has reduced the waiting period for SDI benefits so please contact your benefits coordinator promptly for assistance.

Direct Deposit changes can be made using the following options:

• Log into ESS Employee Self Service using employee-center.co.monterey.ca.us
• Mail to Auditor-Controller Payroll, P.O. Box 390, Salinas 93902
• Fax to 831-755-5144

Those employees that still receive a paper check should contact their department timekeeper for check pickup information.  Especially during this pandemic event we strongly urge employees to enroll in direct deposit to ensure that you receive your pay electronically and not have to physically pick up a check and then travel to the bank.  Please see direct deposit question above for more information on how to enroll.  

No, Special Paid Leave hours do not count towards overtime.

Employees deemed essential to departmental operations will receive their normal pay and benefits.

People over the age of 65 and people with serious underlying medical conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and lung disease, and those with immunosuppressed systems are considered at high risk from severe illness from COVID 19. The federal guidance is employee stay at home.  Explore options with management regarding telecommute.  

Your departmental timekeeper will provide time entry instructions specific for your department operations (this could include pay and leave usage codes, override codes, etc.)  All time entry questions should be directed to your supervisor and/or departmental timekeeper.

Contact the County’s local Nationwide representative, Justin Bryant at 831-200-5501 or Justin.Bryant@Nationwide.com.

Employees can also schedule a virtual appointment at https://montereycounty457.myretirementappt.com/.  This is an excellent opportunity to be sure beneficiary designations are up to date.

The FSA card can be used for doctor prescribed items, medical supplies and equipment.  Check out the FSA Store at https://FSAstore.com.

The County may ask you if you are experiencing symptoms of the pandemic virus. Symptoms compatible with COVID-19 include subjective or measured fever, cough, or difficulty breathing according to CDC.  The County will maintain all information about an employee’s illness as a confidential medical record in compliance with the ADA.

The County may ask you if you are experiencing symptoms of the pandemic virus. Symptoms compatible with COVID-19 include subjective or measured fever, cough, or difficulty breathing according to CDC. The County will maintain all information about an employee’s illness as a confidential medical record in compliance with the ADA.

Yes, the County can delay the start date according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.

A close contact is someone who was within 6 feet of a COVID 19 case for a prolonged period of time which may occur while caring for, living with, visiting, or sharing a healthcare waiting area or room with a COVID 19 case OR having direct contact with infections secretions of a COVID 19 case.  If this applies, HR Department Point of Contact will contact Public Health at 831-755-4521 for guidance. Recommendation may be that close contact should go home for 14 days from last date of contact with COVID 19 case and self-monitor.

See above for definition of Close Contact.  HR Department Point of Contact will contact Public Health at 831-755-4521 for guidance.

Cruise ships are classified as level 3 as of March 17 per CDC.  If you were on a cruise in the past 14 days: Stay home for 14 days from the time you disembark, practice social distancing, and monitor your health. Social distancing means staying out of crowded places, avoiding group gatherings, and maintaining distance (approximately 6 feet or 2 meters) from others when possible.

If you feel like you have flu-like symptoms you should let your supervisor know and call your health care provider prior to arriving at their office. Do not go to the hospital emergency department unless your healthcare provider directs you to go.  We need to reserve emergency room visits for serious illness and medical emergencies. 

If you have symptoms of acute respiratory illness and are feeling sick do not come to work.   Notify your supervisor and stay home. You may be eligible for Emergency Paid Sick Leave under the provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act or Special Paid Leave (paid at base rate of pay) under the provisions of the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual (Section 10). These leave provisions provided a pro-rated number of hours for less than full-time employees. 

Please check the following link for current CDC guidelines on Travelers returning to the USA.  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/

HR Department Point of Contact will contact Public Health at 831-755-4521 for guidance as it differs on whether employee is a healthcare employee or not.  

HR Department Point of Contact will contact Public Health at 831-755-4521 for guidance as it differs on whether employee is a healthcare employee or not.

Employees with CalPERS health plans should refer to their Medical ID card for Nurse Line 24/7 TeleMed information.  Refer to the Emergency Response Manual or the Employee Benefits website for more information.

Yes. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that employees who become ill with symptoms of COVID-19 should leave the workplace and stay at home. 

Yes, your department can require you to go home if you are showing symptoms such as fever, coughing, and/or shortness of breath.  Under the California Occupational Safety and Health Act (Cal-OSHA), employers are required to maintain safe and healthy working conditions for employees. You may be eligible for Emergency Paid Sick Leave under the provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act or Special Paid Leave (paid at base rate of pay) under the provisions of the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual (Section 10). These leave provisions provide a pro-rated number of hours for less than full-time employees. 

You can return to work if you are no longer sick. According to Section 15 of the Human Resources Response Emergency Response Manual, when you are ready to return to work you should contact your supervisor for instructions on when and where you should return for your assignment. In certain circumstances, the County may require a note from your health care provider clearing you to return to work.  If you were diagnosed with COVID-19, and the County designated the leave as FMLA/CFRA leave, the County will accept your treating physician’s certification that you can return to work.

Yes, in accordance with Section 15 of the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual you can call in sick without needing to a doctor's note during this pandemic event.

Possibly, each scenario is reviewed on a case by case basis. NOTE: SPSL may be used if a child’s classroom in school or place of care has been closed after concern that a person who had been present on the school or daycare premises on or after January 1, 2022, was exposed to, or had contracted, COVID-19.  This does not include caring for a child whose school or daycare was closed before January 1, 2022.  If the school or daycare was closed on or after January 1, 2022, it must have been due to a closure, or partial closure, making the care unavailable due to COVID-19 on the premises.

Employees must have worked or be scheduled to work during the preceding two-week period before becoming eligible to take SPSL.

Job search related trainings are available through the S.E.E.K. program based on demand. Please visit the S.E.E.K. website or contact the S.E.E.K. Coordinator at (831)755-5130 for availability of courses.  

Yes, this is still in place. 

Yes! Click on the following links to apply online and / or click HERE for the Online Employment Application Guide:

• NeoGov
• Natividad Medical Center

If you are laid off, you will be separated in the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) records and will be able to file for retirement benefits if you meet the minimum retirement eligibility criteria.

CalPERS recommends that you begin the retirement process at least 30 days, but not more than 90 days, before separation. You can run a retirement estimate by logging into www.my.calpers.ca.gov.

Please contact Employee Benefits to discuss retirement processes and to learn of County benefits that may be available to you as a retiree. To schedule a retirement appointment, contact the Employee Benefits Team at 831-755-5115 or by email at benefitshelp@co.monterey.ca.us. General CalPERS information is available on their website at www.calpers.ca.gov. CalPERS will not be able to address benefits that have been negotiated through your bargaining unit. For specific information, please review your MOU or, if unrepresented, the PPPR, each of which are available on the County website.

Appointments are required in order to meet with an Employee Benefits staff member.

There are several ways to receive help in either creating or updating your resume.  Your S.E.E.K. Coach and the S.E.E.K. Coordinator will be available to assist you.   You can also sign up for a Resume Writing course by calling (831) 755-5130.

If they are an eligible employee, they are eligible for up to 40 hours of SPSL regardless of how much leave they have taken under the FMLA. 

You may file for Unemployment Insurance benefits (UI) immediately following separation from work. The fastest and most convenient way to file a claim for UI benefits is online at www.edd.ca.gov. If you do not have a computer, try accessing one at your local library, through a friend or neighbor, or contact the S.E.E.K. Liaison at 1-831-755-5130 for additional guidance. 

If you are planning to retire immediately after separation, contact the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) at 1-888-225-7377 or www.calpers.ca.gov to determine if filing for Unemployment Insurance benefits will have an effect on your retirement benefits or your ability, as a retiree, to return to work for another PERS employer.

Through an appointment with your HR Professional Coach, information will be provided to you on the available positions within the County.

We have several locations available for free computer access for your job search activities.  Your S.E.E.K. Coach will be able to provide you with a list of locations and days/times of accessibility.

Order of lay-off is determined by seniority. Human Resources has created seniority lists for the employees in their departments. The person with the least seniority in the department in the identified classification is the person who will receive the lay-off notice.

You can access the provider search using your insurance carrier’s website.

• Anthem Blue Cross
• BlueShield of California
• UnitedHealthcare
• Kaiser
• PORAC

EAP benefits may be available to you for up to 3 months providing you contact the EAP within 30 days of your separation date.

Qualified, trained S.E.E.K. Coaches will work with you on an individual basis to show you how to navigate through both the S.E.E.K. and County of Monterey websites for up to date information on possible County job openings.  If you find a position of interest, the coach will help you identify your transferable skills for a possible job match.  If you are interested in the position and would like to obtain more information, they can help arrange an informational interview with the department or a job shadow.  The coach will also be able to help guide you through the application or transfer process, whichever is appropriate.

Yes!  The Employee Assistance Program is immediately available to you.  This program has a variety of ways to help you, from individual counseling to assisting you to find resources.  Additionally, they offer workshops that may help you through this period of transition.  For assistance please call the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) at 1-800-638-3327 or visit FEI at www.feieap.com and use username: monterey.

In order to retire, an employee must have a minimum of (five) 5 years of service credit and be at least 50 years of age if you are a Classic Member and 52 years of age if you are a PEPRA Member. If your position is identified as one that is subject to layoff, you may work with a HR Professional Coach to attempt to find other work within the County so that you can continue to earn service credit. Once you meet all of the eligibility criteria, you may resign your position and file for retirement.

Yes, if they qualify for SPSL. 

No. If qualified for SPSL the employee has the option to use SPSL before using any County Special Paid Leave or accrued leave. However, if the paid benefit of SPSL is not enough to equal 100% of the employee’s wages they may use their accrued leave to supplement their pay. Employees must exhaust their SPSL before receiving County Special Paid Leave. 

No. An employee may receive up to 40 SPSL hours total for this type of COVID-19 related reason. 

Yes. If mutually agreed upon by the employee and the Department. 

If you separate from the county you will have medical insurance for the month in which you were employed plus one additional month. Dental and vision coverage will end on the last day of the month of separation. In general, employees who are currently enrolled in health, dental, and vision through their employment with the County, and who are separated from employment, are able to continue their benefits for up to 18 months, subject to continued eligibility. Please schedule an appointment with a HR Professional Coach to discuss benefits and costs.

The County Administrative Officer or designee may approve up to 20 days of paid admin leave. If this is exhausted, or not granted, the employee would fall into an unpaid status. Alternatively, the employee may be reassigned as a disaster service worker. 

Yes. S.E.E.K. services are also available to those who may be looking for a change in their career.  We will offer you a coach, and access to classes to assist you with resume writing, interviewing skills or change management.

Available staff may be reassigned through the Disaster Service Worker program. Questions related to this program may be sent to DSW@co.monterey.ca.us 

See the Human Resources Department (HRD) COVID-19 Emergency Services & Resources website. 

There are a lot of places you can turn to for help. Your best point of contact is our S.E.E.K Program.  The S.E.E.K. Coordinator can connect you with a HR Professional Coach, provide training, tell you what other resources may be available and much more.  The County’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) also has many resources available to you and anyone living in your home.

Their services include counseling assistance, financial and legal consultation among others.  They can be reached at 1-800-638-3327 or visit FEI at www.feieap.com and use username: monterey.  Your Human Resources representative can also provide you with a brochure about the Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

The term “Child Care Provider” means a provider who receives compensation for providing child care services on a regular basis. The term includes a center-based child care provider, a group home child care provider, a family child care provider, or other provider of child care services for compensation that is licensed, regulated, or registered under State law as described in section 9858c(c)(2)(E) of Title 42; and satisfies the State and local requirements, including those referred to in section 9858c(c)(2)(F) of Title 42. 

A licensed Doctor of Medicine, nurse practitioner, or other health care provider permitted to issue a certification for purposes of the FMLA. 

Please refer to Section 10 of the Human Resources Emergency Response Manual for additional information regarding the County Special Paid Leave. 

Our HR Professional Coaches will be available to work with you on an individual basis to assist you with any questions regarding interviewing.  Our coaches have all participated on interview panels and can speak from experience to provide you with information to help you in your interview.  We are able to provide “mock” interviews should you want to have some real practice time.  Additionally, S.E.E.K. staff can provide group sessions on how to successfully interview.

Your S.E.E.K. Coach will be working closely with Risk Management to refer you to a specialist in the Risk Management Division for all questions regarding benefits such as;  PERS, 401K, medical, dental, vision, etc.

Read more about this book on LitLovers
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The protagonist in this story, Antonia Vega, is an immigrant writer facing hard times. Her husband has died suddenly just as they were about to enjoy his retirement, one of her three sisters disappears, and she finds herself caring about an undocumented pregnant teenager who needs a place to live. On top of all that, she is trying to adjust to retirement from a satisfying teaching career. “Who am I going to be anymore?” she asks a sister. “Who am I?”

Read more about this book on LitLovers
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This sweeping novel of historical fiction is inspired by the true rags-to-riches story of Arabella Huntington—a woman whose great beauty was surpassed only by her exceptional business acumen, grit, and artistic eye, and who defied the constraints of her era to become the wealthiest self-made woman in America.

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Newlyweds Celestial and Roy, the living embodiment of the New South, are settling into the routine of their life together when Roy is sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit. An insightful look into the lives of people who are bound and separated by forces beyond their control.

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Wealthy bank director Zara visits open houses to feel normal. Roger and Anna-Lena obsess over fixer-uppers because they cannot manage their own marriage. Expecting lesbian parents Julia and Ro want something to agree on. And cool and collected 80-year-old Estelle has her own reasons for house hunting. They are all trapped at an open house by a masked gunman eventually less scared of the police outside than the nutty people within.

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An unforgettable cast of small-town characters copes with love and loss in this new work of fiction by #1 bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout.

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Reclusive literary legend M. M. Mimi Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years. But after falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, she s flat broke. Now Mimi must write a new book for the first time in decades, and to ensure the timely delivery of her manuscript, her New York publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress and help with Frank, the writer's eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noel Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth-graders.

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Beartown junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys. Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected. Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman, the author of "Man Called Ove", has found the entire world.

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On a remote island in Quebec, a monastery stands. But now the outside world has affected the monks' peaceful existence. A body is found in the abbot's garden. One of the monks has been killed, and presumably by someone within the monastery. Chief Inspector Gamache and Inspector Beauvoir come to the island to investigate.

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(NONFICTION)
Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering. Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families.

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When a plane crashes off the coast of Nova Scotia, Kevin Gearns witnesses the bonding among the survivors who stay in his inn, while Ana Gathreaux, who has lost her husband in the crash, remembers how they worked together to save birds.

* Dayton Literary Peace Prize Winner

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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a riveting novel about the choices that alter the course of our lives.

Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein.She’s on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: Prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong.

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Addie's been asked by her 22-year-old granddaughter, Ava, to explain how she became the woman she is. Born to Jewish immigrant parents in 1900 in Boston's heavily populated North End, Addie and her two older sisters lived in a tenement with their unhappy parents who did not acclimate to this new world. But Addie's caring and loyal sisters are there for her. In 1915 she is a young teen, interested in her activities at a library group held at a neighborhood settlement house. Recalling situations with her compassionate eye and remarkable sense of humor, Addie observes upheavals large and small: changing women's roles, movies, celebrity culture, short skirts, and the horrible flu pandemic of 1918. She explores feminism, family, and love as well.

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Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She is not one to judge others—no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be. It’s just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes.

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(NON-Fiction) The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman.

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(NONFICTION)
Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.

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While a cellist plays at the site of a mortar attack to commemorate the deaths of twenty-two friends and neighbors, a woman sniper secretly protects the life of the cellist as her army becomes increasingly threatening. Evergreen Award winner

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(NONFICTION)
Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.

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The highly anticipated sequel to Moloka'i. The book follows young Ruth from her arrival at the Kapi'olani Home for Girls in Honolulu, to her adoption by a Japanese couple who raise her on a strawberry and grape farm in California, her marriage and unjust internment at Manzanar Relocation Camp during World War II--and then, after the war, to the life-altering day when she receives a letter from a woman who says she is Ruth's birth mother, Rachel.

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James Abram Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, a renowned congressman, and a reluctant presidential candidate who took on the nation's corrupt political establishment. But four months after Garfield's inauguration in 1881, he was shot in the back by a deranged office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Garfield survived the attack, but become the object of bitter, behind-the-scenes struggles for power--over his administration, over the nation's future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care.

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Funny and disturbing eco-novel by a recent Nobel Prize winner. In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit.

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(NONFICTION)
Raised in the Idaho mountains by survivalist parents who eschewed schooling and doctors, Westover hungered so powerfully for education that she taught herself, getting to Brigham Young University and eventually Cambridge University for a PhD.

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Very unusual mystery set in Saudi Arabia. When sixteen-year-old Nouf goes missing and is found drowned in the desert outside Jeddah, Nayir--a desert guide hired by her prominent family to search for her--feels compelled to find out what really happened.

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Book lover and Austen enthusiast Sophie Collingwood has recently taken a job at an antiquarian bookshop in London when two different customers request a copy of the same obscure book: the second edition of"A Little Book of Allegories" by Richard Mansfield. Their queries draw Sophie into a mystery that will cast doubt on the true authorship of "Pride and Prejudice" and ultimately threaten Sophie s life. In a dual narrative that alternates between Sophie s quest to uncover the truth while choosing between two suitors and a young Jane Austen s touching friendship with the aging cleric Richard Mansfield, Lovett weaves a romantic, suspenseful, and utterly compelling novel about love in all its forms and the joys of a life lived in books."

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Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist--and confidante--to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own.

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Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery. Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Yaa Gyasi's extraordinary novel illuminates slavery's troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed--and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.

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A modern classic, first published in 1981, a story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death.

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(NONFICTION)
For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area. Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true-crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

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(NONFICTION)
When Justin was diagnosed with a neuromuscular disease that robbed him of the use of his arms and legs, Patrick was there, helping to feed and care for him in ways he'd never imagined. Determined to live life to the fullest, the friends refused to give into despair or let physical limitations control what was possible for Justin. So when Justin heard about the Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile trek through Spain, he wondered aloud to Patrick whether the two of them could ever do it. Patrick's immediate response was: 'I'll push you'

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(NONFICTION)
A memoir about the staggering family secret uncovered by a genealogy test: an exploration of the urgent ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing, and a profound inquiry of paternity, identity, and love.

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(NONFICTION)
Grann revisits a series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. Based on years of research and new evidence, the book outlines the steps that reveal a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that, it is an indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward American Indians that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long.

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LARGE PRINT

Nobel laureate Ishiguro takes readers to a vaguely futuristic, technologically advanced setting reminiscent of his Never Let Me Go for a surprising parable about love, humanity, and science. Klara is an Artificial Friend (AF), a humanlike robot designed to be a child's companion. She is solar-powered and reveres the sun for the "nourishment" and upholds "him" as a godlike figure. Klara is bought by teenager Josie and continues to learn about humans through her interactions with Josie's family and childhood friend.

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(NONFICTION)
Geobiologist Hope Jahren has spent her life studying trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Lab Girl is her revelatory treatise on plant life--but it is also a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility, and passion that drive every scientist. In these pages, Hope takes us back to her Minnesota childhood, where she spent hours in unfettered play in her father's college laboratory. She tells us how she found a sanctuary in science, learning to perform lab work "with both the heart and the hands." She introduces us to Bill, her brilliant, eccentric lab manager. And she extends the mantle of scientist to each one of her readers, inviting us to join her in observing and protecting our environment. Warm, luminous, compulsively readable, Lab Girl vividly demonstrates the mountains that we can move when love and work come together.

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An interrupted family vacation, unexpected visitors, a mysterious blackout--something is happening, and the world may never be the same. Amanda, Clay and their children, Archie, 15, and Rose, 13, make their way from Brooklyn to a luxury home in a remote area of Long Island they have rented for a family vacation. Shortly after they arrive, however, the family's holiday is interrupted by a knock on the door: The house's owners, a prosperous older black couple--George Washington and his wife, Ruth--have shown up unannounced because New York City has been plunged into a blackout and their Park Avenue high-rise apartment did not feel safe. 

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She took 1930s New York by storm, working her way up writing copy for R.H. Macy's to become the highest paid advertising woman in the country. It was a job that, she says, 'in some ways saved my life, and in other ways ruined it.' Now it's the last night of 1984 and Lillian, 85 years old but just as sharp and savvy as ever, is on her way to a party ... On a walk that takes her over 10 miles around the city, she meets bartenders, bodega clerks, security guards, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be, while reviewing a life of excitement and adversity, passion and heartbreak, illuminating all the ways New York has changed--and has not.

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Dave is fourteen years old, living with his family in a cabin on Oregon's Mount Hood (or as Dave prefers to call it, like the Native Americans once did, Wy'east). He is entering high school, adulthood on the horizon not far off in distance, and contemplating a future away from his mother, father, and his precocious younger sister. And Dave is not the only one approaching adulthood and its freedoms on Wy'east that summer. Martin, a pine marten (a small animal of the deep woods, of the otter/mink family), is leaving his own mother and siblings and setting off on his own as well. Eco-Fiction, by the author of "Mink River".

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In a small fictional town on the Oregon coast there are love affairs and almost-love-affairs, mystery and hilarity, bears and tears, brawls and boats, a garrulous logger and a silent doctor, rain and pain, Irish immigrants and Salish stories, mud and laughter. There's a Department of Public Works that gives haircuts and counts insects, a policeman addicted to Puccini, a philosophizing crow, beer and berries. An expedition is mounted, a crime committed, and there's an unbelievably huge picnic on the football field. Babies are born. A car is cut in half with a saw. A river confesses what it's thinking. . .

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From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comes an uplifting, irresistible novel about two women on a life-changing adventure, where they must risk everything, break all the rules, and discover their best selves - together.

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(NONFICTION)
From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon's CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that Social Security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads: migrant laborers who call themselves 'workampers'.

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(NONFICTION)
Published only four months before his death, this autobiography of Oliver Sacks provides an exuberant peek into the life of its author. The book skips back and forth through time but primarily focuses on Sacks's career, publications, relationships, and adventures from the early 1960's into the 2000's.

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Katy is left reeling when her mother Carol dies; nothing makes sense anymore, least of all her marriage. Seeking clarity, she makes a last-minute decision to embark on the Italian trip she and Carol had planned — only, she’ll be traveling solo. At the charming Hotel Poseidon (a real place), Katy starts to come back to life with the aid of the Italian sun, the food, and the incredible sights. She meets a handsome man who’s also staying at the hotel — but she also makes a curious friendship: With the 30-year-old version of her own mother.

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Our Missing Hearts follows two protagonists, Bird and his mother Margaret, as they navigate an oppressive society that victimizes them due to their Asian identity. Margaret, a poet, goes into hiding to help advocate against the government, while Bird, a child, follows messages encoded in stories to find his mother. The novel celebrates librarians, storytellers, and readers as champions of truth.

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When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from beyond the grave, she has no choice but to return to Lansquenet, where she once owned a chocolate shop and learned the meaning of home. But returning to one's past can be a dangerous pursuit, and Vianne and her daughters find the beautiful French village changed in unexpected ways: women veiled in black, the scent of spices in the air, and facing the church, a minaret. Most surprising of all, her old nemesis, Francis Reynaud, desperately needs her help. Can Vianne work her magic once again?

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The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian-who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and well-known advocate for equality.

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The discovery of a dead infant in an Amish barn shakes Lancaster County to its core. But the police investigation leads to a more shocking disclosure: circumstantial evidence suggests that eighteen-year-old Katie Fisher, an unmarried Amish woman believed to be the newborn's mother, took the child's life. When Ellie Hathaway, a disillusioned big-city attorney, comes to Paradise, Pennsylvania, to defend Katie, two cultures collide -- and for the first time in her high-profile career, Ellie faces a system of justice very different from her own.

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A beautifully observed and deeply funny novel of May Attaway, a university gardener who sets out on an odyssey to reconnect with four old friends over the course of a year.

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Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she's high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie's children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.

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(NONFICTION)

A young poet tells the inspiring story of his migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this “gripping memoir” (NPR) of bravery, hope, and finding family.

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Tristran Thorn begins a wondrous journey into the land of Faerie, looking for a fallen star to win the hand of his love, Victoria Forrester. Though no one is allowed outside the wall that borders Wall, Tristran is granted passage due to the unusual circumstances of his birth. The product of a chance meeting between his father and the slave of a witch, Tristran had been delivered to Wall in a basket eighteen years ago. In love with Victoria Forester, Tristran promises to retrieve a fallen star in order to win her hand. Tristran travels to Faerie, meeting many magical characters and creatures on his quest.

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A provocative novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice set in the Amazon rainforest--a gripping adventure story and a profound look at the difficult choices we make in the name of discovery and love.

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The story of a young Black woman who is wrongly accused of kidnapping while babysitting a white child, and the events that follow the incident.

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(NONFICTION)
Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and #1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, David and Goliath, and What the Dog Saw, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers--and why they often go wrong.

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This unforgettable novel puts human faces on the Syrian war with the immigrant story of a beekeeper, his wife, and the triumph of spirit when the world becomes unrecognizable.

Nuri is a beekeeper and Afra, his wife, is an artist. Mornings, Nuri rises early to hear the call to prayer before driving to his hives in the countryside.On weekends, Afra sells her colorful landscape paintings at the open-air market. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the hills of the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo—until the unthinkable happens.

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(NONFICTION)
The author describes her experiences as a young Vietnamese immigrant, highlighting her family's move from their war-torn home to the United States. Presented in graphic novel format.

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Cussy Mary Carter is the last of her kind, her skin the color of a blue damselfly in these dusty hills. But that doesn't mean she's got nothing to offer. As a member of the Pack Horse Library Project, Cussy delivers books to the hill folk of Troublesome, hoping to spread learning in these desperate times. But not everyone is so keen on Cussy's family or the Library Project, and the hardscrabble Kentuckians are quick to blame a Blue for any trouble in their small town. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman's determination to bring a little bit of hope to the darkly hollers.

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A mysterious portrait ignites an antiquarian bookseller's search through time and the works of Shakespeare for his lost love.

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Archivist Elodie Winslow gets shivers when she discovers the photograph of a woman in Victorian garb with a sketchbook featuring a twin-gabled house. What's her connection to Oxfordshire's Birchwood Manor, where in 1862 Edward Radcliffe gathered young artists for a summer of creative fun that ended tragically?

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By the author of the “News of the World”. A soaring work of the imagination based on oral histories of the post-Civil War years in North Texas.

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Two American women dutifully followed their soldier husbands to the U.S. embassy in Jordan. After two years, Cassie's become an expert on the rules, but newly arrived Margaret sees only her chance to explore. So when a fender-bender sends Margaret to the local police station, Cassie reluctantly agrees to watch Margaret's toddler son. But as the hours pass, snooping around Margaret's apartment, Cassie begins to question not only her friend's whereabouts but also her own role in Margaret's disappearance.

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(NONFICTION)
Rapaille decodes fundamental archetypes ranging from sex to money to health to America itself to provide a revolutionary way of understanding and dealing with the world--how the culture code one grows up in influences how he acts, buys, and loves.

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In this book the author of many fictitious biographies of artists traces the courageous life and career of Emily Carr, who--more than Georgia O'Keeffe or Frida Kahlo--blazed a path for modern women artists. Overcoming the confines of Victorian culture, Carr became a major force in modern art by capturing an untamed British Columbia and its indigenous peoples just before industrialization changed them forever. From illegal potlatches in tribal communities to artists' studios in pre-World War I Paris, Vreeland tells her story with gusto and suspense, giving us a glorious novel that will appeal to lovers of art, native cultures, and lush historical fiction.

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Elsa is a 25 year old woman who is considered an old maid at the age of 25; however, her luck changes when she meets Rafe, they get married, and settle on a farm. Fast forward a decade. Elsa now has two children, Ant and Loreda, but finds herself in the middle of The Great Depression and suffering from a series of back-to-back lackluster farm6+ years. Should she stay on the land she loves, the legacy that she has built for her children, or should she go West to California for more opportunities?

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Lilian Girvan has been a single mother for three years--ever since her husband died in a car accident, she's just starting to get the hang of this widow thing. The only problem is she's becoming overwhelmed with being underwhelmed. She reluctantly enrolls to the vegetable-gardening class and shows up at the Los Angeles botanical garden feeling out of her element. But what she'll soon discover--with the help of a patient instructor and a quirky group of gardeners--is that into every life a little sun must shine, whether you want it to or not...

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In Depression-era America, five extraordinary women embark on a remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond. Inspired by the history of the actual Pack Horse Librarians, Moyes depicts the courage and resourcefulness of these women in loving detail. This book is a tribute not just to the brave women who brought the light of knowledge in dark times, but also to the rejuvenating bond of women’s friendship.

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Before May was five, her parents' tumultuous marriage ended in divorce, and her mother moved her two children from the East Coast to California's Carmel Valley, to live with her parents. May gravitated to her Grandpa's workshop, a World War II Army bus outfitted with beekeeping equipment, stacks of honeycombs and barrels and pipes for honey-collecting. 

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The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers—not for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held onto so tightly their whole lives.

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The story follows Hetty 'Handful' Grimke, a Charleston slave, and Sarah, the daughter of the wealthy Grimke family. The novel begins on Sarah's eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership over Handful, who is to be her handmaid. "The Invention of Wings" follows the next thirty-five years of their lives. Inspired in part by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke (a feminist, suffragist and, importantly, an abolitionist), Kidd allows herself to go beyond the record to flesh out the inner lives of all the characters, both real and imagined.

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Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends that come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village's all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook's mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger.

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Andrew Peardew collects things dropped or left behind by others and writing stories about them. He does this as a tribute to the fiancée who died the day he lost one of her keepsakes. When a dying Andrew bequeaths his estate to his assistant, Laura, she begins to bond with new neighbors while attempting to reunite the objects with their owners.

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A profoundly moving and unconventional mother-daughter saga, The Last Story of Mina Lee illustrates the devastating realities of being an immigrant in America.

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The book features newly married Hannah who discovers that her husband has disappeared. He leaves her a note, “Protect her.” What could it mean? One thing. His daughter, Bailey, the 16 year old, who is high on attitude and likes her stepmother as much as the typical 16 year old. What happened to Owen? How will things turn out for Bailey and Hannah?

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(NONFICTION)
On April 29, 1986, the Los Angeles Public Library went up in a blaze that would be the worst library fire in America's history, destroying more than 400,000 books. Who set the fire, and why? After moving to Los Angeles, New Yorker staff writer decides to seek answers.

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Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened.

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Four decades after the war, Vietnam's flavors of clove and cinnamon have been re-created by a close-knit refugee community in a Virginia suburb. But the lives of Minh and Mai, father and daughter, are haunted by ghosts, secrets, and the loss of their country. During the disastrous last days in Saigon, in a whirl of military signals and helicopter evacuations, Mai never had a chance to say goodbye to so many people who meant so much to her. What happened to them? How will Mai cope with the trauma of war--and will the thay phap, a Vietnamese spirit exorcist, be able to heal her?

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A forbidden love story set on the tropical island of St. Thomas about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro the Father of Impressionism.

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Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life.

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An epic story of family secrets, love, and betrayal set in Imperial India, a magnificent English country house in the 1920's, and that same house today. Riley's multi-generational saga opens in 2000, with 100-year-old Anahita reminiscing about the events of her storied life--her friendship with an Indian princess, her wartime journey to England as the princess's companion, and her thwarted romance with an English noble. Paralleling Anahita's story is the tale of Rebecca Bradley, an American actress who meets Anahita's great-grandson while filming in England. The two discover a tragic secret, hidden for generations, that could change their lives.

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A simultaneously sad and joyous story of a unique eleven-year-old boy and the legacy he leaves behind. Known only as -the boy,- he has no friends, and spends his time obsessively compiling mental lists and memorizing countless Guinness world records. As part of his work to earn a Boy Scout badge, the boy does yard work for 104-year-old Ona Vitkus, a Lithuanian immigrant living nearby. They forge a close bond over the course of seven Saturdays, then the boy dies. His mostly absent musician father, Quinn, volunteers to finish the last three of the boy's weekends. Quinn becomes aware of his son's and Ona's plan to get her into a Guinness records book--hopefully, as the oldest licensed driver--and this leads first to a road trip to find Ona's only living son, now ninety, and eventually to a visit to her homeland at age 109.

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Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side, understanding more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star. But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: she was a scientist. And she knew a few secrets about the enemy. She had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis...if anyone would listen to her.

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1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. 1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter. They must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger--and their true enemy—closer.

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Brooks takes on one of literature's richest and most enigmatic figures: a man who shimmers between history and legend. Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.

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This book combines a legendary literary love story--the decades-long affair between Pasternak and his mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya, who was sent to the Gulag and inspired Doctor Zhivago's heroine, Lara--with a narrative about two women empowered to lead lives of extraordinary intrigue and risk.

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Set during the Greek Heroic Age, it is a retelling of the Trojan War as told from the perspective of Patroclus. The novel follows Patroclus' relationship with Achilles, from their initial meeting to their exploits during the Trojan War, with focus on their romantic relationship.

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(NONFICTION)
In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. This fascinating touching informative entertaining (Daily Beast) book explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature and the remarkable connections it makes with humans.

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(NONFICTION)
A Strangely fascinating tale of modern-day hermit Christopher Knight, who spent 27 years living in a hidden tent in the frigid central Maine woods. In 1986, then 20-year-old Knight disappeared. He was not seen again until 2013, when he was arrested for theft. Knight later admitted to stealing food and other supplies frequently from frustrated locals, who dealt with years of repeated break-ins.

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In a remote mountain village, the survival of an Akha tribe, one of China's 55 ethnic minorities, depends on tea. Rigid traditions prohibit Li-yan from keeping her newborn. She saves her daughter by leaving her in a nearby town, wrapped in blankets with a tea cake that hints at her distinctive heritage. Over the course of decades, See (China Dolls, 2014) reveals Li-yan's exceptional story of departure and eventual return. Interspersed with Li-yan's peripatetic experiences are those of her daughter, the titular tea girl, divulged by medical reports, letters, even the transcript of a group therapy session for adopted Chinese teens.

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When you read this book, you will make many assumptions. You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife. You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement - a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love. You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle. Assume nothing.

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Three women, haunted by the past and the secrets they hold. Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined--an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel.

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An English nurse brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle-a girl said to have survived without food for months-soon finds herself fighting to save the child's life. Tourists flock to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell, who believes herself to be living off manna from heaven, and a journalist is sent to cover the sensation. Lib Wright, a veteran of Florence Nightingale's Crimean campaign, is hired to keep watch over the girl.

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The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays.

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In the luxury facility, four elderly residents--each retired, sharp, and energetic--meet once a week in the Jigsaw Room, where they covertly gather to crack actual cold case murders. The group was founded by resident Elizabeth, a shrewd and devious former spy, and Penny, a retired police detective inspector who provided the cases to solve. With Penny now in a coma, however, Elizabeth keeps the club in session, continuing to work cold cases with other fellow residents and mystery aficionados. They include dapper Ibrahim, a psychiatrist; brassy, tattooed Ron, a former trade union official; and unassuming Joyce, a nurse whose interspersed diary commentary enlighten readers to the often-zany inner workings of the club.

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A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor.

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This book chronicles the unconventional love affair of Scottish literary giant Robert Louis Stevenson and American divorcée Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne. They meet in rural France in 1875, when Fanny, having run away from her philandering husband back in California, takes refuge there with her children. Stevenson too is escaping from his life, running from family pressure to become a lawyer. And so begins a turbulent love affair that will last two decades and span the world.

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This follow-up to Beartown is about hockey--and everything else. Backman explores violence, political maneuvering, communities, feminism, sexuality, criminality, the role of sports in society, and what makes us all tick.

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Spanning 30 years and two generations, the book follows twin sisters Desiree and Stella as they run away from home in Mallard, LA, a tiny town populated by light-skinned African Americans, to New Orleans, and follow dramatically different paths in life.

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For fourteen years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children--Alex, now fifteen, and Luna, just six--in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay. But now Letty's parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life. Navigating this new terrain is challenging for Letty, especially as Luna desperately misses her grandparents and Alex, who is falling in love with a classmate, is unwilling to give his mother a chance By a local author.

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For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild, unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved.

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A groundbreaking thriller about a vigilante on a Native American reservation who embarks on a dangerous mission to track down the source of a heroin influx.

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(NONFICTION)
An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down. Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break-up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered. A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May's story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat.

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No.  Our office welcomes the public to stop in during regular office hours.  However, with the exception of post sentence relief, we are unable to provide legal advice without first being appointed by the court to represent you.

Generally, clients are not required to pay for the services provided by the Public Defender.

Not necessarily. You can fill out the forms and file them yourself.

While you don’t need a lawyer, you may want one. You can hire a lawyer or our office is able to help you at no cost. To request assistance, please call us at (831) 755-5058, email us at askpubdef@co.monterey.ca.us or stop by our office at 168 W. Alisal, 2nd floor, in Salinas, California, to pick up a request form.

Not necessarily. But if you are unsure if you qualify, it is a good idea to consult a lawyer. Also, because sometimes evidence may be required to prove you qualify, a lawyer’s advice may be useful.

Not necessarily. The two-page form requesting expungement from the DOJ is straightforward to fill out. Once you complete the form, you mail it, along with the required records showing there is no legal basis for the government to keep your DNA.

Not necessarily, but we highly recommend having one. A lawyer can figure out your correct Tier, if you meet the MRP, and if you are otherwise eligible for relief. If the prosecution decides to challenge your petition, a lawyer can help argue to the judge to grant your petition.

Not necessarily. You can follow the steps without the help of an attorney. You may want to talk to a lawyer if you intend to apply for public office, become a peace officer, or obtain a professional license. You may qualify for other relief such as a “Certificate of Detention” or “Finding of Factual Innocence.”

While you don’t need a lawyer, you may want one. You can hire a lawyer or our office is able to help you at no cost. To request assistance, please call us at (831) 755-5058, email us at askpubdef@co.monterey.ca.us or stop by our office at 168 W. Alisal, Second Floor, in Salinas, California, to pick up a request form.

To get help, please fill out a Request for Assistance form. You can call us at (831) 755-5058 or visit us at 168 W. Alisal, 2nd floor, in Salinas, California, to pick up a form.

Once we receive your request, our lawyers will review your criminal history and create a plan for you. All your information will be kept confidential.

If you have multiple cases or older cases, you may want to get a copy of your DOJ Criminal History Report. The DOJ report will help us create a comprehensive plan. For instructions on getting your DOJ Criminal History Report, request a printed guide from our office.

You need to file a Petition for Certificate of Rehabilitation in the county where you currently live. If you live in Monterey County, you can get a copy of COR/Pardon packet from the Monterey Superior Court website, the Court Clerk’s Office, Probation Department or Public Defender’s Office.

If applying directly for a Governor’s Pardon, you can find detailed instructions and the required forms at www.gov.ca.gov.

Generally, at your first court appearance, you will complete a financial declaration provided to you by the court.  The court will review the document and determine whether or not you qualify for the services of the Public Defender.

You can ask the DOJ directly to expunge your DNA. Fill out the “Streamlined DNA Expungement Application Form” at http://ag.ca.gov/bfspdf/expungement _app.pdf along with certified copies of required court documents. Mail the form and certified documents to the address listed.

There is no cost to submit the form, but you may have to pay for the certified court documents. It will generally take 2-4 weeks for a response.

• Complete a petition for dismissal form for each qualifying case.
• Then submit the form to the Superior Court and District Attorney in the County where the conviction occurred.
• There is a $150.00 filing fee for cases where probation was granted. If probation was not granted the filing fee is $60.00.
• The filing fee may be waived by filing a Financial Declaration.

Starting July 1, 2021, you need to file a petition in court in the California county where you live. The courts are working on a specific form, but it is not ready yet.

You must attach proof you are currently registered to the petition. You can get proof of current registration from the law enforcement agency where you register. They must give you a free copy.

You must then serve a copy of the petition and a copy of your proof of current registration on the law enforcement agency and the prosecuting agency (generally, the district attorney’s office) of the county where you live.

If you were convicted in a different county than where you currently live, you must ALSO serve copies of the petition and proof of current registration on the law enforcement and prosecuting agencies in the county where you were convicted.

Complete a Petition for Resentencing/Reduction form for each case in which you have qualifying felony convictions. Then submit the form to the Superior Court and District Attorney in the County where the conviction occurred.

There is no fee to file for Prop.47 relief.

Generally, your Tier is determined by the offense for which you are required to register. However, there are some exceptions.

Starting January 1, 2021, you can ask the law enforcement agency where you register to tell you your Tier from the California Department of Justice records. Once you get this information, we strongly encourage you to contact the Fresh Start Program or a lawyer familiar with this area of law to confirm the information is correct. Tier placement is complicated and there are special rules for some people which could move them into a different Tier.

In the meantime, you may also apply to the Fresh Start Program. We will order your California Department of Justice Criminal History Report and try to figure out your Tier based on the information we receive. We may also be able to assist with other forms of criminal record relief.

The MRP begins the date you are released from custody on the registerable offense.

We don’t entirely know, but it will likely take a minimum of four months. Here is why.

Once you give your petition to the law enforcement agency, they have up to 60 days to investigate and send their report to the prosecuting agency and the court. (If during their investigation, the law enforcement agency finds information about a new conviction, they can ask for up to four more months to investigate before giving their report to the court and the prosecution agency.)

Once the prosecuting agency receives the report from the law enforcement agency, the prosecuting agency then has another 60 days to decide if they are going to agree or challenge your petition.

If the prosecuting agency agrees with your petition, they will notify the court and the court will need to review your petition and make the final decision.

If the prosecuting agency disagrees with your petition, they will notify the court and the court will need to have a court hearing to make a final decision.

Nothing. There is no court fee for filing a petition for PC290 Registration Relief.

We do not know. Each state has different rules for sex offender registration. We recommend you contact a public defender or lawyer in the state where you are considering relocating for advice.

The Department of Justice estimates they will have their records updated between 30-90 days after they receive the court order. The Department of Justice will send you a letter when the record has been updated.

Please call the Office of the Primary Public Defender at (619) (831) 755-5058 and ask to speak to someone from the Post-Conviction Relief Program. The Office of the Primary Public Defender will assist you even if you had an attorney from the Office of the Alternate Public Defender, a court appointed panel attorney, or you retained an attorney and now cannot afford to pay the attorney for assistance. You may also e-mail a question to askpubdef@co.monterey.ca.us.

NO! The law requires you to ask a judge if you can stop registering. You must first file a petition AND then have a judge say you no longer have to register before you can stop. Until a judge says you are no longer required to register, continue to register as required by PC290.

You may stop registering as soon as the judge signs the court order.

The Court will send the order to the Department of Justice. It may take some time for the court order to make it to the Department of Justice and for the Department of Justice to update their records. In the meantime, we recommend you keep a copy of the court order with you in case law enforcement questions you about your registration status.

The Department of Justice estimates they will have their records updated between 30-90 days after they receive the court order. The Department of Justice will send you a letter when the record has been updated.

• Possession
• Cultivation
• Possession with Intent to Sell
• Sales
• Transportation

• Expungement (Dismissal) of Criminal Convictions
• Prop. 47 Relief (Reclassifying Certain Low Level Felonies to Misdemeanors)
• Prop. 64 Relief (Reclassifying Certain Marijuana Crimes)
• Motions to Reduce Felony Convictions to Misdemeanors -Motions for Early Termination of Probation
• Certificates of Rehabilitation/
• Gubernatorial Pardons
• Gang Documentation Relief
• Human Trafficking Victim Conviction Relief
• DNA Database Expungement
• Correcting Errors in Department of Justice Criminal History Records

It Will:

• Result in the dismissal of the case;
• Allow you to answer on job applications that you have not been convicted. If, however, you are applying for a government job or a job which requires a government issued license, certificate of permit or a job which involves a security clearance, the conviction will be discovered;
• If the conviction was for a felony, it is the first step in obtaining a pardon.

It Will Not:

• Remove the conviction from your rap sheet. Your record will reflect a conviction and a dismissal pursuant to 1203.4;
• Allow you to omit the conviction on applications for government issued licenses;
• Seal or otherwise destroy the records
• Allow you to omit the conviction in response to any direct question contained in any questionnaire or application for public office, or for licensure by any state or local agency, or for contracting with the California State Lottery Commission.
• Relieve a person from the requirement to register as a sex offender.

There are three Tiers. The MRP for each Tier depends on if the case for which you are required to register happened in adult court or juvenile court.

MRP refers to the MINIMUM amount of time you must have registered to be eligible to petition for relief. It does not mean that is the maximum amount of time you have to register.

If the case for which you are required to register happened in adult court, the MRPs are:

If the case for which you are required to register was handled in juvenile court, the MRPs are:

*** There are special rules for some people which may allow them to petition early even if they have not met the MRP for their designated Tier. ***

We recommend you consult with a lawyer to determine your correct Tier. While the California Department of Justice is tasked with determining each persons’ Tier, it is a good idea to verify if the placement is correct. We also recommend you consult with a lawyer to determine if you may qualify to petition early. You may contact the Fresh Start Program for assistance.

• Keep your registration current
• Stay out of trouble
• Contact 'Post-Conviction Relief' to get advice on which Tier you may be in and your estimated MRP end date.

Being convicted of failing to register and/or spending time in jail and/or prison may mean you have to wait longer to be eligible to petition for PC290 registration relief.

Convictions for failure to register will extend your MRP.

If you have misdemeanor failure to register convictions your MRP will be extended by one year for each failure to register conviction. For example, if you are in Tier I, your MRP would be 10 years. If, however, you have had two failure to register misdemeanor convictions, 1 year is added to your MRP for each conviction. Thus, your MRP would now be 10 + 1 + 1 = 12 years.

If you have felony failure to register convictions, your MRP will be extended by three years for each felony failure to register conviction. For example, if you are in Tier I, your MRP would be 10 years. If, however, you have two felony failure to register convictions, 3 years is added to your MRP for each conviction. Thus, your MRP would now be 10 + 3 + 3 = 16 years.

We recommend you contact the Fresh Start Program so we can assist you in determining if your MRP has been extended.

Time spent in jail or prison may not count toward your MRP.

If you spent time in jail or prison for any offense (including probation violations/parole violations/etc.) after you were ordered to register, that time does not count toward the MRP. This process is called tolling.

For example, if you have been registering for 10 years, but during those 10 years you were in jail for a year, the year in jail does not count toward your MRP. You would need to wait another year to be eligible to petition for PC290 registration relief.

The tolling only happens if a judge ordered you to serve time in jail or prison or actually found you in violation of probation, parole, mandatory supervision, or post release community supervision. So, if you were arrested, served a couple of days in jail, and then released and you were never prosecuted for that arrest, these days will not toll your MRP. If you were arrested and prosecuted, but the case was dismissed or you were found not guilty, these days you spent in jail will not toll your MRP. But, if you were convicted or found in violation of probation, parole, mandatory supervision, or post release community supervision, any time you spent in jail or prison for that conviction or violation will not count toward your MRP.

Tolling can be complicated to figure out. We recommend you contact the Fresh Start Program so we can estimate any tolling which may apply to you.

• Second Degree Burglary (PC§459).
• Forgery (PC §§470(a), (d); 473; 475(a), (b)(c); 476).
• Fraud/Bad Checks (PC §476(a));
• Theft (PC §§ 487(b), (c), (d)(1), (d)(2); 487a; 484e(a), (d); 503; VC §10851).
• Petty theft with a prior (PC §484/666).
• Receiving stolen property (PC § 496(a)).
• Possession of Controlled Substances for Personal Use (HS §11350 & 11377).
• Possession of Concentrated Cannabis for Personal Use (HS § 11357(a)).

• Demonstrate your rehabilitation which may improve housing/job opportunities;
• Enhance your potential for licensing consideration by a state board;
• Relieve some (but not all) sex offenders of further duty to register;
• Serve as an automatic application and recommendation for a Governor’s pardon.

• It allows someone who has been convicted of a crime to serve on a jury;
• It can allow restoration of firearm rights, upon federal approval, to specified offenders if granted a full and unconditional pardon, unless the conviction was for a felony involving the use of a dangerous weapon;
• It allows a felon to be considered for appointment as a county probation officer or state parole agent, but not to other law enforcement positions;
• It allows specified sex offenders still required to register after obtaining a COR to be relieved of their duty to register if granted a full and unconditional pardon.

If your previous marijuana conviction is for something no longer a crime, the case will be dismissed and all court, DOJ, and arrest records will be sealed.

If your previous conviction was a felony offense which was made a misdemeanor by Prop.64, your conviction will be reduced to a misdemeanor.

If your previous conviction was an offense made an infraction by Prop.64, it will be reduced to an infraction for all purposes.

The law enforcement agency will research your case to see if you meet the MRP for your Tier and if you meet the other eligibility requirements (that is, you are not on any kind of supervision, you do not have any pending cases which could extend your tier status, you are in custody) (Click for more information on eligibility: Who is eligible for PC290 Registration Relief?).

The law enforcement agency has 60 days from the day you give them the petition to give their report to the court and the prosecution agency. (If during their investigation, the law enforcement agency finds information about a new conviction, they can ask for up to four more months to investigate before giving their report to the court and the prosecution agency.)

Once the prosecution agency receives the report from the law enforcement agency, the prosecuting agency then has another 60 days to decide if they are going to agree or challenge your petition.

The prosecution agency may challenge the petition if they believe:

• you have not met the MRP; or
• you are ineligible because you are on some kind of supervision (probation, parole, mandatory supervision, post release community supervision); or
• you are ineligible because you are in custody; or
• you are ineligible because you have pending charges which could extend your MRP or change your Tier; or
• you did not file and serve your petition correctly; or
• “community safety would be significantly enhanced by” your continued registration.

If the prosecution does not challenge the petition AND you otherwise meet the qualifications, the judge must grant your petition.

If the prosecution challenges the petition, the judge will decide if you may stop registering.

If the judge decides not to end your registration requirement, you must keep registering.

You may be able to petition again later. The judge is required to tell you how long you must wait before you can petition again. The judge can tell you to wait anywhere from 1 to 5 years from the date the judge denies your petition. The judge must explain why you must wait.

While you do not need a lawyer, you may want one. You may hire a lawyer, or our office may be able to help you at no cost. Our experienced attorneys will review your entire record and determine what relief you are eligible for. Some petitions for PC290 Registration Relief are more complicated and the judge needs to see additional information to make a decision. Our office can assist you by researching your record, confirming which Tier you should be in, determining if you meet the minimum registration period, writing petitions, motions and declarations, filing petitions, motions, and declarations in court, serving the petition on the prosecutorial and law enforcement agencies, and appearing in court, if necessary, to argue for the PC290 Registration Relief.

If you would like our office to assist you, fill out and submit the Post-Conviction Relief Program Request for Assistance form.

You may e-mail, fax, mail, or drop off your request form.

Office of the Public Defender                                             E-mail: BoylanEE@co.monterey.ca.us & HernandezG5@co.monterey.ca.us

Post-Conviction Relief Program                                         Fax: (831)755-5873 (Attn: Post-Conviction Relief Program)
168 W. Alisal St 2nd Floor,
Salinas, CA 93901

Sometimes, particularly if the conviction for which you are required to register is from a different state, the Department of Justice may need more time to figure out your Tier. The law allows them to put you in a “to be determined” category and gives them up to two years to figure it out.

You may then ask a judge to do it. You need to fill out a “Petition for Expungement of DNA Profiles and Samples.” at www.courts.ca.gov/documents/cr185.pdf File the petition in the court where the case happened. There is no fee.

Serve the Petition on the DOJ and prosecutor. The court will schedule a hearing where you will need to show the judge that you meet all the requirements

Certificate of Rehabilitation (COR) is a court order declaring a person convicted of a crime is now rehabilitated. It is generally the second step in cleaning up a record for those who were convicted of felonies but had the case dismissed/expunged or the first step for those who were convicted of felonies and were sent to state prison. People convicted of a limited number of misdemeanor sex offenses may also apply for a COR. Note: getting a COR does not seal or remove anything from your record but it may help with applying for work, housing, and professional licenses.

As a general rule, if you were convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanor sex crimes you may apply to the Superior Court in the county where you live for a COR, provided you meet the legal requirements of demonstrated rehabilitation.

A COR, if granted, automatically becomes an application for a Governor’s Pardon. The Governor’s receipt of a COR is not a guarantee that a pardon will be granted.

Law Enforcement can collect DNA samples from certain individuals. In California, law enforcement can keep the DNA of anyone convicted of a felony or anyone required to register as a sex or arson offender. The DNA sample is put into a DOJ database called CAL-DNA.

If there is no legal basis for the DOJ to keep your DNA sample and profile, you can request the sample be destroyed and your profile erased from the database.

Starting January 1, 2021, instead of lifetime sex offender registration, California will have a tiered registration system. Depending primarily on the conviction for which a person was ordered to register, registrants will be placed into one of three Tiers. Each Tier has a different minimum length of registration. Registration times are called the “Minimum Registration Period” (MRP).

If a person meets the requirements for registration relief and has met the minimum registration period for their Tier, they will be able to petition the court for permission to stop registering.

You may submit a petition for PC290 registration relief on or after your next birthday after July 1, 2021.

This law is still changing. We will post changes on this website as we learn of them. We recommend checking back for updates.

November 4, 2014, California passed Proposition 47 (Prop.47), a law reclassifying some felonies as misdemeanors for most people. Prop.47 also allows most people who have qualifying felony convictions in their past to petition the court to reclassify those convictions as misdemeanors.

If a court grants a Prop.47 petition, the conviction is reclassified as a misdemeanor for all purposes, EXCEPT GUN OWNERSHIP. A Prop.47 reclassification WILL NOT restore your right to own or possess a gun.

Prop.47 does not remove the conviction from your record or dismiss/expunge the conviction. You should also consider filing for a dismissal/expungement if you are eligible.

Petitions must be filed no later than NOVEMBER 4, 2022.

November 8, 2016, California passed Proposition 64. It legalizes the responsible use of marijuana by those 21 and over and reduces the criminal penalties for most remaining marijuana offenses from felonies to misdemeanors and some from misdemeanors to infractions.

Prop.64 also allows most people previously convicted of most marijuana felonies to petition to have a judge reduce their felony convictions to misdemeanors. It also allows most people previously convicted of marijuana misdemeanors to have a judge reduce their convictions to infractions. Finally, it allows some individuals to have their prior convictions dismissed and sealed entirely.

An expungement is a dismissal of a previous conviction. Under Penal Code §1203.4, an expungement may be granted in any case in which a person was granted and successfully completed probation and all classes if mandated. This includes payment in full of all fines and restitution.

Penal Code §1203.4a provides similar relief to a person convicted of a misdemeanor but wasn’t granted probation. Relief is available under this section at any time after the lapse of one year from the date of sentencing, provided the person (i) fully complied with and performed the sentence of the court, (ii) is not presently serving a sentence, (iii) is not presently charged with any crime, and (iv) has, since being sentenced, lived an honest and upright life.

Felonies deemed wobblers, (offenses which may be charged as misdemeanors or felonies), may be reduced to misdemeanors in conjunction with a motion for expungement. Penal Code §17(b) provides for such relief, in certain cases.

We strongly encourage you to contact the Fresh Start Program or a lawyer familiar with this area of law to confirm your Tier placement. Tier placement is complicated and there are special rules for some people which could move them into a different Tier. We may be able to go to court for you to correct the information.

• Hide the arrest from public view;
• Seal your arrest record, police report, and related court records;
• Keep the sealed records from being disclosed to anyone other than criminal justice agencies and,
• deem the arrest to have never occurred, meaning you can honestly state you’ve never been arrested for the crime, except on applications for public office, employment as a peace officer, licensing by a state or local agency, or contracts with the California Lottery.

If you are granted PC290 registration relief, you will no longer be required to register in California.

If information about you is posted on the Megan’s Law website, it will be removed.

• Guarantee you will not have to register in another state if you move out of California
• Dismiss your case
• Expunge your case
• Reduce your case to a misdemeanor
• Seal your case
• Take the case off your record
• Restore your rights to own or possess a firearm or ammunition

• Stop a prosecutor from using the information against you if you get into trouble in the future;
• Keep the records from being used by any criminal justice agency in the same way allowed if the records had not been sealed;
• restore gun rights.

If your MRP is over and it has not been extended because of later failure to register convictions or time in jail or prison, you may file a petition starting July 1, 2021.

The courts will not accept petitions until July 1, 2021. If you try to file a petition before that date, the court will not take it.

If you live in California, you must file the petition with the court in the county where you LIVE. If you live in Monterey County, file:

• A petition based solely on a juvenile case requiring registration: Monterey County Juvenile Justice Court, 1422 Natividad Rd, Salinas, CA 93906
• A petition based on adult case: Monterey County Superior Court, 240 Church St, Salinas, CA 93901.
• The court will start accepting petitions JULY 1, 2021.You cannot file a petition before that date.

You must give a copy of the petition to:

• the prosecuting agency (generally district attorney) in the county where you LIVE; and
• the law enforcement agency where you register.

If your case was prosecuted in a California county different from where you live, you must also give a copy of the petition to:

• the prosecuting agency (generally district attorney) in the county where you were convicted; and
• the law enforcement agency in the county where you were convicted.

Failure to give your petition to the correct court, prosecuting agencies or law enforcement agencies will delay or even make your petition invalid.

If you live outside California or if the conviction for which you are required to register occurred in a different state, the procedures are still being worked out. We will update this website as we learn more.

• Those who were convicted of a felony and sent to prison
• Those who were convicted of the following sex related offenses: Penal Code §§286(a), 288, 288a(c), 288.5, 289(j) and a felony conviction for 261.5(d)
• Those who were convicted of the following Vehicle Code offenses: §§2800, 2801 and 2803.
• Those who are currently serving a sentence and/or on probation.

You may be eligible if:

• You have registered for the Minimum Registration Period (MRP) for your Tier (including any extensions and pauses); and
• You are not in custody; and
• You are not on any parole, probation, mandatory supervision, or post release community supervision; and
• You do not have pending charges which could extend the MRP or could change your Tier status; and
• Your registration is current.

You are not yet eligible if:

• You have not completed the MRP for your Tier (including any extensions and tolling); or
• You are in custody; or
• You are on any parole, probation, mandatory supervision, or post release community supervision; or
• You have pending charges which could extend the MRP or could change your Tier status.

• Persons with any felony conviction or juvenile felony adjudication. Also, if you have a conviction in another state which would be a felony in California;
• Persons who were ever required to register as a sex or arson offender;
• Persons with a pending case which would allow law enforcement to collect your DNA.

You must wait a MINIMUM of

seven years or longer, depending upon the crime, after your release from custody before you can apply. During this time, you must show you stayed out of trouble and lived the life of an upstanding citizen.

There are certain crimes which are ineligible for a COR. If you are currently in the military or live outside California you are ineligible for a COR, however you may be eligible to apply for a direct pardon.

For more information on eligibility call us at (831) 755-5058, email us at askpubdef@co.monterey.ca.us, or visit us on the second floor of 168 W. Alisal St. in Salinas, California.

You may be eligible if:

• You were arrested, but the prosecutor never filed criminal charges, or
• You were charged with a crime, but had your case dismissed in court; or,
• You were acquitted by a jury; or,
• You successfully appealed your case and can no longer be prosecuted.

You are not eligible if:

• You were convicted (by guilty plea, no contest plea, or trial); or
• You could still be charged because your case is within the statute of limitations; or,
• You intentionally evaded law enforcement to avoid prosecution.

• Your DNA was collected when you were arrested, but no charges were ever filed;
• Your DNA was collected when you were arrested for a felony, but only misdemeanor charges were later filed;
• Your DNA was collected but the case was dismissed, you were found “not guilty”, or your conviction was overturned on appeal and dismissed;
• Your DNA was collected for a case for which you later successfully completed a diversion program or DEJ;
• You were found factually innocent of the underlying offense pursuant to Penal Code §851.8, or Welfare & Institutions Code §781.5

Maybe. The court process is still being worked out.

The prosecutor may request a hearing if the prosecutor concludes that:

• you have not met the MRP; or
• you are ineligible because you are on some kind of supervision (probation, parole, mandatory supervision, post release community supervision); or
• you are ineligible because you are in custody; or
• you are ineligible because you have pending charges which could extend your MRP or change your Tier; or
• you did not file and serve your petition correctly; or
• “community safety would be significantly enhanced by” your continued registration.

At the hearing, the judge will review appropriate information to decide if you may stop registering.

Yes, there are exemptions. The Local Ordinance states:

No tax shall be imposed upon:

1. Any person as to whom, or any occupancy as to which, it is beyond the power of the county to impose the tax provided for in this chapter;
   
   
2. Any officer or employee of a foreign government who is exempt by reason of express provision of federal law or international treaty;
   
   
3. Any person for whom emergency housing is provided pursuant to a voucher issued by a non-profit, tax exempt agency or organization;
   
   
4. Employees of insurance companies while performing insurance-related business. This exemption shall apply only to those insurance companies which do business in California and which pay the California State Gross Premiums Tax annually pursuant to California Constitution Article XIII, Section 28, in lieu of all other taxes.
   
   
5. Employees of federal credit unions while performing credit union business.

 This exemption shall apply only to those credit unions organized and operating under the Federal Credit Union Act.

No exemption shall be granted except upon a claim for exemption made at the time rent is collected, and under penalty of perjury, upon the Monterey County Exemption form.

Federal employees on official business are eligible for exemption from the tax. The exemption claim shall not be approved unless the person requesting the exemption shows satisfactory credentials reflecting current performance of official duties.

6.  A copy of the credentials of the person requesting the exemption shall be attached to each exemption claim; 
   
   Federal Law prohibits the copying of military identification cards/badges in U.S. Code Part 1, Title 18, Chapter 33, Section 701. Acceptable credentials for the purpose of the County of Monterey Exemption Claim form are photocopies of a passport, a State issued drivers license or other form of photo identification, a business card or a copy of their federal orders with the name and title of the traveler.


7. separate exemption claim must be filed for each occupied room subject to rental for which the exemption is requested.
   
   State and local government employees, contractors, federal government chartered companies, and subcontractors of any level of government are not eligible for exemption from the tax.

Any operator aggrieved by any decision of the tax collector with respect to the amount of tax, interest and penalties, if any, due under this chapter of the Local Ordinance may appeal to the Board of Supervisors by filing a notice of appeal with the county clerk within fifteen days of the serving or mailing of the determination of tax due. The Board of Supervisors shall fix a time and place forhearing such appeal, and the county clerk shall give notice in writing to such operator at the last known place of address. The finding of the Board of Supervisors shall be final and conclusive and shall be served upon the appellant in the manner prescribed by this chapter of the Local Ordinance for service of notice of hearing. Any amount found to be due shall be immediately due and payable upon the service of notice.

(Ord. 3668, 1993; Ord. 1404, Section 12, 1965.)

The Operator may appear at a hearing and offer evidence why such specified tax, interest and penalties should not be so fixed. After the hearing, the tax collector shall determine the proper tax to be remitted and shall thereafter give written notice to the person in the manner prescribed in this chapter of the Local Ordinance of such determination and the amount of such tax, interest and penalties. The amount determined to be due shall be payable after fifteen days unless an appeal is taken as provided in Section 5.40.130 of the Local Ordinance.

(Ord. 3668, 1993; Ord. 1404 Section 1965.)

Whenever the amount of any tax, interest or penalty has been overpaid or paid more than once or has been erroneously or illegally collected or received by the county, it may be refunded as provided in subsection B and C of this section of the provided a claim in writing, stating under penalty of perjury the specific grounds upon which the claim is founded, is filed with the tax collector within three years of the date of payment. The claim shall be on forms furnished by the tax collector.

An operator may claim a refund or take as credit against taxes collected and remitted the amount overpaid, paid more than once or erroneously or illegally collected or received when it is established in manner prescribed by the tax collector that the person from whom the tax has been collected was not a transient; provided, however, that neither a refund nor a credit shall be allowed unless the amount of the tax so collected has either been refunded to the transient or credited to rent subsequently payable by the transient to the operator.

If any operator liable for any amount under this chapter sells or quits their business, the successors or assignees shall withhold a sufficient portion of the purchase price to cover the amount for which the operator is liable until the former owner produces either a receipt from the tax collector showing that payment has been made or a certificate stating that no amount is due.

(Ord 3668, 1993; Ord. 1404, Section 10, 1965.)

Yes. Within thirty days after commencing business, each operator of any hotel renting occupancy to transients shall register said hotel with the tax collector and obtain from the tax collector a transient occupancy registration certificate, to be at all times posted in a conspicuous place on the premises. The certificate shall, among other thing, state the following:

1. The name of the operator;
2. The address of the hotel;
3. The date upon which the certificate was issued;
4. “This Transient Occupancy Registration Certificate” signifies that the person named on the face hereof has fulfilled the requirements of the Uniform Transient Occupancy Tax Ordinance by registering with the tax collector for the purpose of collecting from transients the Transient Occupancy Tax and remitting said tax to the tax collector. This certificate does not authorize any person to conduct any unlawful business or to conduct any lawful business in an unlawful manner, nor to operate a hotel without strictly complying with all local applicable laws, including but not limited to those requiring a permit from any board, commission, department or office of this county. This certificate does not constitute a permit.

(Ord. 3668, 1993; Ord. 1404 Section 6, 1965.) 

If you send your payment by a courier service that does not deliver to a United States Postal Service Post Office Box, you should send your payment, along with a completed Transient Occupancy Tax Quarterly Return Form, to:

Monterey County Treasurer - Tax Collector
168 West Alisal St, 1st Floor
Salinas CA 93901

Please make your check payable to the Monterey County Treasurer - Tax Collector.

The TTC makes available to all operators the required Monterey County Exemption Claim form through which eligible transients may claim an exemption from the TOT. The form should be completed by the transient and filed with the operator before the time rent is collected from the transient. Original exemption claim forms and all supporting documents must be retained by the operator for a period of three years in accordance with Section 5.40.140 of the Local Ordinance.

No exemption shall be granted except upon a claim for exemption made at the time rent is collected, and under penalty of perjury, upon the Monterey County Exemption form.

Original Delinquency: Any operator who fails to remit any tax imposed by this Chapter within the time required shall pay a penalty of ten (10) percent of the amount of the tax in addition to the amount of the tax.

Continued Delinquency: Any operator who fails to remit any delinquent remittance on or before a period of thirty (30) days following the date on which the remittance first became delinquent shall pay a second delinquency penalty of ten (10) percent of the amount of the tax, calculated on a non-compounding basis, in addition to the amount of the tax and the ten (10) percent penalty first imposed.

Fraud: If the Tax Collector determines that the nonpayment of any remittance due under chapter is due to fraud, a penalty of twenty-five (25) percent of the amount of the tax shall be added thereto in addition to the penalties stated in Subsections A and B of this Section of the Local Ordinance.

Interest: In addition to the penalties imposed, any operator who fails to remit any tax imposed by this Chapter within thirty (30) day of delinquency shall pay simple interest at the rate of one and one half percent per month or fraction thereof on the amount of the tax, exclusive of penalties, from the date on which the remittance first became delinquent.

Penalties Merged With Tax: Every penalty imposed and such interest as accrues under the provisions of this Section shall become a part of the tax required by this Chapter of the Local Ordinance to be paid.

(Ord 5073, 2007; Ord. 3668, 1993; Ord. 1404 Section 8, 1965.) 

Local Ordinance (Chapter 5.40) provides that the County of Monterey collect Transient Occupancy Taxes for the unincorporated areas of the county. This tax is commonly known as “TOT” and is also called “Hotel tax”, “Room tax” or "Bed tax."

 The unincorporated areas in the County of Monterey include popular tourist destinations such as: Pebble Beach, Carmel Valley and the Big Sur Coast.

TOT applies to transient stays up to 30 days. 

Each operator, on or before the last day of the month following the close of each calendar quarter, or at the close of any shorter reporting period which may be established by the tax collector, shall make a return to the tax collector, on forms provided by the TTC, of the total rents charged and the amount of tax imposed thereon by Section 5.40.030 of the Local Ordinance. The tax must be received by the tax collector’s office by the due date.  A postmark will not be accepted as timely remittance. At the time the return is filed, the full amount of such tax shall be remitted to the tax collector. The tax collector may establish shorter report periods for any certificate holder if it is determined necessary to ensure collection of the tax and additional information may be required beyond what is required by the return.

Returns and payments are due immediately upon cessation of business for any reason. All taxes collected by operators shall be considered public monies at the time of collection and separate property of the county and shall be held in trust for the account of the county until payment thereof is made to the tax collector.

In the event a federal, state or local declared disaster affecting the unincorporated area of Monterey County results in the physical impairment of public infrastructure, including, but not limited to, roads, streets, and other public highways, and such impairment prevents public access to hotel facilities covered by this chapter, the tax collector may extend the period of time, without penalty, for reporting and remitting taxes. In such instances, the reporting date and payment date shall extend to the end of the month after the next succeeding calendar quarter following the expiration date of the declared disaster.

A copy of the transient occupancy tax payment schedule can be found here.  Below is a quick reference of the fiscal quarters and the corresponding tax payment due dates for transient occupancy tax, which you may find helpful.

(Ord. 3759, 1994; Ord. 3668, 1993; Ord. 1607 (part), 1968; Ord. 1404 Section 7, 1965.) 

You should mail your payment, along with a completed Transient Occupancy Tax Quarterly Return Form, to:

Monterey County Treasurer - Tax Collector
P.O. Box 891
Salinas CA 93902

Please make your check payable to the Monterey County Treasurer - Tax Collector.

“Transient” means any person who exercises occupancy or is entitled to occupancy by reason of concession, permit, right of access, license or other agreement for a period of thirty (30) calendar days or less, counting portions of calendar days as full days. Any such person so occupying space in a hotel shall be deemed to be a transient until the period of thirty (30) days has expired unless there is an agreement in writing between the operator and the occupant providing for a longer period of occupancy.

(Ord. 5073 2007; Ord. 3668, 1993; Ord 3651 section 1, 1992) 

Drought Operations Technical Advisory Committee (D-TAC)

Monterey County Water Resources Agency website:

https://www.co.monterey.ca.us/government/government-links/water-resources-agency