Hanford Insider

Hanford Insider: Building Bridges - Law Enforcement and Community Harmony, Plus City Council and Events Update!

• Rob Bentley

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What truly happens when officers and residents unite to foster a positive community spirit? Join us for a compelling episode where we sit down with Darrin Ellis and Linda Mello, ardent supporters of Kings County Positive Law Enforcement. They share their insights on the unique advantages of law enforcement in smaller communities like Hanford, as well as the inspiration behind their Facebook group dedicated to uplifting the image of officers amidst challenging times. You’ll hear firsthand about the personal connections and impactful stories that highlight the deep bond between law enforcement and the community they serve.

Additionally, we provide an engaging update on the latest from the Hanford City Council meeting, including discussions on council compensation, traffic signal repairs, and a promising new health clinic initiative. We also tackle the heated topic of county island annexation and what it means for local residents. Don't forget to check out our community calendar, packed with exciting events like a mental health presentation, an art market, a movie screening, an art show, and a Hall of Fame Gala. Whether you’re new to Hanford or have lived here your whole life, this episode promises a fresh perspective on the pulse of our vibrant community.

You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
Thank you for supporting the show!

Speaker 1:

On this episode of the Hanford Insider, rob visits with Darren Ellis and Linda Mello who are promoting Kings County positive law enforcement. You'll get an update of Hanford news and the community calendar then I'll be back later with your sports report.

Speaker 2:

This is the Hanford Insider, the podcast, where we dive into what makes our community tick, from local stories and hidden gems to conversations with people shaping our neighborhood. We're here to celebrate, explore and connect. I'm your host, rob Bentley. Whether you're new to Hanford or longtime local, this is your source for everything happening in our town, from events and news to unique conversations with people who make Hanford such a unique community. I hope you enjoy the format. Let's take a look at this week's community news conversations with people who make Hanford such a unique community. I hope you enjoy the format. Let's take a look at this week's community news.

Speaker 2:

After a few weeks off, the Hanford City Council met last Tuesday During the afternoon study session. They reviewed new standards for payments for serving on City Council. It's clear that they deserve more than the $500 a month that they currently receive, but they want to be cautious about raising the honorariums, so they tabled the matter and will review further options for compensation and reimbursements at a later date. During the evening's general session, there was an update on the damaged signal light at 10th and Lacey. The new pole is still on back order and should be replaced in a month or so. Cross your fingers. I hate it when I forget to take my secret detour when coming back into town from Costco. The council did decide to move forward with a joint agreement between the Hanford High School District and the City of Hanford to create a health clinic for employees of both organizations in the vacant portion of the Amtrak station, which is already owned by the city. The council is also moving forward with plans to hire additional police cadets to build up the force as promised with Measure H. The funds being used are coming from the cost savings of current unfilled positions. As Measure H funds will not be arriving until July, according to Chief Huddleston, this will put our department at an advantage when it comes to filling the eight promised permanent positions.

Speaker 2:

The most notable item on the agenda was the public hearing for the annexation of 13 county islands within the city limits. There were several citizens who spoke in opposition of the annexation as they fear their way of living will be negatively impacted by this action. Ultimately, the county voted for the annexation of these properties because of the state LAFCO policies. I've heard many references to LAFCO in previous council meetings, but I had very little knowledge about it. So I did some digging and here's what I've learned the end of World War II saw California experience a tremendous population increase, which resulted in sporadic formation of cities and special service districts. The results of this land speculation and development boom became evident as California's agricultural land was converted to urban uses. Premature and unplanned development created inefficient and expensive systems of delivering public services using various small units of local government. In 1959, governor Brown responded to this problem by appointing the Commission on Metropolitan Area Problems. The commission's charge was to study and make recommendations on the misuse of land resources and the growing complexity of overlapping governmental jurisdictions. The commission's recommendations on local governmental reorganization were introduced into the legislature in 1963, resulting in the creation of Local Agency Formation Commissions or LAFCOs. The Kings County LAFCO site can be found at kingslafcocom. You can learn more about what they do and how they operate.

Speaker 2:

The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday February 4th. The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday February 4th. Here's some things coming up on our community calendar. On Friday January 31st, the Hanford Branch Library is hosting a self-compassion mental health presentation by Dr Elizabeth Sanchez-Arvizo at 11 am. The presentation is free. On Saturday February 1st, the Kings County Art League will be holding a Sweetheart Artist Market in the Fast Plaza from 9 am to 1 pm that evening.

Speaker 2:

The Hanford Fox Theater kicks off their weekly movie series with the movie 10 Things I Hate About you. Tickets are available at the box office or on their website at foxhanfordcom. Spirits Lounge at 390 South 11th Street is holding a Valentine's art show on Sunday, february 2nd from 12 pm to 4 pm. They have more information on the Spirits Lounge Facebook page. The Hanford Education Foundation is holding their annual Hall of Fame Gala on Saturday, february 22nd at the Hanford Civic Auditorium from 5 pm to 8 pm. Tickets are available by calling 559-217-3112. If you have an event coming up and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to hanfordinsider at gmailcom. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events.

Speaker 2:

It's so great to be here with Darren Ellis and Linda Mello, who are part of the Kings County Positive Law Enforcement Facebook page. Darren, you may know, is a retired officer with the Kings County Sheriff's Department. He had a 31-year career and he is still very active in the school resource officer program. You'll see him at different schools and he has a lot of great things with his work with children. Linda has been a resident of Hanford since 1980, and she's a retired dispatcher and she's currently a special advocate for foster care. Welcome to the show guys, thank you. Thank you very much so, darren. The law enforcement community gets a bum rap sometimes, but they get a lot of positive messages too, and the purpose of this interview today is to talk about your page. But before we get there, I'd like to hear a little bit about your background in law enforcement and what drew you to the area of helping others.

Speaker 3:

Well, my hometown is Fresno, California. I went to the Fresno Police Academy at Fresno City College, Graduated from that in 1989. In 1990, I was picked up by the Kings County Sheriff's Office. Sergeant Walt Osborne and Sheriff Tom Clark was the sheriff that swore me in. I worked several assignments at the sheriff's office. I worked patrol. I worked bailiffs. Assignments at the sheriff's office I worked patrol, I worked bailiffs. I was part of the negotiation team hostage negotiation team which is called the crisis resolution be a school resource deputy for the Central Union School District. If I could work 10, 20 more years, I would still be doing. I'd still have that position. I loved that position. I love working at schools. I love protecting young people and kids. If I could do that job for 20 more years, that's what I would do. I retired in 2021 and went back as a reserve deputy sheriff and I'm blessed to still be able to serve and I will serve as long as I, as long as I can as a school resource deputy. I love that.

Speaker 2:

And Linda tell us a little bit about your background as a dispatcher.

Speaker 4:

I worked for San Leandro Police Department for several years. I was a reserve officer until I got pregnant with my son and couldn't quite do that anymore and it was a good job. It was very stressful but it was fun. Like I tell people, that's one place you can tell the police officers where to go and get away with it, so it was interesting.

Speaker 2:

Definitely, Darren. What kind of encouragement would you offer to someone who's interested in a career in law enforcement?

Speaker 3:

Basically, I would tell them this Law enforcement is an honorable profession when it's done correctly. You help people every day. You protect people. Nothing is the same. You handle different things every day. There's upward mobility. You can get promotions, go into different things, choose a specialty SWAT team, canines. My specialty happened to be school resource law enforcement and I also taught the DARE program back in the mid and late 90s. I did that for a long time and that kind of like led into my position as a school resource deputy and I've always been kind of drawn to public speaking and teaching and helping youth.

Speaker 2:

That's certainly important. As an educator myself in Hanford and Lemoore, I have appreciated when you have come to the schools and talked about being prepared in the event of some kind of emergency, be it active shooter or something else and your team does an outstanding job. So thank you on behalf of educators in Kings County for your service as a school resource officer. It's invaluable.

Speaker 3:

You're very welcome and thank you for saying that. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

You're very welcome, very appreciated for sure and thank you for saying that. I really appreciate it. You're very welcome, very appreciated for sure. So with the passage of these tax revenue measures in Kings County, these cities are going to be setting aside money to hire more officers and I'm sure there's going to be a lot of competition. What makes Kings County such a unique place to work for a law enforcement officer and what do you think the advantages of working in a smaller department, say in Hanford, lemoore Avenal, kings County Sheriff's Department?

Speaker 3:

Kings County, hanford area, lemoore, corcoran Avenal all of our cities are small towns but getting bigger, and so Kings County offers law enforcement but sort of like on a local level, because it's like a small community, a lot of people know each other, go to church with each other, schools, so you get the feel of a small town, but it's getting bigger and so you have the opportunities to advance in your career. You have the opportunity to get really good law enforcement training from really great law enforcement officers and law enforcement supervisors. It's sad to say that in society now things, even in small communities, are getting busier and so you have an opportunity to work in a lot of different areas and with a lot of different people. And for somebody that's getting into law enforcement, that wants to be active, you have plenty of opportunities to be active and make a difference.

Speaker 3:

I said earlier, I'm from Fresno and I don't want to offend anybody, but the only thing I knew about Kings County and Hanford was there's a lot of horses and cows and cowboys around. And then I got down here and started working March 26, 1990, my hiring date and realized that there are really, really nice people here in Kings County, people that are ready, willing and able to help law enforcement. I would be out on calls out in the middle of nowhere and knew kind of in the back of my brain that if I got into something, that the people in Kings County would be there to help and back me up. And so it's a feel of small town that's getting bigger and you get really good training. And if you become a lifer here in Kings County I don't think you would regret it. It's a very good community, great schools, great small town feel to it and would be a great opportunity for you if you came to Kings County any of the towns in Kings County also, but I have to say the sheriff's office is the best.

Speaker 4:

I agree with him. It's just. I came here in 1980 and there were no one stoplight, I think, in town and it's just, it's that small time of field where they embrace you and then you get to know people and you get to grow. Like I said, I'm an advocate for foster kids and I've met so many wonderful people prior to that that I run across now and it's just, it's wonderful, it's like they embrace you.

Speaker 2:

So that brings us to your Facebook page again. Once again it's Kings County Positive Law Enforcement on Facebook. And, Darren, can you tell us a?

Speaker 3:

little bit about the inspiration for the page and the message that you want to get out to the community. The idea for the Facebook page Facebook group Kings County Positive Law Enforcement was in year 2020, in June A lot of stuff was going on the George Floyd riots were going on and lots of negative things being hurled at law enforcement. For people that don't know me, I'm a Black American, african American and growing up in Fresno. I still have friends in the Fresno area and a few not all but a few were really turning on me. Some of them called me a traitor and this and that because I was involved in law enforcement for a long time. And it kind of struck me because every law enforcement officer is not bad, and that's the kind of information that I was getting and kind of arguments that I was getting from people that I grew up with. And so one night I was thinking to myself what could I do to show that one?

Speaker 3:

All law enforcement officers are not bad and, as a matter of fact, we do positive things all the time for the community that don't get any kind of recognition. Every now and then you'll get a positive story and this and that, but there's no highlight of it, and so I thought what could I do to highlight that? And so I created the group. It started out small and mainly things from Facebook that I would see, and I believe I went back when you set up this interview. I went back to find out what was my first post, and I believe my first post was about a family of geese on my way to work one morning and I posted that and I said something like it's all about family and you'll probably get into this, but I met Linda before that so before June of 2020, and it would have been at the Sizzlers right.

Speaker 4:

And it was Before Little D was born, and for Church of Christ, that's where we met.

Speaker 4:

Yes, yes, yes, that's where we initially met and then. And then they had what was it? Lunch with a cop, dinner, dinner with a cop At Sizzler, at Sizzler's, and I took my then seven, six or seven-year-old grandson and we sat with Darren because I knew him from church and to this day he's 17 now and he still remembers Deputy Allison. What a wonderful man he is and he looks up to him, which for a 17-year-old is unusual. You know for him to look up to many people, but he's right at the top. He remembers that very fondly and it pops up in memories. He sees the pictures. Well, how's he doing? You know that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3:

So that's how me and Leonard became acquainted with each other, and I thought, since it is focused on the connection between law enforcement and the community, there should also be a community member that would be involved in the group and with the administration of the group, and so I asked Linda if she would, and she said yes, and so we post a lot of different things. I've noticed Linda likes to post a lot about canines and stuff.

Speaker 4:

Whatever, I love dogs. I just post ones that I see from other states. I'm involved with a lot of other groups.

Speaker 3:

And so, as you see you have right there, that's a youth-oriented post. So I'd like to get the information out about activities for youth, so I'll do special posts for that. I'll also do a post if there's like an important story to the community, like a missing child or something like that, to get the word out, we'll do a post about that sort of thing. But the main focus of the page is positive activities of law enforcement. It could be a school thing, it could be promotion within a department, it could be an officer stopping. It could be promotion within a department, it could be an officer stopping to help change someone's tire on the road. I've done that a few times in my youth, my law enforcement youth.

Speaker 3:

There's a couple of ones that I wanted to highlight that are part of the feature on the page. Yeah sure, go ahead. One is currently in July of 2023. And it's one of the real, real videos and it's a. It's a wedding and the scroll says that the bride, she's getting married and she asked 15 of the most important men in her life to walk her down the aisle. So each of them walked her a little bit down the aisle and one of the men that she asked to walk down the aisle was a police officer that arrested her violent, abusive father and she gets married. And the final scroll says that she's married, she's marrying a deputy sheriff and that she went on to become a police officer from when she was a little girl to now she's a police officer marrying a deputy sheriff and I thought that was sweet. That's the main idea that law enforcement's not always out to get you. Our main thing is to help people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah without a doubt, yes. And then the other story is Started in the year 2000 with a six-month-old baby. The Escondido Police Department helped with the state parole to do a search warrant and they found this six-month-old baby laying next to her mother that was on drugs and passed out and so through the process of getting her services and getting her into protective custody and everything basically saved her from from neglect and possible Colorado, and reached out and found that Escondido police officer that saved her from when she was a little baby and invited him to the ceremony to pin her badge on her because she was becoming a deputy sheriff. Now I like to put out the projection that I'm a tough man, but that kind of got me in my heart, you know, because that's the thing A police officer, deputy sheriff, high patrol, correctional officer we are there to help and it doesn't matter who you are.

Speaker 3:

I'm a fan of the show Bosch and he's a detective, lapd detective, and he has a saying that I like to go by and it's everybody counts or nobody counts and it doesn't matter who you are, we are there to help you. And so those are two of the main stories that kind of get my heart and looking for all of those types of stories to highlight, so that people know that we are there to help.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I see on the page you actually say if you have a story that you'd like to share, that they can submit it to you on the page, and it looks like over 1400 members like the page. So that's terrific. And, linda and Darren, I'd like to thank you so much for coming on the show today. I really believe in what you do and I just want to thank you on behalf of the community. Thank you for having us.

Speaker 3:

Thank you for having us. I really appreciate it. And now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley with Eric Becker.

Speaker 1:

Both basketball and soccer saw some success last week and now that we're two weeks into league play, let's see where everyone stands. In boys basketball, sierra Pacific picked up a pair of high-scoring wins 82-73 over Selma and 92-43 over Hanford West West, as the Golden Bears improved to 3-1 in Tri-County Kings Canyon League action. Hanford High also went 2-0 last week, taking down Mission Oak 81-56 and Lemoore 70-55. The Bullpup Boys sit at 3-2 in the WIL and the Hanford West boys continue to struggle, falling to Kerman and Sierra Pacific last week. On the girls' basketball side, sierra Pacific continued to impress last week, blowing out Selma 84-23 and following that up with a 60-14 route of Kerman A perfect 4-0 in Tri-County Kings Canyon League action. It's safe to say Sierra Pacific is on a roll, but not to be left out of that discussion as the Hanford West girls are also a perfect 4-0 in league, after taking care of business last week, beating Kingsburg 73-31 and Washington Union 59-17. And the Hanford High girls went 1-2 in their three games last week, falling to Mission Oak and Morro Bay but picking up a close 52-49 win over Lemoore.

Speaker 1:

In soccer action, the Hanford High girls remain red hot, shutting out Mission Oak and Lemoore last week to improve to a perfect 5-0 in WIL play and 18-2 overall. The Sierra Pacific girls fell to Kerman early in the week before playing Hanford West to a high-scoring 4-4 draw, as the Golden Bears find themselves sitting at 2-0-2 in league play. As for the Hanford West girls, last week, other than the 4-4 draw with Sierra Pacific, they also played Emmanuel to a 2-2 draw. And for boys soccer, hanford High went unblemished last week, shutting out Mission Oak and Lemoore to improve to 2-3 in the WIL and 8-6-2 overall. The Sierra Pacific boys split their two matches, falling to Kerman 4-1 before bouncing back and defeating Hanford West 1-0. The Golden Bears are still undefeated in league play, at 3-0-1.

Speaker 1:

And Hanford West was unable to come away victorious last week. That loss to Sierra Pacific, as well as a loss to Kingsburg. And before we go, some offseason football news, as Hanford West has announced that Steve Lentz will be the new head coach of the varsity football program. Coach Lentz comes with 26 years of high school coaching experience, so there's a lot of anticipation around an improved Husky squad next season. As always, we'd like to cover as many local sports as possible, so if you have a score report or a story idea, make sure to email HanfordInsider at gmailcom. I'm Eric Bentley and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's all the time we have for this week's show. If you enjoyed this podcast and you'd like to show your support, you can go to buymeacoffeecom slash Hanford Insider to make a donation. If you'd like to join the Hanford Insider email list, stop by my website at hanfordinsidercom to sign up for updates. You'll also get an exclusive copy of my newsletter in your inbox each week. I also need your help getting the word out about the show by liking and sharing on social media or telling a friend For more information about this show. You can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram, threads X and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at hanfordinsider at gmailcom and I'll look into it. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

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