Source: San Diego Regional East County Chamber of Commerce
December 24, 2024 (El Cajon) -- The El Cajon community of volunteers will once again select its Citizen of the Year from among the many that donate time and talent for the betterment of El Cajon. Nominations will be made by volunteer organizations based or active in El Cajon and by the public at large.
Since 1956 volunteers whose service has been in El Cajon have been honored by nomination and then selection during the month of January. Community groups, service clubs and the public at large are invited to submit the name and information about a special volunteer (only one per group) on an application form. The winner of the 2024 Citizen of the Year will be selected frm the nominations by a selection committee comprised of participating organizations. Rules and applications will soon be sent to community groups and service clubs in El Cajon, but any El Cajon volunteer organization or a member of the public may make a nomination. To obtain the nomination form and rules, please call or contact the East County Chamber of Commerce:
San Diego Regional East County Chamber of Commerce
201 S. Magnolia Ave., El Cajon, CA 92020
(619) 440-6161
The deadline for submitting nominations is January 22nd at 4:00 p.m. All nomination materials must be received at the Chamber offices by that time and date.
The Citizen of the Year is a time-honored event to recognize exceptional volunteer service benefitting the City of El Cajon. It has included everyone from community leaders to ordinary citizens who generously have given of their time and talent to improve the lives of people living in the City of El Cajon.
SAVE THE DATE: The 2024 Citizen of the Year will be awarded February 18, 2025, at 6 p.m. at the State of El Cajon event to be held at 6:00 p.m., at the Ronald Reagan Community Center, 195 E. Douglas Avenue, El Cajon.
"This order is about administering political loyalty tests to everyday employees in the federal workforce," said the president of the National Treasury Employees Union
By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
Photo: Trump official portrait, 2025
January 21, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) - A union representing workers across dozens of federal agencies sued the Trump administration late Monday over an executive order stripping many career civil servants of protections designed to insulate them from political pressure.
The lawsuit was filed by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) shortly after President Donald Trump signed an order that reinstated, with some amendments, the "Schedule F" measure he implemented at the tail end of his first White House term—an action that former President Joe Biden reversed.
On Monday, Trump rescinded Biden's order and signed a new one declaring that "any power" federal employees have "is delegated by the president, and they must be accountable to the president." Trump also moved to reverse a Biden administration rule that bolstered protections for career federal workers.
Referring to the new order during a post-inauguration event, Trump said that "we're getting rid of all of the cancer, the cancer caused by the Biden administration."
NTEU national president Doreen Greenwald in a statement that "this order is about administering political loyalty tests to everyday employees in the federal workforce who took an oath to uphold the Constitution and serve their country."
"Trump's order is a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees' due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons."
Restoring Schedule F—which reclassified tens of thousands of federal workers as political appointees, making them easier to terminate—was one of the policy priorities laid out in the Project 2025 agenda crafted by dozens of officials from Trump's first administration. Analysts have argued that Schedule F is illegal.
Vox's Zack Beauchamp warned that "in theory," Trump's restoration of Schedule F "could be as damaging to democracy as the birthright citizenship order—if not more so."
"Schedule F in its original form applied, per some estimates, to somewhere around 50,000 civil servants (and potentially, quite a lot more)," Beauchamp noted. "Purging that many people and allowing Trump to replace them with cronies would be a powerful tool for turning the federal government into an extension of his will."
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement Monday that "Trump's order is a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees' due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons."
"This unprecedented assertion of executive power will create an army of sycophants beholden only to Donald Trump, not the Constitution or the American people," Kelley added. "The integrity of the entire federal government could be irreparably harmed if this is not stopped."
This article first appeared in Common Dreams and is featured in East County Magazine under a Creative Commons license.