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TPD honors work of volunteers, employees with annual awards
TPD awards 1
Officer Martin Marquez was selected as the Officer of the Year. His colleagues commended his thoroughness, work ethic, intuition and initiative.
Sabra Stafford
Turlock Journal
Published: Jan 28, 2023, 9:13 AM

The Turlock Police Department held their annual awards ceremony Thursday to give recognition to those employees and volunteers who have done exemplary jobs for the department and the Turlock community as a whole.

Each year the police department honors the volunteer, employee and officer of the year. They also present an award of excellence to an individual or a unit and present any special citations and medals for those individuals who have gone beyond their regular duties in service to the community. The employees at the department make the nominations and a committee makes the award selections.

TPD awards 2
The Employee of the Year award, which goes to non-sworn personnel, was bestowed to Code Enforcement Officer Yesenia Del Real.

A Medal of Meritorious Service was presented to Officer Ryan Mulhim for his efforts to try and save a drowning teenager at Turlock High School.

Just before midnight on Aug. 19, 2022, the Turlock Police Department Dispatch received multiple 911 calls reporting a boy at the bottom of the Turlock High School swimming pool and efforts to pull him out had been unsuccessful.

Mulhim was the first officer to arrive at the scene and without hesitation or even to strip off any extra weight, he dove in to bring the teenager up from the bottom of the 13-foot-deep pool.

“Despite the excess weight from his gear, Officer Mulhim was able to swim to the bottom of the pool and retrieve the non-responsive boy,” said Turlock Police Chief Jason Hedden.

Mulhim was able to bring the boy to the surface and pulled him to the side of the pool where other officers were able to help pull the boy out of the water.

“Officer Mulhim’s actions that night upheld the highest values of public safety,” Hedden said.

The department’s Excellence Award was presented to the Property and Evidence team - Linda Christy, Melanie Suffecool, Ruth Hoover, and Rochelle Segarini.

“This area of the department is often overlooked, but the dedication of the two women who work inside the room, Linda and Melanie, as well as the two people who serve as their backup, Ruth and Rochelle, are essential to the total operation of the department,” Hedden said. “They make sure that the DA's Office has the evidence that they require for prosecution, promptly return property to all members of the community, and assist anyone who asks with the proper way to package everything that needs to be booked into the property room.”

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The Chief awarded Lilia Franco a special commendation. Franco supervises the department’s Records Department and has led the department’s California Incident-Based Reporting System project.

Officer Martin Marquez was selected as the Officer of the Year. In nominating Marquez, his colleagues commended his thoroughness, work ethic, intuition and initiative. As an example, Hedden pointed to an arrest last year that Marquez was essential to making happen. Marquez used some “creative thinking” and his knowledge of social media to establish a suspect was illegally selling firearms. This investigation, which was eventually turned over to the Special Investigations Unit, led to the arrest of a subject for weapons sales and manufacturing.

“Officer Marquez has set himself apart with his consistently high motivation and work ethic,” Hedden said. “He is a multitalented officer, who is always searching for ways to improve himself.”

The Employee of the Year award, which goes to non-sworn personnel, was bestowed to Code Enforcement Officer Yesenia Del Real. Del real made the transition from the Turlock Fire Department to the police department in April 2022.

As the code enforcement officer, Del Real “made sure that the citizens’ complaints were addressed,” Hedden said. “This was done with minimal staffing levels and often times she would take the complaint via email or over the phone and then transition to the field to follow up with the inspection of the issue herself. Her hard work did not go unnoticed and she is well deserving of this award this year.”

The Volunteer of the Year award went to Geoffrey Bradshaw, who has been a volunteer with the department for 13 years, all while working full-time and raising a family.

“He has been instrumental in helping with Neighborhood Watch Meetings at block captains’ houses,” Hedden said. “He represents TPD at these meetings giving neighbors great advice on crime prevention strategies to keep their neighborhoods safe.  He has participated in working with and mentoring the Explorers. He truly has proven his commitment to the Department, as well as the employees.”

Bradshaw has logged 1,000 volunteer hours with the department.

The Explorer of the Year award was presented to Hayden Elliott, who was also given a $500 scholarship from Jeff and Dara Lopes.

The department also paid a special recognition to the service of three long serving volunteers – Mary Ann Jorge, Skip Young and George Plisko.

Jorge spent many hours during 2022 assisting with Administration, Crime Prevention, Code Enforcement, logging 2,080 hours.

Young routinely volunteers his time to assist patrol and at special events. He has accumulated 10,000 volunteer hours with the department.

Plisko volunteers with Professional Standards and patrol and has now logged 1,5000 hours.

The police department also awarded three special commendations during the ceremony. The first of which was given to Lilia Franco, who supervises the department’s Records Department. Franco has led the department’s California Incident-Based Reporting System project.

“Throughout this past year in 2022, you have been a resource and an invaluable member of the Department,” Hedden said. “You have taken pride in the Records Unit and tackled projects handed to you.  Your willingness to come in on your days off and on weekends does not go unnoticed with members of the Department.”

A strong work ethic was what earned Lt. Russell Holeman a special commendation as well. When Capt. Miguel Pacheco was sent off for three months to attend an FBI academy, Holeman was called upon to serve as an acting captain for the department. During that time Holeman handled all the Division Commandeer duties, as well as training lieutenants on various projects.

Acting Captain Holeman ensured the division had the support necessary to maintain operations during this time,” Hedden said. “Upon Captain Pacheco’s return, Acting Captain Holeman provided a detailed briefing on what had occurred during the eleven weeks, and maintained proper notes on items of importance. This allowed for the continued and smooth operations of the division during the transition. Acting Captain Holeman implemented new policy changes, updated processes, and worked to keep his division moving forward in a positive direction.  

“Lt. Holeman, thank you for your devotion to this organization and the community of Turlock,” Hedden continued. “By taking on these additional responsibilities, you have helped to ensure that the Police Department continued to provide for the safety of our community members.”

Capt. Steve Rodrigues was awarded a special commendation for his overall job performance over the last year. Hedden pointed out that Rodrigues “has shown personnel his dedication to the overall well-being of each division independently and at the same time, the Department collectively.  

“Capt. Rodrigues regularly comes in on his days off to ensure operations of the Department are being handled,” Hedden said. “The sacrifice of his personal time has not gone unnoticed. This has demonstrated his loyalty not only to the department but to each person individually.”
Costa, Gray propose congressional bill to address critical physician shortage in rural areas
Costa and Gray
San Joaquin Valley congressional members Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, left, and Rep. Adam Gray, D-Merced, are shown discussing their bill H.R. 2106 in a virtual press conference on Tuesday.
Published: Apr 2, 2025, 4:48 AM

BY TIM SHEEHAN

CV Journalism Collaborative

Two San Joaquin Valley congressional representatives have introduced a bill that could help address the vast shortage of doctors in the region, particularly in underserved areas. 

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, and Rep. Adam Gray, D-Merced, say the Medical Education Act would, if passed, establish a program of grants to support expanded medical education programs in underserved areas of the nation.

The Valley could be one of the key areas that would benefit from the legislation. California has about 90 primary care doctors per 100,000 residents statewide, the federal Health Resources & Services Administration reported in November 2024. 

That’s more than the ratio in some states, and less than some others. The nationwide ratio is about 84 doctors per 100,000 residents.

But in the San Joaquin Valley, home to about 4.3 million people, doctors are much more scarce – about 47 primary care physicians per 100,000 residents, according to Dr. Tom Utecht, chief medical officer at the Fresno-based Community Health System.

That number is “a little over half of what is necessary to take care of a population,” Utecht said Tuesday in a video press conference. “We have the lowest physicians-per-capita rate in all of California, in the San Joaquin Valley.”

Introduced last month, the Medical Education Act is something of a placeholder for the time being until the Congressional Research Service can weigh in with financial estimates of what is needed in different parts of the country, Costa said. 

A companion version was introduced in March in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-West Virginia, and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles.

At this point, the legislation does not specify how much money will ultimately be sought or how grants would be structured.

Costa said the shortage of doctors in the region “is combined with language barriers, cultural barriers and distances … and that would really go for rural parts of our country regardless where folks live.”

“If you live in rural areas, it’s just more difficult to have access to good quality health care,” he added.

Costa said the legislation, if it can survive a Republican-controlled House and Senate and a Republican president, “would be transformative because it would invest expanded resources to minority-serving institutions and colleges located in rural and underserved areas to establish schools of medicine and osteopathic medicine.”

The bill would also create an avenue for more historically Black colleges and universities, as well as Hispanic-serving institutions, to establish medical education programs, Costa said.

Gray noted that when he was in the state Legislature, he and colleagues “worked to get hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to expand the UC Merced campus, to ultimately secure the funding to put the first medical education building up on campus.”

Gray added that the UC San Francisco’s medical education program in Fresno “is an important part of creating the (medical) workforce of the future for the valley, but more importantly, solving this access to care issue that plagues Valley communities.”

At UC Merced, director of medical education Dr. Margo Vener said there has been a surge of interest in the university’s program that funnels students through an undergraduate program for their bachelor of science degree through a medical school degree in collaboration with UC San Francisco.

“All the students that we are enrolling are from the Valley and for the Valley, because they want to really make a difference in promoting health in their communities,” Vener said. That, she added, is likely to eventually translate to those would-be doctors to stay in the Valley to practice medicine.

“The data suggests that two factors really strongly influence where physicians stay to practice,” Vener said. “One of them is where they’re from, which, of course, is why we’re recruiting students from the Valley for the Valley just to stay (and) be doctors for their community. And the other factor is where you went to residency. Those are the two biggest drivers.”

That’s something that was underscored by Dr. Kenny Banh, assistant dean of undergraduate education at UCSF Fresno. “Regional campuses such as UC Merced and UCSF Fresno not only grow doctors, but they take those doctors, physicians and medical students from their communities in the region, and train them in those regions to go back to be physicians in those areas,” he said.

While the costs of the Costa-Gray legislation are yet to be determined, Banh said there are also costs associated with doing nothing to expand medical education.

“There’s health care costs, regardless of how we work it, if we don’t invest in having an adequate supply of physicians,” Banh said. “There’s a cost on the human that can’t access care” and doesn’t get to a doctor until a condition is not treatable “or with significantly worse morbidity and mortality outcomes.”

“And that cost is borne by health systems taxpayers, one way or the other,” Banh added.

But even if the Costa-Gray bill were to pass in this congressional session, the payoff of home-grown medical schools producing a bumper crop of physicians in the Valley or other deprived parts of the country would be years down the road.

“I think it’s really important to understand why we need to invest now for our future, because it takes so darn long” for a student to go from being a college freshman to a practicing doctor, surgeon or specialist, UC Merced’s Vener said. 

After a four-year bachelor’s degree, a student must then complete four years of medical school, which in turn is followed by a residency of three to five years.

“Then often people will do a fellowship to become, for example, a cardiologist or a gastroenterologist or something like that,” she added.

“If you start investing in just one student now, it’s going to take such a long time before they really are there to take care of you at that moment when you need them to be your gastroenterologist, your cardiologist, your emergency physician, or, dare I say, your family doctor,” Vener said.

That, she said, is why it’s also necessary to expand residency programs that can attract would-be physicians into the region in hopes that they will remain once they complete their training. “We need those doctors now, and that’s why this effort is important,” Vener said, “because this is what will both inspire people to stay, but also inspire people to really come and embrace the communities and serve them.”

In a related development, state Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, D-Fresno, recently introduced a bill for the University of California system to develop a comprehensive funding plan for expanding the current SJV Prime+ BS-to-MD partnership between UC San Francisco and UC Merced, with the goal of transitioning the program to a fully independent medical school operated by UC Merced.

“We have seen firsthand the impacts of medical workforce shortages throughout the Central Valley,” Soria said in a prepared statement. “AB 58 would help ensure the Legislature is equipped with the information needed to secure appropriate funding for the medical education provided for our community at UC Merced.”

— Tim Sheehan is the Health Care Reporting Fellow at the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. The fellowship is supported by a grant from the Fresno State Institute for Media and Public Trust. Contact Sheehan at tim@cvlocaljournalism.org.