Letter to CDCR Secretary Matt Cate

Secretary MatthewSecretary Matthew Cate 

1515 S Street

Sacramento, CA  95814

September 11, 2008

Dear Secretary Cate:

I wish to express my warmest appreciation for our meeting on August 12.  Your concern for and support of chaplains and their training were very encouraging.  To this date we have continued to develop a training program that would strengthen the work of our chaplains and increase their passion for working in such unique settings.  We all thought that the budget crisis would soon be behind us.  It is evident that much work still needs to be done to resolve this unfortunate dilemma.

It is the desire of ACCSS to partner with each department that employs chaplains.  We are indeed in a financial crisis that will take all of us working together for a sound fiscal future.  It is in that spirit of cooperation that I wish to inform you of the chaplains’ desire to postpone our training until a more opportune time.

Your willingness to support this important annual event, and the fact that only the slowness of a budget resolution hindered its continuance, will be communicated to our chaplains.  Please express our appreciation to your staff for their great cooperation and help on this project.  They have been a great team and most pleasant to work with.

The purpose of our association is to ensure the professional development of all state chaplains and to support their ministries in our state facilities. We await the opportunity to serve you in that mission in the future.

May God’s blessings be to you and your staff as you serve our great State of California.

Respectfully,

David Skaggs

President