Yuba-Sutter CHP to get new leader

The Yuba-Sutter office of the California Highway Patrol, the only CHP office in the state that covers two entire counties, will have a new commander next month.

Lt. Andres Ornelas, 49, now with the CHP's North Sacramento office, will be promoted to captain and succeed Capt. Jim Young, who is being promoted to assistant chief of the CHP's Valley Division office, which oversees a number of CHP branches.

Young, 56, joined the Yuba-Sutter office in January 2008, succeeding Capt. Scott Silsbee.

One of the accomplishments he's most proud of, Young said Thursday, was starting a senior volunteer program two years ago. The volunteers' duties include answering phones and filing.

"They're really helping us" at a time when the CHP statewide is losing positions because of state budgets cuts, although the Yuba-Sutter office has been relatively unaffected, Young said.

A hiring freeze prohibits filling even positions vacated by retirements, according the Officer Jeff Larson, spokesman for the Yuba-Sutter office.

Officers consider the Yuba-Sutter office a "destination," so few have left recently, Young said. The office actually has a few more officers than it had when he started 31⁄2 years ago, he said.

Still, it's a challenging time for the CHP, he said.

"We're having to do more with less," he said.

Ornelas, a Los Angeles native and 14-year CHP veteran of that area, said Yuba-Sutter is also his final destination. His goal, he said, is to "immerse" himself in the community.

The two men were scheduled to meet Thursday with heads of other law enforcement agencies in the two counties. The good relationship the CHP has with those agencies "is really a positive thing," Young said.