1.  CALL TO ORDER
    The meeting was called to order by Chair Steve Preminger at 7:22 PM.

2.  ROLL CALL
    Absent were:  Francine Davis, Jewelle Gibbs, Francis LaPoll, Rod Diridon, Jr., Bart Fisher, Thema Spaziani, Sal Alvarez, Larry Carr, Alex Kennett, Craig Mann, Gene Wagner, Joe Simitian, Elaine Alquist, Manny Diaz, Rebecca Cohn, Simon Salinas, Liz Figueroa, Byron Sher, John Vasconecllos, Anselmo Chavez, Pete Stark, Anna Eshoo, Mike Honda, Martin Gorfinkel, Ruth Ashford, Gap Kim, Lillian Hicks, and Beverly Wharton.
    Excused were: Dennis Chiu, Ron Lind, Emy Thurber, Alyson Abramowitz, and Rena Modell.

3.  IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS
    Anthony Munoz
    Virginia Frank
    Ron Del Pozzo
    Phaedra Ellis Lamkins

4.  ADOPTION OF AGENDA
    Steve Preminger asked that we consider a resolution supporting Sen. Boxer's legislation protecting wild and scenic rivers.  Jim Thurber added consideration of Sen. Burton's bill to increase income tax for the highest tax brackets.  Phyllis Ward asked that we consider under old business that someone report on the Central Committee newsletter publication.
    A motion was made seconded, and passed to approve the agenda as amended.

5.  APPROVAL OF MINUTES
    A motion was made and seconded to approve the May meeting minutes.  The motion carried.

6.  REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.  Executive Board:  Herb Engstrom.
    The agenda indicated a tentative meeting of the E-board for Thursday, June 13th at the Thurber's.  They will be out of town, so we will find either a different date or a different location.
    A number of people noted that the June agenda was not available on the web site.  Although I wrote the agenda, evidently I overlooked uploading it.  (Note added: It was evidently a failure of Yahoogroups to post the agenda, which was uploaded.)
    Meeting was held May 16 at home to Tom Cochran.  Present were Tom, Keith Garvey, David Cohen, Herb Engstrom: We did not have a quorum.  We had planned on discussing the UDC.  The UDC steering committee now consists of  Steve Preminger - chair, Jim Thurber - Treasurer, Tom Cochran - SCCDCC rep,     Cristina Uribe - Labor rep, and   Ben Tripousis - At large.  Cristina has move to Sacramento: we need a new Labor rep.  The bylaws call for a reorganization of the UDC every two years.
     The bylaws require items for agenda to be submitted to E-board.  Emergency items can be submitted during the meeting, but these require a 2/3 majority for inclusion in the agenda.

B.  Chair: Steve Preminger.
    Cristina Uribe has resigned her position as the Campaign Services Director so we need to discuss that at the next E-board meeting.  If we held our next CC meeting on the usual date, it would fall on July 4th.  Expecting that would not be a popular date, Phyllis Ward, our reservations manager, has reserved this room for the following Thursday, July 11th.
    I did want to  talk about the UDC Director's position.  I would like to introduce Phaedra Ellis Lamkins, who is the Deputy Executive Secretary of the South Bay Labor Council and Labor's nominee to be on the UDC Steering Committee.
    Phaedra was invited to speak:
    "My name is Phaedra Ellis Lamkins, and I'm the Deputy Executive Officer of the South Bay Labor Council.  That means I'm the staff director.  I'm very pleased to be here and am excited bout the possibility of being on the Democratic Central Committee.  I'm a long time Democrat and have worked with many of you on campaigns and have volunteered at the Labor Council on behalf of Democratic candidates.  If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.  I'm really excited to be here, and I'm looking forward to working with everyone over the next couple of years."
    Steve continued:  The other person I'd like to talk about and I'd like to nominate is Keith Garvey for the UDC Executive Board.  In talking with Ben Tripousis he has has a hard time attending these meetings due to his other commitments, so I would like to bring forth Keith Garvey as the 5th member of the UDC Executive Board.  That means the UDC would consist of myself, Jim Thurber, Tom Cochran, Phaedra Ellis Lamkins, and Keith Garvey.
    I would put forth that slate as a motion.
    Under discussion Herb Engstrom pointed out that the Central Committee Chair selects the succeeding Steering Committee Chair and the Treasurer, and the Central Committee E-board selects the remaining members.  (Actually the Labor Council selects the Labor rep.)  Herb felt we should follow the bylaws, in which case we should not have a vote until the next meeting.  He stressed that he did not have a problem with the nominees, but we should present them formally in the agenda so that people know that an election is coming up just in case someone might want to make a different nomination.  To present a slate and say we are going to vote right now excludes people who are absent from the meeting and sets a very bad precedent.  Herb was very much against approving the slate tonight.  We can wait until next month, so let's vote no on having a vote.
    Jim Thurber commented that Herb had some good points, but there is another problem facing us right now.  The next meeting is July 11th and we have a big campaign ahead of us.  We cannot spend any money without approval, so we have to move quickly.  Claudia Shope added that she agreed with Jim.
    Peter Chiu moved that we suspend the bylaws so that we could approve the slate tonight.  Steve Chessin pointed out that any motion to suspend bylaws is out of order and submitted a compromise proposal.  Steve C. said that he heard the urgency for establishing the UDC, but he also has respect for the bylaws and our process and doesn't want us to operate illegally. He proposed that we have an acting UDC that can handle things for the next month but that the process can be followed in that the slate be brought before the Executive Board and come back to us for the formal ratification.  In the meantime you as chair of the UDC and the rest of the people you'd like to work with work as an acting UDC until such time as we can formally approve it.
    Chris Stampolis moved that we appoint a temporary UDC to take care of things until we have the formal election next month.  The motion was seconded.  In the discussion Herb supported the compromise motion but added that the bylaws require this election to be held in February, so arguments that time is short is not a reason to suspend the bylaws.  The motion carried.
    Chris made another motion that we elect those five people as the temporary officers of the UDC.  The motion carried.

C.  Vice Chair: Tom Cochran.
    No report.

D.  Treasurer: Dennis Chiu.
    Absent.

E.  Secretary:  Herb Engstrom.
    No report.

F.  Community Services & Voter Registration: Liz McDavit
    Festivals and voter registration programs are in full swing.  The first festival was last weekend in Sunnyvale; I want to give a huge thank you to Lorre Vaughn and Margie Baker and Pat O'Hare for helping me get it together.  Attendance was down, but we did very well registering 68 Democrats and 7 decline-to-states.  Three Republicans reregistered as Democrats.  The Republicans were there, but we got more business than they did.  We could use more help.  One thing that was different was that there were a lot of young people coming to both the Democratic and Republican tables; they wanted to decide with whom to affiliate.  We did a lot of talking.
    I want to thank David Cohen for taking over the Great Mall in Milpitas.  David spoke: I'm going to be at the Great Mall registering voters Saturday June 15 and Saturday July 13th.  I'll be there from 10 to 4 or 5 o'clock.  It would be nice to have someone else, one or two others.  Get in touch with me if you're willing to help.
    Liz continued: The Santa Clara County Fair is the first weekend in August.  It runs for three days, so if you'd like to help, please let me know.
    July 4th is the American Festival.

G.  Finance: Jim Thurber
        No report.

H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Keith Garvey
    No report.

I.  Campaign Services: Cristina Uribe
    Absent.

J.  Issues: Willie Wool
    Absent.

K. Political Outreach: Steve Preminger for Emy Thurber

22nd AD Committee:  Chris Stampolis.
    We met on Cinco de Mayo in Mountain View where we discussed this fall's elections.  Because Mountain View has some very important city council races and an open seat vacated by our State Assemblyperson, we made a formal recommendation to the UDC Board to site the north county office in the city of Mountain View..  In this way it would be easier to get volunteers into Mountain View and to get outreach to elect our city council candidates.  We wanted to make sure that the Central Committee was aware that in Mountain View two years ago the Democrats lost control of that city council when Nancy Noe did not win her reelection and was replace by Matt Pear.  The council went from four Democratic women and three Republican men to three Republican men, a farther right decline-to-state, and three Democratic women.  They've had a difficult challenge up there.  Sally Lieber has been doing a great jon in terms of recruiting candidates.  We've had a caucus of our AD committee from the Mountain View area meeting with the PDC, and we're looking forward to working with the County Committee and the UDC to take back Mountain View for the Democrats.

23rd AD Committee: Tom Cochran.
    There is correspondence from Sacramento.  Manny Diaz's office says that Manny cannot be with us tonight because he in Sacramento dealing with the budget crisis.  However, he asked me to convey this message to Jim Thurber in honor of his 74th birthday:  "It is a privilege to extend to Jim Thurber my warmest congratulations on his 74th birthday.   We are all proud of Jim's many achievements on the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee.  I am sorry I cannot join with your many good friends paying tribute to you this evening.  Please accept my heartiest wishes on your special day and may you continue to  enjoy splendid health."  /s/ Manny Diaz.  Happy birthday, Jim.  We do have a cake.  And it is Phaedra's birthday tomorrow, so why don't we sing Happy Birthday to Jim and Phaedra and embarrass them both!

African-American Democratic Coalition: Tony Alexander.
    We've met with a number of organizations in the African-American community trying to get them ore involved with the Democratic Party.  We are looking to hold a workshop in July on elected officials and how to become an elected official.  We are going to offer this service to these organizations to see if they want to get involved in politics.

Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club: Peter Chiu.
    We're planning the annual dinner and are looking for the main speaker.  We'll have a picnic in July.  Information will be forthcoming.

Democratic Action for Women Now (DAWN): Denelle Fedor.
    As you know, there has been a bumpy read recently, but we have elected a new board and a new president,  Joan Garvey.  Two weeks ago we had a pot-luck where John Vasconcellos and spoke for a half hour or 45 minutes.  Elaine Alquist also joined us.  Our first meeting will be later in June.  We continue to promote pro-choice candidates.  We are working on recruitment and fundraising.

High Tech Dems: David Cohen.
    High Tech Dems is having our next event on Monday night, July 8th, at Ming's in Palo Alto.  It will be dinner with a panel discussion on legislating spam.  More information will be available on the web site; check back next week on  hightechdems.com .

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Charlie Ahern.
    July 27th will be our picnic.  Confirmed spears are Elaine Shaw, who is running in the 11th Congressional District, and Sally Lieber (22nd AD).  Related to Elaine Shaw, you might want to talk to Bill James who is soliciting funds for Elaine.  The DCCC wants her to demonstrate viability by raising funds early on.  On the 15th we're going to have our next taping of our TV show, Straight Talk.  The topic will be Health Care.

South County Democratic Club: Steve Preminger.
    They are having a meet-and-greet event for the 27th Assembly District candidate John Laird.  They'll send out an e-mail about the event which will be held at the home of Alex Kennett the president of the South County Club.

L. Regional Director: Madge Overhouse.
    A Latino club is being formed under the sponsorship of  Blanca Alvarado, Manny Diaz, Nora Compos, and Cindy Chavez.
    The next State E-board meeting will be August 2nd and 3rd, unfortunately at the same time as our fair.  It will be at the Sacramento Grand Sheraton.  There will be a luncheon on Saturday but with  no speaker as yet.  A mailing will be going out soon.
    Most of you have received a mailing with a label.  Please look at that label and make sure they have you in the right district.  Return it to them, so that when they send you a mailing they have the right information.

M. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis.
    There is good news, but first an update on our Seattle Western Caucus meeting that we had a few weeks ago over the Memorial Day weekend.  One presentation I wanted to share was about decline to state voters here in the west.  They brought in a pollster from DC who did some work with some of our other state chairs.  Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, the data showed that DTS voters throughout the west do not tend to be making their decisions on issues.  Rather, in the West they make their decisions more on values and on perceptions of values.  Here in the Bay Area DTS voters really tend to lean more toward Democratic values or Democratic issues.  The concerns of families and jobs are seen through the lens of personal values.  The pollster said that the reason we are not getting DTS voters throughout the west believe it or not had to do with some of the indiscretions that are perceived to have happened from some of our Democratic leaders over the past couple of years.
    There was a very direct discussion about Democrats who happen to be people of faith should not shy away from talking in the language of faith when dealing with decline to state voters.  For those of you that are concerned about how to get Democrats elected in some of our neighboring states so that folks like Boxer and Feinstein can have a little more cushion and so that eventually Representatives Lofgren, Honda, and Eshoo can eventually be in the majority, we need to know that in those districts where we have to do take-aways, it would be valuable for our Democrats to be a little more up front with  whatever tradition they come from and not just giving over to the Republicans the language of the religious right and the language of faith.  It wasn't easy to hear that what happened with President Clinton and Congressman Condit are actually helping to lose elections in areas that we need to win.  It's something for us to think about, and if you have friends in those districts under Republican domination feel free to chat with me and we can figure out how to get some of that data to turn that message around.
    The next DNC national meeting will take place the weekend after our state E-board meeting in Las Vegas, Thursday Aug. 8 through Saturday the 10th.  Naturally, it took and east coast scheduler to decide that Las Vegas in the summer would be a wonderful place to have a meeting, but at least it is nearby.    If anyone here wants to attend, there is never any charge for a DNC meeting.  Although you can't vote unless you are a member, you can attend the meetings, workshops, and social gatherings.  I want to invite you, so if you'd like to attend let me know, and I'll get you the information.
    Steve Chessin asked if we know how many DTS voters pulled Democratic ballots statewide and in Santa Clara County.  Chris replied that he did not have that information but would try to get it.

N.  Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope.
    I want to thank those of you that went up to Sacramento; Parris was one of them.  We had a rally with good speakers.  Manny Diaz and Elaine Alquist also came out to speak with us.  We're supporting Shiela Kuehl's bill.  SHe came out and spoke with us, and I think she's getting a lot of support from many, many different groups.  I'm glad that our group was one of those on board.  Planned Parenthood had planned this lobby day nicely with a combination of our visits to legislators and excellent workshops.
    There have been demonstrations at Wal Mart for its refusal to carry emergency contraceptives.
    One of the good things that has happened is that a federal judge has ordered U.S. military to pay for the abortion of a fetus that had no brain.
For those of you that knew Randall Terry or who came into contact with him while he was at Operation Rescue, he's gone into a new line which is quite humorous.  I don't know how he expects to succeed if you've ever heard his voice -- it's not too good -- but he is going into country singing.
    Another good thing at lobby was was a discussion of when religious hospitals intersect the rights of people that need care.  The discussion indicated that long ago there were enough hospitals that were independent, but now hospitals that really want to provide care must provide access to choice.

O.  DTV Report:  Steve Chessin.
    Our May taping was with Jesus Orosco, Executive Director of Resources for Families and Communities.  Our guest this month was supposed to be Steve Westly, but last minute scheduling problems have arisen, so I'm not sure if we'll have him.
    We learned that we have new air times in Los Altos, Cupertino, and Palo Alto.  We were in Los Altos and Cupertino at 4 o'clock on Thursday; we're now 6 o'clock on Monday.  That change went into effect at the beginning of the year, but they forgot to tell us.     In Palo Alto we went from 6 P.M. every Tuesday to 6 P.M. every Monday, and they also had a channel change.  In Palo Alto we are now on channel 26.  We'll be on San José AT&T channel 15A June 6th and July 4th with Jesus Orosco, but they may shut down the 4th.  June 20th we'll have Phyllis Ward, and July 18th and August 15th whoever we tape next week.
    We can still use some more good Democrats on the crew.  No prior video experience is necessary.  Talk to me after the meeting.
San Jose Channel 15A, 8:00pm every other Thursday (serves part of Cupertino) (408-918-3200):
2002:
Jun  6  DTV 89  Jesus Orosco
Jun 20  DTV 88  Phyllis Ward
Jul  4  DTV 89  Jesus Orosco
Jul 18  DTV 90  Steve Westly (maybe)
Aug  1  DTV 91  TBD-91
Aug 15  DTV 90  Steve Westly
Aug 29  DTV 91  TBD-91

See  http://www.scc-democrats.org/dtv.htm  for the full schedule.

P.  CDC Report:  David Wilkes.
    We're having our convention in Sacramento this weekend, so I leave at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.  If anyone missed lobby day for Planned Parenthood and Pro-Choice Coalition, we're going to have a lobby day the 10th.

Q.  Welfare Reform:  Sal Alvarez.
    Absent.

7.  OLD BUSINESS
    Newsletter:  Phyllis Ward expressed interest in newsletter coverage of the JJ dinner and wanted to know the publication date.  Steve replied that he has seen the drafts of a lot of great articles, but since Olivia, the editor, was not here, he could not say when the newsletter would come out.

8.  NEW BUSINESS
    Resolution supporting Sen. Boxer's Wild and Scenic Rivers legislation.  Steve Preminger

    I wanted to read a draft resolution put together by the vice chair of the Environmental Caucus, who happens to be Chris Stampolis.  It says:

    Whereas California's  wild places are one of our most important resources; and
    Whereas countless species need these places for their existence; and
    Whereas the California wild heritage campaign works to educate the public about the need for wilderness and wild rivers and to involve local communities in protection efforts and to call on activist citizens to work towards permanent protection  for wilderness areas and wild rivers;
    Be it resolved that the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee supports Senator Boxer's legislation in favor of protecting our wild places; and
    Be it further resolved that the SCCDCC conveys its support  to other western states' Democratic Parties, the County Central Committees in California and get it to the state Democratic Party Executive Board including the Environmental Caucus and  Resolutions Committees.

    Sen. Burton's tax increase proposal.  Jim Thurber.

    We all know that the state budget has been deeply cut.  The governor wants to take the cuts out of social services.  John Burton's new bill would tax the rich, but what he is proposing is a very minor increase.  In fact it is so minor that even our Republican County Supervisor Don Gage is in favor of it.  When we have a Republican in favor of a tax increase, I think we should go for it.  It's very important; the social service cuts are really deep into a lot of very important programs, and we need to get the word out about them.  There is a real problem with Gov. Davis.  He wants to cut the social services rather than raise taxes.  SInce he's running for governor, I can see his point, but maybe we can bring enough pressure to get him to go with John Burton's program.  What I'd like to see is that this body pass a motion that the sense of the group is that we support John Burton's bill and that we urge all individuals, clubs and any other organizations to write to the governor urging him to sign John Burton's bill for a tax increase.
    Phyllis asked if we know how our local legislators feel about this bill.  Lee Sturtevant replied that Supervisor Beall has been contacting our local legislators within the past few days on this issue and the county priorities on cuts.  Without exception the local legislators are sympathetic to this bill.  There is no question but that unless other revenue enhancements are found the very deep social services cuts will go into effect, and they are disastrous.
    Alex Bantis asked the number of the bill: SB1255.
    Chris Stampolis asked to add to the motion that we ask our local legislators to be co-authors of this bill.  Steve replied that we would work out the language and get it circulated within the next few days.
    Peter Szego said that he heads the statewide advocacy organization of the A.A.R.P., with 3 million members in California.  We are strongly in support of this legislation.  Also I want to point out that in 1991 there was a severe budget deficit.  Relative to the size of the budget, it was about comparable to this years deficit.  At that time legislation essentially identical to this was adopted.  It was valid for several years but was phased out, which is why it is not in effect now.  The governor at that time was a Republican, but we got it though anyway, so I think it is not impossible.  It may be difficult, so our action will be significant.  Steve added that the time before that that we had a measure like this was under Gov. Reagan.
    The motion with the friendly amendment was seconded and carried.

9.  ANNOUNCEMENTS
    Steve thanked the Central Committee for their participation in the annual fundraising dinner last month.  We had a great dinner honoring contributions of African-Americans.  Terry Gregory was one of the speakers; Tony Alexander spoke, and our keynote speaker, Rose Gibson from San Mateo County, did a real good job.  The clubs turned out and we were able to raise some significant money.  Thanks again.  It's a really important way to fund our UDC operations.
    Alex Bantis noted two vacancies on the County Board of Education; those of Andrea Leiderman and Maria Ferrera.  If you're interested, it's a 4-year term, and you run by seats based on where you live.  Jacquie Heffner added that we need to seek out good Democrats for these seats because we have some real extremists like Linda Rae Herman on the Berryessa School Board.  She's running against Mike Honda now.  She's on the school board, and she's extreme to the nth degree.  To keep such extremists off the school boards we need to help fill those seats.  Lee Sturtevant added that the COunty Board of Education is also responsible for the juvenile hall, the children's shelter, and community schools.  This is a group of kids with few people looking out their interests.  Also the County Board is responsible for kids that are severely handicapped.
    Steve thanked the 23rd AD for refreshments and Jim Thurber's parents for having him 74 years ago as well as Phaedra's.  Our next meeting will be July 11th.

10. ADJOURNMENT
    The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 P.M.

This page was last updated 6/21/02.
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