SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

 6:45 pm, County Building cafeteria, 70 W. Hedding St. San José

MINUTES FOR Thursday, March 6, 2003 Meeting

The Call to Order began at 7:15 PM

1.  CALL TO ORDER

2.  ROLL CALL

Absent: Francine Davis, Greg Sellers, Dan Kenney, Susan McKuhen, John Dutra, Rebecca Cohn, John Laird, Simon Salinas, John Vasconcellos, Anselmo Chavez, Anna Eshoo, Frank Bosche, Denelle Fedor, Alex Kennett,

Excused: Deepka Lalwani, Tom Cochran, Sylvia Alvarez, Sal Alvarez, Madge Overhouse, Jim Boynton, Larry Carr

Alternates: Brandon Sulser for Anna Song, Jennifer Myronuk for David Cohen, Karen Brunton for Joe Simitian, Tiffany Reynolds for Sally Lieber, Christine Epres for Mike Honda, Sandra Soto for Zoe Lofgren, Genni Gerard for Mike Markman, Teresa Daley representative.

3.  IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Visitor roster passed around

Kim Williams from Assemblymember Sally Lieber’s office, Scott Lipton, James Keenan, Javier Gonzalez, Omar Torres, Jasrinder Sohal from the American Sikh Democratic Club, Sam Sohal from the American Sikh Democratic Club, Gurmukh Sohal from the American Sikh Democratic Club, Aurelia Figueroa from the San Jose State College Democrats, Christine Epres from Mike Honda’s office, Virginia Frank.

Manny Diaz spoke, thanked everyone for their involvement in the party.

4.  NEW BUSINESS

  1. Presentation of Chair’s slate of Directors. Action taken

    

Slate brought forward by Chair Preminger and explained rules for nominating and pulling a nomination:

nominated:

Slate passed without discussion

Dennis Chiu appointed as legal council

David Cohen will be the parliamentarian

Both names do not need confirmation

5.  ADOPTION OF AGENDA

   Motion to adopt, second, carried

6.  APPROVAL OF MINUTES    (Minutes are posted on www.scc-democrats.org)

Some members expressed difficulty opening the minutes from the web site.

Motion, second, discussion: Chris Stampolis handed in his minutes tonight and asked that they be included

Motion carried.

7.  REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.  Executive Board: Steve Preminger

Discussion on holding a workshop for new members on how the Central Committee works and what it does. Executive Board will plan this prior to the April meeting and will email notice if the board decides to hold the workshop. This would be an open workshop.

Discussion on convention and JJ dinner

B.  Chair: Steve Preminger.

See above

C.  Vice Chair: Drina Collins.

Thanks to Jim for coming back from vacation and for setting up the microphone for this meeting and for David Cohen’s parliamentarian help at last month’s meeting.

D.  Treasurer: Gap Kim.

∫No report submitted at this time

E.  Secretary:  Hope Allen.

"Minutes were posted on the website. Please let me know if you have requested information by mail and have not received it.

When giving a report at the meeting, you must email or hand me your report to assure that it is put into the minutes."

Updated Membership roster distributed at this point and agreed to put the roster together by District for the next meeting.

F.  Community Services & Voter Registration: Liz McDavit

No report

G.  Finance: Jim Thurber

Gave a pep talk for the JJ Dinner on March 21, mentioning Don Edwards' enthusiasm for the dinner, the award he will give to Madge for her lifetime of service to the Democratic Party, and urged all Central Committee Members to take part and buy tickets.

H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Keith Garvey

Same report as given above (See New Business: 4a)

I.  Campaign Services: Phaedra Ellis Lamkins

Governor recall telephone conference call tomorrow. She will supply report on call for those who are interested.

Will give out a list of the open seats, who is running, and where we should be recruiting. Will supply as much political information as possible.

Keith will work with Phaedra to get the list together. He will get the information from the club members to help with candidate recruitment and openings and will work to coordinate ideas at the central committee meetings

J.  Issues: Emy Thurber

"At the April Central Committee meeting we will hear from Wes

Boyd, founder of the political networking program, Moveon.com. His talk will be at 7:00 and there will be time for questions. At the May meeting we will talk about the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Law with special emphasis on why the Democratic Party is unhappy with parts of the law. That talk will probably commence at 6:30 with 20 minutes for the speakers and 20 minutes for questions."

K. Political Outreach: Emy Thurber

Emy Thurber reported in Tom Cochran's absence.

The American Sikh Democratic Club was certified and the President, Gurmukh Singh Sohal, described what the club hoped to accomplish. It will be a Bay Area wide club. The Evergreen Democratic Club at the Villages was recertified for the coming two-year cycle.

L. Regional Directors: Madge Overhouse, Martin Gorfinkel.

No report

M. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis.

No report submitted at this time

N.  Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope.

"44 Senators voted to continue the filibuster to keep nominee Miguel Estrada from being appointed as judge. Collecting cards tonight to oppose the re-nomination of Charles Pickering and Pricilla Owen. Please fill out cards tonight to get them mailed out this week.

In Pennsylvania, a man posing as a police officer, tried to get address information on an abortion clinic employee.

Community Health partnership event April 17th at 8am at the Mexican Heritage Plaza (1700 Alum Rock Avenue, San Jose). The event is free, RSVP by April 7th to Community Health Partnership at 289-9260.

Intruder Joseph Cascio arrested for going into the Raleigh Planned Parenthood (which does not perform abortions) to ask for directions to one of the abortion clinics in town and threatened the other clinic. Police found binoculars, a crossbow, and a rosary in his vehicle.

Bush is supporting the Federal funding attempts for ultrasound machine for anti choice birthing counseling center.

Arizona Diamondback CEO Jerry Colangelo joined 90 other executives to raise 1million to support anti abortion groups that want to outlaw all abortions with no exceptions, not even to save the life of the mother. The group is the American Life League "Battin 1000" campaign.

Jay Jackman announced that you may reach your electeds through the People for the American Way website

O.  DTV Report:  Steve Chessin.

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our February taping was with the Hon. Sally Lieber, Assemblywoman from the 22nd AD.

Our guest in March is Madge Overhouse.

We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A March 13th with Jenny Niklaus, and March 27th with Assemblymember Lieber. The show we tape with Madge will be aired April 10th and May 8th.

We could still use more good Democrats on the crew. No prior video

experience is necessary.

San Jose Channel 15A, 8:00pm every other Thursday (serves part of Cupertino)

(408-918-3200):

2003:

Mar 13 DTV 94 Jenny Niklaus (repeat)

Mar 27 DTV 97 Hon. Sally Lieber (II)

Apr 10 DTV 98 Madge Overhouse

Apr 24 DTV 99 TBD-099

May 8 DTV 98 Madge Overhouse

May 22 DTV 99 TBD-099

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

 

P.  CDC Report:  David Wilkes.

No report submitted

Q. Welfare Reform:  Sal Alvarez.

No report submitted

Political outreach clubs and ADs

20th AD committee:

No report submitted

21st AD Committee: Thelma Spanziano

No report submitted

22nd AD Committee:

No report submitted

23rd AD Committee:

No report submitted

24th AD Committee: Jacquie Heffner

The 24th AD met and decided to focus on registration, helping local college Dem clubs to form and speaking to local high school.  

The 24th AD wants to focus on recruiting younger people for the Democratic Party.

27th AD Committee: Mike Moore

"Morgan Hill is now part of the 27th AD, and met in Watsonville in January.  Ed Manning of Aptos was elected as the new Chairman.  There were about 30 enthusiastic participants from Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties at the meeting.

Newly elected Assemblymember John Laird also attended the meeting to thank the members of the AD for their support in the recent election. He reported being appointed to several Assembly Committees, including the important one on Revenue and Taxation.  He has also been named Chairman of the Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxics, which is unusual for a newly elected member.  In addition to the resolution of the budget crisis, one of his priorities with the Environmental Committee is to completely assess the effects of new laws and regulations coming from the Bush administration.   There has been considerable weakening of environmental law, and he has asked his staff to complete a thorough evaluation of those changes.   The next step would be to pass provisions to protect California (where possible) from those changes.   In other words, state laws can be enacted where the federal government may be failing."

28th AD Committee:

No report submitted

African-American Democratic Coalition: Tony Alexander

No report submitted

Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club: Gap Kim

No report submitted

Clinton*Gore Action Network:

No report submitted

Democratic Action for Women Now (DAWN): Keith Garvey

No report submitted

Evergreen Democratic Club: Beverly Wharton

" Club President Bob Applebaum and Executive Committee member, Pat Le Rocker attended the CDC Convention in Fresno.

Two of our members are delegates to the California State Democratic Convention next week, one for the 28th AD and the other for the 23rd AD.

We hope to have a good representation from our Club at the JJ Dinner

Because of the special election on March 4th, our meeting day for this month was moved to Tuesday, March 11th. Our speaker will be Chris Larsen, CEO of E-Loan, who will talk about Individual Privacy Threats in Today’s Electronic World."

Mission City Democratic Club:

No report submitted

Peninsula Democratic Coalition: Emy Thurber

Peninsula Democratic Coalition: The PDC elected new officers at its February annual meeting. Mark Solomon is President, Jon Kessler, Vice President, Brandon Sulser, Secretary and Jim Thurber, Treasurer.

The club heard from lawyer in charge of immigration matters for the ACLU of Northern California.

Peninsula Young Democrats: Genni Gerard

Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum: Drina Collins for Sandra

No report submitted

South County Democratic Club:

No report submitted

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Dan Hoffman

Introduced Russ Harden

The last meeting was on February 17th. There will be a summer picnic on Saturday, June 28th at 4pm, $15-$20 ticket cost

Legislative contacts will be maintained with Assemblymember Sally Lieber, Former Assemblymember Elaine Alquist, Assemblymember Joe Simitian, Senator Byron Sher, and Senator John Vasconcellos.

Straight talk, channel 157 has an upcoming program titled: A Domestic Violence Watch, Housing for battered women.

Next meeting will be on March 17th where Kathy Page will discuss fetal alcohol syndrome.

At the April meeting, Kelly Hays-Raitt will discuss the condition of Iraqi women in 1991.

At the May meeting, Herb Engstrom will discuss the national economics.

West Valley Democratic Club:

No report submitted

High Tech. Dems: Alyson Abromowitz

High Tech Dems' next meeting will be this coming Monday, March 10, 2003 from 6:15-9:30 PM. Our topic will be: Gloom, Doom, or Ray of Hope: What is in Store for Silicon Valley?

Our annual look at the Silicon Valley economy brings together a panel of distinguished economists, executives, and legislatures to examine the economy from a high tech and biotech perspective. Our panelist will be:

·        Jeanette A Garretty, Senior Vice President, City National Bank. Prior to City National Bank, Jeanette was Senior Vice President for Bank of America, where she served as senior economist and head of industry analysis.

·        Raymond J Tesi, M.D. Senior Vice President, SangStat, a global biotechnology company.

·        David Pine, Vice President, Handspring.
·        Manny Diaz, California Assemblymember, 23rd AD. Assemblymen Diaz is Chair of the Committee on Information Technology and the High-Tech Workforce.

·        Christine Peterson, President of the Foresight Institute. Ms. Peterson also works with Freedom Technology Ventures LLC and serves on the Advisory Board of Alameda Capital

Our meeting will be held at Mings Restaurant, 1700 Embarcadero, Palo Alto. Cost is $25 for members/$35 for non-members in advance. $35 members/ $45 non-members at-the door.

CDC:

"The CDC E-Board met in Fresno February 8.  

The more important activities were:

Reorganization along county lines.  The redistricting made the previous boundaries cumbersome. For example, Joe Simitian and Ted Lempert are facing off in the 11th State Senate district.  It now includes pieces of 5 assembly districts. This realignment caused some very detailed and boring discussion of the CDC Bylaws (I will spare you the details).

We also discussed changes to the dues schedule to make it easier for small clubs to affiliate. There is a new membership category, Associated Affiliated Organization, which is open to all Democratic clubs and central committees.  This category does not pay dues, but has limited rights.

We made plans for the convention on April 25, 26, 27 in Fresno.

There is a new Regional VP, Bertrand Smith to replace Art Lynch.  His email is BertrandSmith@earthlink.net.  Phone: 650-380-0665.

CDC is thinking about setting up a non-profit think tank/educational foundation.

More information on the website:  www.cdc-ca.org"

San Jose State: Aurelia Figueroa

Aurelia is organizing a new College Democratic Club: would like any suggestions, pointers, questions, speakers, etc. Aurelia may be contacted at Aurelia_f@hotmail.com

8. OLD BUSINESS

State Democratic Convention- March 14-16, 2003

Steve Preminger discussed resolutions that will be voted on at the convention and meeting times for discussion and voting on these resolutions.

Aldyth Parle has a paid position available: PYD member will take

Open reception with Kerry on Friday night

9. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Jill Pipkin discussed www.moveon.org to look for petition going to the UN against the war. Also collecting money for banners and buses against the war.

Keith: Cesar Chavez event in San Jose, 10th annual march on March 29th starting on 19th and Santa Clara. All day event with food and drinks, short speeches throughout the day, music, multicultural is the theme.

Ross: requested that all of us remember Al Ruffo

Barbara Nesbet: Just filled papers Assembly 21 candidate

All Democratic club members can send one CDC delegate to meeting.

Herb: health care situation very serious. Kaul bill "health care for all Ca" discussion on SB 921 single payer plan to provide universal coverage at no increase in cost is on March 26, 6:45 in Quinlin Community Center in Cupertino.

Steve Preminger thanked the 28th AD for refreshments and the 20th will do refreshments next month. Welcome to Sikh club, glad to have you as a part of our membership.

 

10. EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

The next Executive Board is March 24, 6:00pm at the Thurbers'

11. ADJOURNMENT

In memory of Ginny Hirsch who just passed away in January.