SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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

MINUTES FOR Thursday, June 5, 2003

 *******Refreshments to be provided by the 22^nd AD *********

The Call to Order was 7: PM

1.  CALL TO ORDER

2.  ROLL CALL

Absent: Drina Collins, Ron Lind, Francine Davis, Deepka Lalwani, Thelma Spaziani, Peter Chiu, Aldyth Parle, Deniese Alejandro, Terry Gregory, Jean Cohen, Alex Kennett, Greg Sellers, Dan Kenney, Craig Mann, Sylvia Alvarez, Sal Alvarez, Tony Alexander, Susan McKuhen, John Dutra, Joe Simitian, Manny Diaz, Rebecca Cohn, John Laird, Simon Salinas, Liz Figueroa, Byron Sher, John Vasconcellos, Anselmo Chavez, Anna Eshoo, Mike Honda, Frank Bosche, Jim Boynton, Teresa Daley

Excused: Joe Pandit, Emily Thurber, James Thurber, Madge Overhouse, Carol Garvey, Dave Wilkes

Alternate: Anna Song, Sally Lieber, Zoe Lofgren

3.  IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS: visitor roster passed around

Nancy Pyle (candidate for City Council), Carolyn Curtis from Howard Dean for America, and

Elaine Alquist.

Elaine Alquist spoke to the group briefly about her candidacy.

4.  ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Alyson Abramowitz asked to add a discussion on media ownership of FCC

Gap Kim requested to pull the resolution from the Asian Pacific American Democratic Club from New Business

Motion to approve agenda with amendments, seconded, carried

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

Correction: Alex Bantis distributed the Greek Festival tickets

Motion to approve, seconded, and carried

6. DISCUSSION:

a)    Follow up “Democratic Call to Action” meeting on May 3^rd

Herb gave a brief summary of the follow-up action taken. He explained that the follow-up team went through all of the groups’ suggestions and ideas, categorized them, and put them into a distribution list for the next meeting. This will be posted on the website in the near future.

People who attended discussed what they liked about the meeting. Many believed that a major success of the meeting was that ½ of the people who attended were new faces.

b)   Democratic Call to Action meeting June 14^th

Steve discussed the plan for the meeting on the 14^th including outline of the day’s agenda

Additionally, Steve made an announcement about Keith Garvey’s death and that the meeting will be adjourned in Keith’s honor.

7. REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.  Executive Board: Hope Allen Cahan

The Executive Board discussed the June 14^th meeting plan, resolutions for June meeting, State budget problems, Dan Hoffman’s position paper on Iraq, and voted to endorse Mountain View’s Measure E.

B.  Chair: Steve Preminger

Steve has been working with Keith Garvey’s family on the Memorial Service.

Announced that due to the holiday on the 4^th of July, the next SCCDCC meeting will be on July 10^th.

Reminder that the Central Committee will be participating in the fair on August 1^st , 2^nd , and 3^rd

C.  Vice Chair: Drina Collins

No report

D.  Treasurer: Gap Kim

Currently, there is $684.12 in the Santa Clara County Central Committee account.

E.  Secretary:  Hope Allen Cahan

Visitors please sign the sign in sheet. Members, please email your reports to me for the minutes.

F.  Community Services & Voter Registration: Steve Preminger

Liz has been working on getting a voter registration booth at the Sunnyvale Art and Wine Festival. Liz originally contacted the Campbell event held in May to find out if we could have a booth there and was told that they do not allow partisan voter registration booths. However, at the event there was a Republican registration booth.

G.  Finance: Jim Thurber

No report

H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Tom Cochran

Emy and Tom are working on this and will have dates for the endorsements at the next meeting.

I.  Campaign Services: Phaedra Ellis Lamkins

No report

J.  Issues: Emy Thurber

No report

K. Political Outreach: Tom Cochran

Club reports

L. Regional Directors: Madge Overhouse

Steve Preminger gave the report:

“The State Executive Board meeting is at the end of the month in Oakland and the platform hearing is July 12^th. Mike Markman just got appointed as our representative so he will be attending that meeting.”

M. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis

N.  Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope

Claudia announced that she brought cards to fill out regarding the State Budget cuts of the family planning funds. She requested that everyone fill the cards out before they left so that they may be sent to the legislature immediately.

Late term abortion passed through both houses. However, the two bills are not in agreement. The Senate version expresses support for Roe v. Wade. Bush announced that he will sign the late term abortion bill. Claudia expressed her opinion that the resolution that the Central Committee sent was ignored.

Lobby Day at the Capitol went well and Sally Lieber gave those in attendance a tour of the Capitol.

Next meeting is on June 19^th, 2003 at 1746 The Alameda.

Claudia also reminded the group to keep an eye on the news for the progress in the Florida case concerning the rape of a developmentally disabled woman. Jeb Bush stated that he will work to assure that the fetus is not be aborted and that a guardian of the fetus is appointed.

O.  DTV Report:  Steve Chessin

7O. DTV

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our May taping was with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.

Our guest in June is TBD.

We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A June 5th (tonight) and July 3rd with the show we taped with Representative Lofgren.  The show we taped with Girls For A Change will be aired one more time on June 19th, and

the show we tape in June will be aired July 17th and August 14th.

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:

Jun  5   DTV 100         Hon. Zoe Lofgren

Jun 19  DTV 99           Girls For A Change

Jul  3    DTV 100         Hon. Zoe Lofgren

Jul 17   DTV 101         TBD-101

Jul 31   DTV 102         TBD-102

Aug 14 DTV 101         TBD-101

Aug 28 DTV 102         TBD-102

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

P.  CDC Report:  Chris Stampolis

Officers met last weekend. The meeting was very productive they went through the SWAT process to create an action plan for August convention in Fresno.

Q. Welfare Reform:  Sal Alvarez    

No report

Political outreach clubs and ADs

20th AD committee:

21st AD Committee: Mike Markman

21st AD Democratic Committee:  In May, Assemblyman Joe Simitian spoke to the 21st AD about the budget crisis to a packed crowd.  In January 2004, the 21st AD Committee plans to host a forum for candidates running for the 21st AD seat.  Meanwhile, the 21st AD is initiating several precinct-based activities, including a precinct-based effort to register voters, to encourage periodic voters to register as permanent absentees (improving the likelihood that they will vote), and to get out the vote.  Details will follow at our July meeting.

22nd AD Committee:

23rd AD Committee:

24th AD Committee:

28th AD Committee:

African-American Democratic Coalition:

American Sikh Democratic Club:

Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club:

Clinton*Gore Action Network:

Democratic Action for Women Now (DAWN): Joan Goddard

The Club’s main activity currently is the DAWN PAC Fundraiser this Sunday, June 8^th. The event is from 11am to 1pm at Zoe Lofgren and John Collin’s home at the corner of 15^th St and Margaret in San Jose. The current RSVPs to Lee Sturtevant total 105.

Sally Lieber will MC and there will be an improv. Group providing political humor and satire. The Silent Auction will include many donations gathered and/or given by Keith and Carol Garvey. The club has many donated lunches with elected officials: Mike Honda, Sally Lieber, and Julia Miller. Additional items include dinner for 4 prepared at your home by Cindy Chavez and Dolly Sandoval (conversation included!), a picnic at Doug Winslow’s place (with the Democratic donkeys, Madge and the Thurbers, and exotic animals), and many gift basket collections.

Thank you to Steve Preminger for encouraging people to attend the 6/8 event. Donations are also accepted, perhaps in Keith Garvey’s honor. Keith Garvey was an important member of the DAWN board; Carol is the President and the regular representative to the SCCDCC meetings. A donation in the Garvey name would be greatly appreciated.

Evergreen Democratic Club at the Villages: Beverly Wharton

“Our speaker for last Tuesday, Assemblymember Diaz, had to reschedule for our August meeting due to the budget crisis in Sacramento. In his place, two videos were presented: 1) the panel discussion on Universal Health Care (which aired on Channel 15A and is not available to Villages residents), moderated by Herb Engstrom and featuring our club president, Bob Applebaum, and two other members of Health Care For All as panelists, and 2) 10 minutes of Senator Sheila Kuehl’s press conference on the introduction of her Single Payer Health Care Bill, SB-921, followed by member discussion of the issue.

The theme for this year’s Villages July 4^th parade is “United We Stand.” Our club’s entry will again feature 3 convertibles (one red carrying a placard saying “Truth”, one white with a placard saying “Honesty”, and one blue with placard inscribed with “Integrity”.) The dialog written by our Club president for the Announcer as the cars pass the reviewing stand is, “Just as it is true for dealings with individuals in our own family, or the entire family of man, so it is true for our nation that: we stand most proud and tall when we build and strengthen ties. Without Arrogance and Without Deception, United We Stand. Build Bridges, Not Nukes!”

The Club continues to look at a variety of ways to reach out to Villages non-member Democrats, Greens, and moderate Republicans, one of which is to use our newsletter to call attention to senior issues for which Democrats have a better record than Republicans.

We will not have a July meeting and our annual barbeque is scheduled for September 7. Invitations will be sent out to local politicians and special guests. If you would like to attend, please let us know so we can notify the security gate to give you entrée.

Mission City Democratic Club: Chris Stampolis

Peninsula Democratic Coalition: Mike Markman

In May, the PDC held the latest in its series of policy lunches, hosting Professor Beinin of Stanford University who spoke about the crisis in the Middle East.  The PDC's voter registration activities are well underway; the PDC will help to maintain a presence at several upcoming public events, including the Los Altos, Palo Alto, and Mountain View Art & Wine Festivals. 

Peninsula Young Democrats: Mike Markman

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Dan Hoffman

A talk was given by a representative of the local Kucinich for President Campaign committee

The report of the Industrial Relations Committee on post-war Iraq was not voted upon, referred to August meeting.

Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum:

Sunnyvale Democratic Club:

San Jose College Democratic Club:

West Valley Democratic Club: Dan Hoffman

The post Iraq position paper was signed by Dan Hoffman and Dave Wilkes, was adopted and approved unanimously

South County Democrats- Mark Moore

8. OLD BUSINESS

9. NEW BUSINESS

a)    Resolution to Support the Troops and Veterans

Steve Preminger briefed the group about the resolution

Motion to adopt, second, carried

b)   Resolution for Voter Verified Paper Trails- Steve Chessin

Steve Chessin discussed the resolution and answered questions including how it is voter verified.

Motion to adopt, second, carried

c)    Resolution on Home Rule for Voting Methods- Steve Chessin

Steve Chessin discussed

Motion made, seconded, carried

d)   Media ownership of FCC

Alyson discussed new rules for media which make it possible to own a television and newspaper station in the same area. Increased ownership up to 45%. The FCC went straight down party lines on this. Now there is intent in Congress to change this due to the public’s attention to this. Alyson would like us to add our support to changing this and would like a resolution which supports changing this and provides our encouragement to actively make these changes.

Discussion on

Chris Stampolis made a motion to approve in concept and sent to a group appointed at the Chair’s discretion, seconded, carried.

e)    Discussion about what a terrible lose the death of Keith Garvey is. How he was an independent thinker, brought humor to our group and so much more. Memorial Service will be held at the IBEW hall on Saturday, June 14^th at 2:00. Daisy and Kansen Chu volunteered to cater the whole event. The family is still deciding what organization/s they would like people to send contributions to in his memory

Chris Stampolis made motion to make a $100 donation to the organization of Carol Garvey’s choice, second, carried

Dan Hoffman would also like to see money to go to an education fund in Keith’s name.

Jackie Heffner and David Cohen will be putting together a message board in his memory. Please send messages to them. Jackie expressed her feelings about Keith’s great legacy of activism and feels honored to have known him.

Merylee Shelton would like to see a legacy created that has his name on it to see remembrances in his name

Many group remembrances about Keith were shared.

10. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Bill Ferguson: Got a job on the Kucinich for president campaign

Carolyn Curtis: from Howard Dean for President discussed last “meet up” (internet discussion about Howard Dean). Host party number 4 is Sat. June 28^th from 1-3. It is a live conference call with other groups. June 23^rd campaign kick off televised from Burlington (will be in San Francisco). He will come to town later this summer.

Carolyn Curtis volunteered to help register voters at New Citizen sign ups.

11. EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

    The next Executive Board TBA

12. ADJOURNMENT after a moment of silence, the group adjourned at 9:10 in Keith Garvey‘s name