SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE
 6:45 pm, County Building cafeteria, 70 W. Hedding St. San José

MINUTES  FOR Thursday, APRIL 1, 2003
 *************** Refreshments  provided by the 27th and 28th ADs *****************

1.  CALL TO ORDER  7:20 pm.

2.  ROLL CALL

Absent: Ron Lind, Francine Davis, Bill Dias, Thelma Spaziani, Anna Song, Bob Dhillon, Claudia Shope, Alex Kennett, Larry Carr, Greg Sellers, Dan Kenney, Craig Mann, Susan McKuhen, John Dutra, Rebecca Cohn, John Vasconcellos, Anna Eshoo, Martin Gorefinkel, Ruth Ashford, Frank Bosche, Denelle Fedor, Laura Geonne, Mike Markman, Teresa Daley.

Alternates for: Anne Mack, Emy Thurber, Jim Thurber, Terry Gregory, Jean Cohen, Joe Simitian, Sally Lieber, Manny Diaz, Simon Salinas, Liz Figuroa, Byron Sher, Mike Honda, Chris Stampolis.

Excused: Hope Allen, Sylvia Alvarez, John Laird, Zoe Lofgren, Madge Overhouse, Deniese Alejandro

3.  IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Anil Babbar of Silicon Valley Young Dems; Irene Rodriguez of Citizens Against Violent Crime; Judy Boore, new volunteer; Lee Sturtevant of Supervisor Jim Beall; Peter Szego; Mary Tapia of FACTS and Citizens Against Violent Crime; Aurelia Sanchez; Diego Barragan of SJSU Young Dems; James Kim of SVAPA Democratic Club; Clark Williams of LGBT Democratic Club; Paul Fong of Foothill-DeAnza Community College District.

Special visitor: Peg Pinard - candidate for State Senate District 15.  Peg said that the 15th district included the Santa Clara County communities of Saratoga and Los Gatos.  She was giving up her safe seat as Supervisor of San Luis Obispo County to run for the 15th.  The county is evenly divided with 40% Democratic and 40% Republican.  She needs our support to win.  Campaign contributions can be sent to Peg Pinard for State Senate, PO Box 14415, San Luis Obispo, CA 93406.  Peg grew up in SCC and still has family here.

4.  ADOPTION OF AGENDA

A motion to adopt the proposed agenda without change was moved, seconded, and carried.

A reminder: Our bylaws require that new business items be submitted to the E-board before the regular meeting.  Only emergency measures may be submitted at the meeting, and these require a two thirds majority approval for inclusion.

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

Phyllis Ward pointed out that under NEW BUSINESS, the reference to "Split Rule Initiative" should be "Split Roll Initiative.  With that correction a motion to approve the minutes was passed.  (Note added: Adjournment was in honor of Jeannie Honda.)

6.  REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.  Executive Board:  Drina Collins for Hope Cahan.  E-board met March 23 to hear of a DVD proposal by Jennifer Myronuk, a concert booth at the Viet Tet festival, possible discussion of Iraq, David Cohen's resolution on UC, and the 3-day county fair in August at which we'll have a booth.

B.  Chair: Steve Preminger.   The Chair is working with the State Party to make sure that the Call to Action presentation will again be presented at the State Party Executive Board meeting.  Our goal is to hold accountable all county committees in the state to do what we're doing here, and if we do that, we'll have a great success in November.

C.  Vice Chair: Drina Collins.  No report..

D.  Treasurer: Gap Kim.  We have $152.

E.  Secretary:  Hope Cahan was absent.

F.  Community Services & Voter Registration: Jim Brady was absent.

G.  Finance: Sari Wisch for Jim Thurber.

The dinner is on Friday, April 30.  I am looking forward to seeing everyone there!   Tickets are $100 each or $1000 for a table of ten.   Please send in your remit envelopes or register online at www.sccdp.org and click on the link for the dinner.   For those who are alternates of elected officials, please contact them and have them send in their payments and registrations ASAP.  I will also be contacting them.    We need to fill up all the banquet rooms at Lous Village for the dinner, so send in your registrations!   Thank you!

Dinner is Friday, April 30, social hour at 6:30 P.M., dinner at 7:30,  at Lou's Village.  Sari announced that after the dinner she will be leaving Santa Clara County and will no longer be able to participate in County Party activities.

H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: John Kessler.  John asked that anyone wanting to be on the endorsement committee for the fall contact him before leaving.

I.  Campaign Services: Phaedra Ellis Lamkins   The UDC is coming along nicely.  Tomorrow (Friday, April 2) there will be a meeting featuring State Senate candidate Peg Pinard at the Labor Temple beginning at 8:30 A.M.  All are welcome to come and meet her.

J.  Issues: Bill Ferguson for Emy Thurber.  Of the proposed initiatives to be on the November ballot, the following already qualified:

1. Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond act of the 21st Century.
2. Access to Government Information.
3. Referendum Petition to Overturn Amendments to Health Care Coverage Requirements.

Three more have been submitted but are awaiting signature verification:

1. Bond Act for Children's Hospital Projects.
2. Open Primary Act.
3. Tax on Incomes of Over $1 Million to Fund and Expand Mental Health Services.

Seven have been submitted to the Attorney General for preparation of title and summary:

1. Local Government Property Tax Protection Act
2. California Scholarship Opportunity Act
3. Child's Day
4. The Thomas Lomax Taxpayer's Protection Act
5. Humane Economic Liberty Program for California
6. California Defense of Marriage Convention Call
7. State Comprehensive Population Policy

Thirty-four more are still in circulation:

Campaign Financing, Reapportionment, Electoral Districts, Voting Records, Legislature

1. Reapportionment. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.
2. State Electoral Districts. San Francisco Bay Area Regional Authority Board. Initiative Constitutional Amendment
3. Campaign Financing. Oil Severance Tax. Initiative Statute.
4. Legislative Voting Records. Campaign Disclosure. Initiative Statute.
5. One-House Legislature. Terms. Procedures. Initiative Constitutional Amendment
6. Local Funds and Revenues. State Mandates. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute
7. Local Government Funds and Revenues. State Mandates. Initiative Constitutional Amendment
8. Local Government Revenue Sources. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute
9. State and Local Appropriations Limit. School Funding. State Mandates. Bonds. Initiative Constitutional Amendment

Workers Comp, Benefits

10.  Workers' Compensation. Benefit and Eligibility Restrictions. Initiative Statute
11.  Compensation for Injured Workers. Limits on Eligibility for Benefits, Medical Treatment. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute
12.  Compensation for Injured Workers. Eligibility and Benefit Limits. Initiative Statute

Choice

13.  Parental Notification Prior to Termination of Minor's Pregnancy. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute
14.  Termination of Minor's Pregnancy. Medical Emergency. Parental Notification or Judicial Waiver. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute
15.  Minor's Pregnancy. Waiting Period and Parental Notification or Waiver Before Abortion. Initiative Constitutional Amendment

Medical, Research

16.  Emergency and Medical Services. Funding. Telephone Surcharge. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute
17.  Stem Cell Research. Funding. Bonds. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute

Education, Funding, Teachers Retirement

18.  Funding for K-12 Education and Voluntary Universal Preschool Program. Commercial Property Taxes
19.  Publicly Funded, Licensed Schools. Initiative Constitutional Amendment
20.  State Teachers' Retirement. Benefits. Initiative Statute

Consumer Issues, Automobile Purchase, SSN Disclosure

21.  Automobile Dealers. Buyers' Right to Cancel Purchase. Seller Disclosures. Initiative Statute
22.  Disclosure of Social Security Numbers, Confidential Information. Unfair Competition Actions. Telemarketing
23.  Limitations on Enforcement of Unfair Business Competition Laws

Gaming, Casinos, Gambling

24.  Legalized Casino-Type Gambling. Cities of Barstow and Oakland Pilot Program
25.  Tribal Gaming Compacts. Exclusive Gaming Rights. Contributions to State
26.  Indian Gaming Compacts. Revenue Contributions to State, Local Governments. Gambling Expansion
27.  Tribal Gaming Compact Renegotiation. Non-Tribal Commercial Gambling Expansion. Revenues, Tax Exemptions

Three Strikes, Punishment, Pubic Benefits, Traffic Violations

28.  Limitations on "Three Strikes" Law. Sex Crimes. Punishment
29.  Sex Offenders. Punishment. Parole. Public Information
30.  DNA Samples. Collection. Database. Funding. Initiative Statute
31.  Public Benefits. Driver's License. Eligibility. lmmigration Status and Identity Verification
32.  Traffic Violations in School Zones. Increased Fines. School Safety Programs

Other

33.  Use of Authorized or King James Bible as Textbook for Grades One Through Twelve
34.  Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Details of all of the above initiatives may be found on the web site of the California Secretary of State.  Some discussion of certain of these followed their presentation by Bill.

On the general topic of issues Herb Engstrom added that at the last monthly meeting the issue of Iraq came up and that we had not discussed this.  The E-board decided that rather than having an open discussion of this issue, we should research John Kerry's position and present it at the May meeting.  Herb and Emy Thurber were assigned this task.

K. Political Outreach: Tom Cochran

20  20th AD committee:
21st AD Committee:
22nd AD Committee:
23rd AD Committee:  Tom Cochran.
24th AD Committee:
28th AD Committee:  Sal Alvarez.
African-American Democratic Coalition: Merylee Shelton.
American Sikh Democratic Club: Sukhdev Singh.
Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club: James Kim.
Clinton*Gore Action Network:
Democratic Action for Women Now (DAWN): Deepka Lalwani.

 

DAWN had its brunch meeting on March 21 at SAN Jose City College, some of the candidates endorsed by DAWN talked about their experiences in Primary elections.  The next event is on May 23, Christie Sermersheim of local 715 and  political professor of SJSU, will give a talk.

 

Evergreen Democratic Club at the Villages: Bev Wharton.

We had another great turnout in March to hear Herb Engstrom and Ron Naymark.  Club membership now stands at 180 and still growing. Fifteen members helped deliver the special election issue of our club newsletter to about 900 registered Dems in the Villages.  At Oakridge Mall, six members registered 22 people on March 21 ( 17 were Dems ).  We will again be registering voters April 17 and 18.  We expect to have at least one full table of members attending the annual dinner at Lou's Village on April 30.

Next Tuesday our meeting will feature club Pres. Bob Applebaum and David Wald speaking on the Progress of SB 921, Health Care for All Californians.

We were devastated (along with our more than equally devastated Landscaping crew at the Villages) to hear that the Landscape Maintenance Department will be terminated on April 30th, along with about 70 long-time employees.  The work has been outsourced to the giant "Tru-Green LandCare" company.  The rationale for this covert action is that this for-profit company will perform the same work at less cost than our own non-profit department.  Tru-Green says "they would be willing to absorb many of our employees."  The workers we have talked to (many of whom have been employees of the Villages for 30 years) are understandably devastated.  Management also gave as a reason for its action the increasing costs of Workman's Compensation.

High Tech Dems: Alyson Abramowitz.
Mission City Democratic Club:
Peninsula Democratic Coalition and Peninsula Young Democrats: Genni Girard.

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Alicia Lanier.

O
1)   Our next SCCDC meeting will be Monday, April 19, at Carrow’s Restaurant on El Camino in Santa Clara. Our speaker will be David Oliver, a representative of the John Kerry for President Campaign. Anyone is invited to attend. Dinner begins at 6 p.m. and the program begins at 7 p.m.

2)     2)   The SCCDC is responsible for the voter registration table at Westfield’s Valley Fair Mall each month during 2004. Our next tabling event is Saturday, April 17, and we could use two more volunteers to handle one two-hour shift between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

3)      The SCCDC will encourage members to attend the annual SCC Democrats fund-raising dinner on Friday, April 30 at Lou’s Village – hopefully to have at least one table of 10 from the club.

 
Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum:

South County Democratic Club: Mark Moore.

    The South County Democrats last met in Morgan Hill on March 27.   The guest speaker was Congressional Candidate Jerry McNerney.   At the meeting McNerney announced that he had received sufficient write-in votes in the primary to become the Democratic Party candidate in the 11th CD.   Subsequent to the meeting it was discovered that Alameda County had provided McNerney with an erroneous vote total and he may have fallen a few votes short.  it may take court action to get his name on the ballot.  

    The South County club now has 114 paid members and is working on its second table for the Democratic Dinner.   The Club has also purchased and booth and supplies for local campaign events in Gilroy and Morgan Hill.

    The next club meeting will be on May 22 in Gilroy.  It will feature State Senate candidate Elaine Alquist and a possible endorsement of her fall campaign.

 

San Jose State Democratic Club:  Diego Berrigan.
Stanford Democratic Club: Daniel Kilduff.
West Valley Democratic Club: Dennis Austin.

L. Regional Directors: Madge Overhouse, Martin Gorfinkel.   Madge was absent, so Steve reported that the next State Party E-board meeting will be April 30th, May 1st and 2nd.  We will do a presentation on Call to Action at that meeting.

M. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis.  Absent.

N.  Pro-Choice Coalition:  David Wilkes for Claudia Shope.

We do have money for people that want to go to the March for Choice in Washington the 25th.

O.  DTV Report:  Steve Chessin.

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our March taping was with State Senator John Vasconcellos.

Our guest in April will be Mountain View City Councilmember Rosemary Stasek, who has just returned from Afghanistan and will tell us all about it.

We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A April 8th and May 6th with Senator Vasconcellos, April 22nd with Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, and May 20th and June 17th with Councilmember Rosemary Stasek.

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):
2004:

Apr  8  DTV 110 Sen. John Vasconcellos
Apr 22  DTV 109 Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
May  6  DTV 110 Sen. John Vasconcellos
May 20  DTV 111 Hon. Rosemary Stasek
Jun  3  DTV 112 TBD-112
Jun 17  DTV 111 Hon. Rosemary Stasek

See http://www.sccdp.org/dtv.htm for the full schedule.

P.  CDC Report:  David Wilkes.

David reported on the recent CDC E-board meeting that was held Sunday, March 28th, at Monterey Peninsula College.

The next CDC Convention will be in San Diego at the Handlery Hotel, June 11-13, 2004.
Herb Engstrom added that he also attended the Monterey meeting.  A couple of people there had attended one of our Call to Action meetings, and they were effusive in their praise of this project.  They suggested that everybody ought to do something similar, and all should check out the Santa Clara County Party web site for more information.

Q.  Welfare Reform:  Sal Alvarez.

R.  Special report:  Kim Vu and Karen Brunten.

Kim described the organization Emerge, which is a Democratic training program for women who are interested running for leadership roles and for office and how to run a successful campaign..  This is a seven part training program in San Francisco.  If you know any women who are interested in running for office or becoming leaders, they'll be accepting applications again in the summer.  The Republicans have a similar program in eleven states where they get women to run for office and then support them.  They show them how to raise money and network.  Emerge is the first Democratic program of its type.  We are trying to expand to southern California and around the country.  So if you know any women that want to run, have them talk to us.

7.  NEW BUSINESS

UC resolution.

David Cohen had proposed a resolution.  The governor has proposed significant cuts in the UC system, which is really the jewel state system in the world for public education for universities.  In addition he is proposing increasing tuition for graduate students by 40%.  UC is known for its research and attracting talented graduate students.  A 40% increase will mean accepting fewer and not attracting as many students, who will go to other top research institutions. m I have proposed a resolution saying we'd like to protect the University of California's ability to provide access to eligible students, adequate financial aid for those in need, continue programs in K to 12th schools to help students prepare for college, and also to continue to support UC R&D programs by continuing to fund the hiring of world class faculty and attract the most talented graduate students.

(The text of the resolution is below in the Appendix.)

David moved the adoption of the resolution.  The motion carried unanimously.

9.  OLD BUSINESS
A.  Call to Action Reports

• Message Committee: Ana Maria Rosato.
• Call to Action was a great success.  After the meeting five of the co-chairs went down to Monterey and gave a presentation.  Fifty people were there, and we had them in the palm of our hand.  I was going to give a 5 minute dog and pony show, but they wouldn't let me off the stage for 35 minutes.  hey could not believe all the things we were doing.
• In the next month or so you'll be seeing a lot more stuff on the web.
• Media Committee: Jennifer Myronuk.
• Jennifer passed around a list for people to give their email addresses if they want to keep informed of the Media Committee activities.
• We had a fantastic meeting on Saturday.  We had several new people from the technology sector - technical writers and other people that are working and that have not been involved in a while.  These people are knowledge workers coming out and who want to lend their skills.  We are trying to target people for writing letters to the editor and for talk radio.  We have a new Yahoo web group.  We'll be doing the weekly action alert starting on Monday working with the Message Committee.
• We need to get to know each other as people.  As Democrats we focus on issues and campaigns, but we need to know each other as well and to make this a great community, so we are developing lasting relationships as well.
• The goal is to specialize in what we care about.  It will come across in our letters; it will come across in our phone calls.
• Press kits are going our, and we have a media event coming up, which Ron will talk about.
• Speakers Bureau: Ron Naymark.
• The Party is going public; we are going to be seen.  There will be a rally that will present some on-going themes for future events.
• One of those themes is the Flag of Hope, which we intend to give to John Kerry prior to his inauguration for him to take with him up Pennsylvania Avenue.  It has 50 stars.  Each one of the stars is composed of five child's hand prints, and each one of those prints will have the name of a child that has in one way or another been harmed by the Bush administration.  We will be collecting those names from people in the Democratic Party.  The stripes contain names of people that intend to vote for (the benefit of) people that they are related to or teach or that they care for.  They are taking responsibility that their vote will not be a selfish act but one for the responsibility of others.  The rally will be April 15th, tax day, which is another day when we as citizens take responsibility for others.  At the rally you'll be able in inscribe it with the names of the people that you take responsibility for.
• We encourage all of you to come to the rally April 15th, tax day.  It will start at noon and go until about 12:30 at St. James Park, downtown San José.  Steve has done a fantastic job of securing our main speaker, who will be Ron Gonzales, Mayor of San José.  Tell your friends, tell your Clubs.
• Jennifer added that we'd like to have everyone send out personalized messages encouraging friends and Club members to attend this event.
• Volunteer Committee: Steve Preminger for Jim Brady.
• This Committee had a great meeting at the Call to Action.  There is a lot of tabling and voter registration going on.  If you know people that want to get involved, the Volunteer committee is a great way to "plug" their energies.

10.  ANNOUNCEMENTS

David Cohen: Anne Mack asked me to say that if you'd like to nominate someone for the Madge Overhouse Volunteer of the Year Award, nominations are due tomorrow at the end of the day.  You can go to the web site and nominate somebody using our on-line form.  Also, if you're not on our email list to receive our bulletins about up-coming events, go to the web site and sign up for ba-dems.  And if you haven't done so, please take a look at our web log.  There is some really great discussion and content on a lot of interest topics thanks to our new web log lead Elisa Camahort.

Jay Jackman: One of the acts of the Volunteer Committee is precinct work.  I'd like to talk to each of the Executive Committees of the Clubs to explain the nuts and bolts of precinct work so that we can recruit from each ot the Clubs.  You can contact me through my email, and I will come to one of your meetings, hopefully within the next couple of months.  My email is jayj@stanfordalumni.org. 

Jennifer Myronuk:  I consult for the Volunteer Center of Silicon Valley, which works with over 1,100 nonprofits. I work with their youth service team.  April 17th is National Youth Service Day.  There are several projects in this county like painting a school, planting a tree, etc.  It's nice for Democrats to be visible in other aspects of our community besides political work.  One area is the annual Human Race to be held May 8th in Mountain View.  Your Club or group or AD can get together and fundraise for your favorite nonprofit.  You can raise money and walk for your nonprofit.  It's a great way to build your team.  There is a 5k race and a 10k race.  It is certified by the National Runner's magazine, and it would be wonderful to have Clubs and ADs out walking with Democratic T-shirts.  I'll be sending out information through Tom and the Clubs.

Steve thanked the 27th and 28th ADs for the refreshments.  The 20th is to provide refreshments next month..

The next Executive Board meeting  is TBD.

11. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:20 P.M.

APPENDIX

Resolution in support of funding for the University of California.
Submitted by David Cohen, 24th AD.

WHEREAS, the University of California is a leading educational institution with an international reputation as one of the best public universities in the United States; and

WHEREAS, the California Master Plan for Higher Education, adopted by the state in 1960, committed the University of California to admit students from the top one-eighth of each high school graduating class, and UC has sustained California' s economy for more than a century, and California's future economic success is being supported at UC campuses where new innovations are being discovered and the next generation of business, science, and community leaders are being trained; and

WHEREAS, over the last four years the state has reduced its financial support for the UC system by 16% while student enrollments have increased by 16%; UC has absorbed dramatic cuts to research and development programs; students and families have been forced to handle significant fee increases; the Governor has proposed increasing Graduate Student tuition by 40%; and the University's ability to continue delivering on its promises for California is increasingly at risk because of deep, continuing state budget cuts;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Santa Clara County Democratic Party urges the Governor and Legislature to find solutions to the state budget crisis that do not jeopardize the University of California's ability to provide access for eligible students, adequate financial aid for those in need, and continued programs in K-12 schools to help students prepare for college; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Santa Clara County Democratic party urges the Governor and the Legislature to continue to support UC R&D programs by continuing to fund the hiring of world-class faculty and attraction of the most talented graduate students.

This page was last updated 4/4/04.