SANTA CLARA
COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE
6:45 pm, Santa Clara County SheriffÕs Auditorium
MINUTES FOR
Thursday, February 5, 2004
*************** Refreshments provided by the 23rd
AD *****************
1.
CALL TO ORDER 7:15
2.
ROLL CALL
Absent: Francine Davis, Cathy Dias,
Peter Chiu, Alyson Abramowitz,
Jacquie Heffner, Alex Kennett, Larry Carr, Greg Sellers, Sylvia Alvarez,
Sal Alvarez, Susan McKuhen, John Dutra, Joe Simitian, Sally Lieber, Manny Diaz,
Simon Salinas, Liz Figueroa, Byron Sher, Anselmo Chavez, Anna Eshoo, Mike
Honda, Ruth Ashford, Frank Bosche, Carol Garvey, Jim Boynton, Alex Kennett,
Dave Wilkes
Excused: Drina Collins, Thelma Spaziani,
Zoe Lofgren, Madge Overhouse, Teresa Daley
Alternate: Jennifer Myronuk for Jean
Cohen, Jim Brady for Rebecca Cohn, Alt for John Laird, Jon Kessler for John
Vasconcellos,
3.
IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS: Autumn
Bernstein, Monica Henos, Joe George, Larry Littlejohn, Kathy Chavez Napoli,
Lunkew Michaels
4.
ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Motion, second, accepted
5.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES (Minutes are posted on www.scc-democrats.org)
Add Peg PinardÕs presentation
Motion, second, accepted
6. NEW
BUSINESS
Discussion on Measure A from Judge
Hanson and Supervisor Pete McHugh
Presentation on Strike issue. The strike
is going into its 5th month. This is the largest
strike of their Union. Many of their members have lost their homes, cars, and
apartments due to this strike. Strike benefits were $250 per week and are now
down to $125. The main issue they are holding the line for is health care for
working people. The Safeway (Vons), Albertson, and RalphÕs are attempting to
increase the co-pay and not providing health care until an employee has been
employed there for 37 months. The second issue is the pension plan. The chain
is separating the new people out so that they will not get any pension. The
grocery storesÕ offer has gotten worse as the months have gone on.
The contract in the Bay area
expires in September of this year so we may be facing this here soon.
Bill Lockyer filed a lawsuit
against these companies for forcing profits to be shared between all the stores
(making shopping at RalphÕs impossible for those who would like to boycott
Safeway and Alberstons, but need a place to shop)
Which stores can we go to? Most Markets in this area (such as Nob Hill, Dragers, Constantinos, PW, Tropicana ) are fine
French President on Feb. 17th
2003 said that religious attire could not be worn in school. This affects
freedom of religion. Protests against this are occurring throughout the World.
The Sikh community submitted a letter to the French Embassy and Sukhdev drafted
a letter for us to approve for submitting.
Motion to endorse the letter
opposing the free expression of religion, second, carried
Autumn Bernstein presented
the positive aspects of Measure 2 that will be on the ballot in Santa Clara
County and 6 other counties.
Motion to endorse, second, carried
A.
Executive Board: Hope Cahan
We discussed the Convention, the updated
website, potential media events, and a Call to Action mini retreat for the
committee chairs.
B.
Chair: Steve Preminger
Congratulations to the Asian club for
their media coverage on their impressive growth
C.
Vice Chair: Drina Collins
D.
Treasurer: Gap Kim
$82.34 in the bank
E.
Secretary: Hope Cahan
No Report
F.
Community Services & Voter Registration: Jim Brady
Sukhdev had a record breaking 45 new
registrations at the Naturalization Ceremony. The next Ceremony will be on the
18th. This monthÕs weekend mall voter registration will be over the
14th and 15th to get in under the 17th deadline
G.
Finance: Jim Thurber
Democratic Dinner April 30th
at 6:30pm at LouÕs Village.
H. Candidate
Recruitment and Endorsement: Jon Kessler
No Report
I.
Campaign Services: Phaedra Ellis Lamkins
J.
Issues: Emy Thurber
No report
K. Political
Outreach: Tom Cochran
L. Regional
Directors: Madge Overhouse
M.
Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis
N.
Pro-Choice Coalition: Claudia Shope
O. DTV
Report: Steve Chessin
Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that
our January
taping was with the Hon. Dennis Kennedy, Mayor of Morgan
Hill.
Our guest in February is TBD.
We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A February 12th
and March 11th
with the Hon. Dennis Kennedy, February 26th with the Hon.
Cindy Chavez,
and March 25th and April 22nd with the guest we tape this
month.
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:
Feb 12 DTV
108 Hon. Dennis Kennedy
Feb 26 DTV
107 Hon. Cindy Chavez
Mar 11 DTV
108 Hon. Dennis Kennedy
Mar 25 DTV
109 TBD-109
Apr 8 DTV 110 TBD-110
Apr 22 DTV
109 TBD-109
See http://www.scc-democrats.org/dtv.htm for the full
schedule.
P. CDC
Report: David Wilkes
Q. Welfare
Reform: Sal Alvarez
Political
outreach clubs and ADs
20th AD
committee:
21st AD
Committee:
22nd AD
Committee:
23rd AD
Committee:
24th AD
Committee:
27th AD Committee: Mark Moore
While the 27th AD has not met for some time, Chairman Ed Manning has announced a meeting taking place during the next month. He also wanted to ask any Central Committee Members living in the 15th Senate District (Morgan Hill, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga and Cupertino) to contact the Peg Pinard campaign.
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):
Evergreen
Democratic Club at the Villages: Beverly Wharton
Over 80 people came to our January 13th
meeting to hear views of presidential candidates Governor Howard Dean,
Congressman Dennis Kucinich and General Wesley Clark presented by their
representatives and to ask questions. Our 2004 meeting calendar and membership
directory was distributed with our February newsletter. Last Tuesday, Feb. 3rd,
our meeting featured candidates for two Superior Court Judge Seats for seat 7,
Democrat Enrique Colin and Republican Griffin Bonini, for the other seat,
Teresa Guerrero. We also had a presentation on the Sequoia Touch Screen Voting
Machine and opportunity to use it. The March issue of our newsletter will be
hand distributed to all 1,000+ registered Democrats in the Villages prior to
Election Day. For our March speaker we hope to have someone from the ÒCall to ActionÓ SpeakerÕs Bureau. Our
club will be registering voters again at Eastridge on Sat, Feb 14 and Oakridge,
Sun Feb 15th.
Milpitas
Democratic Club: Deepka
Lalwani
ASSEMBLY CANDIDATES MET IN MILPITAS
The Santa Clara County Democratic Party and the newly-formed Milpitas Democratic Club hosted a public forum for 20th Assembly District candidates on Thursday, Jan 29th from 7 to 9 PM in the community room of the Milpitas Library at 40 N. Milpitas Blvd. All five Democrats, who seek to replace termed out Democrat Assemblyman John Dutra in the March 2, 2004 Primary Election, participated. They include: former Milpitas Mayor Henry Manayan, Newark City Councilman Alberto Torrico, Pleasanton Mayor Tom Pico, San Francisco Public Utilities Commissioner Ashok Bhatt, and non-profit director Dennis Hayashi. The audience heard them agree on the pressing need to reform the Workers' Comp system, to improve the business climate, and to create more jobs. In their comments they also showed support for higher business taxes, support for the Blank Check Initiative Prop 56, support for SB 2 - the $7 billion health care tax on employers and employees, and they wanted more regulations on businesses and insurance companies.
Mission City
Democratic Club:
Peninsula
Democratic Coalition:
Peninsula
Young Democrats:
Santa Clara
County Democratic Club:
Silicon
Valley Latino Democratic Forum:
South County
Democratic Club: Mark Moore
South County Democratic Club---The Club had two well-attended meetings in January in Morgan Hill and Gilroy. The Gilroy Meeting featured presentations by Simon Salinas, Manny Diaz and Elaine Alquist. The Club also advertised in one of the local papers and gained a dozen new members. Our next meeting will be on February 14 and will feature Club endorsements in the 13th Senate District race and for the Democratic Presidential Candidate.
San Jose
State Democratic Club:
West Valley
Democratic Club:
8. OLD
BUSINESS
á
Speakers Bureau
á
Media Committee
á
Message Committee
á
Volunteer Committee
We got 2 amendments into the platform one of which was to put the
Party on record supporting paper verified trail on voting machine
Our workshop was a great success
We have an improved site; please check
out the great contact. Clubs are encouraged to get their members to sign up for
our bulletins. www.sccdp.org is our new
address
The Central Committee Candidates running for Presidential
Delegates are: David Cohen for Dean in the 15thAD, Tony Alexander, for Kerry in
the 16th AD, Jon Kessler for Edwards in the 15thAD, Scott
Rafferty for Kerry in the 14thAD, Claudia Shop for Dean in the
16thAD, Deniese Alejandro for Kerry in the 16th AD, Carolyn Curtis
for Dean in the 14thAD, Emy Thurber for Dean in the 14thAD, Jim Thurber for Dean in the 14th AD, Phyllis
for Kerry in the 16thAD, Tom Cochran for Edwards in the 16th
AD, Andrew Byrnes for Dean.
Motion to endorse Measure B, second, carried
9.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: We collected $284 tonight for the strike members.
Jennifer Myronuk: There are 1500 nonprofits in Santa Clara County:
May 8th Human Race to raise money for clubs and organization
Carolyn Curtis: Dean campaign is still alive. New people and money
are still coming in
Dan Hoffman: See Dan to work on Yes on ÒBÓ or Ted LempertÕs
campaign. Kevin Cooper is scheduled to be put to death even though there are
strong doubts of his guilt
Ann Mack: The Madge Overhouse annual volunteer of the year award
will be awarded at the next Democratic Dinner and we will be awarding two Don
EdwardÕs lifetime achievement awards one to John Burton and one to John
Vasconcellos
Refreshments to be provided by the 24th for the next
meeting on March 4th.
10. EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
The next Executive Board meeting will be
February 26th
11.
ADJOURNMENT: 9:40