SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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

 

MINUTES FOR Thursday, August 4th, 2005

 

1.             CALL TO ORDER: 7:15

 

2.             ROLL CALL

Absent: Paul Fong, Fran Bennett, Ruth Ashford, Mike Honda, Anna Eshoo, Liz Figueroa, Simon Salinas, John Laird, Joe Coto, Ira Ruskin, Alberto Torrico, Tony Alexander, Brittany Bach, Dennis Kennedy, Dan Kenney, Alex Kennett, Peter Chiu, Julie Lind, Bill Ferguson, Francine Davis, Bill Dias, Cathy Dias

 

Excused: Steve Preminger, Deniese Alejandro

 

Alternate: Sandra Soto for Zoe Lofgren, Clarence Madrilejos for Herb Wadley, Jim Ross for Jerry McNerney, Kansen Chu for Elaine Alquist, Sabra Foley for Joe Simitian, Jon Kessler for Rebecca Cohn, Bill James for Sally Lieber, Jennifer Myronuk for David Cohen, Brandon Sulser for Anna Song, Jackie Heffner for Aldyth Parle, Steve Chessin for Alyson Abramowitz, Pearl Cheng for Vince Cortese, Laura Macias for Scott Rafferty,

 

3.                 IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Diane Rolfe, Stephen Thomas, John Delaney, Katie Desmond from Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Deborah Lennon from the Moorpark Club, Donovan Bayuga, Doug Winslow

 

4.                ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Motion to add the following items:

Planned Parenthoods Campaign for Teen Safety & Prop 17

Emergency Resolution re: Rebecca Cohn

Letter from Iraq

 

And to add Assembly District reports to club reports on a permanent basis

 

Motion to approve as amended, second, so carried

 

5.                APPROVAL OF MINUTES (Minutes are posted at sccdp.org)

 

6.             NEW BUSINESS

Ana Maria and Katie Desmond from Planned Parenthood Mar Monte announced that they are available to talk to groups about the teen safety issue & proposition 17. Please see them if you would like to have them present to your club or group.

 

                Issues: Legislative Update

Carol Garvey: Many of you remember my husband Keith Garvey who died June 1st, 2003. He was such a funny guy, his humor was totally inclusive, crossing racial, gender, sexual orientation and economic boundaries, bringing us together as one party with unassuming intellect and laughter. So many times I vowed to write down a great off the cuff line, but I never did. So, though I can’t remember most of his funny, one liners, I’m left with this overwhelming feeling of thankfulness and good fortune for having known him. He has helped me in more ways than I can express and for that I thank him. Today would have been our 25th wedding anniversary and since you all are part of my family, I just wanted you to know.

 

To honor him, Keith’s sister, Anne and I started a scholarship called “The Keith Garvey Good Democrat Foundation.” We have put it out to the members or children of members of SEIU Local 715. Last year we gave out 2 $1,000 scholarships and one “Honorable mention” of $500 to students of Foothill/DeAnza. Keith and I both attended these community colleges and Anne and I felt it would be good to help those who start out in the Community College System.

 

If I ever clean up my house I hope to have a fundraiser/party to help make the scholarship self-sustaining and to develop other projects to help mentor more good, labor, and social justice good democrats.  

 

Resolution supporting Rebecca Cohn submitted by Dan Hoffman:

The Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee sends its warm, best wishes to Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn for a complete and speedy recovery from her recent spinal surgery.

 

Motion to endorse, second, so carried

 

Approval of new Community Services and Voter Registration representative

Anne Mack nominated Carolyn Curtis, second, discussion, so carried

  

7.                REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.      Executive Board: Hope Cahan

The board discussed the potential nominations for the Community Service and Voter Registration Representative and voted to recommend Carolyn Curtis to the membership.

The board spent the remaining time discussing the board retreat.

 

B.      Chair:  James Kim on behalf of Steve Preminger

Many of the clubs came together to hold a fundraiser to elect Madison Nguyen

Need to do something to stop prop 76. A way to help fight this is to continue to help Madison’s campaign. Please come and precinct walk and phone bank at the Labor Council

Read statement from Moorpark Club supporting universal health care

 

C.      Vice Chair:  James Kim

D.      Treasurer:  Drina Collins

Balance is $686.01

 

E.       Secretary:  Hope Cahan

No report

 

F.       Community Services and Voter Registration: Carolyn Curtis

Working with Adrienne Grey and Diane Rolfe on filling the voter registration tables.

Diane Rolfe spoke to encourage the members’ participation.

Adrienne Grey spoke about the booth at the fair this weekend and took names of volunteers.

 

G.      Finance:  Jim Thurber

No report

 

H.      Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement:  Jon Kessler

We will have endorsement interviews the week of August 22nd and 29th. We are waiting for the filing period to close to know how many candidates are running.

 

I.      Communication: David Cohen

J.        Campaign Services:  Philip Bump

Discussed what the national labor split of SEIU and the Labor Council means to our county. To hear more information, please attend the Century Club Luncheon next Friday.

 

The latest flyer against Arnold Schwarzenegger is on the back table.

 

United Democratic Campaign is working in City Council District 7. We really need you to come in to talk to voters. Please fill out a volunteer form today.

 

K.       Issues:  Herb Engstrom

Had a plan for the year to have 1-2 legislators come to each of our meetings to speak to us. However, it has been a challenge to get onto their calendars. I sent a list of all of our meetings to their office schedulers to have them sign up for upcoming meetings.

 

L.       Political Outreach: Tom Cochran: Thank you to the APA club for bringing the food tonight. I will be contacting each club to have them sign up for a night of phone banking for D7 race.

 

The next club to provide refreshments is the CDC.

 

Club and AD Reports

Dean Democratic Club: Jim Ross

We are working with other groups in the state to oppose certification of Diebold voting machines that failed tests to have backup documentation for elections.

 

The club is committed to filling one table at Zoe Lofgren’s BBQ.

The club is contributing money to buy phone cards for veterans at local hospitals.

 

The club officially endorsed Madison Nguyen for San Jose District Council Seat #7.

 

The club will be hosting a DFA summit meeting in San Jose at the SEIU Union office.

 

The club continues to support Jerry McNerney for CD #11 opposing Richard Pombo. We will be holding a fundraiser in September and will be doing volunteer work for Jerry’s campaign.

 

The club membership is now at 143 and climbing.

 

Adrienne Grey is now the volunteer coordinator at the SCC Democratic headquarters. Carolyn Curtis is also doing Precinct Coordinator work for the Dems.

 

The club is also starting a Legislative Liaison training program to have contact with all the State, Federal, and local public officials

 

We had two meetups last night with 19 people attending the north meetup where they listened to a presentation by Katie Desmond from Planned Parenthood, who discussed Prop. 73. They also discussed the Zoe Lofgren BBQ and the DFA event in San Jose.

 

The south meeting had 12 people attending.

 

We are also setting up an endorsement committee to review the ballot measures and interview candidates for office.

 

Moorpark Democratic Club:

Will have its first annual appreciation dinner on Friday, September 16th at 6:30pm at Dynasty Restaurant. The cost is $75 per person or $750 for a table. Please rsvp to parris_c@pacbell.net

 

Evergreen Democratic Club:  Beverly Waller Wharton

Club president, Bob Applebaum, met with Representative Lofgren’s Congressional Assistant in June, along with reps from the Asian Law Alliance, La Raza Attorneys, and the ACLU, to present our concerns about the Patriot Act. Many members also wrote letters to Rep. Lofgren regarding this issue in addition to also expressing our opposition to CAFTA. We wanted to thank her personally for her courageous positions on these two issues at our meeting last Tuesday. Since she was unable to attend, due to her scheduled knee surgery, we instead asked her assistant (who came to report back on the concerns we expressed on those issues) to convey our thanks. We expect several members to attend her upcoming BBQ on Sunday. 15 members of the club were also present at the July 18th Santa Clara County Democratic Club’s “Evening with Art Torres.”

 

A cake celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Social Security Act was served. A video of several segments from recent “NOW with David Brancaccio” broadcasts on PBS was substituted for Congresswoman Lofgren’s appearance. The video featured updates on the Medicare Prescription Law (who is making law and policy—the 535 elected members of Congress or the army of highly paid activist lobbyists who outnumber our elected representatives); the real situation at Quantanamo; how scientific reports are being corrupted through editing by Bush administration paid consultants; and an environmental program in the Anacostia (one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in southeast Washington, D.C.) that is helping redirect the lives of the youth there, a very poignant story of tragedy and hope, ending with one more compelling reason for universal health care.

 

In place of our accustomed Tuesday meeting in September, we will host many of our elected officials and candidates at our annual BBQ on Sunday, September 18th at our Gazebo Park in the Villages. For October 11th, our speakers will be mayoral candidates Dave Cortese, Cindy Chavez, and Chuck Reed.

 

Our website (www.villagesdem.org) with links will soon be up and running with many thanks to member Mary Edmunds and SCCDCC Vice Chair James Kim.

 

Bay Area Iranian-American Democrats: Morteza Tajally

We will be presenting an educational forum about the challenges ahead for Iranians in America. Our guest speakers will be Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi from San Francisco and Professor Elahe Enssani from San Francisco State University. This will be Sunday, August 14th from 4-6:30 at USF, UC 222 at Golden Gate Ave at Kittredge Ter. in San Francisco.

 

Santa Clara County Democratic Club (SCCDC): Alicia Lanier, SCCDC President

I want to thank everyone who attended our Evening with Art Torres in June. We had almost 200 people turn out to hear the chair of the California Democratic Party ... and our audience was privileged to be the first to hear that the CDP was planning to file an FPPC complaint against The Governator the next day

 

I want to thank especially those individuals and organizations that put together tables of 10 for this fundraiser with Art Torres. Because this Stop Arnold event was such a success, we have now donated $400 to the California Democratic Party and $400 to the Alliance for a Better California as well as earmark funds for our club’s own Stop Arnold efforts. And we understand that our popular Stop Arnold fans may be an ongoing effort from the Central Committee that we are pleased about.  

 

We now have several Straight Talk public access TV shows on our website, including one of Art Torres speaking in June. Just go to www.democraticclub-scc.org or watch them the old fashioned way on your local public access station. The other new shows are one on Women’s Advocacy in Santa Clara County; and one on The Campaign for Teen Safety, featuring Planned Parenthood and its campaign against Prop 73.

 

Last, but certainly not least, we invite each one of you to attend the annual SCCDC summer picnic on Sunday, August 28. All Democrats are invited and, as is our custom, we again extend a special invitation to any elected officials and candidates for public office to speak about 2 p.m. The picnic will be from noon to 5 p.m. at Vasona Lake Park in Los Gatos ... lunch will be served at 1 p.m. and we have a fabulous international menu ... with Shalimar Restaurant catering ... to celebrate the cultural diversity of our area. I have flyers with me tonight which have both the menu and an RSVP form ... check it out and do come!

 

Email contact: president@DemocraticClub-SCC.org

 

Silicon Valley Asian Pacific American Democratic Club: Buu Thai

We had a successful fundraiser for Madison on July 26th with 150+ Democrats in attendance and were able to raise close to $10,000. We thank the following democratic clubs for co-sponsoring:

DAWN 

LGBT

Moorpark

Silicon Valley Young Dems

 

APA Dems jointly co-hosted with DAWN, Moorpark, and Northern California API Caucus for a film screening, “Who Kidnapped My Vote” by Dorothy Fadiman about the Ohio Presidential Election.

 

APA Dems will begin our endorsement process for the following races in August:

Sunnyvale City Council

Cupertino City Council

Foothill-De Anza Community College

Cupertino Union School District

Andrew Vu is our endorsement chair and will be sending out the questionnaires next week.

 

DAWN: Carol Garvey

 

Thank you to Jennifer Myronuk for coordinating the documentary in progress showing of “Who Stole My Vote” about the Ohio vote debacle in ’04. APA Dems, Moorpark Dems, & DAWN co-hosted. There were many new faces. The video was enlightening and scary. 

 

DAWN was happy to co-host the Madison Nguyen fundraiser that brought a lot of new people together.

 

DAWN signed onto the “no on Prop. 73- campaign for teen safety”

 

Senate Bill 111: Alquist’s bill to extend the statute of limitations to bring the perps of sexual assault to justice. Currently the deadline for a victim to file charges is age 21. This will extend the age limit to age 30.

 

Our endorsement brunch will be on Saturday, September 10th

 

Our annual fundraiser will be Sunday, September 25th at the home of Willie Wool.

 

DAWN is updating our phone list for our automated phone messages. If you are not on the list, please make sure you get your phone # to me.

 

M.     Regional Director: Emy Thurber

Emy gave a summary of the State Party Executive Board meeting in Sacramento last weekend:

 

Do to the new finance laws, the board had to vote to restrict the ability of Assembly Districts to do fundraising.

 

Two of our counties resolutions were passed.

 

The Democratic Party will help you with house parties if you are interested.

 

Ralph Neese from The American Way gave a good report.

 

Lance Olson, the party’s lawyer, discussed the increasing Federal control of political parties.

 

Art Torres discussed the ethics complaints the party filled against Arnold.

 

N.      Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis

O.        Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope

Dr. Warren Hern, an abortion dr. who was targeted by Operation Save America (formerly Operation Rescue) in Colorado, took out an ad saying what they had done with their wanted posters. He received overwhelming support from the community in Colorado.

 

Judge Roberts is being reviewed for the Supreme Court. What little is known of Roberts’ record is very troubling-and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg because the White House is not being forthcoming with the records. The hearings on his nomination are set to begin on Sept. 6th. California Senator Dianne Feinstein has a unique role to play because she sits on the powerful Judiciary Committee. Feinstein met with Roberts recently and said that she was “impressed” by him. Given Feinstein’s unique and powerful position, Californians expect her and the rest of the Judiciary Committee to fulfill its constitutional duty to conduct a thorough and independent review before approving a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court.

 

With the special election only 3 months away, the Campaign for Teen Safety is stepping up its efforts to mobilize voters to vote NO on Prop. 73, a dangerous and misleading initiative that puts California’s most vulnerable teens at risk.

 

A bill introduced in the state Assembly by Sally Lieber seeks to reform a troubling aspect of the state prison system: the medical care of pregnant inmates. Currently, pregnant inmates in California must be shackled during transport to and from the hospital for labor and delivery, during labor until “active labor” and during recovery. In addition, these inmates do not receive prenatal vitamins, adequate amounts and types of food, and necessary dental exams.

 

SB 644, which will ensure patients’ access to their lawful prescriptions in a timely manner, has gained enough votes to pass the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is scheduled for the Assembly floor after summer recess. This bill protects both patients and pharmacists, reaching a compromise in the ongoing debate. Pharmacists will be able to opt out of dispensing medications that violate their moral, ethical, or religious beliefs as long as they notify their employers in writing, and patients will be able to access their medications, as the employers will be required to establish policies and protocol to accommodate the patients’ needs as well as the pharmacists’. If this bill passes, women will no longer face undue burdens in filling prescriptions for reproductive health related medication.

 

P.         DTV Report: Steve Chessin

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our July taping was with Hon. Madison Nguyen, President of Franklin-McKinley Board of Education, and candidate for San Jose City Council District 7.

 

Our guest in August will be Assemblymember Simon Salinas of the 28th Assembly District.

 

Our shows, beginning with DTV 125, are now available for streaming from the sccdp.org web site.

 

We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A August 11th with the show we taped about Health Care for All, August 25th and September 22nd with the show we taped with Hon. Madison Nguyen, and September 8th and October 6th with the show we will tape with Assemblymember Salinas.

See the sccdp web site for the schedule in the other communities.

 

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

 

San Jose Channel 15A (also serves part of Cupertino), 8:00pm every other Thursday (408-918-3200):

2005:

Aug 11                DTV 125                Health Care for All/SB840

Aug 25                DTV 126                Hon. Madison Nguyen

Sep  8                DTV 127                Hon. Simon Salinas

Sep 22                DTV 126                Hon. Madison Nguyen

Oct  6                DTV 127                Hon. Simon Salinas

Oct 20                DTV 128                TBD-128

 

See http://www.sccdp.org/dtv.php for the full schedule, and to download our shows.

 

Q.     CDC Report:  Jay Jackman

Would like to meet with each of the reps from the clubs to discuss what the CDC has to offer to the clubs.

 

Chris Stampolis spoke at the Eboard reminding everyone that all of the clubs must be in compliance with the current finance laws. The CDC may be able to help your club with this.

 

Young Democrats will be meeting in San Francisco and Chris Stampolis will be meeting with them in his capacity as a CDC representative.

 

 

8.             OLD BUSINESS

                Call to Action Update: Adrienne Grey

 

Dave Wilkes read a letter from a Warrant officer in Iraq describing the horrible food situation there.

 

9.                  ANNOUNCEMENTS

Carolyn Curtis: Northern California DFA summit endorsed Madison’s campaign

 

Peter O'Reilly: Anti-war demonstration in San Francisco on September 24th at 11am against the occupation in Iraq

 

Anne Mack: Century Club luncheon is next Friday and Phaedra is the guest speaker

 

Jay James: National Labor Relations Board in Washington reported that employers may ban off-duty fraternizing with co-workers. This came out of GuardsMark case.

 

Rick from Zoe Lofgren’s office: this Sunday is her annual BBQ from 1-4, tickets are $40

 

 

10.                EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

                The next Executive Board meeting is on August 18th at 6:30 at Tom Cochran’s house

 

11.                ADJOURNMENT: 9:00