SCCDCC Minutes - September 3, 2009

1. CALL TO ORDER: 7:15 pm

2. ROLL CALL
Absent: Ron Lind, Jey Surier, Francis LaPoll, James Rowen, Aldyth Parle, Bruce Morasca, Albert Torrico, Ira Ruskin, Joe Coto, Bill Monning, Anna Cabellero, Joe Simitian, Elaine Alquist, Jerry McNerney, and Anna Eshoo.

Alternates For: Hope Cahan, Paul Fong, Jim Beall, Ellen Corbett, Mike Honda, and Zoe Lofgren.

3. IDENTIFICATION OF VISITOR

a. Margaret Abe-Koga-Mayor of Sunnyvale, Jeff Harry-Organizing for America, Ralph Sinilla-Jones, Margaret Akoeniz, Art Cohen, Sari Wisch (Chris Kelly for Attorney General), Christie Callenback, Dale Nelson, Galen Swan, Renee Reid, Mari Honssni, Rebecca Amendarg, Timothy McDaniel, Marc Berman (Candidate for State Assembly-21st AD), Kelly Dugan, Kamala Balan, Jean Cohen (Kai for Assembly), Holly Ward (Nancy Shephard for Palo Alto City Council), Margarita Alejo, Evan Low-Vice Mayor of Campbell, and Luis Alejo.

4. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
a. Added Under New Business – Resolution In Support of the Public Option as an Essential Element of Healthcare Reform
b. Motion to Approve; Seconded; Motion Approved.

5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (Minutes are posted at sccdp.org)
a. June 4, 2009 Minutes
b. August 6, 2009 Minutes
c. Both Minutes: Motion to Approve; Seconded; Motion Approved.

6. NEW BUSINESS

a. Psycho Donuts:
i. Robin Salak – Evergreen Valley College and Team Leader of CAUSE. Group was formed because of Psycho Donuts. Store’s displays and names of donuts were focused on mental illnesses and disabilities. CAUSE has gained support from community leaders.
ii. Brian Miller – Executive Director of Mental Illness of Santa Clara County. Psycho Donuts advertised their establishment as a fun place for children. Psycho Donuts states their form of publicizing the establishment is under the free speech amendment.

Brian will be meeting with the Executive Board to write a resolution. Mental Health programs were cut by 32% by the State and there will also be possible mid-year cuts. Robin and Brian asked attendees for support and to provide suggestions.
Contact Information: Robin Salak - robin.salak@evc.edu.
Brian Miller - brianmiller@namisantaclara.org.

b. Democratic Club of Sunnyvale Accreditation
i. Diane Rolfe announced the accreditation of Democratic Club of Sunnyvale. Nancy Smith is Club’s President. First meeting was held in May, 2009.
Motion to Approve; Seconded; Motion Approved

ii. SCCDC Recommended Endorsement Presentation
iii. Jon Kessler acknowledged Endorsement Committee Participants. Committee interviewed candidates in 4 races – Cupertino School District, Cupertino City Council, Palo Alto City Council, and Sunnyvale City Council.
iv. Candidates Present:
Cupertino School District: Gary McCue (Incumbent). Committee recommendation will be on Consent.
Cupertino City Council: Mahesh Nihalani, Marty Miller, and Daniel Nguyen
Palo Alto City Council: Larry Klein, Brian Stein, Karen Home, Gail Price, Nancy Shephard, and Corey Levens.
Sunnyvale City Council: Tony Spitaleri, Jim Griffith.

Cupertino School District: Gary McCue. Committee recommendation was not pulled.

Cupertino City Council: Barry Chang and Marty Miller. 3 seats open with 2 incumbents
1. Recommended Committee endorsement pulled.

Palo Alto City Council: Karen Holman, Dan Dykwel, Gail Price, and Corey Levens.
5 seats open with 1 incumbent.
1. Recommended Committee endorsement pulled.

Sunnyvale City Council: Tony Spitaleri, Jim Griffith, and Chris Moylan. 3 seats open with 2 incumbents.
1. Tony Spitaleri and Tim Griffith recommended endorsements were pulled. Recommended endorsement of Chris Moylan on consent.
Motion to Approve Recommended Endorsements; Motion Seconded; Motion Approved.

Cupertino City Council: Motion to accept Committee recommendations and add Daniel Nguyen; Motion seconded. Motion Denied. (Motion did not receive 2/3 vote) Motion to accept committee recommendations; Motion seconded; Motion Approved.
Motion to support Mahesh Nihalani, Motion Seconded; Motion Denied.
Motion to support Daniel Nguyen; Motion Seconded; Motion Denied.

Palo Alto City Council: Motion to endorse only Corey Levens and Gail Price; Motion Seconded; Motion Denied.
Motion to Approve Recommended Endorsements; Motion Seconded; Motion Approved.

Sunnyvale City Council: Motion to Approve Tony Spitaleri; Motion Seconded; Motion Approved. 1 Abstention
Motion to Approve Tim Griffith; Motion seconded; Motion Approved; 1 Abstention

vii. Health Care - Emergency Resolution
Motion to Approve; Motion Seconded; Motion Approved.
Motion to Adopt the Resolution; Motion Seconded;
Floor recommended amendment to Resolution to include statement regarding single payer plan. Refer to attached amended Resolution.
Motion to Accept Resolution Amendment; Motion Seconded, Motion Approved.
Floor recommended amendment to Resolution to change health care to health insurance. Refer to attached amended Resolution.
Motion to Accept Resolution Amendment; Motion Seconded, Motion Approved.

7. OLD BUSINESS

8. REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS
a. Executive Board: Margie Mitchell
a) None
b. Chair: Steve Preminger
a) Currently working with a group of Democrats to support single payer healthcare. Thanked Clark Williams for chairing the August Central Committee meeting in his absence.

c. Vice Chair – Clark Williams
a) None
d. Treasurer: Drina Collins
a) None
e. Secretary: Margie Mitchell
a) None
f. Community Services and Voter Registration: Judy Pipkin
a) Democratic Party and volunteers have been attending and signing up for upcoming events.
g. Finance: Jim Thurber
a) None
h. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Jon Kessler
a) Refer to SCCDC Recommended Endorsement Presentation (Item b; Section ii)
i. Communications: David Cohen
a) Website calendar is operational. Informed clubs they could now put events on the calendar.
j. Campaign Services: Tom Cochran
a) None
k. Political Outreach (Clubs): Diane Rolfe
a) Thanked Santa Clara DemClub for providing food. Next month will be Silicon Valley Young Dems.
l. Regional Director: Emy Thurber
a) Platform Hearing will be October 10 at 9:00 at the Los Altos Community Center. DemClub 2-day free training for volunteers will be held on October 17 & 18 in Concord.
b) Shawn Bagley informed attendees he is a DNC Candidate.
c) Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis
a) Steve Preminger informed attendees Chris sent an e-mail update.
m. Pro-Choice Coalition: Claudia Shope
a) Informed attendees to keep Choice in mind.
n. DTV Report: Steve Chessin
a) August guest was Elisa Camahort, who is the co-founder of BlogHer. September guest will be Mohammad Chaundry and Teresa Alvarado.
o. CDC Report: Jay Jackman
a) Now have 7 clubs in the county affiliated with the CDC. Annual convention will be held in San Diego in conjunction with the Democratic Party. The training held on Saturday was successful.

9. ANNOUNCEMENTS
a. Mike Honda is holding a couple of Town Hall Meetings in his District. One will be held on
September 13.
b. Luis Alejo – Watsonville Vice Mayer and Candidate for the 28th AD. Informed attendees a Town Hall Meeting was being held this evening.
c. May 7, 2009 - Santa Clara County DemParty fundraiser
d. Coretta Scott King Awards Breakfast will be held at the Hayes Mansion on October 17 from 10 to 1.
e. Jim Beall’s Friendraiser will be held on September 24 at IBEW Hall. Flyers were available to attendees.
f. Garrett Yee introduced himself and stated he was a candidate for the 21st AD.
g. Jeff Harry, Organizing for America, informed attendees of upcoming October training in San Jose. Thanked Clubs who attended Congressional and Senator send-off events.

10. EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

11. ADJOURNMENT: 9:45 in Memory of the late Senator Ted Kennedy.

Club Reports:
Latino DemClub: 7th Anniversary Celebration was recently held at The Loft. It was very well attended.

Milpitas DemClub: Assemblyman Albert Torrico was the guest speaker at the last Club’s meeting. Membership is increasing.

DAWN: Endorsement Brunch will be held at SEIU on October 4, 2009 at 11:00.

Bay Area for Change: August meeting discussed housing mortgage crisis. Club will be doing voter registration at this weekend’s Tapestry Faire.

Silicon Valley Young Dem: Endorsed SB656. Albert Torrico will be speaking at San Jose State.

Silicon Valley DemClub: Recently held endorsements. Voter registration will be done at upcoming San Jose Home Show.

Bay Area Iranian DemClub: Monthly meetings are held on 2nd Wednesdays at the Campbell Community Center; Professor Maruse(sp) will be guest speaker talking about the aftermath of Iran election.

Santa Clara Dem Club: The Club’s Railroad Friendraiser was a success. Sally Lieber will be guest speaker at next meeting on changing the 2/3 vote for the State budget.

Obama Dem Club: Have had representation at Valley Fair Mall to support Walt Brown’s efforts on healthcare. Several members attended Congressman Pete Stark’s Town Hall Meetings.

Sunnyvale DemClub: A meeting will be held on September 19 at Las Palmas Park to meet Sunnyvale City Council candidates and a speech will be given about single payer healthcare.

Evergreen DemClub: Sally Lieber spoke at August meeting about “Governing California, where do we go from here?”. Club will hold it’s Annual BBQ from 3 to 6 on September 13 at the Foothill Center in the Villages.

PDC: Sally Lieber will be speaking at Michael’s at Shoreline.

21st Century Club – Treasurer Bill Lokyer will be the guest speaker at the next luncheon. Contact Ann Mack for additional information.

South County DemClub: Terry Christianson will be the guest speaker at the next meeting on September 12 at 1:00.

DEAN DemClub: Adopted Jerry McNerney’s Congressional Campaign for 2010. Continue to held voter registration at the North County Farmer’s Market. Nest meeting will be on September 14 at the Santa Clara IHOP.

WHEREAS, the health care system of the United States is in crisis, with almost fifty million Americans lacking any health insurance, tens of millions more lacking adequate coverage, and millions more who do have private coverage paying increasingly unaffordable premiums, resulting in inadequate access to care and premature death, illness, or financial ruin for millions of Americans; and

WHEREAS, public polls show that an overwhelming majority of Americans want health insurance reform to offer the choice of a robust public option similar to Medicare in order to, in the words of President Obama, “keep the insurance companies honest,” while co-ops or so-called “triggers” are inadequate in and of themselves to address the health care crisis by creating significant competition for the medical insurance industry; and

WHEREAS, Republicans and their allies in the health insurance industry have organized and funded groups of extremists to disrupt efforts on the part of the Democratic majority and administration to reasonably discuss the issue with the American people, and have demonstrated an utter unwillingness to compromise in any way to pass meaningful health insurance reform;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Santa Clara County Democratic Party urges Democratic members of Congress to vote for only such health insurance reform proposals as contain at least a robust public option at all stages of the legislative process including conference and reconciliation, as well as a provision to allow states to implement their own single payer plan, and encourages Democratic legislators to use any available parliamentary means to pass such reform;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the body shall send a copy of this resolution to all Democratic members of Congress who represent at least a part of the geographic region of which this Committee is the officially sanctioned body of the Democratic Party.

Passed by the Santa Clara County Democratic Party at its meeting September 3, 2009