Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee

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

Minutes for Thursday, September 6, 2007

1- CALL TO ORDER

2 -ROLL CALL

Absent: Ron Lind, Marsha Grilli, Bill James, Vince Cortese, Tom Cochran, Alex Kennett, Dan Kenney, Charmaine Jabr, Jerry McNerney, Anna Eshoo, Beverly Waller Wharton, Chris Stampolis, Medhi Safipour, Justin Carvahlo

Excused: Hope Cahan

3-IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS: Claude Ezram, Pat Meyering, Tim Tom, Kristen Johnson, Pierluigi Oliverio, Sid Espinosa, Gilbert Wong, Pat Burt

4-ADOPTION OF AGENDA & MINUTES: Agenda was adopted and the minutes approved.

5-NEW BUSINESS: to consider the November 2007 endorsement recommendations from the interviews:

Jon Kessler said the endorsement committee conducted 23 interviews. Candidates were given an opportunity to give a one minute talk. The following candidates gave short talks: Gilbert Wong running for Cupertino City Council; Pat Burt for Palo Alto City Council; Sid Espinosa for Palo Alto City Council; Claude Ezran for Palo Alto School Board, Pat Meyering for Sunnyvale City Council, Seat 7

Jon reported on the following recommendations:

Cupertino City Council: We interviewed four of the five candidates running, Raj Abhyanker, Gilbert Wong, Kris Wang and Barry Chang. We recommend only one, Gilbert Wong.

Los Altos City Council: We interviewed only one, Randall Hull, and recommended him

Palo Alto City Council: We interviewed four of the candidates (one backed off), Dan Dykwel, Pat Burt, Sid Espinosa and Yiawey Yeh. We recommend all four.

Palo Alto School Board: We interviewed four candidates, Barbara Klausner, Claude Ezran, Camille Townsend, Wynn Hauser. We liked them all and recommend all, even though there are only 3 open seats.

Gilroy City Council: We interviewed one candidate, Cat Tucker, and recommend her.

Sunnyvale City Council: We recommend the incumbents, Dean Chu, Otto Lee, Ron Swegles. In the contest between Melinda Hamilton, the incumbent, and Pat Meyering in District, we recommend Melinda Hamilton.

Bill Ferguson asked about the Melinda Hamilton- Pat Meyering race. Jon said we normally go with the incumbent, we found nothing in her interview that seemed weak and even though she is a recent Democrat, we felt we should support her. Further discussion followed. That race was pulled for a vote. Chris Cote suggested we need people from Gilroy to take part in the endorsement process. Los Altos was also pulled.

The rest of the consent calendar was approved.

Peter Chiu moved and Anne Mack seconded to accept the recommendation on the Sunnyvale race. The motion was approved.

Francis LaPoll spoke to the Los Altos race. Anne Mack moved and Peter Chiu seconded a motion to support the committee’s recommendation to endorse Randall Hull. Discussion ensued. The recommendation passed.

Jon thanked all the members of the committee and Steve also thanked them and Jon for his hard work.

Santa Clara City Land Use issue. Dominic Caserta explained that the Santa Clara Council unanimously approved the development of the contentious site. This 17 acres will bring in a huge amount of money to the city. This is a smart growth issue and the city would not have $55 m to purchase the land. So the city is using redevelopment funds to buy about 6 of those acres to build senior, affordable housing and will have 3 of the acres restricted open space and put other restrictions on the developer. The council asked the opponents to bring some money to the table so they could delay the decision. They came up with nothing. The council is proud of its decision. The opponents have gained enough signatures so the issue will be on the ballot. He wanted to tell us the council’s side since the Central Committee approved a resolution calling for it to remain in open space. Caserta added that Santa Clara has more open space per resident than any other city in Santa Clara County .

6-REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

Chair’s report: Steve reported that he has been working on the JJ dinner.

Treasurer’s report: we have $2635.26 in the treasury

Community Services and Voter Registration: Adrienne said that Diane Rolfe reported that they have had 4 festivals in N. County, over 200 people registered and $1302 received.. There have been 4 festivals in the south county. We got almost 100 registrations at Tapestry and Talent and we have nearly $600 to pass along. Presidential buttons are going very well. A number of people are changing parties.

Finance report: Jim said that they are following up on the insurance problem. The state will not allow us to extend Central Committee insurance to the clubs. The people in charge of the clubs know the risk they take if they are not insured. But when clubs go out and work on voter registration in malls etc., we are working on a program to extend Central Committee insurance to the clubs under these conditions. The good news is that the Jefferson Jackson dinner is in great shape. Hope has done a marvelous job. We have 530 people signed up and will have a very interesting program.

Campaign services: Jon there will be no headquarters this fall but please get involved in the local races. Steve said candidates who were endorsed should get their information to David Cohen for inclusion on our website.

Political Outreach – club reports: Carolyn thanked the clubs that have tables at the dinner: PDC 5, Dean 2, DAWN, LGBT, Latino, APA 2, Villages, South County and Moorpark

Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley: Wanda Bryan

August 13th Meeting

Our club has spent the greater part of this month organizing the Health Care for America Forum for Sept. 5, at the SEIU headquarters in San Jose. We endorsed AB8 as a stop-gap health care measure for 2007, until SB840 continues in 2008, which we endorsed earlier this year. A letter was signed and sent to Jesse Durazo, Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters in support of Debra Bowen's decertification of voting machines in California. Our voter registration at Festivals in the County and Farmers Markets is ongoing. Many volunteers worked our dedicated festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival and shared working the Tapestry & Arts Festival with the Moorpark Club. Taskforces continue to work on issues and activities.Sent a signed card with a gift card enclosed to Swanee Edwards to cheer her up for her impending back surgery.

September 5th Meeting

Health Care for America Forum - Attended by a dedicated audience who stayed the entire time 7:30 - 9:30 pm. to view a video and hear our panelists, Rich Watters, Lynn Huidekoper and Peter Harbage speak and answer questions on a comparison of current Health Care legislation and proposed plans. Several flyers from the Forum are on the back table for your information.

Peninsula Democratic Coalition: Rich Watters

1) On August 18th the PDC held its annual summer picnic at Shoup Park in Los Altos. Over one hundred people attended, and many officeholders were present, including Assemblymembers Ira Ruskin, Jim Beall and Sally Lieber and State Senators Elaine Alquist and Joe Simitian. Our celebrity auctioneer, SCCDCC Chair Steve Preminger, raised substantial sums for PDC’s activities in the coming year.

2) On September 15th the PDC will host Congressman Mike Honda at our quarterly Legislative Luncheon, to be held the Jade Palace Restaurant in Palo Alto.

Regional Director: Emy said there will be a regional delegates meeting on Saturday October 6 to hear testimony for the California State Party platform. It will be held at the Hillview Community Center in Los Altos at 9 a.m.

Pro-choice Coalition: Claudia Shope urged members not to sign the petition for an initiative concerning sexual abuse.

Pro-Choice Coalition of Santa Clara County Report for the Democratic Central Committee:

Ø THE BUDGET - After 51 days of impasse, the State Budget was passed.

At the state level, Planned Parenthood is advocating for Medi-Cal reimbursement rate for providers and a sponsored bill, AB 629. Below is the status of each of our priorities:

Ø Medi-Cal Provider Rate Increase – The Cost of Doing Nothing

The Governor and the Legislature recognizes that Medi-Cal rate increase is an important component of their health care reform agenda for the year. But our need is now. Planned Parenthood is facing a critical juncture where the need for the safety-net services we provide is far greater than our capacity to serve. After more than 20 years without a significant Medi-Cal rate increase, our affiliates are struggling financially and we are and turning away over 10,000 patients every month. We need a rate increase NOW or we won’t even be able to keep up our current level of quality health care services – let alone meet new demands.

The Governor did not include the Medi-Cal reimbursement rate increase in Budget. Planned Parenthood is exploring alternatives to get an increase.

Ø AB 629 The California Community Sexual Health Education Act (Brownley): This bill is a reintroduction of SB 1471 (Kuehl) which created standards for community based organizations providing state-funded sexuality education. Status: Passed out of both houses and awaiting Governor’s support.

Ø SEXUAL ABUSE REPORTING ACT (new initiative)

The initiative, originally titled by the author as the “Sexual Abuse Reporting Act of 2008” would amend the state constitution and several state statutes in the following ways:

1. Limit privacy rights by amending Article I of the state constitution.

2. Require clinicians and other professionals to report a new category of sexually

active minors to law enforcement and child protection.

3. Require mandated reporters of child abuse to preserve physical evidence of

abuse for law enforcement.

4. Impose additional administrative obligations on providers seeking payment from

Medi-Cal or other state programs for certain types of reproductive health

services.

5. Require mandated reporters to include additional information with certain types of abuse reports.

6. Make specific ways of collecting information about abuse a crime.

7. Require reproductive health care providers to post warning notices about sexual abuse reporting in their clinics.

Watch out for it:

· Be on watch for signature gatherers in front of local stores or other public locations. If you see one, ask what propositions they are getting signatures for. If this one of them, make a mental note of whether it is 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd…. on the list of petitions to sign. (Petition gatherers are often paid per signature and they place the petition which pays the most first on their table. It is okay to ask if they are paid and how much.)

· Please notify Buu Thai regarding the date and location of the signature gathering. Buu can be contacted by phone at (408) 297-9255 X 217 or by email buu_thai@ppmarmonte.org.

· Proponents of 1249 have until November 26 to gather 694,354 valid signatures of registered voters - to qualify for the February 5 Presidential Primary election. To qualify for the June 3 State Primary ballot, signatures would have to be verified by January 24.

PRO-CHOICE COALITION MEETING

The next meeting of the Pro-Choice Coalition will be held on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 6:00 p.m. at 1605 The Alameda. Please join us and get more involved with the Pro-Choice Coalition.

DTV Report: Steve Chessin

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our August taping was with Mountain View City Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga.

Our guest in September will be San Jose City Councilmember Sam Liccardo, who represents District 3.

We will be on San Jose Comcast Channel 15A September 6th with Ken Hamidi, September 20th and October 18th with Councilmember Abe-Koga, and October 4th and November 1st with Councilmember Liccardo.

See the sccdp web site for the schedule in the other communities, and to download our shows.

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):

2007:

Sep 6 DTV 150 Ken Hamidi

Sep 20 DTV 151 Hon. Margaret Abe-Koga

Oct 4 DTV 152 Hon. Sam Liccardo

Oct 18 DTV 151 Hon. Margaret Abe-Koga

Nov 1 DTV 152 Hon. Sam Liccardo

Nov 15 DTV 153 TBD-153

Nov 29 DTV 154 TBD-154

CDC: Herb Engstrom said they had a very successful convention with fantastic food and the entire cast of HAIR came and performed. They had interesting workshops. They discovered it is illegal to sell buttons and bumper stickers and also to raise money by having a raffle. He urged clubs go join the CDC to discover how to deal with these problems.They elected officers: the new president is Henry Vandermeer. The former president, Chris Stampolis, has been asked to help organize a CDC movement nationwide. There is an excellent leadership manuel and a disk with free software for member clubs. It costs nothing to affiliate and since our committee is affiliated, we have received these tangible benefits.

7-ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Sunshine Borelli announced a pancake breakfast being put on by Assesmblyman Jim Beall.

Dan Hoffman talked about the proposed ballot measure that would radically change how we count presidential votes and would almost certainly mean that a Democratic President could not be elected. Votes would be counted by each Congressional District. This is only being proposed in California , a blue state, but not in any red state. The purpose is obviously just a Republican ploy to affect the next election to their advantage.

Carolyn Curtis announced a fundraiser for Assemblyman Ira Ruskin on Sunday in Palo Alto . Steve mentioned that the Villages Club will be having its annual picnic on Sunday also.

8-EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

The next Executive Board meeting is TBA

9-ADJOUNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:45.

Respectfully submitted by Emy Thurber, recorder