WHEREAS: Robert "Bob" Holstein was a steadfast supporter of California working families and their right to organize in order to ensure a living wage, safe working conditions and the dignity of all California workers; and

WHEREAS: Robert "Bob" Holstein was extremely generous with his time, talents and treasures in support of the national, state and local Democratic Party

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party do honor the life of an exemplary Democrat and life-long friend of the labor movement, Robert "Bob" Holstein.

Submitted by the Riverside County Central Committee,

San Bernardino and Riverside counties Central Labor Council and Congressman Joe Baca

* * *

Adopted by the California Democratic Party

At Its 2003 State Convention

Sacramento Convention Center

March 16, 2003

P/RESOLS/SAC03.02 Holstein, Robert

WHEREAS: These individuals (several of whom had California connections) dedicated their lives to science and exploration and made the ultimate sacrifice to their country; and

WHEREAS: That the California Democratic Party recognizes the great sacrifice the Columbia astronauts made in the pursuit of knowledge and we send our thoughts and condolences to their friends and families

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party is committed to seeing the continuation of manned space exploration.

Submitted by Senator Art Torres (Ret.), Chairman,

California Democratic Party

* * *

Adopted by the California Democratic Party

At Its 2003 State Convention

Sacramento Convention Center

March 16, 2003

P/RESOLS/SAC03.03 COLUMBIA SPACE SHUTTLE

WHEREAS: The Republican recall effort is a waste of taxpayers’ hard earned money at a time when California, along with almost every other state, is facing a budget deficit due to a failing national economy and exacerbated by a Republican driven federal fiscal plan which cuts education, healthcare and public safety assistance to states and produces a $304 billion deficit, the largest in the country’s history; and

WHEREAS: The Republicans and their recall allies are attempting to divert attention away from their own failures and dismal leadership within the state, especially now that for the first time since 1882, California Democrats hold every statewide office

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party opposes the Republican right-wing recall effort of Governor Gray Davis as a cynical, arrogant grab for power and an abuse of our constitutional process, thereby, thwarting the will of the people and voter of California.

Submitted by Senator Art Torres (Ret.), Chair, California Democratic Party

Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown

Alice Huffman, DNC 2004 Co-Chair, Convention Site Selection

* * *

Adopted by the California Democratic Party

At Its 2003 State Convention

Sacramento Convention Center

March 16, 2003

P/RESOLS/SAC03.13 Recall GGD

WHEREAS: State law currently prevents millions of Californian residents from legally obtaining a driver’s license because of their immigration status; and

WHEREAS: Since Californians cannot purchase auto insurance without a license, current policy guarantees that many state residents drive without auto insurance, contributing to the current climate in which approximately 5.3 million out of 24 million drivers are uninsured

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the State Democratic Party endorse public policy measures to improve highway safety by ensuring that millions of additional California motorists are licensed, properly trained, and fully insured

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED: That the State Democratic Party use its influence to help build support for such public policy measures by encouraging its members and other organizations to advocate in favor of these reforms and join the coalition supporting passage.

Submitted by Senator Martha Escutia

Senator Gilbert Cedillo

Assemblyman Marco Antonio Firebaugh

Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez

Assemblyman Fabian Nunez

Ronnie Lawrence and the 56^th A.D. Committee

WHEREAS: Urban area neighborhoods with high crime rates and poverty often have significant African-American populations as well as other minority communities

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party calls upon the California Legislature to seek the assistance of the Federal government in conjunction with state legislation to provide economic and social empowerment zones in economically distressed urban areas that address the following:

P/RESOLS/SAC03.06 Empowerment Zones

WHEREAS: The community colleges are key to California’s workforce by training the majority of nurses, firefighters and police officers and employing over 88,000 employees in nearly every part of California; and

WHEREAS: Community colleges are disproportionately impacted by budget cuts and fee increases, and/or exacerbated by the state’s deficit and the federal government’s reductions in the funding of all levels of education

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party urges the Governor and legislators to take every step possible to ensure that community colleges are not cut disproportionately to other segments of education

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED: That any fee increase required of community college students be fair, moderate and predictable and that access to an affordable quality higher education be protected by any means possible.

Submitted by Jennifer Baker and Scott Lay, Lead Co-sponsors;

Katie Villegas, Oscar Villegas, Amy Blumberg, Lisa Chin, Ed Espinoza, Alicia Berhow, Crystal Smith, Robert Dawa, Owen Jackman, Bruce Pomer, Brian Cooley,

Clark Lee, Silissa Uriarte-Smith, Christopher Cabaldon, Steve Hardy, Mariko Yamada, Marthann Lowrie, Rick Wathen, Donald Douglas, Charlie Gaston, Greg Larkins, Joan King, Virginia Moose,

Harold Fong, Alberta Wiedner and Bob Bockwinkle

P/RESOLS/ SAC03.97 COMMUNITY COLLEGES

WHEREAS: The proposed initiative, from U.C. Regent Ward Connerly, commonly known as the "Racial Privacy Initiative", will harm the civil rights, health and welfare of the community, since it prohibits the State, County, City, School Districts and all other government-funded groups from tracking the race, ethnicity or national origin of any individual; and

WHEREAS: The ability to track the race, ethnicity or national origin of individuals is integral in the protection of the community from civil rights abuses, disease, illness, poor education opportunity, and other threats to public welfare; and the prohibition to keep statistics will have a devastating effect on funding and quality of services to historically underrepresented ethnic groups

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party oppose efforts to prohibit the gathering of statistics on race, ethnicity or national origin of any individuals, and that the Party communicate such opposition to appropriate Democratic individuals and organizations across the state.

Submitted by Senator Art Torres (Ret.), Chair/CDP

Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson; San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown;

Alice Huffman-DNC 2004 Co-Chair, Convention Site Selection;

Steve Preminger, Chair, Santa Clara Democratic Central Committee; Asian-Pacific Islander Democrats of San Diego County, Cesar E Chavez Democratic Club, North County Latino Democratic Club, the Martin Luther King Club of San Diego County and the San Diego DCCC

P/RESOLS/SAC03.12B Ethnic Data

WHEREAS: The CSU and the University of California System (UCS) prepares its graduates to make meaningful contributions to the political, economic and social well-being of our state and, at the same time, instructs students to successfully compete in today’s knowledge driven labor market; and

WHEREAS: The CSU, which educated approximately two-thirds of the state’s newly credentialed K-12 teachers each year, will be looked upon to play a major role in solving California’s teacher shortage

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party reaffirms its long-standing commitment to public higher education and the students, faculty, and staff of both the CSU and the UCS, and further encourages the CSU to work collaboratively with students, faculty and staff to develop a solution to the budget crisis that protects funding for instruction and student service programs; and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic encourage the California State Legislature, the Governor, CSU Board of Trustees and the UC Board of Regents to work collaboratively with students, faculty and staff to seek alternative funding sources to mitigate the need for student fee increases which could deny education opportunities to thousands of students.

Submitted by 33 Democratic State Central Committee Members

P/RESOLS/SACL03.07CSU

WHEREAS: Research proves, and parents and teachers know, that smaller classes improve student learning; according to June 2002 study by the Public Policy Institute of California, five of the state’s largest school districts reported significant test score gains since the class-size reduction program began; and

WHEREAS: Smaller classes are especially vital for "high-need" students; according to an April 2001 study by Vital Research, class-size reduction in the Los Angeles Unified School District increased reading scores by 9.5%, math scores by 13.9%, and language scores by 14.5%

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party joins with the California Teachers Association, other organizations, and concerned parties in support of smaller class size for California’s students

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party, which has consistently supported and worked for smaller class sizes, opposes any legislation that would increase class sizes in California’s classrooms.

Submitted by Aleita Huguenin, California Teachers Association

And 25 DSCC Members

P/RESOLS/SACL03.10 Protect smaller Class Size

WHEREAS: Local governments and those employers who have received a subsidy or financial benefit of at least $100,000.00 from a local government such as a city, or those employers who provide non-construction services to the city, or those employers who lease city-owned property should pay at least $10.00 per hour plus employer-paid family health benefits; and

WHEREAS: Those employers who provide public services or receive public subsidies or benefits should be required to sign "Labor Peace" agreements which insure those employers will not interfere with workers who organize unions;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party calls for the successful promotion of the living wage ordinances in every local government in California as has been done in 21 local governments already.

Submitted by Bill Camp

Adopted by the Sacramento County Central Committee

P/RESOLS/SACL03.11 Living Wage

WHEREAS: 1.5 million Californians need of long-term care services, of these, 440,000 in California, rely on paid direct care workers for various forms of daily assistance; and, recruitment and retention of long-term care workers is a growing challenge; and, in California, 30% of nursing home aids and 50% of In-Home Supportive Services workers that comprise the bulk of the State’s long-term care workforce live in poverty; and one half of homecare workers and one-fourth of nursing home workers in California lack health insurance, compared to 16% of the nation’s general population and poverty-level wages and uneven health benefits, along with inadequate training, lead to annual turnover rates between 50-100% that jeopardize both the quality and continuity of care for seniors and people with disabilities; and

WHEREAS: Families still pay out-of-pocket and account for 23% (about $31 billion) of long-term care expenditures; and the proposed state budget "realignment" will not meet long-term care program obligations causing California to forgo approximately $380 million in federal Medicaid matching funds, lose nearly $2 billion in business activity, eliminate nearly 20,000 jobs and lose over $270 million in corresponding salary and wages if the state reduces its spending on Medi-Cal outlined in the proposed budget;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party affirms that all California residents should have affordable access to long-term care services; and, that seniors and people with disabilities must have access to and be afforded the maximum number of care setting choices through a continuum of care; and, that fiscal and program responsibility for long-term care, including homecare and skilled nursing care, should rest with the State of California not through a patchwork of 58 counties; and, that increasing the federal Medicaid reimbursement rate, and not block grants, will help stabilize mounting demands on states to meet the growing needs for quality long-term care; and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic support a livable wage for long-term care workers enough to lift them and their families out of poverty and receive paid health benefits; and, that all long-term care workers must be provided adequate training opportunities for career advancement in the long-term care industry in order to improve continuity of patient care with a stable cadre of trained caregivers; and, that the quality of long-term care provided to seniors and people with disabilities would be enhanced by establishing and supporting collaborative working partnerships among providers, seniors and people with disabilities and workers to support a stable, qualified and valued direct care workforce.

Submitted by Tyrone Freeman and other Democratic State Central Committee Members

P/RESOLS/SACL03.20 Long-Term Care Wkrs

WHEREAS: No one deserves to be fired or kept from housing because of gender-related characteristics which have nothing to do with a person’s qualifications; and

WHEREAS: Domestic partners and their children in California deserve legal protections for circumstances faced by every family, such as death, separation, illness, childbirth, and adoption, and the state should expect domestic partners to take mutual responsibilities for debts, financial support, and disclosures of conflict-of-interest

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party supports changing state law to end the discrimination and inequality faced of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Californians and supports equal benefits, gender non-discrimination and domestic partner rights and responsibilities.

Submitted by: Alice Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club and Stonewall Democratic Club of Greater Sacramento

* * *

Adopted by the California Democratic Party

At Its 2003 State Convention

Sacramento Convention Center

March 16, 2003

P/RESOLS/SACL03.29 Civil Rights

WHEREAS: Under the Bush Administration, in two short years, over 1,800,000 jobs have been lost (308,000 in February alone), the Federal Budget is projected to have a 10-year deficit of at least $1.8 trillion, the states are in the worst shape financially since the Great Depression with no projected financial help from the federal government, median income for working families dropped by approximately 2.2% in 2001 and 42 million Americans still lack health insurance, over 32 million Americans still live in poverty, nearly 12 million of whom are children, over 3 million people experience homelessness each year; and

WHEREAS: The falling stock market, collapsing dollar, rising trade deficit and huge federal budget deficit are certain to lead to rising interest rates which will hurt working families even more and slow the economy even further, and the cost of the proposed war with Iraq is considered to be up to $200 billion with over $20 billion a year additional to reconstruct Iraq, and the President’s main response is to propose even further tax cuts which will give 38% of the tax cuts to the top 1% of the population and will do nothing to stimulate the stalling economy but will instead damage it for years to come, according to 400 economists, including 10 Nobel Prize winners

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party believes that our national security is as dependent on a strong, growing economy as on bullets and bombs, and therefore calls upon the President and Congress to enact immediate short investments to jump start the economy in ways that would not result in the long-term chronic deficits that would be caused by the Bush tax cuts, and to make needed investments in education, healthcare, infrastructure rebuilding, retaining of displaced workers, to resist putting the timber industry in charge of our forest areas thereby resulting in poor forest management practices further negatively impacting the economy, and finally, to always ensure the solvency of Social Security and Medicare for the future of all Americans.

Submitted by Emily Thurber and Lead Co-Chairs

* * *

Adopted by the California Democratic Party

At Its 2003 State Convention

Sacramento Convention Center

March 16, 2003

P/RESOLS/SAC03.28 Economy

WHEREAS: The AFL-CIO believes that such legislative reform must include, at a minimum: (1) legislation, including the right of immigrant workers in the United States that live and work in this country and become citizens; and (2) the right of immigrant workers to unite their families in the United States if they wish; and

WHEREAS: The AFL-CIO understands that a national mobilization of individuals and organizations from all sectors -- including labor, business, religious community, immigrant, civil rights and others -- is necessary to demonstrate to Congress and the President that there is widespread support in the United States for meaningful legislative reform and for the recognition of the contributions of immigrant workers to the quality of social, cultural, political and economic life in the United States; and believes that an Immigration Workers Freedom Ride -- which will culminate in a mass demonstration of support in the United States for meaningful legislative reform in Washington D.C., in mid-September 2003 will be a powerful vehicle for mobilizing the national constituency

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party hereby support the "Immigration Workers Freedom Ride" in mid-September 2003 and all legislative efforts to create meaningful legislative reform for immigrant workers and their families

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party goes on record in support of the "Immigration Workers Freedom Ride" to create meaningful legislative reform for immigrant workers and their families.

Submitted by: John Hanna, Eric Bradley, Roberta Holloway,

Rima Nashashibi and other DSCC members

* * *

Adopted by the California Democratic Party

At Its 2003 State Convention

Sacramento Convention Center

March 16, 2003

P/RESOLS/SAC03.21 Freedom Ride

WHEREAS: Women and girls have made great strides toward achieving educational equality, as well as parity in school-based athletics since the enactment of Title IX, and Title IX has provided women and girls with numerous opportunities to engage in college and high school athletics – opportunities that were not available to them prior to Title IX’s enactment; and

WHEREAS: The Bush Administration has recently come out in favor of weakening Title IX especially when it comes to athletic opportunities for women and girls

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party strongly urges the Bush Administration and the U.S. Congress to oppose any and all efforts to weaken Title IX, and to support strong enforcement of all existing anti-discrimination laws with particular attention to college and high school athletic opportunities for women and girls

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Democratic Party calls on all elected officials to publicly reaffirm their support of Title IX and their opposition to gender discrimination; and that this Resolution be sent to President George W. Bush, the U.S. Secretary of Education, all Democratic members of Congress from California, all Democratic Presidential candidates, Governor Gray Davis and the President of the U.C. Board of Regents.

Submitted by: The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman

and the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee

* * *

Adopted by the California Democratic Party

At Its 2003 State Convention

Sacramento Convention Center

March 16, 2003

P/RESOLS/SACL03.22 Title IX