June 20, 2007 Los Angeles Greens Meeting Minutes

1. Introductions: Michael Rochmes, Lynne Serpe, Thurston Seaton,
Peter Thottam, Sasha Karlik, Lisa Taylor, KCM Curry, Derek Iversen,
Erin Schmidt, Bruce Campbell, Linda Piera-Avila, Les Amer, Neil
Hastings, Nicole, Byron de Lear, Mark Andrews, Laurie Deegan

2. Instant Runoff Voting (IRV): Lynne Serpe 15 minutes. On June
13, IRV was heard in front of the Rules & Elections Committee (LA
City Council). Lynne spoke to this committee on behalf of the New
America Foundation. IRV can save LA a lot of money presently being
spent on expensive runoff elections. Most every group there spoke
positively about IRV. At this point there may be a combo package
that ultimately gets passed, including IRV, more absentee voting and
other measures to improve turnout. There have been several positive
editorials recently RE: IRV. Even the LA County Council Registrar
has spoken recently in favor in IRV. City Councilmembers who may
lean in favor of IRV: Tom LaBonge, Jack Weiss, Ed Reyes. Eric
Garcetti is pretty much in favor of it. Dennis Zine too spoke
positively about IRV, though he may not ultimately go for it. As
many letter as possible now to these LA City Councilmembers in
particular will be very helpful. Ultimately the Council needs to
vote to place a Charter amendment on the ballot. Let the voters
decide. It is worth noting that the voting equipment itself will
have to be modified in order to accommodate IRV. But this isn’t
preclusively expensive.

3. Congressional Campaign Update, Linda. Linda went to the
candidate forum last Saturday for the special congressional election
in the 37th district. There are a plethora of candidates in the race
with Daniel Brezenoff. A lot of Democrats, and then there’s
Daniel. Daniel is representing us very well. He’s articulate, he
answers questions comprehensively, he follows the Ten Key Values
without being preachy. The winner needs to have 50% +1 to win, that
probably will not happen in the primary. This means Daniel’s a shoe-
in for the runoff. When asked what makes him qualified to be in
Congress, Daniel replied, “Well, I’ve worked in a mental hospital
before.” That got Daniel some good press. Daniel seemed to be
getting a lot of applause, he’s getting a good reception. Saturday
evening there’s a fundraiser in Long Beach. Help him now:
danielforcongress.com. Primary election is Tuesday, June 26.

4. Lotus Festival Tabling, Lisa. It’s in Echo Park, it’s July
14 and 15. It costs less than Sunset Junction, it’s great. We have
the booth for the whole day. Shifts: 11 am – 2 pm. Maybe we could
have some bullet points for volunteers to use when speaking to the
public, we’re a little rusty on that whole table tabling thing.

5. Scholarship Update, Erin. The L.A. Greens sponsor the Petra
Kelly Memorial Scholarship for students in the Los Angeles area. We
presently have about the same number of applicants as last year but
we have better candidates this year. We’ll have a male and female
winner to announce soon. We’re now out of funds for this
scholarship, so we’ll need to have a fundraiser to raise about $1100.

6. Goals Discussion, Erin (mercifully). The Executive Committee
established goals at the beginning of this year for the LA Greens.
Making Meetings More Funner: KCM suggests contributing more
speakers. Earth Day Committee: we did that thing in Westchester.
And then there were those other ideas we had. We did stuff. LA
Greens Platform by … Sometime. Derek, Michael & SKCM will organize
a meeting for September. Fair Trade Festival:
fairtradela.wordpress.com. Next meeting is next Tuesday. Go! 20
New Relationships w/Community Leaders: Patrick will be contacted.
Irma Munoz counts. Build IRV Support: Get 5 Local Leaders Signed
On. It’s going well. League of Women Voters are looking favorably
at it but have not yet made a formal position. Relationships w/3
Major Chicano Groups: well we added Mujeres de la Tierra, so that’s
one. LAANE: success! (sort of) 70% of LA residents apparently
support it. Green Power: Derek, do something. 10 New Members, 5 in
Leadership Positions: we’ve added. Register 50 New Greens: well …
3 Greens on Boards, Commissions or Councils. Byron is the co-founder
of the Friends of the Article V Commission. One Green Victory Led by
the LA Greens: that’s on Patrick. Purchase a Voter Database: when
the time is right, we’ll do this. Fundraising: we’ve raised about
$500.

7. Impeachment, Peter Thottam. Website is getting 20-30 hits a
day now. In a month it’s gone from an idea to a reality. 300-400
people attended an impeachment forum earlier this month. This has
become the center of something big. CodePink, ICUJP, VoteNoWar.org,
lots of other groups are on board. PDA (Progressive Democrats of
America) is big in this too. PDA is dancing a fine line on this
because the official position of the Dems is anti-impeachment.
There’s a picnic July 4, go there. Christine has put together an
excellent ad that will be full-page in ChangeLinks. There’s a full-
page ad being run by the World Can’t Wait in the New York Times in
the next couple of days. Peter suggests this July 4 picnic at the
park is a golden opportunity to recruit progressive Dems to the Green
Party. We really need banners, signage at the park picnic. Every
Saturday from 2-6 pm the Impeachment Center will be meeting here.
John Nichols of The Nation said it was great that Greens are out
front on this issue. Maybe someone should talk to Patrick RE: send
out press releases about this. Byron says that there needs to be a
recounting of the crimes of the Bush administration, both for the
protection of our democracy, our Constitution, and to show the world
that there is accountability here in the U.S. Maxine Waters is now
on board with the impeachment movement. Peter asks that we show up
at any and all impeachment events as visible Green Party members.

8. Office Clean-up. Tabled to online discussion.

9. Finance Report. The hat was passed. Fundraiser ideas were
suggested. We have $2501, but minus the scholarship we have $1501.
Another paypal deposit is pending. An FPPC filing is coming soon.

10. Announcements. Linda: South Central Farm big two walnut trees
were carted off to Huntington Library. Sadness. SKCM: Our national
meeting is in Redding, Pennsylvania. Send your ideas to the strategy
workshop. Mark & Laurie: range voting is much better than
IRV; see rangevoting.org. Volunteer Coordinator, Events Coordinator,
Media Person and we need a female Co-Facilitator. Bruce: Late
January ’08 there will be an LA Social Forum. Also: Sierra Club
needs a member on the Sustainability (?) Task Force. Maybe that
could be you …? Lynne: Green Drinks tomorrow in Silver Lake, Good
Luck Bar. Also in Culver City. Nicole: there’s a movement afoot to
recall Sheriff Lee Baca. Sasha: the same night of our meeting every
night, there’s Brazilian dancing at Zanzibar, 5th & Arizona in Santa
Monica. Sasha: gathering sigs to get on the L.A. County Council. If
you’re in the 25th State Senate district, sign this man’s
petition! Contact: sasha@greens.org.

March 21, 2007 Los Angeles Greens Meeting Minutes

Los Angeles Greens
Meeting Minutes, March 21, 2007

Marx Gutierrez, Community Organizer, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy:
LAANE is a labor advocacy group.
LAANE works on all the things it takes to organize the labor in the region.
Hospitality, ports, security guard sectors – HERE’s organizing them.
Many of these workers are making close to minimum wage, don’t have health care.
Also buildings & trades, supermarket workers.
May be a supermarket strike soon.
Forming a think tank called “The Partnership for Working Families.” Max Gutierrez of LAANE addressed the meeting:
Remember ongoing boycotts of the LAX Hilton and the Glendale Hilton—don’t stay there!
LAANE is starting a thinktank called Partnership for Working Families (not sure what specific website yet)
Congratulated LA Greens on contributions to Hotelworkers Living Wage Campaigns

Question asked: How to we get Unite Here to endorse Greens: we need to support labor issues (do we?) Can we win realistically? Start early if you want to get LAANE endorsement
Kevin McEuwen was endorsed as a Green by LAANE


Earth Day Committee

Lisa Taylor Update:
We haven’t really brainstormed on the speakers
Ed Bagley?? (would outdraw Peace Center, maybe LAANE for him) (Bill Paparian has a connection to that)
Director of Inconvenient Truth (Denise knows him)
Lisa: we like to think big but it’s late in the game and can we get a bigger venue??
Derek: knows SpongeBob creator
Alexis: what are chances of having an event associated specifically with an LA-based environmental event?
Erin: we don’t necessarily need a “celebrity” if it’s an issue that resonates with people


South Central Greens

KCM Curry:
We’ve had problems trying find a place to meet—our 15 Greens has dwindled down to 3
Wants to plan some Joint events with the LA Greens
We were talking about how to turn 4th of July into a Green event
Would also like to integrate a 19th Amendment commemoration event
We need 3 “little things” from the green parties:
1.suggestions of ideas for speakers for a lecture series over the next 13 years
2.agree on who we can get as mc’s for these events
Bean: what about a walk-a-thon in addition with million trees initiative in conjunction with this
Rochmes: Would it be better to do something more timely?
Alex: Santa Clara County Greens had a lot more joint events—this is a great idea
KCM: launching her candidacy for Vice Presidency of America
GPCA Retreat Highlights

Rochmes points:
Cynthia McKinney spoke—people were trying to encourage her to run--it’s pretty likely that she’s going to run
A lot of discussion about getting the Green Party to 5%

Discussion of state-wide vs. localized IRV initiatives
Possible the Bay Audience at GPCA was optimistic about state-wide initiative because of their successes in Oakland, etc.
Sebastopol: 3 out of 5 city council are Green
McKinney is really down-to-earth and approachable

Derek: what if Ralph decides to run?
Linda: Elaine Brown has decided to run as well
Dave: Re: McKinney, skeptical of her qualifications (she’s a civil rights leaders but what makes her a Green?) should we have an official discussion about her as a chapter?
Linda: She transcends civil rights because she deals with electoral issues


Speak Out

Alexis Gotera: his interest is Electoral Politics
Alex: is here at least partially as a response to disorganized anti-war march presence


Goals Update

IRV update
Dave: I’m working with Dave Holtzman
We’ve identified short list of public officials to pursue endorsements, beginning this process in April
I’m “going after” Richard Alarcon, Dennis Zine, Michael Antonovich, Barbara Boxer
Dave H. is pursuing Adam Schiff, Yvonne Burke, Zev Yaroslavsky, John Transvina (MALDEF President)
Pasadena Unified School District is seriously considering use of IRV and we’re applying pressure on its members too (as well as Pasadena City Council, secondarily)
Important Public Forum:
“Alternative Voting Systems for Pasadena Unified School District and Pasadena City Council”, Thursday, April 26th 7:00-8:30, Pasadena City College, Circadian Room, 1570 Colorado Blvd., Building “CC”, Parking @2 in Lots 1 and 2 (pay at kiosks)
Sponsored by New America Foundation, League of Women Voters Pasadena, Common Cause and Invest in PUSD Kids


Fair Trade Event

Goal is to make people aware of all the options out there for buying fair trade products and to demonstrate to companies that there is a market.

Will probably be attached to the Hollywood and Vine farmer’s market somehow.


Announcements

SOUTH CENTRAL FARMERS @ TIANGUIS
When: Every first Sunday of the month, 10:00 am to sunset
Where: On 41st between Long Beach Ave. & Alameda Ave., South Central L.A.
Metro Blue Line - exit Vernon Station, walk 4 blks. north


ATTENDEES

Michael Rochmes
KCM Curry
Alexis Gotera
Nina Chang
Marx Gutierrez
Erin Schmidt
Linda Piera-Avila
Lisa Taylor
Thurston Seaton
Derek Iversen
Christine Pinto
Raam Kaur
Alex Walker
Dave English