DRAFT Coordinating Committee minutes, May 5, 2014

Coordinating Committee members present (11): Victoria Ashley, Marla Bernstein, June Brashares, Maxine Daniel, Sanda Everette, Mike Feinstein, Parker Jean, Tim Laidman, Jesse Moorman, Alex Shantz, Candice Yamaguchi

Coordinating Committee members not-present (4): Cindy Asrir, Sasha Karlik,  Shamako Noble, Rich Zitola
 
Observers (invited) (1): Doug Barnett, GPCA Treasurer
 
Quorum: Quorum reached at 7:38 pm with eight (8) present:  June Brashares, Maxine Daniel, Sanda Everette, Mike Feinstein, Tim Laidman, Jesse Moorman, Alex Shantz, Candice Yamaguchi
 
Parker Jean joined call at 7:50
Victoria Ashley joined call at 8:13
Marla Bernstein joined call at 8:50
 
2) Roles
Facilitator: Alex Shantz
Minutes taker: Mike Feinstein
Time keeper: Maxine Daniel 
Vibes Watcher:  Tim Laidman 
 

3) Approval of Agenda 

Parker Jean joined call at 7:50
 
Proposal (Brashares): Add approval of letter to oppose AB 2145; 
Proposal (Laidman) Add proposal regarding use of GPCA donation page; Add discussion of email list problems, Add appointments to Budget Committee, Add Endorse March against Monsanto
Proposal (Feinstein): Add endorsement of AB 2233
 
Proposal (Shantz): That the proposed amendments be added to the agenda as reflected below
 
Approved by consensus
 
Proposal (Shantz): Approve agenda as amended below
 
Approved by consensus
 
4) Approve minutes 
 
Decision: Approval of minutes from April 7 CC meeting (Feinstein)
 
Approved by consensus
 

5) Decision: Bylaws Interpretation Regarding County Council elections 2014-2016  (Feinstein)

Proposal (Feinstein): That the Coordinating Committee approve the bylaws interpretation below in Attachment #2 and place it before the May/June 2014 Standing General Assembly
 
Approved by consensus
 
 
 
6) Appointment: Campaign Fund Support Committee
 
Nominations: Daniel and Jean self-nominated
 
Appointment: Maxine Daniel
 
Appointed by Consensus

Appointment: Parker Jean

Appointed by Consensus

Victoria Ashley joined call at 8:13

7) Discussion: GPCA appearance at State Assembly Elections Committee Hearing on Elections Code change, Tuesday, May 6 (Feinstein)

Feinstein made report of the content of AB2351 and who was scheduled to appear on behalf of the GPCA, as well as the Libertarian and the Peace & Freedom Parties.
 

8) Decision: Approval of letter to oppose AB 2145 (Brashares)

Proposal (Brashares) That the GPCA oppose AB2145 and will send a letter as below in Attachment #1, with 24 hours for small amendments to be send to Brashares.
 
Approved by consensus
 

9) Decision: Amend Personnel Committee Rule (Everette) 

Proposal: To amend Section 4-1 of the GPCA Personnel Policy to read "Membership of the Green Party shall be made a condition of employment as an independent contractor and/or as an employee..."   instead of the current "Membership of GPCA shall be made a condition of employment as an independent contractor and/or as an employee...)
 
Process Proposal: (Shantz)  8:37 add five more minutes
Process Proposal: (Shantz)  8:42 add five more minutes
 
In light of outstanding concerns, Everette took the proposal to a vote.

Yes (7): Ashley, Brashares, Daniel, Everette, Jean, Laidman, Shantz
No (3): Feinstein, Moorman, Yamaguchi
Abstain (0):

 
Proposal approved 7-3-0  (2/3 required)
 

10) Decision: Endorsement of SB1272 Campaign Finance: Advisory Elections (Jean)

Proposal: That the GPCA endorse SB1272 Campaign Finance: Advisory Elections (http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=2013...)

Approved by consensus

11: Decision: Endorsement of AB2233 Primary Elections Petitions: Signatures (Feinstein)

Proposal (Feinstein): That the GPCA endorse AB2233 Primary Elections Petitions

Approved by consensus

12) Report: Treasurer (Barnett) 

Report made by GPCA Treasurer Doug Barnett

 

13) Appointments: Budget Committee 

Nominations: Daniel and Shantz self-nominated

Appointment: Alex Shantz

Approved by consensus

Appointment: Maxine Daniel

Approved by consensus

14) Decision: Temporary Use of GPCA donation page (Laidman)

Proposal (Laidman): That the GPCA temporarily receive donations on its website that come from Alameda County and make a donation to the Green Party of Alameda County for that amount.

Approved by consensus

15) Decision: Endorse March against Monsanto (Laidman)

Proposal (Laidman): That the GPCA Endorse March against Monsanto

Approved by consensus

Call officially ended at 9:30 

Reports from committees and working groups were heard informally after the call by those who remained on the lin

Attachment #1: This text below was approved in agenda item #8 above and appeared on the GPCA web site here www.cagreens.org/news/gpca-opposes-ab2145 and was sent to the legislature committees hearing AB215.

 
Date: May 2014
To: The California State Legislature
From: The Green Party of California
Re: Assembly Bill 2145 – OPPOSE
 
Dear California Assembly and Senate:
 
The Green Party of California hereby expresses its strong opposition to California Assembly Bill 2145 (AB 2145). AB 2145 runs directly counter to five of our Party’s ten key values: ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy, decentralization, community-based economics, and sustainability.
 
Members of the Green Party were active and engaged in the advocacy that led to the enactment of AB 117, the Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) law of 2002. CCA was envisioned by Green Party members and others as a tool to achieve substantial greenhouse gas emissions reductions by increasing the use of energy efficiency and new decentralized renewable energy resources, and to stimulate local economies by creating living wage jobs and spurring healthy competition in the energy sector. It is also an essential tool that fosters energy democracy by putting decision-making about energy sources in the hands of people in local communities, thereby enabling them to chart their own energy destinies.
 
Just when the first CCA program in the state is beginning to bear fruit, the second one has just launched, and many communities across the state are evaluating CCA programs for their own communities, why would the legislature even think about nipping such a promising policy in the bud?
 
If enacted, AB 2145 will essentially destroy the prospects of any future CCAs emerging in the state. It will do this by changing the well-founded opt-out choice structure into a completely unworkable opt-in choice structure. The opt-out structure was chosen carefully due to the fact that opt-in programs, no matter how beneficial they may be to a prospective customer, achieve only single digit participation rates. This is not sufficient to establish a viable program. In order to achieve the critical mass needed to establish a competitive program, the opt-out structure is not only desired, it is required.
 
The bottom line is that CCA law, as structured, introduces a choice where none currently exists, and is the only way to launch a successful CCA program. We therefore urge you to vote no on AB 2145 when the opportunity presents itself.
 
Sincerely,
 

Attachment #2: Bylaws Interpretation Regarding County Council elections 2014-2016 

 

That the General Assembly approve the following bylaws interpretation:

Whereas SB1272, passed by the California state legislature and signed into law by Governor Brown changed state law so that county registrars only conduct County Council elections every four years - during presidential preference primary elections - rather than every two years during the primary elections, as has been the practice since the GPCA first qualified for the ballot; and

Whereas the June 2013 Napa General Assembly passed a budget for GPCA FY2013-2014 that budgeted $3,000 for the conduct of the 2014-2016 County Council elections, and empowered the Coordinating Committee to contract directly for support services; and

Whereas the Coordinating Committee found that the party did not have the volunteer infrastructure to simultaneously conduct County Council elections and gather the new larger number of signatures-in-lieus of a filing fee for its endorsed statewide candidates, and

Whereas without any further bylaws interpretations to provide for County Councils in 2014-2016, the GPCA will have no County Councils in place for 2014-2016 when the 2012-2014 term ends,

Therefore the GPCA finds that for the purposes of providing for County Councils in 2014-2016, the following GPCA members shall be considered County Council members at the beginning of the 2014-2016 term, as long as the Coordinating Committee sends notice of these conditions to the GPCA Inform List, and as long as a list of who qualifies via this criteria is sent to applications@cagreens.org by midnight, Monday, June 23:

1) All those GPCA members who were elected in the June 2012 County Council elections, and who have not either resigned their seat, or otherwise lost their seat as per the bylaws of the county Green Party to whose County Council they were elected, or as per the GPCA bylaws (as described in GPCA Bylaws 6-4 http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2013-06-23#Section_6-4_Vacancy); and

2) All those GPCA members who were appointed to a County Council according to the process described in their county Green Party's bylaws and still remain on that County Council (as described in GPCA Bylaws 6-3 http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2013-06-23#Section_6-3_Appointment_to_Vacancies); and

3) All those GPCA members who were appointed to a County Council in counties in which no County Council members were elected in the primary election, and still remain on that County Council (as described in GPCA Bylaws 6-6 http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2013-06-23#Section_6-6_Appointment_to_Vacancies_in_Counties_in_which_no_County_Council_members_were_elected_in_the_primary_election) ; and

The GPCA finds that despite there being no County Council elections for 2014-2016, that to be consistent with GPCA bylaws which state that County Council terms are for two years (as per GPCA bylaws 6-2.1 http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2013-06-23#Section_6-2_Elections), that the process described herein shall take the place of those County Council elections for 2014-2016, and that the members of each County Council in all GPCA counties shall be considered members of new County Councils for 2014-2016, and that the election of officers for each new County Council term as described in each county Green Party'