Coordinating Committee minutes, November 4, 2013

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Proposal (Shantz): Add as item #12, "Decision: Amend Prop 14 agenda item to include whether to join Prop 14"

Approved by consensus

Proposal (Shantz): Approve agenda as amended

Approved by consensus

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4) Approval of minutes 

Request by Feinstein to defer approval til Coordinating Committee meeting of November 15th, because he sent wrong link to agenda

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5) Appointment:  Platform Committee 

Applications that were anticipated were not sent, so the item was not heard

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6) Appointment: IT Committee 

Joel Sarch submitted an application for appointment on October 18th, 2013

Appointment: Joel Sarch 

Approved by consensus

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7) Decision: Amend Santa Rosa General Assembly Agenda to add presentation on statewide legislation sought by Green Party, Libertarian Party and the Peace & Freedom Party  (Shantz/Feinstein/Zitola)

Process Proposal (Shantz) Add five minutes

 

 

Proposal (Feinstein): Amend Santa Rosa General Assembly Agenda on the Proposition 14 item on Saturday afternoon, to add a presentation on statewide legislation sought by Green Party, Libertarian Party and the Peace & Freedom Party 

 

 

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8) Decision: Approval of Draft Bylaws Interpretation regarding County Council nomination petitions and add item to Santa Rosa General Assembly Agenda  (Feinstein)

 

Proposal (Feinstein): That the Coordinating Committee approve the following Bylaws Interpretation regarding County Council nomination petitions and add the item to Santa Rosa General Assembly Agenda for approval

 

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 each candidate for County Council must receive a given number of nomination signatures from registered Greens in that County Council districts to qualify for the ballot; and

 

Whereas GPCA bylaws 6-2.5 state that "Each sponsor is entitled to sponsor as many candidates as there are seats in the district", meaning if a sponsor (registered Green in the district) signs more nomination petitions than there are seats, not all of the nomination signatures will be valid, but only a number equal to the number of seats; and

 

Whereas County Registrars validate nomination signatures chronologically, meaning if eight nomination signatures are turned in for eight candidates for seven seats, only the first seven signatures submitted would be valid; and

 

Whereas the GPCA is not going to have the staffing infrastructure to chronologically validate nomination signatures in 58 counties;

 

Therefore the GPCA must have process to address when there are more nomination signatures handed in than there are a number of seats for elections that does not depend upon chronological validation of signatures; and

 

Whereas allowing a registered Green in the district to sign an unlimited number of nomination petitions could create a unintended, negative consequences such as dozens and dozens of people on the ballot for the same seats, few of which would be know to Green voters, which could be confusing at a minimum; and

 

Whereas through dividing the vote over so many candidates, combined with an expected lower turnout compared to elections conducted by the County Registrars, could lead to unknown winners with minimal support, many key party leaders being lost in the morass of dozens of candidates and/or make the party susceptible to infiltration - or some combination of all three; and

 

Whereas a process with a pre-defined, total number of nomination signatures that will be accepted, regardless of when during the signature-gathering period they are gathered, would not present the validation issues off a chronologically-based system; and

 

Whereas the likelihood of having contested County Councils would increase if registered Greens could sign more nomination petitions than there are seats to be elected;

 

Therefore the GPCA finds that for the purposes of conducting the June 2014 County Council elections under the special circumstances of the GPCA running the election, GPCA bylaws 6-2.5 shall be interpreted to read as

 

"Each sponsor is entitled to sponsor as many as one more candidate than there are seats in the district, but for any sponsor who signs more nomination petitions than this, all of their nomination signatures shall be considered invalid."

 

 

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9) Decision:  Review of Updated Draft Plans to conduct GPCA County Council elections (twenty minutes) (Feinstein)

 

Proposal (Feinstein): That the Coordinating Committee empowers Feinstein to submit a draft text to the Cooridnating Committee email list within 36 hours to look over and make comments, and then send to the counties as part of the updated agenda

 

 

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10) Decision:  Approval of proposal to put before Santa Rosa GA to host spring 2014 General Assembly (State Meeting Committee)

 

No proposal was submitted, so item was not heard.

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Sasha Karlik joins call at 8:13

11) Decision: Schedule Date of 2014 Coordinating Committee Annual Retreat on Sat/Sun, January 25-26 and approve initial draft agenda (Everette/Feinstein)

Proposal ((Everette/Feinstein, with two amendments accepted from Laidman as per below): That the CC's 2014 annual retreat take place on Saturday/Sunday, January 25-26, in San Mateo at Sanda Everette's eco-village and that the draft agenda include:

 

- Election of CC Male Co-coordinator for 2014-2016

- Election of CC Male Alternate Co-coordinator for 2014-2016

- Election of CC Female Alternate Co-coordinator

- GPCA ballot statement for June 2014 voter guide

- Possible GPCA ballot statement for ballot argument against a proposition on the June 2014 primary ballot, if SGA takes that position

- Review of SGA performance

- Appointment of Coordinating Committee Liaisons to Standing Committees

- Appointment of Coordinating Committee Liaison/Co-coordinators to Working Groups

- Appointments to Standing Committees

- Report from GPCA Liaison to the Secretary of State

- Report from GPCA Treasurer (Amendment from Laidman)

- Groom Assistant GPCA Treasurer (Amendment from Laidman)

- Approve CC draft work plan and budget for FY2014-2015

- Review progress towards realizing GPCA IT protocol, including capabilities for county parties to utilize GPCA Drupal and Nationbuilder functionality

- Review draft FY2014-2015 Strategic Plan

- Report on efforts to establish GPCA rules in the state elections code

- Report on efforts to pass legislation to account for negative affects of Prop 14 on smaller party ballot status

- Review process of conducting GPCA County Council elections

- Review how Personnel Policy is working

 

 

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12) Decision: Amend Prop 14 agenda item to include whether to join Prop 14 lawsuit (Feinstein)*

 

Proposal (Feinstein): That a discussion on whether the GPCA should join the Prop 14 lawsuit be added to the Prop 14 agenda item http://www.cagreens.org/ga/2013-11/update-prop-14

 

Process Proposal (Shantz): Add ten minutes
 

Approved by consensus

 

Amendment (Feinstein, in response to concern from Brashares, who felt the item should be heard on Sunday, November 18, rather than Saturday): That Richard Winger would be consulted to see if he could attend on Sunday, as he was an integral part of the presentation, and if so, the Coordinating Committee would take up possibly amending the agenda at its November 15th meeting.

 

Approved by consensus, with one stand aside (Brashares)

 

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Rich Zitola joined the call at 9:10

 

13) Report: Treasurer (Barnett)  

 

Barnett gave his report.

 

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A) Bylaws (Ashley)

B) Clearinghouse (Feinstein)

C) Finance (Laidman) 

D) Media (Everette) 

E) Platform (vacant) 

F) Information Technology Committee (Laidman)

G) Campaign Fund Support Committee

E) Fundraising Committee 

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15) Report: Working Groups 

After 9:30 informal reports were heard from 

 

Campaigns and Candidates (Feinstein)

Green Issues (Laidman) 

Grassroots Organizing (Shantz)

 

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