Alameda County Council, Minutes of October 9, 2005

The Council met at the Niebyl-Proctor Library in Oakland at 7:00 pm.

(1)  Introductions were made:  Councilors present;  John Morton (facilitating), Patti Marsh, Bob Marsh, Jan Arnold (notes), Victoria Ashley, Greg Jan, Tahan Jones, Bob Fox, Conor Dixon (proxy for Khurshid Khoja),  Larry Shoup (proxy for Kate Tanaka). (Absent: Michael Rubin)

Others present for part or all of the meeting;  Evan Blickenstaff (CoCoCo),
Peter (Berkeley), Richard Banger and Irene Dieter (Alameda), Zach RunningWolf

(2) Announcements:  Zach announced an important meeting of the A C Transit
Board is coming up on October 19 (for time, see website).  The Board is
considering the use of biodiesel for all 683 A C Transit buses. 

The Berkeley UU's are inviting us to three upcoming programs;  October 21 at
7 PM, a program concerning Stan "Tookie" Williams, to try to prevent his
execution.  October 28 at 7 PM, Jane and Tom Kelly on global warming/climate change.  November 11 from 7:00-10:00 PM, a Katrina relief concert, $25 donation requested, with Country Joe McDonald and others.

John Morton announced that our website is active and we need people to work
on it, keep it updated and add items of interest.  Victoria Ashley volunteered.
Also, Conor Dixon and Khurshid Khoja have planned to meet Tuesday to talk
about it.

(3) consent calendar; no items.

(4) Effort to amend Alameda's Measure A; Richard and Irene told us that under
Measure A, which passed in Alameda in 1973, no new residential construction
can be larger than a duplex.  (Developers were buying historic Victorians,
tearing them down, and building apartments.)  At that time, the area now called
Alameda Point was part of the Naval Air Station (NAS).  When the land is
transferred, it will be part of Alameda, subject to Measure A.  A coalition has
formed to prepare and qualify a ballot measure to allow multi-family housing
(four-story height limit), which would require amending Measure A (that is, the
charter).  This will provide more density which will allow for increased transit
and for retail as part of the development which is being planned.  This is a
Green issue because it's "smart growth."  Due to a lawsuit, there are already
provisions in place requiring 25% of the housing at Alameda Point to be
affordable.  the coalition includes the Democratic Club, League of Women Voters, Bicycle Club, churches, the Sierra Club.  A C Transit is involved in planning for the additional residents.  the master developer is working on the traffic issue but there are studies showing high-density housing generates less traffic than single-family housing.  Richard and Irene are here to request our endorsement.  The ballot language is not yet complete. 

After discussion, Greg Jan proposed that we endorse the signature-gathering
campaign, conditional on no major objections arising from Council members in
the next two weeks.  (Consensus.)

(5) Regional Reps/Alternates to the GPCA CC;  John Morton reviewed the status of our Regional Reps/Alts.  Our Region is Alameda County, Contra Costa County, and Solano County.  As a Region, we get two Reps and two Alts to the CC.  Currently, Sharon Peterson (Rep) and Craig Peterson (Alt) have terms expiring, as they were elected in 2003.  (John Morton (Rep) and Evan Blickenstaff (Alt) were elected in 2004, so their terms still have a year to run. )  According to the Bylaws, the election should have been held at the first Plenary of the year (Sylmar).  John distributed a proposed new procedure for our region to consider.  Regions can have procedures that differ from "first Plenary of the year" if the procedure is submitted to the CC.  John reported that Sharon is running for re-election; Craig is willing to serve again or willing to step down if someone else wants to serve as Alternate. 

Greg proposed that we look at John's suggested alternate procedure and
eventually we may agree to adopt an alternate procedure  of doing elections. 
Meanwhile, we should vote at the Yolo Plenary (in December), on the basis that
Sylmar was not an effective Plenary.  We consensed on this proposal. 

(6)  Plenary/Council schedule;  The Yolo Plenary is scheduled for the second
weekend in December (Dec. 9-11) so we agreed to cancel the December Green Sunday and the December County Council meeting, and hold a holiday party on
Sunday, December 18.  The Outreach Committee was asked to handle the details.

(7)  Berkeley School Board; we have been contacted by someone proposing to
attempt, by ballot initiative, to change to District Election of the Berkeley School Board.  She wants to come to our November Council meeting to tell us about the proposal.  The group  also wants to add an Auditor position.  Bob Marsh would like this discussion postponed until January, if possible, because he won't be here in November; Jan Arnold wants it postponed, if possible, to allow time at the November meeting for substantive discussion of the proposals coming to the December Plenary, as well as the election of delegates for that Plenary.  Greg Jan is willing to call the woman who asked to come, and see if she could wait until January.  If not, our Berkeley Council members who will not be able to attend the November meeting will appoint appropriate proxies with a knowledge of School Board issues--such as John Selawsky.

(8) November meeting; planning for December plenary.  We agreed that we will
announce (to our Announcements list) that delegates to the Plenary will be
elected at the November meeting.  Also, there are a couple of substantive
proposals coming up, and Cat Woods (At-Large Rep to the CC, who lives in Marin County) would like to attend our meeting to explain the proposals.  Greg pointed out that we have the option of mandating our delegates to vote a certain way on items we know about ahead of time, although we rarely do so.  Jan Arnold will reply to Cat, explaining that she is welcome to attend and speak but time may be limited. 

(9)  Green Party Night at the Alameda County Central Labor Council (Monday,
October 24);  Larry Shoup has arranged for a unique event; Green Party Night at
the ACCLC phonebank.  Normally the CLC endorses Democrats and we don't join
their phonebank efforts, but this phonebank is in opposition to
Schwartzenegger's ballot measures, which we also oppose.  Council commends Larry for arranging this unique joint work with the CLC.  Larry already has signed up 10 Greens (at Green Sunday and at this meeting) and will look for others. 

(10) Treasurer vacancy; Bob Marsh  is resigning effective December 31.  He will help train his successor and will continue to help with the FEPC filings.  Greg will ask Laura Wells; Victoria suggests Kevin Reilly; Conor suggests Michael Kaufman. 

(11) Recruiting volunteers; Greg Jan has produced (and distributed) a list of tasks that we do or don't do, places where volunteers could be brought into our work.  He requests that we all look at the list and prioritize what most needs attention.

(12) John Morton announced that he will be away starting November 17, for 2 or 3 or 4 months.  He's our CC Rep; our Alt is, as stated in item 5 above, Evan.  John is willing to resign if someone else wants to run. 

(13) Committee meetings; Phonebanking (fundraising for the Voter Guide) will be this Tuesday evening at Kate Tanaka's house; Outreach will be this Wednesday evening at Au Cocolet. 

(14) Donation of $100 to the counter-recruitment event coming up soon at UC
Berkeley was passed by consensus.

(15)  Green gathering at Laney College; Our financial responsibility for this event was greatly eased by the Laney Student government agreeing to endorse our event, and fighting for us to get free use of the venue.  We still are not entirely clear on how much our net proceeds from the event are.  John proposes that we share the proceeds with the Student Government (we previously planned to do this).  We reached consensus on a plan to donate about 30% of the net (appropriately rounded) or $300, whichever is less (that is, a maximum of $300). 

(16)  Voter Guide distribution--we have already mailed to the absentee voters; this week (before Bob Marsh leaves town) we will arrange for the remaining mailing.  We all should distribute to libraries, bookstores, special events etc.  As we get closer to Election Day we also should hand them out at BART stations.

(17)  Delegate for anti-WalMart Coalition (next meeting is Oct. 13)--someone from Solano Greens is already involved, and the GPCA is planning to send someone.  The coalition would like someone from Alameda County too.  So far nobody has volunteered.  John will phone Jonathan Nack and Kevin Reilly and ask them.

(18)  San Leandro report--Bob Fox reported that the San Leandro Greens are
looking for candidates to support for the next election round. 

-end-