DRAFT Agenda, GPLAC County Council meeting, March 12, 2017

Green Party of Los Angeles County - County Council Meeting Draft Agenda
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Mercado La Paloma •  http://www.mercadolapaloma.com
3655 South Grand Ave.
12:30pm to 3:30pm:  Meeting
Multiple restaurants in a food court setting are on-site, so plan to order and eat during meeting
http://www.mercadolapaloma.com/view-all-restaurants/

Co-Facilitators: Annie Goeke and Ajay Rai
Minutes: Mike Feinstein
Time Keeper:  Linda Piera Avila
Vibes Watcher: Cordula Ohman

1. Welcome and Introductions - All attendees (ten minutes)

2. Opportunity to amend agenda and/or add emergency items (five minutes)
Presenter: Facilitators
• Relevant By-Law 9-5.5 Once distributed, the Agenda may not be changed until the meeting. The time and order of already agendized items may be amended by a 3/5 vote.  New agenda items may be added by a 2/3 vote.

Note: Items #4 through #13 all submitted late and all require 2/3 to be added to agenda.

3. Report: Treasurer’s report (five minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Doug Barnett, GPLAC Treasurer

4. Action: Approval of Minutes of January 29, 2017 County Council meeting  (five minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Feinstein

Background: The minutes have not been posted to the County Council. If a draft is posted before the County Council meeting, they can be discussed and voted upon if the Councilmembers are comfortable with their content. If any Councilmembers have a concern, approval can be postponed to the next County Council meeting.

5. Discussion: Update on GPLAC opposition to Final EIR for warehouse project at 4051 S. Alameda in Los Angeles on the former South Central Farm land and discussion of next steps (fifteen minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Piera-Avila

Background: The GPLAC took this position in July 2016 on the Final EIR losangeles.cagreens.org/documents/2016-07-14/GPLAC-EIR-comments-4051-Alameda after previously supporting preservation of the South Central Farm back in 2006. On November 10, 2016 the Los Angeles Planning Comission denied an appeal of a lower level approval of the EIR.

This agenda item will brief the County Council on efforts to appeal the City's approval and on the campaign to persuade the owner to sell the land so that it can be converted back into an urban farm and food hub.

6. Decision: Bylaw Change regarding signature threshold to consideration of appointment to County Council vacancy (twenty minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Feinstein

Proposal: Amend existing language

Section 8-3 Nominations

8-3.1 Nominees must be registered Greens within the District they wish to represent, and must also gather as many signatures of registered Greens in the district on a petition as defined in 8.4, as would be normally required by the County Registrar to appear on the ballot in that district, for the purposes of being elected to the Los Angeles County Green Party County Council.

to

Section 8-3 Nominations

8-3.1 Nominees must be registered Greens within the District they wish to represent, and must also gather as many signatures of registered Greens in the district on a petition as defined in 8.4, as would be normally required by the County Registrar to appear on the ballot in that district, for the purposes of being elected to the Los Angeles County Green Party County Council; or may gather five signatures of registered Greens in the district on a petition as defined in 8.4 and to be appointed, would need 80% approval from the County Council

And this additional language would be valid for the next three County Council meetings.

7. Decision: Appointment to County Council vacancy - Angelica Duenas (twenty minutes)

Background.  This is the exsting language for filling County Council vacancies

http://losangeles.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-02#section8-3

Section 8-3 Nominations

8-3.1 Nominees must be registered Greens within the District they wish to represent, and must also gather as many signatures of registered Greens in the district on a petition as defined in 8.4, as would be normally required by the County Registrar to appear on the ballot in that district, for the purposes of being elected to the Los Angeles County Green Party County Council.

8-3.2 Any nominee that has satisfied the conditions as stated in 8-3.1 may request that a vote be taken either at the next County Council meeting as long as the nominations have been submitted by the agenda-submittal deadline, or may request that the County Council vote by email, or by teleconferencing, if a teleconference is already scheduled. The Co-Coordinators must agendize the vote as requested by the nominee. If the vote is to occur at an in-person meeting or teleconference, it must be agendized as the first order of business, except if there are elections under 5-2.4 agendized, in which case consideration of appointment of the nominee shall be agendized immediately afterwards.

Section 8-4 Nomination Signature Petition

Nomination signatures must be collected on a document that contains the following words at the top of the page: "We, the undersigned registered Green Party members in District ________ support the appointment of __________ to the Los Angeles County Green Party County Council."

Section 8-5 Validation of Nomination Signatures

Nomination signatures must be validated before a nominee can be considered for appointment.  Signatures must be delivered personally or sent by certified mail to a Co-Coordinator; or in lieu of this, a fax, .PDF or other image format may suffice, if the original is then presented at the next Council meeting to a Co-Coordinator or the Secretary.

Section 8-6 Voting upon Nominees

The County Council will vote upon each vacancy separately using Instant Run-Off Voting. County Council members may cast votes for qualified nominees and may exercise the 'No Other Candidate' (NOC) option. In the event of a tie, a new election may be held.

8. Decision: Appointment of Angelica Duenas to Standing General Assembly (five minutes)

9. Discussion: Greens in Los Angeles County March 7 elections and next steps (sixty minutes)

Green City Council candidates Adriana Cabrera (Los Angeles, District 9), Jessica Salans (Los Angeles, District 13) and Tyler Morrison (South Gate) will present about their candidacies.

10. Decision: Setting Next Two Meeting Dates and Locations (fifteen minutes)
Sponsors/Presenters: Bernstein, Rai

Background: The County Council decided at its first meeting of the 2016-2020 term to meet approximatley every six weeks.  Six weeks from the March 12 meeting would be Sunday, April 23.  Six weeks after that would be Sunday, June 4. There has been conversation about having the April meeting be by teleconference, but no final decision has been made about it.

Proposal: That the next two GPLAC meetings be at 4pm on Sunday, April 23 and Sunday, June 4.  That the April 23 meeting be a teleconference and that the Co-cooridnators are directed to find an LA County number for the teleconference to minimize call-in costs, and that the June 4 meeting held at a location to-be-determined at the meting.

11: Decision: Call for President to Release Tax Returns, Congress to Explore President’s Conflicts of Interest (fifteen minutes)
Sponsors/Presenters: Feinstein, Piera-Avila

Proposal: That the GPLAC approve the following resolution

Whereas the Constitution of the United States grants vast powers to the President of the United States (https://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm#a2); and

Whereas these powers are granted in the name of the people and in the public trust, a democracy is effective only if the people have faith in those who govern; and

Whereas a conflict of interest is anything that creates an incentive to put your own interests before the interests of the people you serve; and

Whereas to avoid corruption, conflicts of interest, and to preserve the president's independence in the exercise of those powers, the Constitution’s emoluments clause prohibits presidents from accepting foreign gifts or emoluments without congressional consent; and

Whereas emoluments include profits received in a business relationship and are not limited to monetary payments, but also include economically valuable favorable regulatory actions; and

Whereas before assuming office, President-elect Donald Trump claimed a vast national and international network of businesses and investments; and

Whereas profiting from these investments by virtue of decisions he might make as President would be a violation of the emoluments clauses; and

Whereas in December 2016, the Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics recommended to then President-elect Trump that the only way that Mr. Trump could  satisfy the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution would be complete to completely divest his business assets and place them into a blind trust (https://oge.gov/web/OGE.nsf/All%20Documents/169B877EB78DA99F852580C10058...$FILE/ELPB%20Email%20wTrump%20November%208-December%2022%202016.pdf ) ; and

Whereas the President-election declined to do so, and instead indicated control would be transferred to his children; and

Whereas the Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics concluded that "Transferring operational control of a company to one's children would not constitute the establishment of a qualified blind trust, nor would it eliminate conflicts of interest" (http://www.npr.org/2016/12/13/505476925/government-ethics-office-says-tr... ); and

Whereas every major Presidential candidate since Richard Nixon (with the exception of President Gerald Ford who released a summary of tax data), has released his or her tax returns for public review – until Donald Trump (http://www.taxhistory.org/www/website.nsf/Web/PresidentialTaxReturns); and

Whereas none of the potential conflicts arising from Trumps domestic and international investments can be verified until and unless there is financial disclosure from President Trump, and

Whereas violation of the emoluments clause is a violation of the Constitution and therefore an impeachable offense,

Therefore in an attempt to restore public trust in the office of the Presidency,

- The Green Party of the United States calls upon President Trump to immediately release his tax returns for the last five years; and if he does not, pursuant to Section 6103(f)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code, for the Ways and Means Committee to immediately submit a written request to the Secretary of the Treasury for copies of the President’s federal tax returns; and

- The Green Party of the United States calls upon the Ways and Means Committee to then submit the President’s federal tax returns to the House of Representatives, thereby making them available to the public

12. Discussion: Status of Green locals and relationship to County Council (time permitting)

13. Discussion: Use of GPLAC social media (time permitting)

On Twitter (county): www.twitter.com/GreenPartyLACty (state): www.twitter.com/gpca
On Facebook (county): www.facebook.com/gplac and www.facebook.com/groups/114542358579795
On Facebook (state): www.facebook.com/cagreens and www.facebook.com/groups/8071416222