DRAFT Agenda, GPLAC County Council meeting, August 12, 2018

Green Party of Los Angeles County
County Council Meeting Agenda
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Tongva Park, 1615 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90401(in between Main St. and Ocean Ave., just south of I-10 freeway...take Expo Light Rail line to last stop @ 4th/Colorado and walk two blocks)
Pot luck vegetarian picnic at picnic tables in park
2pm - 5pm: Meeting

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

Table of Contents

1. Welcome and Introductions - All attendees (ten minutes)
Very brief introductions, including role w/GPLAC County Council or otherwise with Green Party, or as outside observer

2. Reviewing our process (two minutes)
Presenter: Facilitators
• Relevant Bylaw: Section 9.3 Participation
9.3.1 Open Meetings: With the consent of the Council, all members of the Green Party of Los Angeles County may participate in the 'Consensus-seeking Process' but only Council members may hold any 'unresolved concerns' and participate in any vote, should one become necessary.
9.3.2 County Council members shall receive priority in discussions, to ensure that they have time to a) seek clarifications. b) express their concerns and affirmations, and c) take a vote, if necessary. At the discretion of the facilitation

3. Opportunity to amend agenda and/or add emergency items (ten minutes)
Presenter: Facilitators
• Relevant By-Law 7.5.2.3
The agenda may be amended by a 3/5 vote of County Councilmember present. Emergency and/or late items may be added to the agenda by a 2/3 vote of County Councilmembers (in the interest of time, suggested amendments and their rationale should be offered on-line before the meeting)

Proposal (Feinstein):  Add all items below marked with an asterik * as late items by a 2/3 vote at the time and place in the agenda as proposed below.

4. Discussion: Treasurer's Report (five minutes)
Presenter: Barnett

5. Decision: Approval of minutes from GPLAC July 1st County Council meeting (two minutes)
Presenter: Feinstein

Proposal: Approve minutes https://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/minutes/2018-07-01

6. Decision: Election of of GPLAC Co-Coordinators, Male/Female (fifteen minutes)
Nominations will be taken from the floor. Each nominee will have two minutes to make a candidate statement. Brief questions and answers with the nominees can occur time permitting.The voting procedure is by Instant Run-Off (IRV), using a simple majority threshold and including No Other Candidate as an option. Voting will be by paper ballot and results of the individual votes are included in the minutes.

• Relevant Bylaw: Section 6.1 Co-Coordinators https://losangeles.cagreens.org/bylaws/2017-03-12#section6-1

Section 6-1 Co-Coordinators

6-1.1 The Council shall elect two Co-Coordinators, one male and one female. Within each four-year County Council term, there shall be four consecutive one year Co-Coordinator terms. The first one year term shall commence with the first meeting of the newly elected County Council and the last one shall end when the subsequent County Council holds it first meeting. The voting procedure shall be by Instant Run-Off (IRV), using a simple majority threshold, and including the No Other Candidate option, as referenced in the GPCA Bylaws (Section 7).

6-1.2 The Co-Coordinators shall be responsible for the production of the Council agenda.  This includes the prioritization of and the assigning times to agenda items, as well as the appointment of a meeting facilitator(s), minutes taker and vibes-watcher. 

6-1.3 The Co-Coordinators shall be responsible for the distribution of the Council agenda.  Distribution will include Council members and Active Green locals, and will appear on the County web site. Co-Coordinators may work with the Secretary to accomplish this task.

6-1.4 The Co-Coordinators shall be responsible for updating the GPLAC website and may work with Secretary to accomplish this task.  The web site shall include the names and official contact information of all County Council members, County Council officers; the official contact information for Active Green Locals in Los Angeles County; GPLAC Bylaws and GPLAC Rules and Procedures, and minutes of County Council and County Council committee meetings.

6-1.5 The Co-Coordinators shall serve as Co-Liaisons to the office of the Registrar/Recorder of Los Angeles County.

6-1.6 The Co-Coordinators may speak on behalf of the GPLAC, consistent with GPLAC policy, the Green Party of California state platform, and the Ten Key Values.  No other Council member may speak on behalf of the County Council, without County Council authorization.

GPLAC Co-coordinators, 2016-2018 https://losangeles.cagreens.org/officers

Nomination: Female Co-coordinator, for August 2018 to August 2019 term
Nomination: Male Co-coordinator, for August 2018 to August 2019 term

7. Decision: Set Meeting Location of September GPLAC meeting (ten minutes)
Sponsors: Rai, Russell

Background: The GPLAC has established Sunday, September 16 as the next GPLAC meeting date, but has not set a meeting location

Proposal: Set meeting location

8. Decision: Taking GPLAC positions on November ballot measures in the City of Los Angeles, the CIty of Santa Monica and statewide (25 minutes)
Sponsors/Presenters: Feinstein

Background: GPLAC Bylaws  5-2.10 Ballot Measures state that the County Council may "Endorse or oppose ballot measures appearing on the ballot in Los Angeles County” and Bylaw 9-4.2(h) states that votes that require 3/5 for approval including "endorsing or opposing ballot measures.

This agenda item gives the Green Party the opportunity to discuss and take positions on ballot measures on the November 2018 general election ballot in parts or all of Los Angeles County.

City of Los Angeles

8a) Endorse/Support:  Charter Amendment: Authorize the formation of a municipal bank under Section 104(g) of the City Charter.
https://californiapublicbankingalliance.org/portfolio/losangeles
https://publicbankla.com/index.php/5-point-agenda
https://truthout.org/articles/a-public-bank-for-los-angeles-city-council...

Background: The GPCA endorsed Ellen Brown for Treasurer in 2014. Brown ran on promoting a public bank for California  http://www.cagreens.org/elections/2014/statewide-candidate-questionnaire... • https://ellenbrown.com/treasurer/

City of Santa Monica

8b) Oppose: Charter Amendment: Council Term Limits Initiative
http://www.smvote.org/BallotMeasures/detail.aspx?id=53687101264

Background: The GPCA's Democracy and Electoral Reform section of its platform supports a variety of electorla reforms (http://www.cagreens.org/platform/electoral-reform), but does not support term limits among them.  Instead of term limits, the GPCA supports elections by proportional representation http://www.cagreens.org/platform/proportional-representation.  Term limits limit voter choice, proportional representation elections expand them.  On the municipal level, ranked choice voting is the form of proportional representation. Why is ranked choice voting right for Santa Monica?  http://smdp.com/next-logical-step-after-lv-is-rcv/158764 •  http://smdp.com/reflective-democracy-in-santa-monica/154836

Statewide

8C) Endorse/Support:  Proposition 10: Expands Local Governments’ Authority to Enact Rent Control on Residential Property. Initiative Statute.

Background: The GPCA platform opposed the Costa-Hawkins Act when it was originally passed and has called for its repeal ever since http://www.cagreens.org/platform/housing. Proposition 10 would repeal the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act and allow California cities to place rent-control restrictions on newly created housing stock.

9. Decision: Letter to GPCA regarding GPCA spokesperson and GPLAC position on Santa Monica Measure LV in 2016 (ten minutes)
Sponsors: Feinstein, Piera-Avila

Background: GPLAC members have been publicly criticized by the male GPCA spokesperson for the GPLAC's position in opposing Santa Monica Measure LV in 2016 https://losangeles.cagreens.org/press-release/pr20161018.

Proposal:  Approve following text (text to before GPLAC meeting)

10. Decision: Letter to GPCA Coordinating Committee regarding GPLAC use of GPCA Nationbuilder data for LA County (ten minutes)
Sponsors: Feinstein, Piera-Avila

Background: Despite two letters from the GPLAC, sent by GPLAC co-coordinator Julia Russell, the GPLAC's access to the GPLAC's data and email capabilty in the GPCA Nationbuilder data base has not been restored.  However many new members of the GPCA Coordinating Committee have been elected since, making it time to revist the topic,.

Proposal:  Approve following text (text to before GPLAC meeting)

11. Decision: Letter to GPCA regarding returning SGA to officially approved voting page and email list (ten minutes)
Sponsors: Feinstein, Rai

Background: The GPCA Coordianting Committee SGA co-adminstartors have made a unilateral decision to abandon the GPCA's approved official voting page.  This has led to multiple problems (more text coming)

Proposal:  Approve following text (text to before GPLAC meeting)

12. Decision: Bylaws Amendment Section 8-3 Nominations (twenty minutes)
Sponsors: Bernstein, Feinstein and Piera-Avila

Background:  Since 1994, the GPLAC bylaws have required that to be considered for appontment to fill a mid-term vacancy on the County Council, nmominees must be registered Greens within the District they wish to represent, and must also gather as many signatures of registered Greens in the district as would be normally required by the County Registrar to appear on the ballot in that district. Such appliants could be approved by a simply majority vote. However addtionally before newly elected 2016 County Council term began, the outgoing County Council amended the bylaws to temporarily also allow the County Council to fill such mid-term vacacies by an 80% vote, even if the applicant did not gather the requried 20 signatures, or even if they didn't gather any signatures at all.  This was done given the weakened state of the county party, owing to issues related to the 2012 Green presidential primary and their aftermath.  The feeling of the outgoing County Council was that it would be helpfu to have such option for a short period of time, because not as many Greens as normal had filed for the County Council in 2016, in part as a result of prior issues related to 2012.

The County Council used this option to appoint five new members at its July 2016 meeting (https://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/minutes/2016-07-10), two at its August 2016 meeting (https://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/minutes/2016-08-21) and three at the October 2016 meeting (https://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/minutes/2016-10-02), after which this bylaw amendment sunset.

At its March 2017 meeting, the County Council again amended the bylaws on this issue, adding an option "for the County Council meetings of March 12, April 23 and June 4, [a nominee] 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" (https://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/minutes/2017-03-12).  The Council used this option to appoint two new members at its March 2017 meeting (https://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/minutes/2017-03-12) and two at its May 2017 meeting (https://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/minutes/2017-05-07).

Proposal: That Section 8-3 be amended from reading as thus:

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 for County Council meetings (or on-line votes) between August 12 and September 30, for those who attended a County Counci meeting within the previous six months, may gather at least ten 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

13. Decision: Endorse the 3rd Annual 2018 L.A. Harbor Area Peace Week (five minutes)
Sponsor: Rachel Bruhnke

Background: Last year, the GPLAC endorsed the 2nd Annual Peace Week. It was very successful and helped to promote the GP value of Non-violence, and the GP platform of 50% reduction in military spending (A preliminary flyer will be provided to the CC online to review before the mtg.)

Proposal: Endorse the 3rd Annual 2018 L.A. Harbor Area Peace Week

14. Discussion:  Green Issues Forum Update (ten minutes)
Sponsors: Dueñas, Feinstein

Background:  This item is to present on a possible event featuring Middle East issues, in part based upon Feinstein's recent trip to Israel and Palestine

15. Report: Update on GPLAC opposition to Final EIR for warehouse project at 4051 S. Alameda in Los Angeles on the former South Central Farm land (five 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 Planning Commission'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.