DRAFT Agenda, GPLAC County Council meeting, July 28, 2019

DRAFT Green Party of Los Angeles County County Council Agenda
Sunday, July 28, 2-5pm teleconference, call-in number sent via email on GPLAC County Council email list

Facilitator: Annie Goeke, Ajay Rai
Minutes: Mike Feinstein
Time Keeper:  Linda Piera-Avila
Vibes Watcher: Ava Kermani

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

Brief introductions, including role with 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 (five 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)

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

5. Decision: Appointment to County Council vacancies (time to be determined based upon the number of appointments to be considered)

Background: This agenda item will feature as many potential appointments as have had the required numbers of signatures verified, and may be updated before the July 21 meeting date to reflect this. Follwing 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.

Vote: on each qualified applicant

6. Decision: Approval of minutes from GPLAC June 9, 2019 County Council meeting (three minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Feinstein (Secretary, minutes taker)

Proposal (Feinstein): Approval of these draft minutes: https://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/minutes/2019-06-09

7. 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 (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.Since the GPLAC's June 9, 2019 meeting, the Los Angeles Planning and Land Use Committee and the Los Angeles City Council met and approved the proposed PIMA warehouse on the South Central Farm site https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewre....

8. Decision: Scheduling next GPLAC meetings (fifteen minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Feinstein

Background: This proposal would establish a meeting schedule for most the remainder of the current County Council term, which will run through April 2 (election results are certified by the County Supervisor 29 days after the presidential primary election in which County Council seats are elected, county council terms run 30 days after March 3, 2020 primary election.)  Setting this meeting schedule this far in advance will also give potential meeting hosts more time to secure locations and eliminate last-minute changes the Council has experienced in the last year when planning meeting locations did not work out.

Proposal (Feinstein): That the August 11th meeting be a non-decision making meeting, featuring reports, presentations and picnic; that there be face-to-face meetings on September 22 and November 3 (location to be determined), that in December a holiday party take place on either the weekend of December 14-15 or 21-22; that there be a teleconference on February 3 so that Greens will be more free to work on the campaigns of other Greens running in March 3, 2020 elections, without having to commit most of a day to attend and participate in a meeting; and that there be a face-to-face meeting on March 15.

9. Discussion: August 11 Tongva Park Event (twenty minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Guevara

Background: On August 11, the LA County Council will be hosting an Event for Los Angeles County Greens https://www.facebook.com/events/2177778338987062/. The event will serve multiple purposes and this item is to discuss needed prep, activities, budget, and purposes.

10. Decision: Election of GPLAC Male and Female Co-coordinators*  (fifteen minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Rai and Russell in their roles as co-coordinators

Background: GPLAC Bylaws 6-1.1 provide for one-year terms for GPLAC Co-Coordinators (http://losangeles.cagreens.org/bylaws/2017-03-12#section6-1): "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).”

The terms of GPLAC co-coordinators Marla Bernstein and Ajay Rai http://losangeles.cagreens.org/officers commenced in July 2016 http://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/minutes/2016-07-10 and were to run for one year, but no election for new terms was on the July 2017 County Council agenda.  At the September 10, 2017 County Council meeting, Ajay Rai was elected male co-coordinator, leaving the female co-coordinator position vacant. The terms of whomever is elected at this meeting will run through July 2018. At the August 2018 meeting, Julia Russell was elected to fill the female co-coordinator position.

Nominations to be taken for the male and female co-coordinator positions.

Election: Female co-coordinator position

Election: Male co-coordinator position

11. Decision: Amendment to GPCA Rules ane Procedures to incorporate non-violence language approved June 9 (five minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Russell

Background: At the GPLAC County Council meeting of June 9, an amendment was approved to GPLAC Rules ane Procedures to incorporate non-violence language, but did not contain numbering and formatting to fit within the existing Rules and Procedures.  The follwoing text would place that language into the GPLAC Rules ane Procedures with consistent numbering and formatting.

Proposal (Russell): That GPLAC Rules and Procedures be amended to add the following new Section 1-3 Non-violent Communication

Section 1-3 Non-violent Communication

1-3.1 Stick to the facts: try to be as objective as possible.
1-3.2 Don’t use evaluative language, avoiding such words as, sneaky, arrogant, rude, stupid, mean, greedy, outrageous, lazy, irresponsible, etc.
1-3.3 Stick to the issue.  Principles above personalities.
1-3.4 Practice Active Listening: Avoid interrupting each other.
1-3.5 Don’t resort to ad hominem attacks, i.e. negative evaluations of an individual’s character, intentions, intelligence, etc.           
1-3.6 Don’t assume we know other peoples’ motivations.  Ask them and let them tell us their motivations.  Give them the benefit of the doubt.
1-3.7 Make an effort to make others right. Seek to find something in what another has said that you agree with first, and acknowledge it before going on to the issues you disagree on.  It helps people to be less defensive, more open to really listening.
1-3.8 Don’t deliver ultimatums. Ultimatums leave no room for negotiation and harden people’s defenses.  No one likes to be told they have no choice and ultimatums do that.
1-3.9 Have a clear desired outcome in mind.  That helps us avoid being sidetracked into bickering about non-essential issues.

12. Decision: GPLAC endorsement of AB-1482 (ten minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Guevara

Background: AB-1482 would, as currently written, limit rent increases to 7% plus the cost of living, not to exceed 10% once yearly. AB-1482 is currently referred to the Judicial Committee of the CA State Senate. It is an important  piece of legislation for our county and state, due to the unlivable nature of recent dramatic increases in rent. There are petitions currently circulating for a proposed ballot initiative that could even further the cause, however AB-1482 has a chance at passage while more encompassing bills and/or initiatives are being worked on. 

Text: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1482

Proposal: Endorse AB 1482

13. Decision: Amendment to GPCA Rules and Procedure to implement on-line voting page (twenty minutes)

Sponsors/Presenters: Feintein, Rai

TEXT COMING LATER TODAY

14. Discussion: Update on GPLAC voting page (five minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Feinstein, Rai

Background: As of the time of this agenda release, a few small remaining technical issues remain to launch the GPLAC voting page.  This item will provide an opportunity to report on how those issues are being addressed.

15. Decision: Appointing GPLAC Delegates to SGA (ten minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Feinstein

Background: Depending upon where the GPLAC voting page capabilities are what is the status of nominations made, this item will allow the County Council to make a firm decision on the voting dates for these appointments.

Proposal (to be determined)

16. Discussion: Review of GPLAC email blasts regarding Green social media and a call for 2019 and 2020 candidates (ten minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Feinstein

Background: A review of email blasts authorized by the County Council regarding Green social media and a call for 2019 and 2020 candidates