DRAFT Green Party of Los Angeles County, County Council Meeting Agenda, Friday, March 7, 2025

DRAFT Green Party of Los Angeles County, County Council Meeting Agenda, Friday, March 7, 20254
Teleconference information shared via County Council email list
Check in/socializing: 4:45 pm to 5pm
Business meeting: 5pm to 7pm

Facilitators: Timeka Drew, Ajay Rai
Minutes: Mike Feinstein
Time Keeper:  Doug Barnett
Vibes Watcher: Ava Kermani

Agenda

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

2. Reviewing our process (three minutes)
Presenter: Facilitators
• Relevant Bylaw: Section 11-2 Participation
11-2.1 All GPLAC members may participate in the 'Consensus-seeking Process'. Participation is based upon the premise that people participant in order build the Green Party and advance the Ten Key Values. Disagreement over issues and ideas should be honored as an expected part this process, and is not to be considered a disruption or impediment. Participants are encouraged to state their views, inform one another, and discuss issues in depth, in a manner that enables energy to be focused on productive work.
11-2.2 Only County Council members can hold 'unresolved concerns' and participate in any vote, should one become necessary.
11-2.3 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 team, non-Council members may also participate in these discussions.
11-2.4 A County Council member, when recognized by the facilitation team, may yield the floor to a non-County Council member rather than speaking themselves, and in do doing, forego his/her turn on the item.

3. Decision: 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)

Proposal (Feinstein): Items marked *below were published after the two week deadline and thereby need to be added to the agenda by a 2/3 vote

4. Discussion: Treasurer's Report* (ten minutes)
Sponsor/Presenter: Doug Barnett, Outgoing GPLAC Treasurer; Ajay Rai, GPLAC Co-Coordinator

Background:  The GPLAC submitted its required campaign finance filing for the second half of 2024.

5.  Decision: GPLAC website losangeles.cagreens.org upgrade* (fifteen minutes)
Sponsor/Presenters: Ajay Rai, Timeka Drew

Background: The GPLAC website losangeles.cagreens.org uses Drupal as its platform and current is using Drupal 7 version 7.103.  Drupal recently sent the following message:

"It's important to note that Drupal 7 reached its end-of-life on January 5, 2025. This means it no longer receives official support or security updates from the Drupal community. Continuing to use Drupal 7 may expose your site to security vulnerabilities. Therefore, it's highly recommended to upgrade to a supported version, such as Drupal 10 or 11, to ensure ongoing security and support."

It is possible, it will be a simple "click a button" to go to Drupal 10 and then Drupal 11. But since this would be a major upgrade across three versions (from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10) problems could be expected - some plugins or add-ons used on the site that may not work anymore and the look of the site will probably change. In a worst case scenario, the site could completely go down.  Rai would make a backup before attempting to perform the upgrade.  Subsequently a Drupal programmer could be hired to brink the site back and potentially cost between $500 and $3,000, depending on the complexity.

Proposal (Rai): To be determined depending upon the status of the site at the time of the County Council meeting.

6. Decision: GPLAC Nationbuilder website and Accurate Append expenses* (fifteen minutes)
Sponsor/Present: Mike Feinstein

Background: https://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/agenda/2025-03-07/nationb...
Proposal: https://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/agenda/2025-03-07/nationb...

7. Proposal:  Update on LA Charter Reform Process* (ten minutes)

Sponsor/Presenter: Mike Feinstein

Background: In December 2024 the GPLAC signed onto a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to make her appointments to the Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission, so that it could begin its business (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e7WSrCXlN0zqWoJjF5UkcYbAeQS8I1fw72J9...), as Bass was already late in doing so, potentially endangering the possibility that the Commission could make recommendation in time to appear on the November 2026 ballot.  The idea was that the letter would not be shared with the media, if Bass acted to make her appointments promptly.

Not only did Bass not act during December after receiving the letter, but with the mid-January LA Fires complicating matters for her administration, Bass failed to act throughout January.  Eventually in February the letter was shared with the media, leading to this article in Politico (https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/28/la-city-hall-charter-reform-kar...), highlighting Bass's failure to act.  Once the article appeared, Bass's office contacted the coalition behind the letter to say they would be contacting potential appointees and expected to make their appointments thereafter.

Once Bass makes her appointments to bring the number of Commissioners to eight, those eight will chose another five based upon a public application process.  Once the full 13 member Commission is chosen, they will begin the process of considering potential amendments to the Los Angeles Charter.

Proposal:  That once the eight members of the Commission are appointed, and again once all 13 members are appointed, that the GPLAC send an email to (i) all appointed Commission members, (ii) all LA Neighborhood Council members and (iii) all Greens in Los Angeles County for whom the GPLAC can email to, notifying them of the GPLAC position (http://losangeles.cagreens.org/issues/gplac-concerns-limited-scope-los-a...) that the Commission take up the topic of a larger Los Angeles City Council elected from multi-seat districts by ranked choice voting; and that once the process for public participation is announced, that it be sent to all Greens in Los Angeles County for whom the GPLAC can email to.

8. Decision: Endorse The California Fair Elections Act SB 42* (five minutes)
Sponsors/Presenters: Mike Feinstein

Background: The Green Party has long supported public financing of elections. Currently California state law prevents General Law cities from enacting public financing programs for their own local elections.

The California Fair Elections Act SB42 (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202...) would place the decision to change that before California voters in the November 2026 general elections, by giving General Law cities the option to enact such programs, but would not mandate it for them to do so.

https://www.yesfairelections.org/content/pdf/sb42_twopager.pdf

A draft of the proposed email to GPLAC members to write to their state legislators to support this bill has been sent to the County Council.

Proposal: That the GPLAC (i) endorse SB42 - the California Fair Elections Act, (ii) report that endorsement to the authors of the bill, (iii) send an email blast to Greens in LA County to write their state legislators to support the bill (https://www.yesfairelections.org/petition/sb42.php) and (iv) notify the GPCA of the GPLAC's support and encourage it to do the same.

9. Decision: Endorsement Process for Governor*  (ten minutes)
Sponsor/Presenters: Mike Feinstein, Shannel Pittman

See this link for the text of this agenda item https://losangeles.cagreens.org/county-council/agenda/2025-03-07/endorse...

10. Decision: Set next GPLAC meeting dates* (ten minutes)
Sponsors/Presenters: Feinstein, Rai

Proposal: That the GPLAC set a meeting date for a virtual business meeting starting at 6pm on either Sunday April 27, May 4 or May 19 (May 11 is Mothers Day) and an in-person meeting at 1pm a location to be determined on either Sunday July 6, 13 or 20.

11. Discussion:  Greens running for LA Neighborhood Council* (ten minutes)

Background: Four email blasts were sent to Greens in the City of Los Angeles between this date and that date, announcing the application dates to run for Los Angeles Neighborhood Council in Spring 2025.  The open rates for these emails were extremely low: 2.71%, 0.98%, 0.72%, 2.57% and 1.92% - the latter two with titles suggested by Ginny Case to be more likely to be opened (Green Party - Run for Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, and Green Party Candidates Wanted: Run for LA Neighborhood Council in 2015), compared to the initial three email blast, all with the same title (Run for LA Neighborhood Council in 2025 - filing period has opened.) Of the 4190 Greens in Los Angeles who were sent emails, a total of 325 opened the emails and only 13 clicked upon links, while 10 unsubscribed, 224 addresses bounced and 5 were bad.

Thus far the filing deadline has passed and final lists of candidates have been published for Neighborhrood Council regions, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12.
https://clerk.lacity.gov/clerk-services/elections/neighborhood-council-e...

So far at one registered Green has been discovered who is running in these regions - William Cordray, a sustainability activist, for the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council (https://www.gpelections.org/races/william-cordray-runs-for-neighborhood-...), and it turns out he was appointed to serve on the Neighborhood Council in October 2023 and has been serving ever since. There are up to three others in those regions running who may be registered Green, but more research is necessary to confirm if this is the case.

The candidates lists for regions 1,2, 3, 4, and 8 still have to be finalized. Once they are, they will be searched to identify any other registered Greens running. 

Green incumbents not seeking re-election are  Samir Bitar, Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, alternate; Rosina Jacobs, Residential Area Representative, Wilshire Vista Neighborhood, P.I.C.O. Neighborhood Council; and John Vangelisti, Business Director, Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council. Green incumbents whose terms extend to 2026 are Sara Bacon, Senior Representative, Northridge South Neighborhood Council, term through spring 2026  and Mireira Alejandra Moran , Renter Representative Canoga Park Neighborhood Council, term through spring 2027.

An earlier decision by the County Council to seek to organize present and former Green Neighborhood Council members found only response to the email outreach and likely requires more work to contact and organize them.

12. Discussion: GPLAC Bylaws Proposal amendment* (ten minutes)

Sponsors/Presenters: Mike Feinstein, Ajay Rai

Background: GPLAC Bylaws state that there be a minimum of 30 days notice for any amendment to the GPLAC bylaws.  On April 20, 2024 the County Council approved the following bylaws  bylaws change, which sunsetted as of December 31, 2024.

This is 30 days notice for a similar bylaws change to sunset as of December 31, 2025

CURRENT LANGUAGE

Section 9-3 Nomination Signature Petition for Appointment to Fill Vacancies

9-3.1 Any person seeking to be appointed to fill a County Council vacancy must be registered Green within the District they wish to represent, and must gather as many signatures of registered Greens in the district on a nomination petition as defined in 8.4, as would be normally required by the County Registrar to appear on the ballot in that district. After which they must receive a majority vote of the County Council to be appointed.

PROPOSED LANGUAGE

Section 9-3 Nomination Signature Petition for Appointment to Fill Vacancies

9-3.1 Any person seeking to be appointed to fill a County Council vacancy must be registered Green within the District they wish to represent, and must gather as many signatures of registered Greens in the district on a nomination petition as defined in 8.4, as would be normally required by the County Registrar to appear on the ballot in that district. After which they must receive a majority vote of the County Council to be appointed.

(The following sentence shall be in the bylaws through December 2024 and then shall be removed) Additionally on a one time basis, for the period of April 2025 through December 2025, an applicant who has attended at last one County Council meeting in the last six months, may ask in writing three weeks before a County Council meeting to be appointed. After which they must receive a 2/3 vote of the County Council to be appointed.