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 *
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 *
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*
Sponsor/Present: Mike Feinstein

Background/Proposal:

7. Proposal:  Update on LA Charter Reform Process 

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;
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  *
Sponsors/Presenters: Feinstein, Rai

11. Discussion:  Greens running for LA Neighborhood Council

12. Discussion: GPLAC Bylaws Proposal amendment  *

Sponsor/Presenter: Mike Feinstein, Ajay Rai

Background: Draft proposal to provide for amendment to appointment process to County Council vacancies