VOTER - League of Women Voters San Jose/Santa Clara

Privatization: Panacea or Pandemonium

Will it be either? Won't you join us at our February Lunch with League when Kathy Lazarus, a member of the LWVUS Privatization Study, discusses the implications of privatization.

After an 18-year career with Santa Clara County where she held many positions including Senior Planner, Local Agency Formation Commission Executive Officer, Deputy Parks Director, Strategic Issues Manager and Risk Management Director, Cathy joined the City of Mountain View as Public Works Director, retiring in 2009.

Today, Cathy is a consultant to local governments and is a member of the League's national study on privatizing government services. She is also the Local Government Director of the Los Altos-Mountain View League .

Please join us on:

Thursday, February 16

11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Bella Mia Restaurant

58 South First Street, San Jose, CA

Lunch choices include walnut and chicken salad, turkey croissant sandwich, margherita sandwich (tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinegar), eggplant parmesan, and linguini picatta with or without chicken. The cost is $15, payable at the door. Please RSVP, with menu choice, to Marie Arnold by Monday, February 13.

Reminder: Bella Mia can validate for 2 hours only - 1 minute over and the price is $1.00/20 min. for the entire time. The light rail stops behind the restaurant.

President's Message

February may be a short month, but this Leap Year contains an extra day, and that helps as it's a program-packed month for us in the League.

* Feb. 4 -Bay Area League Day in Oakland - Topic: Housing in the Bay Area

* Feb. 16 - Lunch with League. Speaker Cathy Lazarus on the topic of Privatization

* Feb. 25 -Northern California LWVC Regional Meeting in San Jose at MLK Library

I hope you will make time to attend at least one of these events. I especially encourage you to sign up for the Regional Meeting being held here in San Jose and hosted by our League. Note these timely topics planned:

a) The State Budget: It's Broken, Can It Be Fixed, What Can League Do About It? b) Privatization: A Growing Trend, Looking at Two Perspectives, and

c) The Rules Have Changed - the 2012 Elections.

Plus an opportunity to mix and dialogue with members from other leagues and discuss a wide range of topics during the lunch hour.

See the article below for information on how to register.

Are you on our League's elist? Our VOTER provides a good amount of information each month, but another important way we let our members know about legislative action, time-sensitive programs and other items of interest is through our Yahoo-Groups elist. To receive these notices, contact Pat Reardon and she'll send you an invite. If you are not getting our e-list postings be sure to sign-up, and when it arrives in your email, read it promptly, and be sure it's on your safe or approved list of recipients and not forwarded to your junk mail!

Good news on the legislative front: in mid-January, SB 810 passed the Senate Appropriations Committee, a major hurtle. This bill, the California Universal Health Care Act, which the League endorses, needs individuals to take action, as does the important DISCLOSE Act (AB1148). For more information, go to the State site and check out these two items under Advocacy. Lend your voice and be heard!

And - happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

Gloria

LWV California Regional Workshop

Join the League at an informative workshop on current issues affecting the State of California. This workshop will discuss topics that are critical to the effective functioning of our State government including:

The California State Budget: A broken system. What the League and the Public Can Do to Fix the Problem
The Rules Have Changed: The 2012 Elections - Preparing for the State 2012 Elections and a Potential Flood of Ballot Measures
Privatization - a Growing Trend in Government: Let's Take a Closer Look From Two Perspectives

For more information or to register and pay, go to the online registration site.

If you do not have email, contact Pat Reardon for information on how to register.

Privatization Study

With the current budget difficulties, communities across the nation are looking at ways to reduce costs by transferring government services, assets and functions to private entities. Should libraries, roads, and prisons be run by for-profit businesses? In his column of December 31st, San Jose Mercury columnist Scott Herhold began a conversation on the possible privatization of the maintenance of San Jose's fountains. Most of the City's fountains have been turned off because of budget cuts. Does it make sense for a private entity to take over the maintenance of our fountains so they once again flow? What are the risks, if any?

The Privatization Study group continues to meet to examine these questions. Our speaker at this month's Lunch with League will discuss the subject in some depth. In April, we'll hold a consensus meeting so members can hear the facts and then voice their opinion.

Martha Beattie

Observers Report - Santa Clara City Council

Dick Cress went above and beyond the call of duty at the last Santa Clara City Council meeting. There to observe the Charter Review Committee recommendations to the Council, he sat through four hours of testimony on the 49ers Stadium before they reached his topic of interest. Luckily, he stayed awake long enough to file this report:

CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE COUNCIL

Following are the recommendations of the Charter Review Committee to the City of Santa Clara :

Revise the charter to allow At Large elections.
Consider the Proportional Representation voting system by the end of the 2012 calendar year for possible implementation by 2014.
Revise Charter section 701 related to term limits for the City Council and Mayor.
For the 2014 election, create a program to encourage voter registration among minorities and allocate funds to monitor the system by January 1, 2013; and,
Address the "Barriers to the City Council Service" list with regard to candidate recruitment: (Note: the City Manager appended several options to this recommendation, which she proposed, to implement this recommendation. These are included in the printed agenda for the meeting.)

The City Manager will write up "educational materials" for the Council to consider at their February 28 meeting. Depending on action needed, the proposed charter changes should go on the June or November ballot. However, At Large voting systems are not favored by the judicial system as solutions to the issue of underrepresentation of minorities on legislative bodies.

It would appear that the next action by this observer will be to attend the February 28, 2012 City Council Meeting. Other League members living in Santa Clara are urged to also attend.

Committees - Doing the Work of the League

A spring fundraiser has been a League event for twenty years now. It started with a matinee performance at the San Jose Rep after a box lunch picnic on the lawn, organized by Esther Rechenmacher. Tiralisa Kaplow headed the Spring Luncheon committee for many years and she and her committee put on many wonderful events in downtown San Jose. This year, new member Paula Radzinski is coordinating the event. The committee has had their first meeting and is enthusiastically moving forward with a late April to early May date. If you'd like to participate in our League's biggest fundraiser, contact Cecilie Schulze.

Membership

Thank you to members Tat Blesch and Tom Duncanson for their donations to League in January.

Bay Area Monitor

Don't miss the new issue of the Bay Area Monitor, with articles on affordable housing, the Delta Plan debate, power plant emissions standards, and an observation on regional democratic discourse.

Board Briefs

At the January Board meeting:

Gloria Chun Hoo reported that the film "Patriocracy" has been vetted by the national League and the Ohio and New Hampshire Leagues are showing it. Gloria discussed the cost and inquired whether our League would be interested in showing it at a League meeting or County Council meeting.
Martha Beattie reported on recent legislative Interviews: Gloria Chun Hoo and Peter Szego had an interview with Assemblymember Jim Beall in December.
Marie discussed the parking situation at Bella Mia site, which will now allow two-hour only validation and noted that the lunches have not been increased in cost by Bella Mia so League will now charge $15 rather than $16.
Loretta Hayes, Bylaws Committee, and Gloria Chun Hoo conducted a review of the bylaw revisions previously distributed to Board members. Many of the revisions were made to clarify and to eliminate unnecessary verbiage.

Put SuperPacs Out of Business

Let's fight back against the big money pouring into political campaigns this year. Sign the petition on The White House website urging President Obama to appoint new commissioners to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). NOTE: To successfully sign the petition, you'll need to create an account on WhiteHouse.gov and respond to a confirmation email. We need at least 25,000 signatures of support by February 10, 2012, to get a response from The White House. Don't just sign it yourself; post the petition on Facebook, Tweet about it and forward to all of your friends.

(From LWVUS)

Students and the League

Seventeen Presentation High students are working this semester with League for their civic volunteer project. Sharon Sweeney has been mentoring them in projects like promoting voting for young people, understanding the state budget, and researching privatization. Some will be volunteering at our Regional Workshop on the 25th - let's give them a warm League welcome.

Eight students worked on projects last semester and one wrote the following reflection on the experience:

During this project, I learned about two terms in our society that I have never heard of before. One of these terms is privatization, the process of moving from a government-controlled system to a privately run, for-profit system. By researching this topic I believe that I will now think about government and privately owned organizations more seriously. I am much more informed about this issue and the community around me. It is extremely important for students in our world to know more about our political system. Being academically forced to research these topics pushes students to be more successful voters and citizens when they get older. We want to live in a world that allows citizens to vote on issues that will ultimately help everyone. If our nation is uninformed and is not taught about our political system, our world could be disastrous.

Doug Beattie

Condolences to Martha Beattie on the death of her husband Doug on January 13. Doug was a kind man who came to the rescue of our League in July. When we were unable to fill the position of Treasurer, he stepped forward and offered to fill the position. His calm good sense and dry wit will be missed by everyone on the Board.

January's Lunch with League

Carole Leigh Hutton, President and CEO of United Way, spoke to our member about the sobering reality of two Silicon Valleys. She also outlined the United Way programs which seek to lower the drop out rate, help families achieve financial independence, and end childhood hunger.

Reviving California

Reviving California is continuing their series of Thursday lunches.

Thursday, February 9

Taxes and the Role of Goverment

What is the interconnection between revenue and government services?

For more information or to register, go to their website - then go to the Programs Menu and select Reviving California.

Calendar

Information on all of these events is available in this newsletter.

Feb. 4 Bay Area League Day
Feb. 7 Board Meeting - Contact Cecilie Schulze for more info
Feb. 16 Lunch with League
Feb. 25 Regional Workshop
Mar. 6 Board Meeting
Mar. 15 Lunch with League
Apr. 3 * Paranoid Politics
June 2 Annual Meeting

* Part of Silicon Valley Reads. Go to their website for details on all events between February and April.

Address / Email Change?

To keep our records current please send any changes to your address, email address, or phone number, to our Dues Secretary, Sandy Remmers, at randsremmers@gmail.com. The only updates she receives are on the renewal form which is only sent once a year.

Join Our League

Visit our website to join our League.

The Voter

The LWV-SJ/SC Voter is distributed monthly. Article deadline is the 20th of the month. Many thanks to Loretta Hayes who mails the snail mail copies. If you have questions or comments, contact Cecilie Schulze, the Voter Editor.

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Democracy is not a spectator sport! Educate! Advocate!

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