VOTER - League of Women Voters San Jose/Santa Clara

Since its founding in 1992, the work of the Innocence Project has led to the exoneration of 289 convicted prisoners, 17 of whom were on death row.

At our March Lunch with League, Linda Starr of the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) at University of Santa Clara School of Law will share with us the mission, the work, and the outcomes of this important organization.

Linda Starr, NCIP co-founder and Legal Director, received her J.D. from the University of Southern California Law Center and has over 25 years experience as an attorney both in California and New York. Starr clerked for the California Court of Appeal, worked as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York, and has worked as a private practitioner in post-conviction matters at all levels of the state and federal courts. At NCIP, Starr oversees all aspects of investigation and litigation into wrongful conviction in state and federal courts. She also develops and teaches Innocence Project and Advanced Innocence Project courses at Santa Clara Law.

Please join us on:

Thursday, March 15

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 12.

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

Our San Jose-Santa Clara League proudly hosted the 2012 Northern California Regional Meeting at the end of February and we experienced a wonderful turnout from Leagues as far away as Sacramento and Santa Cruz, from Berkeley and Visalia. For all of us, it was an opportunity to network and meet members from other leagues, and to focus on key topics, such as getting ready for the deluge of ballot measures and the 2012 elections.

I am constantly humbled when I am with other League members, many with extensive experience and knowledge about how government works, and their work advocating for issues to make our lives better and our government more effective.

Thanks to the League, voters throughout our region, our state and our nation are better informed. Thank you for your membership and support of this work!

One of the best ways to get involved is through study. Serving on a study committee enables a League member to become personally engaged in researching and "studying" a topic of government-political consequence. Our privatization study committee, headed by Martha Beattie and co-chaired by new member Mary Collins, is moving forward. While the study is part of a national study, the committee is finding local applications and recently spent extensive time with the City of San Jose staff.

At the State level, we are urged to create study committees to look at the State Budget process. Soon study materials will also be available on the California Initiative and Referendum process. See the LWVC site for details about the study. If you are interested in joining and even chairing such a study group, please let me or Cecile Schulze, our Program Chair, know of your interest. It will prove to be very engaging!

Remember - democracy is fragile and requires participation. Do join in!

Gloria

Privatization Study

I hope that you were able to hear Cathy Lazarus at Lunch with League - she was great! If not, read the summary of what she said elsewhere in this issue. She also has recommended a website for us to view that has good information on what is happening in privatization: go here to read it.

Cathy's article on "best practices" for privatization is your go-to article to prepare yourself for the consensus meeting. Go directly to the Best Practices information for the PDF of this 7-page report, then to the 8-page appendix . This is a meaty appendix, with tables covering potential advantages and disadvantages of privatization, "best practices" checklists for making the decision to privatize, managing contractor selection, negotiating the contract, and managing and overseeing performance.

The Consensus meeting will be held the morning of Saturday, April 14th, at Alice and Rod Thorn's, centrally located for all. Save the date! We will have copies of the consensus questions available, but for an advance peek, go to the LWV website. I am pleased to report that Mary Collins, a newish League member, has agreed to be my co-chair, and we will be planning a very informative consensus meeting for you all!

Martha Beattie, Privatization Study Chairperson

LWV California Regional Workshop

Over one hundred participants from Northern California Leagues attended the Regional Workshop held on February 25 at the ML King Library. After a welcome to participants by San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, Syeda Inamdar of LWVC presented information on the budget. This was followed by a panel on privatization that included Cathy Lazarus of the LWVUS study committee as well as Jane Light, head of San Jose's library system and John Tang of the San Jose Water Company. We broke for lunch into networking groups that discussed everything from membership to school financing to voter service activity. The only complaint - all of the topics were so interesting many of us had trouble choosing one! After lunch, Lianne Campodonico, LWVC Voter Services Director, talked about the changing rules for the 2012 elections. I left the workshop proud to be a member of an organization with so many intelligent, articulate members. Kudos to Gloria Chun Hoo and new member Shelly Saini for organizing the event.

Cecilie Schulze

Election 2012: The Rules Have Changed ... Top Two Primary System

There are actually two primary elections taking place on June 5, 2012: a) the Presidential Primary, which is a partisan party nomination process used to select candidates for President and county central committees, and b) the statewide Top Two Primary elections for congressional and state elective offices. The Presidential Primary produces "party-nominated candidates" for president who then appear on the November General Election ballot by party. This is the type of primary that California voters are used to.

The Top Two primary system, however, produces two"voter-nominated candidates" who have received the two highest vote counts and who then advance to the November General Election. Even if one of the candidates receives more than 50 percent of the votes, there is still a runoff between the top two vote getters. With the Top Two Primary system, all candidates running for an office are listed on one ballot, regardless of their party preference. All voters may vote for any candidate in the list.

Here are some of the special features of balloting in the Top Two system that need to be understood by the voters:

The Top Two system was placed on the June 2010 ballot by the legislature as a result of state budget negotiations and was passed by the voters.
Voters will not see a "straight party ticket" on the ballot, but rather a list of names for the different contests with each candidate's party preference indicated. However, a candidate for a voter-nominated office may choose not to have his or her party preference - as disclosed on their most recent affidavit of registration - indicated on the ballot.
It is possible for two voter-nominated candidates with the same party affiliation to appear on the November ballot.
Political parties may endorse candidates in the Top Two primary. Sample ballots must include a section listing these party endorsements.
Although votes may be cast for write-in candidates in the Top Two primary election, no write-in votes are allowed in the November general election.

As of this writing, there are court challenges to the Top Two Primary system currently pending, based on the ban on write-in votes in the General Election for Top Two offices and on constitutional issues of third party access to the ballot and voters' right of choice.

For frequently asked questions about the primary elections in California, you can go to this link on the Secretary of State's website.

From LWVC.

Spring Fiesta

On Thursday, May 3, celebrate Cinco de Mayo, springtime and the League among beautiful plants and festive people. That's the date of our Spring Fiesta and this year it will be held at Summerwinds Nursery in Santa Clara.

You'll have a chance to:

Buy gorgeous plants - with 20% of the proceeds going to the League
Bid on fabulous silent auction items - like a Victorian Tea in Tat Blesch's garden
Purchase raffle tickets for colorful garden items
Mingle with old friends and make new ones
Bring a friend or family member and introduce them to the League
Support your League

All this for only $30 if paid by tax day (April 15). If you're unable to attend the Fiesta, consider buying raffle tickets - you'll be supporting the League's Voter Service and education programs plus have the chance to win a great gift.

Invitations will be going out mid March so watch for yours and if you don't receive it, contact Cecilie Schulze.

Membership

Welcome to our newest members:

Judith Fritz

Wendy Dillingham-Plew

LWV Bay Area Voter

The current edition of the LWV Bay Area Voter is now available on their website.

Board Briefs

At the February Board meeting:

Welcomed and appointed Lois Partridge to serve as Treasurer.
Approved the investigation of our League's production of Left, Right and Center contingent upon: 1) Raising the $4,000 necessary for production costs, and 2) Identifying a League member to be the Producer on record.
Welcomed and appointed Shelley Saini to serve as the director of Voter Service.
Learned that the Spring Fundraiser event is currently being planned for the evening of May 3 at Summerwinds Nursery in Santa Clara with a Cinco de Mayo theme.
Heard Gloria Chun Hoo's report regarding her remarks on behalf of our League to the City Clerk concerning board and commission changes.

Students and the League

Eight of the 17 Presentation High School students who are working with League this spring semester on their civics course volunteer projects, plus one additional student from last semester who wishes to continue her relationship with LWV, toured the Registrar of Voters Office on January 27th. ROV staff managers from various aspects of the election process greeted them warmly and explained the work that they do as we walked through the facilities. Staff even made sure that the American and California flags were set up as background for a group photograph.

The ROV outreach manager, a bilingual election specialist, and the election services coordinator gave them a first-hand view of what it takes to run an election - before, during and afterwards. The students also had the opportunity to see how the decertified touch screen voting machines are being stored. The student who had continued with League from last semester had researched and written on the Secretary of State's Top-to-Bottom Review of the Sequoia voting system. She immediately realized what she was seeing when the warehouse manager pointed out all the DRE machines stacked neatly on shelves all the way to the ceiling awaiting some unknown fate.

At the end of the tour, the entire group was presented with packets of materials - posters, flyers, brochures, and other items - that the outreach manager explained could use some redesigning. All of this was presented with great humor in a very successful effort to interest young people in voting. I can hardly wait to see their designs, one of which might even be a voter education video targeting 18-24 year old voters.

Many thanks to all who participated in organizing this event. My sincere appreciation goes to Judy Chamberlin who volunteered at the last minute to drive 3 of the 9 students to the Registrar's Office.

Sharon Sweeney

February's Lunch with League

Cathy Lazarus, member of the LWVUS Privatization Committee, presented an overview of "Privatization: Panacea or Problem?" She declared her own "Lazarus Principals":

The public and the private sector have an equal capacity for excellent or lousy service.
The media highlights "privatization" failures - do your homework.
If the public is unwilling to pay neither model works.

Defining privatization as "shifting functions, responsibilities and assets from government to the private sector", she went on to give conditions for success:

A competitive market.
Transactions that are not irrevocable.
Savings/efficiencies achieved in ways that are consistent with the public interest.
Government agency has:
- Measureable goals and performance criteria
- Plans for an open, competitive process
- Contract management expertise
- Recovery plan

There is a need for an open competitive selection process with clear selection criteria, and the government agency needs to understand how to negotiate a good contract and to develop a good transition plan and protections for employees and data. Oversight of the contract is crucial. She concluded by saying that privatization is neither a problem or panacea, but if done incorrectly can result in "pandemonium" (in a clear reference to our incorrect title in last month's Voter!).

Grassroots Victory

Last week, the League and its partners demonstrated, once again, that the grassroots can speak up to power! More than 25,000 activists answered our call and signed onto our petition urging the President to begin fixing what ails the Federal Elections Commission. The ball is now in President Obama's court, and we hope his response will be to make the appointments that restore the FEC to its watchdog role. As we all know, the Citizens United decision has already had enormous impact on our elections. Currently, we have been hearing about the Super PAC money pouring into the Presidential primary. A robust effort by the FEC to ensure that independent expenditures are indeed independent is an important first step to protect against big special interest money in our elections. Another key component in the battle for clean elections is public information. At the federal level, we are supporting legislation to require complete disclosure of spending on big-money advertising let loose by Citizens United.

From LWVUS

Water and the Environment

The Southwest League is presenting a program entitled, "Water: How is it Affecting Our California Environment? What Can We Do About It?" The program is March 13, 2012 at 7 pm at the Campbell Community Center, Orchard City Banquet Hall, 1W. Campbell Ave., Campbell. The speaker, Eric Rosenblum, will present a provocative discussion in the areas of water supply and wastewater treatment. For more information or to RSVP, click here.

Rightsizing Government: Realignment and Regionalism

The third in the Community Conversation series organized by American Leadership Forum/Reviving California is coming up on Thursday March 8th from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm at Bella Mia in San Jose.

For more information and to RSVP, go to their website.

Calendar

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

Mar. 6 Board Meeting - Contact Carol Watts for info
Mar. 15 Lunch with League
Apr. 3 * Paranoid Politics
April 14 Privatization Consensus Meeting
May 3 Spring Fundraiser
May 5 LWV Bay Area Convention
May 21 Last day to register to Vote
June 2 Annual Meeting
June 5 Primary Election

* 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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