VOTER - League of Women Voters San Jose/Santa Clara

Vice President for Membership and State and Federal Coalitions at SVLG, Brian has an extensive policy background. He worked for several years on political development programs for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Russia, and served with international affairs nonprofit organizations in California, Texas and Mexico. Brian has written on California politics and policy for The San Francisco Chronicle, The Monterey County Herald and Oxford Analytica, and served as an adjunct professor of political science at San Jose State University. He has also long been active in his community, and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Santa Clara County Senior Care Commission and as a member of the City of Campbell Planning Commission.

Won't you join us on:

Thursday, May 17

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, May 14.

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

It's not too late for you to join us at our Spring Fiesta event this Thursday, May 3rd, to raise funds for the League! It's our one and only fundraising event. This year, we're doing something totally different and fun - a very casual evening for us to both mix and socialize, AND do a little shopping for spring planting. The Spring Fiesta will be at the new Summer Winds at 2931 El Camino Real in Santa Clara. Summer Winds is providing 20% of all plants sales proceeds to the League!

League member Paula Radzinski has been heading up a great committee to put on this event that wraps together a Cino de Mayo theme with spring planting - moving us festively forward in a spirit of growth and nature! Tickets will be sold at the door and you can further support the League with purchase of tickets for opportunities to win some wonderful prizes. Event starts at 6 p.m. and wraps up at 9 p.m. Brief program at 7:15.

Another good reason to come is to help us pay tribute to our League Person of the Year. This year we honor Virginia Holtz - a long-time League member, who served as President 1987-1989 and again in 2001-2004. She has over the years chaired many committees; last year she served on our board as Director with portfolio for Programs, and she currently serves as the Chairperson for the Open Space Authority, and in this elected position, represents District 5. To many of us, Virginia is the league - a strong proponent for open government, feisty in her determination for transparency, effective and efficient government, and a champion for voter's rights and active participation. She worked tirelessly on the City's Sunshine Task Force and helped shape our League position on Coyote Valley. Come and join us to celebrate Virginia!

And be sure to mark Saturday June 2 on your calendars - for our Annual Meeting. We shut down over the summer - as our monthly Lunch with League takes a break, but there is work ahead. We'll be starting our State study on the Initiative and Referendum Process - we hope you'll join us for it. Kudos to Martha Beattie and Mary Collins for their excellent chairing of the Privatization Study. The Consensus Meeting was full of discussion and learning! Great job to the committee.

We'll be busy with election events and forums through June 5. Be sure to watch for last-minute notices sent to you via email from the League. And, of course, go to Smart Voter for all your election year questions!

And finally, League members have always supported the Registrar of Voters during the election process. If you are interested in volunteering time - let any of the Board members know of your availability. These donated hours support League as well!

See you Thursday at the Spring Fiesta!

Gloria Chun Hoo

Election 2012: Vote with the League On June 5

Our local League has not taken a position on Measure B - the City's controversial pension reform measure as we have not had adequate time or ability to study such a complex measure and to understand the ramifications of the proposal.

On the state level, LWVC recommends support of Proposition 28, the Legislative Term Limits Reform Act. This simple reform will help make our legislature more accountable and effective. The current limits on the number of terms an individual can serve in the legislature would be replaced by a twelve-year limit on the total number of years one could serve-whether in the Assembly, the Senate, or a combination of the two.

No position has been taken on Proposition 29, the California Cancer Research Act. This measure would add a one-dollar per pack tax on cigarettes sold in California, with proceeds to be used for cancer and other smoking-related health issues, anti-smoking campaigns, and law enforcement.

For a nonpartisan look at the state measures - check the Smart Voter site, which has lots of great information.

Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting will be held on Saturday, June 2 at 9:00 am at the Santa Theresa Library. The Annual Meeting Kit will be going out later this month. Contact Cecilie Schulze if you have any questions.

Membership

Welcome to our newest members:

Jeannie Mainland

Thank you to the following members for their donations to the League:

Rosaleen Zisch, Trudy LaFrance, Kitty Horowitz

And thank you to the following members for renewing their membership:

Susan Bianchi, Norah Casner, Judith Chamberlin, La Verne Hamilton,
Kitty Horowitz, Trudy LaFrance, Holly McMahon, Sandy Remmers, Peter A. Szego, Carol Paivinen, Rosaleen Zisch

Board Briefs

At the May Board meeting:

We welcomed Sharon Holdt, LWVC 1st Vice President for Administration, who gave us information about the 2013 State convention which we are hosting! She noted that the LWVC Board is excited about the San Jose location.
Nancy Ianni reported that the City of San Jose prepared a report on consolidating commissions but the timing of the next step is unknown. She will continue to monitor. This is an issue for League because of transparency and concerns about limiting citizen participation.
The Board approved the Privatization Report from the consensus meeting.
Approved a modified budget to present to the membership at the Annual Meeting.

ROV Presentations

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

6:00 p.m. at the Isaac Newton Senter Auditorium, First Floor

County Government Center, 70 West Hedding Street, San Jose

A representative from the Registrar of Voters' Office will explain the complexities of ballot design and how the ROV will meet new Legislative requirements related to the Top Two Primary in June. We will also hear about the differences we might expect to see between the June Primary and November 2012 General Election ballot designs.

Tuesday, May 15, The Outreach Subcommittee of the Santa Clara County Citizens' Advisory Commission on Elections will hold a meeting at 6 p.m. in Room 157, Santa Clara County Government Center, 70 West Hedding Street, San Jose. the agenda will feature a presentation from a spokesperson from the Foothill DeAnza project "My Vote Our Future." The Subcommittee will also be seeking information and assistance on community voter outreach needs and a possible presentation on the value of observing election procedures during elections.

Santa Clara Observer Report

As we previously reported, the City of Santa Clara appointed a Charter Review Committee to review the city election procedures and make any needed recommendations in response to a letter from the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights which declared that the City's election system might be in violation of the California Voting Rights Act.

The City of Santa Clara Charter Review Committee recommendations to the City Council, and which were reported in the February Voter, were discussed at the February 28, 2012 council meeting. In the minutes of that meeting, the vice-mayor noted that the Council had held a study session at 6:00P.M., prior to the 7:00P.M. meeting, for an in-depth discussion of the recommendations.

At this "study session" the city manager presented a full staff report, and a representative of the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters made an electronic presentation. No action was taken.

At the council meeting, after a discussion, a motion was made, seconded, and carried that the recommendations be referred to the next City Council goal setting session which, per the Santa Clara Weekly newspaper, takes place in 2013.

My editorial note: The above date might be changed if the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights decides to take legal action, which they threatened in their letter of June 2011. We'll keep you advised.

Dick Cress

Candidate Forums

Assembly District 25: LWV Fremont, Newark and Union City is holding a Candidate's Forum on Thursday, May 3 from 7:30 - 8:30 pm in the Fremont Unified School District's Board Room, 4210 Technology Drive, Fremont.

State Senate District 13 & 15 and State Assembly Districts 24 & 28: Friday, May 18 Friday, 7:00 - 9:30, Cupertino Community Hall, 10350 Torre Ave., Cupertino. Forum will focus on education.

San Jose District 6: Monday, May 7, 7 pm, Cory Elementary School, 2280 Kenwood Avenue, San Jose. Sponsored by the Newhall Neighbohood Association and moderated by our League. Space is limited so priority given to District 6 residents.

California Budget

How would you balance California's budget? That's the question that will be addressed at the Community Conversation organized by American Leadership Forum/Reviving California on May 10 from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm at Bella Mia in
San Jose.

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

Lunch with the ROV

Guests at our April Lunch with League met Barry Garner, Santa Clara County's new

Registrar of Voters. In his talk, he spoke of the challenge of preparing for elections in our county, especially this year with the new top two primary elections. Between different languages, top two ballots, and party ballots, the ROV will be preparing 3,000 combinations of ballots for the June election. Good preparation is the key to a smooth election.

Currently, 70% of county residents vote by mail. The processing of those ballots begins ten days before the election, but there is no tallying before election day.

It was a pleasure for all of us to meet Mr. Garner and we look forward to working with him in the future.

Bay Area Monitor

Don't miss the latest issue of the Bay Area Monitor which is available here.

Celebrate Mother's Day and Women's Suffrage

The Santa Clara County Office of Women's Policy, Santa Clara County

Commission on the Status of Women and DAWN invite you to attend and help

sponsor a special Mother's Day Lunch, Tea and Live Performance of the play

Mosaic: Voices of Women's Suffrage on Sunday, May 13th at 11:30am - 1:30pm

at the historic Los Gatos Opera House.

Tickets are $16 and include lunch, tea and performance. RSVP & ticket information

online here

Can You Balance the Federal Budget?

The nonpartisan Concord Coalition is holding a free federal budget exercise sponsored by the San Jose Mercury News at the San Jose City Hall Rotunda on Wednesday, May 9th from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.

Participants will assume the roles of members of Congress who have been appointed to a special committee to recommend a package of policies to reduce projected deficits over the coming years and put America on a sound fiscal foundation. This involves difficult decisions and compromises on domestic and defense spending as well as possible changes in entitlement programs and tax policies.

For more information, go here. To RSVP go to their website.

Calendar

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

May 1 ROV Presentation
May 3 Spring Fiesta
May 3 Candidate Forum - Assembly District 25
May 5 LWV Bay Area Convention
May 6 Candidate Forum - SJ District 6
May 9 Concord Coalition - Balancing the Federal Budget
May 10 Reviving California Lunch - California's Budget
May 13 Mother's Day Tea
May 15 My Vote / Our Future
May 18 Candidate Forum - CA Senate 13, 15; Ass'y 24, 28
May 21 Last day to register to Vote
June 2 Annual Meeting
June 5 Primary Election

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.

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.

Join Our League

Visit our website to join our League.

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Democracy is not a spectator sport! Educate! Advocate!

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