San Juan County Democrats
Second Quarter SJ Democrats Meeting
April 19, 2009
, The Orcas Hotel, Orcas, WA
Minutes
Action Items are noted in Bold font.
I. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Ruth Fleming at 10:10AM. Those present were: Marilyn Gresseth, Jim Stegal, Ruth Fleming, Ron Metcalf, Joan Dayton, Sarah Crosby, Errol Speed, Rena Patty, Glenna Hall, Jamie Stephens and Margaret Johnson.
II. Treasurers Report
Treasurer Marilyn Gresseth submitted the following: Beginning balance, January 11, 2009 of $6925.53. Income received from miscellaneous sales totaled $82.00. Total expenditures were $1,236.50. The ending balance as of April 19, 2009 is $5,771.03.
III. Website Report
According to Ruth Fleming, the cost to revamp our website, along with the final payment to our previous webmaster was $982.50. Ruth also reported that the site is up and running and explained the process by which we could get into the website to post or respond to a blog or to submit something to the calendar. If anyone would like to know how to do this, please give Ruth a call. Ruth also indicated that she would follow through with asking Louise Dustrude, Ian Byington or Peggy Sue McCray, in that order, if they would be interested in keeping the site calendar up-to-date. She’d also had a conversation with Jack McKenna about writing a monthly newsletter containing information about current events and issues and while it seems he’s interested, he wouldn’t be able to take on this task at the present time but is interested in the near future.
IV. Jamie Stephens Report
· Jamie announced that the Neah Bay Rescue Tug bill, introduced by Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-San Juan Island, was officially signed into law. This bill is the first bill introduced by Kevin and it requires that shippers pay for a full-time rescue tug to be stationed in Neah Bay.
· He reported that the Legislative District representative from Bellingham, Todd Nichols feels the caucus vs. primary issue needs an injury case before it will be addressed for resolution. After some discussion, a vote was taken to decide on whether or not we should write a resolution for a caucus and primary split, a primary or to leave the delegate election process as caucus. The voting results were: caucus/primary split 8, primary 2 and caucus 0. Sarah Crosby agreed to write a resolution changing the method of delegate selection to a caucus/primary split method. Sarah will put the resolution out before the rest of the board before it goes to Rena Patty for final editing.
·
V. Rena Patty Report from 2nd CD meeting in Mt. Vernon on April 11, 2009
· Patty reported that there is a broad contingent within the WSDCC concerned about State Representative Rick Larsen’s representation of fundamental democratic policies ie, war funding, healthcare, and economic policy. Also of concern is his general responsiveness to people. Their concern is great enough that they’ve decided on a two-pronged strategy: The first step will be to have a collaborative meeting between Rick and other county leaders from 2nd Congressional District and if it’s perceived that Rick is unwilling to discuss and act upon the recommendations of his constituencies, step two will be to find and endorse a candidate to run against him in the next election.
· Concerning top-two election rules, WSDCC Rules Committee will be reviewing party nomination procedures. Questions and comments may be directed to Todd Nichols, Chair of the Rules Committee.
· The WSDCC Rules Committee is writing rules for the mid-term caucuses in 2010 and it’s likely that they will skip precinct caucuses and choose delegates to the state convention at LD meetings. Locally we could hold precinct meetings with issue discussions, ie., how legislators vote, ferries, the war, perhaps in the form of an island party.
VI Proxy for April 24-25th WSDCC Meeting
Jamie Stephens will ask Kevin Ranker to act as proxy for him and Rena.
VII PCO Replacement for Claire Reuter, Orcas 2
Errol Speed and Rena Patty will both be looking around for people. Errol will post a notice in the newspaper and Ruth Fleming will post the open position
on the website.