Annual Meeting Highlights

The annual member meeting is where we complete important League business including adoption of our annual budget, election of officers and board members and hear reports from our various committee chairs. This year we also had a report from our 2023 State League convention delegates and a presentation from Supervisor Susan Gorin, who is both a League member and a past league president.

Budget: Our Treasurer, Linda Rosen, presented the proposed budget for 2023-24 which was developed by our budget committee and recommended by the League Board. We will have a slight deficit for the year, but we have reserves to cover those expenses. The members voted to approve the budget as presented.To see the newly adopted budget, click here:Budget for 2023-24

Nominating Committee Report: Susan Novak, Nominating Committee Chair, thanked the Nominating Committee members, DeeDee Bridges, Karen Weeks, and Judie Coleman for their service on the committee. She then nominated the following slate of candidates:

Officers:
President: Donna Roper
VP, Administration: Lee Lipinski:
VP, Advocacy: Jim Masters
Secretary: Debbie Mc Kay
Treasurer: Linda Rosen
Board Members:
At Large: Chris Riezenman
At Large: Lynn Dooley
Communications Chair: Juanita Roland
Membership Chair: Judie Coleman
Program Chair: Leona Judson
Voter Service Co-Chair: Karen Weeks
Voter Service Co-chair: Therese Scherrer

Two positions remain vacant: Executive Vice President and Outreach Chair.
There were no nominations from the floor and the members voted to accept the slate of officer and board members are recommended by the Nominating Committee.

The various Committee Chairs provided highlights of their activities this past year. The Annual report on these activities is available on the League website in our annual 2022-23 report

2022-23 Annual Report

Our main speaker, Supervisor Gorin, shared information on her journey to becoming a member of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, including what she learned during her term as League president, her term on the Santa Rosa School Board and as Mayor of the City of Santa Rosa. She will retire at the end of her current term and is looking forward to becoming more active in our League once she leaves office. She shared some of the more interesting projects she has worked on as Supervisor including the Sonoma Development Center transition, the challenges of affordable housing and homeless solutions, the establishment of the Sonoma and Springs Municipal Advisory Councils, and monitoring the Sonoma Ground Water Basin.

Link to Presentation

Convention recordings and handouts available at:https://lwvc.wordpress.com/

Besides the rudimentary chores of reviewing the bylaws, budget and selecting the new board (congratulations to Sonoma County member Jody Nunez on her election), many workshops were presented. Leona Judson, Theresa Scherrer and Donna Roper were Sonoma County’s League representatives.

It was Moved & Approved to keep these four issue areas:

1. Making Democracy Work
2. Climate Change & Sustainable Development
3. Housing and Homelessness
4. Criminal Justice / Juvenile Justice Reform

One workshop featured Mr. Chris Johnson of Success Stories.https://www.successstoriesprogram.orgThis organization aims to help men in prison to change the negative narrative of their lives to a more positive feminist one through a 12-week curriculum.

Additionally, there was an Update on Health Care: The New LWV Position and the CA Commission Report. The speaker, Dr. Henry Abrons gave an overview of work being done to get universal health care for CA. There are bills working their way through the legislature to cement finances and to overcome other barriers. He gave a convincing argument that such a plan would save money and broaden benefits.

It appears that Immigration will become an issue for the League in the future. There are a couple of pending bills in the California legislature that provide for anyone to receive food assistance regardless of their status.

We came away with lots of ideas on strengthening our League, taking on advocacy issues, voter registration and outreach programs with a special focus on 2024

Countdown to 2024: Community Outreach for GOTV Success

• Number one take-away:Personal engagement is critical.
• Form alliances and collaboration with community groups, faith organizations, clubs - groups that can deliver credible messages within their communities.
• Tailor communication tools to those community members use, e.g. Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Messenger Telegram, Google Ads, Tik Tok.
• Use voter databases, e.g. Political Data Inc. (PDI) database, All In (national student PIRG database) to identify under-represented groups; track results of outreach efforts. Use traditional outreach methods, including tabling, phone-banking, text-banking, robocalls, and door-knocking.
• Continue to reach out to community groups between elections – not just every 2-4 years.
• Promote the League at the DMV and other places where almost every citizen has to go.
• Wider distribution of voter guides
• Invite media to the forums
• Use the DEIB guide from the state

Several members gathered at Charlie’s Restaurant in Windsor on Flag Day, June 14^thto honor the outgoing Grand Jury. By all accounts, everyone had a good time and, in the process, learned a great deal about how the Grand Jury does its work.Each year 19 people are randomly selected plus some alternates in the event someone drops out. The grand jury is made up of at least three committees. The first is the plenary committee that reviews each request for investigation to see if certain criteria are met. Next, the investigative committee gets to work, which involves interviewing heads of departments and other government entities, touring facilities, reviewing relevant documents. They do have subpoena power. Lastly, the editorial committee will write up their findings & recommendations. Throughout this process there is cross checking and verification between the committees.

The grand jury is truly a labor of love. The time spent on average is about 20 hours per week. There is no designated staff to help with the work, although they do get training & support at the state level primarily through the CA Grand Jurors Association. They work as volunteers earning only reimbursement expenses, which averages about $300/month. Despite the long hours and low pay, the jurists were enthusiastic about their contribution in their role as watchdog over local government. Their investigations bring transparency to the workings of our government byrecommendingwhat could be improved. The grand jury report is now out, so remember what these dedicated ordinary citizens have done this past year on our behalf. Want to see past reports of the grand jury?https://sonoma.courts.ca.gov/general-information/grand-jury/grand-jury-reports-responses

Lee Lipinski, our VP pf Administration,manages our League office, including opening the mail and forwarding it to the appropriate person, collecting checks and forwarding them to our treasurer, assisting the Youth Program keep their materials organized, arranging for League materials to be translated into Spanish and resupplying our handouts,and assisting with keeping the Community Outreach Box (rolling Blue Box) up to date. She also keep our office organized and performs many other duties. A BIG THANK YOU to Lee!

Please contact Lee Lipinskivpadmin@lwvsonoma.orgif –

• You need to reserve the Conference room at the League office for a League meeting as there is a calendar that is used to reserve the room
• You need to check out the Outreach box for an event
• You need the number to access the office key in the lockbox
• To find out the official hours the front door to the building where the league’s office is located is open

Protecting Native Trees

I love trees and feel fortunate to live in Sonoma County with its abundant biodiversity of native tree species ranging from redwoods and oaks to pine trees and bay laurel. Because trees are an essential part of our biological communities, strengthening the Tree Protection Ordinance should be of interest to League members.

Why care about trees? Trees, especially older, mature trees, store and sequester carbon essential to efforts to mitigate climate change. Trees provide habitat and refuge for more than 300 wildlife species and thousands of insect species in Sonoma County. Mature trees reduce flooding and soil erosion and help to maintain pure drinking water. Trees also provide aesthetic and visual value, are part of our cultural and historical heritage and are important for recreation. To some of us, trees provide spiritual and religious value.

The existing Tree Protection Ordinance from 1989 is limited, and Permit Sonoma has been revising it for presentation to the Planning Commission and County Supervisors. The old ordinance protects only 11 of 50 native tree species in Sonoma County, applies to a limited number of permits within the Zoning Code, and exempts agricultural activities.

The proposed Tree Protection Ordinance is more inclusive with stronger protections than the older ordinance. These changes include:

1. Update and expand the species list to include more native trees.
2. Update the ordinance to apply to all actions involving the removal of protected tree species over a threshold diameter.
3. Change the diameter on protected trees from 9 inches to 6 inches at breast height.
4. Apply the Tree Protection Ordinance to any project in the County that removes protected tree species. Tree removal would continue to be allowed but would require mitigation in more circumstances than in the current ordinance.
5. Remove the agricultural exemption from all protected tree species to make agricultural activities subject to the ordinance. An alternative is to exempt maintenance of existing cultivation areas involving incidental tree removal but limit tree removal for expansion of cultivated areas into previously undisturbed land.
6. Develop additional protections of oak trees and oak woodland to prevent their continued loss.

Permit Sonoma will tentatively present their revised ordinance to the Planning Commission on August 3^rd. Please attend this and other meetings to advocate for strong protections of our native trees in Sonoma County.

Welcome a New Member

Jody Nunez

Jody is new to our league but not new to the LWV. She has been an active member in the Oakland chapter since 2012. As a recently retired public defender for Alameda County, she has a passionate interest in social justice. She has worked at the county level in several capacities as well as the state level helping to ensure well qualified judges with her service on the California State Bar Judicial Nominees Commission as well as the Review Judicial Nominees Commission. Best of all she was just elected at the LWVC convention as a director. Congratulation!

She and her partner recently moved to Sebastopol and have been busy remodeling their home. In her spare time Jody is an avid baker and enjoys gardening. Our advocacy committee looks forward to working with her.