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May 23 – Chris Ward, Assemblymember 78th District, Judy Ki, Medicare for All & Resolutions

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May 23 Meeting – Chris Ward, Assemblymember 78th District, Judy Ki, Medicare for All & Resolutions

  • The Intersectionality of Racism and Misogyny – a Feminist View of Anti-Asian Hate, Judy Ki
  • Chris Ward, Assemblymember, 78th District
  • Medicare for All, Emily Olanoff
  • Resolution – Medicare for All
  • Resolution – Abolish Corporate Personhood and Money as Speech
Chris Ward, Assemblymember, 78th District

We are delighted for this Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month to be able to welcome Judy Ki, founder of the AAPI Democratic Club to talk to us about the intersectionality of racism and misogyny – a feminist view of anti-Asian hate.

Next, our Assemblymember for the 78th District, Chris Ward will talk on the state of the district and upcoming legislation.

Then we’ll have a presentation from Emily Olanoff and Maz Hadaegh on Medicare for All, and we’ll consider a resolution to support this initiative.

We’ll also consider a resolution brought to us by club member Cynara Velazquez to abolish corporate personhood and money as speech.

Resolution in Support of Medicare For All

Please review the proposed resolution, and members feel free to add comments: here

Resolution to abolish corporate personhood and money as speech

Please review the proposed resolution, and members feel free to add comments: here

Agenda

  • 3:30PM Pre-meeting social
  • 4:00PM The Intersectionality of Racism and Misogyny – a Feminist View of Anti-Asian Hate, Judy Ki
  • 4:20PM Chris Ward, Assemblymember, 78th District
  • 4:50PM Medicare for All, Emily Olanoff
  • 5:05PM Resolutions – Medicare for All, Abolish Corporate Personhood and Money as Speech
  • 5:15PM Officer reports
  • 5:20PM Electeds, representatives, candidates
  • 5:25PM Announcements
  • 5:30PM After meeting social

Officer Reports

  • Co-chairs Community Micro Grants Program, Kip Eischen & Susan Peinado
  • Secretary, Kip Eischen
  • Treasurer, Angela Hawkins
  • VP, Diane Mosely
  • President, John Loughlin

Electeds, representatives, candidates

Announcements

Medicare for All

Click Here for Notes from May Meeting

Click Here for Video from May Meeting (YouTube)

July 25 – OB Pier – Past, Present and Future

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July 25 Meeting – OB Pier – Past, Present and Future 

  • Kathy Blavatt, Kohta Zaiser and Geoff Page will guide us through the past, present, and possible future of the OB Pier
  • Carolyn Chase will talk about the Parks Master Plan
  • Plans for the August BBQ and meetings in the Fall
OB Pier

We’ll kick off the meeting with a short introduction to the new Parks Master Plan that is scheduled to come before the City Council for a vote on Aug 8. The Parks and Recreation Coalition (PARC) have voiced various concerns with the plan, as have our local community planning groups. Carolyn Chase, co-chair PARC will provide more details, and how we can get involved.

For our main program we have a great panel of speakers to take us through the history of the OB Pier:

  • Kathy Blavatt, who spoke to us last October on the history of the 30ft height limit, will give us an overview – touching ont the earlier pier on Del Monte, the trolley, fishing, the fundraising to extend the left part of the T, and the surf championship in 1966.
  • We’re pleased to welcome Kohta Zaiser, from the Mayor’s office, to update us on the findings of recent structural engineering reports and plans for the pier.
  • OB Rag columnist Geoff Page, will round out the presentations on the pier, and possible future plans.

We’ll then have time for Questions and Answers with the panelists.

Carolyn Chase

Carloyn Chase

Carolyn is Co-chair Parks and Recreation Coalition (PARC) is a founder of San Diego EarthWorks, the nonprofit organizers of the EarthFair in Balboa Park. She lives in Pacific Beach. 

PARC comments on the PMP.

Kathy Blavatt

Kathy Blavatt

Kathy is an award-winning author, historian and photographer who lives in Ocean Beach. She grew up on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, and she’s been on the Ocean Beach Historical Society board since 2006.

Kohta Zaiser

Kohta Zaiser

Kohta is the Deputy Director of Community Engagement, Office of the Mayor.

Geoff Page

Geoff Page

Geoff has contributed several articles on the state of the pier to the OB Rag, who broke the story that engineering reports commissioned by the city in 2004, 2016 and 2019 highlighted the state of the pier and recommended keeping “large concentrations of pedestrians” away from certain areas of the pier. 

The Moaffat & Nichol draft evaluation report 2019. 

Agenda

  • 3:30pm Hors d’oeurves Pre-meeting social
  • 4:00pm Appetizer Parks Master Plan, Carolyn Chase
  • 4:15pm Entrée OB Pier, Kathy Blavatt, Kohta Zaiser, Geoff Page
  • 5:15pm Dessert Officer reports, details of August BBQ and Fall meetings
  • 5:20pm Cheese Electeds, representatives, candidates, announcements
  • 5:30pm Nuts Post-meeting social

Officer Reports

  • Co-chairs Community Micro Grants Program, Kip Eischen & Susan Peinado
  • Secretary, Kip Eischen
  • Treasurer, Angela Hawkins
  • VP, Diane Mosely
  • President, John Loughlin

Electeds, representatives, candidates

Announcements

Sunday July 25, 4:00PM – Zoom registration

Click here to register for the Zoom meeting

If you’re new to Zoom don’t worry, you can join early at 3:30PM and during this Social Time we’ll help you get into the meeting. We’ll bring everyone up to speed on some of the features of the Zoom application.

Bring your own refreshments (!) and positive news to share.

If you have a problem registering, or joining on the day of the meeting, you can call us on (619) 800-5098, or email info@pointlomadem.org with your contact details.

Apr 25 – Strong Mayor and Council President

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April 25 Meeting – Strong Mayor and Council President

Agenda

  • Hors d’oeurves- Pre-meeting social 3:30PM
  • Soup – More Choice San Diego – Amy Tobia, Diane Mosely 4:00PM
  • Sorbet – Western Service Workers Association appeal for Volunteers 4:15PM
  • Entrée – Strong Mayor & Council President – Norma Damashek 4:20PM
  • Salad – Officer reports
  • Dessert – Electeds, representatives, candidates
  • Cheese – Announcements
  • Nuts – After meeting social

More Choice San Diego

Diane Mosely, VP and guest Amy Tobia will explain why bringing Ranked Choice Voting to San Diego will give voters more choices, create more competition, promote more diverse ideas, and encourage civil campaigns.

Western Service Workers Association

Alec from the WSWA (who’s standing in for Brandon MacDonald) will talk about the work of the Association during the pandemic, with the aim of recruiting volunteers to help with advocacy for their members who are facing utility cut off‘s and potential evictions.

Strong Mayor & Council President

After a five-year trial period that began on Jan 1, 2006 San Diego moved from a Council-City Manager to a Mayor-Council (“Strong Mayor”) form of government 10 years ago, at the start of 2011. 

Strong Mayor

The Mayor was removed from the legislative body, and installed as the de facto executive director of the departments and employees overseeing the City’s day-to-day operations. 

Weak Mayor

This change also introduced the concept of a Council President, chosen annually by a majority vote of the Council, to chair and set the agenda of the City Council meetings, and to make committee appointments.

“Throughout the transition to a Strong Mayor Form of Governance, the City Council sought to expand the number of Council Committees and redefine their role and purpose, choosing to funnel more legislative items to Council Committees to allow for increased public input and a fuller vetting process before items were sent to the full Council for consideration.”

Norma Damashek@ndamashek will guide us through the history of the charter reform from Weak to Strong Mayor, and answer questions from members.

Norma Damashek is a long-time civic activist who focuses on promoting decision-making that serves the public good.

She has spearheaded community-based coalitions and served on city and regional-government task forces and aspast president of San Diego’s League of Women Voters.

Her NumbersRunner commentaries have received multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Chapter.

ANATOMY OF FAILURE is Norma’s first-hand account of political decision-making inside City Hall – where politics, planning, and personality converge to shape the San Diego landscape. Originally published as a master’s thesis, ANATOMY OF FAILURE is on the “Reading List for the San Diego Newcomer” compiled by the Voice of San Diego. You can read it HERE

Officer Reports

  • Secretary, Kip Eischen
  • Treasurer, Angela Hawkins
  • VP, Diane Mosely
  • President, John Loughlin

Electeds, representatives, candidates

Announcements

Click Here for Notes from April Meeting

Graphics; John P. Pelissero, “The Political Environment & Cities in the 21st Century,” in Cities, Politics & Public Policy: A Comparitive Analysis, ed. John P. Pelissero (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2003), 15.

Mar 28 – Short Term Rentals & Quality of Life

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Renewal Reminder

If you haven’t renewed your membership for 2021 you can do so now by clicking here. You have until March 31, 2021 to renew without losing voting privileges.

March 28 Meeting – Short Term Rentals & Quality of Life

Agenda

  • Introduction of electeds, representatives, candidates
  • Main program – STRs and Quality of Life
  • Letter on Deaths in San Diego County Jails (see below)
  • Officer reports
  • Announcements

Short Term Rentals & Quality of Life

How many STRs are there in San Diego? How do we measure quality of life in our beach communities? Do we have a measure of housing stock and affordability?

Join a group of local panelists to discuss and suggest amendments to the ordinance under consideration by the City Council.Items to consider:

  • Stock of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing, or NOAH
  • Cost of general housing
  • Public school enrollments
  • Increase on rents both commercial and residential
  • STVR-related nuisance calls to the police and code enforcement
  • Transient Occupancy Tax, or TOT, revenue from STVRs
  • Increase in trash pick-up
  • Frequency of updates to city ordinance

Panelists

John Thickstun

John Thickstun is a clubmember, and has been a practising attorney for over 35 years, handling a broad range of civil litigation matters throughout California including, mass torts, personal injury, wrongful death, sexual harassment, construction defect, business litigation, contract disputes and class actions. He is also a trained mediator, having completed the National Conflict Resolution Center training. John has a BA in History from UCSD, and his JD from California Western School of Law.

John leads Save San Diego Neighborhoods, to fight for enforcement of the law and against the ongoing illegal conversion of San Diego homes to short term vacation rentals. Save San Diego Neighborhoods has over 3000 members.

Mandy Havlik

Mandy Havlik is a clubmember, and proud military spouse and mother of two young children who attend Ocean Beach Elementary School. She has been volunteering as the Ocean Beach Elementary Garden Coordinator for the last three years where she worked with parent volunteers and school staff to teach children about gardening and help them grow organic produce that is sampled by the school children in the classroom and in the school cafeteria.

She is a concerned parent and is passionate about ensuring that our streets and neighborhoods are family friendly and safe for children throughout the peninsula. She is currently working for additional traffic and pedestrian safety mitigations around Ocean Beach Elementary School.

Mandy was recently re-elected to the Peninsular Community Planning Board.

Kevin Hastings

Kevin Hastings was born and raised in California, from the beach to inland Los Angeles, and in the small mountain town of Tehachapi. He graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a mechanical engineering degree and has worked in the profession for 15 years, gaining experience with design and construction of high-rises, single family homes, and commercial projects. Kevin has lived in San Diego since 2004 and Ocean Beach since 2014. He has been active in the community, cleaning trash and graffiti from our beaches, volunteering his time at Town Council events, and fighting for OB’s interests at city hall. In his free time you might find him hiking our cliffs or at the dog park. Kevin and his wife Micki are raising their new family here and are committed to Ocean Beach for the long haul.

Kevin serves as the vice-chair of the OB Planning Board.

The club reached out to Teddy Martinez, Senior Policy and Strategy Manager for City Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, but he replied that he was unavailable at this time.

Deaths in San Diego County Jails

Following last month’s meeting Dave Myers proffered a letter the club could send to our Assemblymember Chris Ward, and State Senator Toni Atkins. We’ve asked members to review and suggest changes by emailing info@pointlomadem.org, and we will vote on the letter at the meeting:

Dear (Assemblymember/Senator)

As the President of the Point Loma & Ocean Beach Dems I’m writing on behalf of members to express concerns over the high rates of deaths in custody in San Diego County jails. 

Club members voted at our March 28, 2021 meeting to ask that your legislative office request an investigation by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC) to determine if these deaths are excessive compared to other large counties in California, and if future deaths could be prevented with changes to training and procedures.

San Diego County is the second largest in California. Under Sheriff Bill Gore, 158 men and women have died while in custody. The local Community Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) has reported and investigated many of these deaths.

However, a few years ago, there were so many deaths being reviewed that the CLERB staff could not complete their work under legal timelines, and had to dismiss 22 cases without findings.

Even though the CLERB does not provide racial or ethnicity data in their annual report, it appears 82% of the people who have died in custody were from BIPOC communities, raising additional concerns about racial disparities in San Diego’s criminal justice system. One young Latina who died was pregnant, and failed to receive proper medical care at the time of her death.

In addition, 80% of the people who have died in county jails were awaiting trial. They had not been convicted of a crime when they died.

Finally, the survivors and family members of many of these men and women have successfully sued San Diego in wrongful death cases. Large settlements- paid by taxpayers- are costing us millions of dollars each year, as well as requiring related staff hours and costs to defend the Sheriff’s Department in court, file appeals, etc.

For all these reasons, we ask that you submit a request to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, requesting an investigation to determine if the number of deaths in custody and related legal liabilities and settlements are disproportionately high in San Diego County, and if there is a pattern of racial discrimination in these deaths.

On behalf of the Club I look forward to hearing back from your office, and will be happy to provide additional information if needed.

Sincerely,

proposed letter to be approved by members

Officer Reports

  • Secretary, Kip Eischen
  • Treasurer, Angela Hawkins
  • VP, Diane Mosely
  • President, John Loughlin

Announcements

Clich Here for Notes from Marh Meeting

Feb 28 – Financing of Candidates, Election of Officers

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Sunday February 28, 4:00PM – Zoom registration

At our January meeting, members of the Point Loma Democratic Club voted to support the recall effort of City Council President Dr. Jennifer Campbell.

This was a tough decision, met with robust and respectful debate on both sides. The discussion raised several issues: the role of “special interests” in politics, District 2 residents’ focus on neighborhood and environmental priorities, and the role of the City Council generally.

As such, we’ve decided to devote our next several meetings to these issues:

  • February 28: Money in Politics 101
  • March 28: Short Term Vacation Rentals: Neighborhood Perspectives
  • April 25: Council vs. Mayor: San Diego’s Separation of Powers

As per the club’s bylaws the February meeting will also see the Election of Officers. Ruth Rollins as chair of the nominating committee will chair this part of the meeting.

Panelists: Money in Politics 101

Amy Tobia

Amy Tobia is a local leader for Represent.Us, a grassroots organization focused on election reform, voting rights and anti-corruption initiatives nationwide. A resident of San Diego since 2005, Amy applies skills acquired over 20 years of design, marketing and project management work to advocate for election reform that empower voters. Her current volunteer projects include Top 4 RCV and the Voters’ Voice Initiatives.

@amy_tobia

Greg Coleridge

Greg Coleridge is outreach director of the Move to Amend Coalition. He previously served on the National Governing Board of Common Cause. 

@GregColeridge

Cynara Velazquez

Cynara Velazquez has been an active member of the California Democratic Party in San Diego since 2004, when she traveled to Arizona to assist in the Spanish Language Campaign for John Kerry. After that, she became involved in our local Democratic GO-Team, first as a precinct leader, then as a community and regional coordinator.

Cynara created PoliticalPropaganda.org with the goal of being a searchable archive of all promotional materials (i.e. propaganda pieces) distributed by campaign committees and received voters over the course of an election. Campaigns often target their messaging to specific voters, voters receive only the information from campaigns that the campaigns feels is persuasive to the specific voter. This site aims to allows voters to see all of the messaging generated by all campaigns about all candidates in an election.

Many thanks to Cynara for recruiting the panelists for this meeting.

Click Here for Notes from February Meeting

Photo by Andrew Magill

Jan 24 – Lucero Sanchez on Stormwater Issues Facing San Diego

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Sunday January 24, 4:00PM – Zoom registration

Join us for a presentation with Lucero Sanchez on stormwater issues facing San Diego & Loxie Gant and Gretchen Newsom on ADEMs Election. 

Special Guest:
Former San Diego City Council President Pro Tem Barbara Bry

Luceero Sanchez

Lucero Sanchez is the community policy coordinator for San Diego Coastkeeper. San Diego Coastkeeper’s mission is to protect and restore San Diego County’s waters. Lucero supports the organization’s policy and advocacy work through community engagement to ensure environmental justice and equity. She will be presenting on the water-related issues our region faces, such as pollution, climate change, flooding, and public health risks. She will also be going over multi-benefit solutions available for San Diego, including upcoming city council meetings that will be addressing the funding deficit in the stormwater department. 

Gretchen Newsom

Gretchen Newsom is a community leader, advocate for working families, and former President of the Ocean Beach Town Council.

Loxie Gant

Loxie Gant is a mother, third generation San Diegan, and social justice advocate, whose organizing priorities are children’s rights, education reform, and homelessness.

Gretchen and Loxie will speak briefly on the upcoming ADEM Elections and explain the function of ADEMS within the State Party. More on ADEM candidates below: 

Sunday November 22, 4:00PM – Zoom registration

Click here to register for the Zoom meeting

If you’re new to Zoom don’t worry, you can join early at 3:30PM and during this Social Time we’ll help you get into the meeting. We’ll bring everyone up to speed on some of the features of the Zoom application.

Bring your own refreshments (!) and positive news to share.

If you have a problem registering, or joining on the day of the meeting, you can call us on (619) 800-5098, or email info@pointlomadem.org with your contact details.

Photo by Andrew Magill