Angela Sanbrano will speak on the implications of the Arizona Anti-Immigrant law, S.B.1070.  She is a Chicana, born in Juarez, Mexico, and grew up in El Paso, Texas. Currently she is serving a second term as board President of NALACC (National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities). In 1985 she became national Executive Director of CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) and a year later was recognized as one of the strongest Mexican American advocates for Central American peace as co-director of Peace Action, the largest peace advocacy organization in the U.S.  In 1995, she joined CARECEN Los Angeles and in 1997 was became its Executive Director serving the immigrant community until 2007.  In 2005 she was elected member of the National Board for the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) and as trustee of the Hazen Foundation.  She graduated from Pitzer College in Claremont and received a Law Degree from People’s College of Law in Los Angeles. She lives in La Verne with her husband, Jim Sanbrano.

The Greater Oxnard Organization of Democrats meets July 14 at 7 p.m. at the Cafe on A, 438 South A Street in Oxnard.  Free refreshments.

At last month’s meeting we were happy to see that there are some really good Democrats running for local nonpartisan offices. As Democrats we are lucky to have such good choices. The only thing is that we cannot rely on luck to get them elected. The two County Offices that have open seats must be filled by Democrats. The local Republican Party has made it clear  where its focus is; they want to dominate the local scene. They are even challenging one of their own on the County Board of Supervisors. Low voter turnout usually hurts Democrats. We have worked hard to get a Democratic majority in the County. What good is all that work if we do not take advantage of it? We must get out the vote! If Democrats can take those seats a big message would be sent to the other side that they better look out for us in November.
Also at the April meeting candidates running for County Democratic Central Committee stood and introduced themselves. This is the first time that I can remember when most of the districts have challenges. This level of interest is encouraging. I wish I could say the same for our own club. This is a very important election year and we struggle to increase our level of participation. I am asking that all of you consider increasing your level of participation. That participation can come in many ways. Volunteer for a committee or to help get out the vote in your neighborhood. Make a financial contribution. Fund raisers cost time and money to put on. Writing a check for any amount is a big help in getting our message out. If your level of participation is just coming to our meetings, keep coming – all levels help.
Bill Gallaher, President

The following transferring students have won $500 each through Good Club scholarships: Richard Bejar, a single father active in extra -curricular affairs, hoping to earn a degree in Economics from Arizona State University; Anna Castro, a single parent who helps at her daughter’s preschool and at a women’s and children’s homeless shelter–she plans to be the first in her family to graduate from a university, and aims for a career in social services. Johnny Garcia Vasquez is headed for UC Berkeley as a political science major with the eventual goal of becoming a lawyer. Johnny has been president of ASG at Oxnard College, a voting delegate to the California Community College Student Senate, also active helping Pedro Nava, Save the Whales and Amnesty International. He is a peer counselor to the Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project. Other recipients: Jasmin Henry also plans to become a lawyer after getting a degree in Criminal Justice. She would like to work as a Public Defender for juveniles. Cesar Lopez wants to become a mechanical engineer–his interests include nano technology and alternative fuel sources. Cesar, as an AB540 student, is not eligible for federal or state aid, but his father, who recently passed away, taught him to be a “fighter, not a quitter.” Cesar is involved with CAUSE.
There are six winners among the continuing students: Giovanna Alatorre was Valedictorian of her high school even though she had only been in this country a few years. Maria del Carmen Jimenez is the single mother of five children, who left an abusive marriage and has worked in many areas. She is involved in her children’s school and hopes to get a certificate in accounting, before transferring to a four-year school.
Vanessa Mayo has very clear goals; She plans to transfer to San Diego State next year to earn a degree in nursing, eventually hoping to become a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. Her particular interest is in children born with birth defects. At Prototypes, a women’s shelter, Vanessa works with infants and toddlers.
Carol Peterson aims for a certificate in Restaurant/Hospitality Management, a field in which she has thirty years of experience. Her ultimate goal, however, is to teach food safety after she earns a degree from Cal Poly Pomona. She is currently a pastry chef, and volunteers at Food Share. Oscar Rodriguez is a strong supporter of migrant education, and tutors ESL students. He sees education as this country’s great equalizer. He has first-hand knowledge of the life of a field worker, and appreciates the work of his parents. He plans to become a mechanical engineer who can, by his designs, help save the environment. After some years of experience as an engineer, Oscar hopes to get a teaching credential. Richard Silvey kicked years of addiction to change his life and use his experience and education to help others change their lives. He currently manages Khepra House and is interning as a counselor. Richard has been inducted into the international honor society of two year colleges, Phi Theta Kappa.
The Good Club can be proud of helping these students achieve their goals, particularly since some of them have been unable to purchase all of their textbooks. The scholarship certificates will be presented on  April 25, Casa Lopez, from 5 to 7 pm.

Norma Van Riper

Informational Discussion of the Oxnard 2030 Plan by Chris Williamson and Mike Stubblefield,

moderated by Edward Castillo.

“The 2030 Plan of the City of Oxnard,” is a topic that goes to the very heart of the city as emphasized by moderator Castillo, who allowed each speaker five minutes for an opening statement and three minutes each to answer subsequent questions from the audience.
Chris Williamson, Ph.D., Senior City Planner, stated that his specific purpose in coming to the city had been to work on the 2030 plan. He stressed that the plan was as much a finite goal as a process with two priorities: Public safety and quality of life/environmental issues. He elaborated on the intersecting of two concerns: long-term interests, especially sustainability as advocated by the Sierra Club and short-term interests as especially advocated by development for profit (build & sell, then get out).  The 2002 “Visioning Project 2020” had a huge emphasis on SOAR; in 2005, the General Plan took up remaining issues.
Mike Stubblefield introduced himself as a resident of El Rio and a member of the Sierra Club concerned for the past 20 years specifically about the future of Ormond Beach. His and the Sierra Club’s main goal is to have all land south of Hueneme Road protected in the 2030 general Plan. He also explained that there is a 5095 acre sub parcel that is being considered for light industry. Coastal restoration for the protection of wetlands in the interest of eco-tourism is their primary goal for Ormond Beach.
In the question and answer session the following topics were addressed and more specifically developed:
Green energy plans under discussion by the city: recycling to transform trash into energy; off-shore wind-farms; solar panel requirements of all new industrial developments, as well as some retro-fitting requirements. Harnessing ocean resources, such as desalination and wave energy. A wave generator near Point Conception is still in an experimental stage; desalination plants are very energy intensive, no green benefit for Oxnard, which is already in the process of cleaning brackish waters for agricultural use. Guarantees of water supply, considerations of costs in context of enormous rate of growth. Acknowledgement of a general consensus by the public on Ormond Beach, Del Norte and the water issue. Reconsiderations of higher density housing; pedestrian traffic, mass transportation possibilities. The Housing Plan, begun in 2008, should be adopted in June or July 2010.
Green space per capita, should be more than 20 acres per capita set aside. Various proposals for development of the Ormond Beach area, such as residential, agricultural, hotel, tourist facilities, have been rejected by the city; Halaco needs to be cleaned up and protected. Migratory bird fly zones must be protected from proposed wind farms and along Ormond Beach. Another public hearing is planned.
Frequency of up-dating the General Plan, suggestions to review it every five years, particularly important because of rising sea-levels. So far the Plan has already cost 1 ½  million.
In the closing statements, Williamson reiterated the respect of the City for SOAR principles and CURB lines; looking at 30 possible sites that are right for affordable housing development. Stubblefield reported that the California Coastal Conservancy has designated $200 million for the Ormond Beach Project. He warned against any consideration of building along the coast line due to the anticipated rise of the sea level between 2’ and 8’ within the next fifty years.

Ruth Maria Capelle

“I hope we shall… crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
~Thomas Jefferson-November 12, 1816

92% of Americans believe special interest contributors BUY VOTES!  Gallup Poll 1995.

Now is our chance to change this with a “yes” vote on Proposition 15, which creates a pilot program for voluntary public financing for Secretary of State candidates in 2014 and 2018.  Prop. 15, the California Fair Elections Act will appear on the June 8, 2010 ballot. It imposes strict reporting requirements and prohibitions on campaign spending for participating candidates.  It bans participating candidates from raising money from lobbyists, their clients, or anyone else.  Voluntary state tax contributions and registration fees on lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist employers will pay for the funding of qualified candidates.  The registration fees will be raised from $12.50 per year to $350.  It ensures that only candidates who show broad support and agree to strict spending limits would receive funding.  It would be enough to run competitive campaigns.  ”Clean  Election” laws work and have been adopted in seven other states and two cities.  If you want to see that money from special interests no longer shuts out the rest of us, then please join the 130 people who met at the Camarillo Library on Sunday March 14th.  It may seem that Prop. 15 would pass easily, but the Institute for Government Advocates, a lobbyist trade group, not surprisingly, is opposing it.

“It is money, money, money!  Not ideas, not principles, but money that reigns supreme in American politics.”
~Senator Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia

Let’s get money out of our campaigns and go to WWW.YesFairElections.org <http://www.YesFairElections.org>  to volunteer and/or contribute financially.

Sandee Bates, Eco Dems Chair

NON-PARTISAN RACES

Let’s face it – four years ago the County Republican Party spent lots of money in the non-partisan Board of Supervisors race to defeat Democrat Jim Dantona over Republican Peter Foy. Non-partisan elections came out of the closet so to speak. We have always said that we should use local non-partisan races to help develop future legislators. And some of us hard core Democrats have said “there are no non-partisan offices.” What the Republicans did in 2006 is only a small prelude to what could happen now. This June two county, non-partisan, elected offices are open with no incumbent running: Ventura County Clerk Recorder, a very important position that oversees the Elections Division, and Treasurer Tax Collector, equally as important. Remember Treasurer Tax collector is the position that Audra Strickland wanted. Democrats have a rare opportunity to get like-minded, non-partisan office holders elected. We might not have the money the other side has, but we have the numbers. Now getting out the vote becomes more important than ever. For a county office 51% of the vote must be obtained to avoid a run off election. Run off elections mean that more money has to be raised and much more work has to be done. That’s why June is so important.  If Democrats can sew this one up in June we have more time to concentrate on partisan races in November. At our April meeting we will be inviting all Democrats running for non-partisan office to come and speak to us. I hope you will attend to show them support and encouragement.
Bill Gallaher, President

Oxnard Planning Director, Chris Williamson, and Sierra Club Chair, Mike Stubblefield will discuss Oxnard’s proposed 2030 General Plan at GOOD CLUB on Wednesday March 10, 2010 at 7:00 PM.        

Some answers will be provided by Chris Williamson, who is the principal planner for the City of Oxnard and Mike Stubblefield, newly installed Chair of the Los Padres Chapter of the Sierra Club.  They will discuss the history, process, legal requirements and details of the proposed 2030 General Plan for the City of Oxnard, which was put on hold by the Oxnard City Council at the meeting of February 9. 2010. Mr. Williamson will reprise his presentation to the City Council on February 9.  Mr. Stubblefield will discuss the Sierra Club’s concerns about the General Plan.

In early February, hundreds of people sent letters to the Oxnard City Council, and several dozen testified during a standing-room only public hearing, to express their concerns about the 2030 General Plan’s  proposals for  Ormond Beach wetland area,  Jones Ranch, water supply, traffic, school placement,  industry, jobs and housing affordability issues .

 The City Council postponed a final decision on the 2030 General Plan pending more public outreach and discussion about the plan.

 The Greater Oxnard Organization of Democrats (the GOOD Club) meets at 7:00 p.m.  at the Café on A, 438 South A Street, in downtown Oxnard .  Visitors are welcome.  For further information call Carmen Ramirez at (805) 485-8026 or e mail inquiry at ramirezmcar@gmail.com .

Al is the son of a Hoosier Republican farmer/teacher who damned FDR all the way to the bank to cash his AAA check, Al arrived on planet earth just before the crash of 1929 and, at only ten years old, he helped his family to weather the depression by working as a farm laborer. Near the end of WW II, he acquired a Railroad Retirement Board social security number by doing what his grandfather had done, working on the railroad. Jobs in bridge building, food service, insurance fraud investigations, and classroom teaching provided means for higher and higher education, as did a tour in naval intelligence during the Korean War. He completed his Ph.D. degree using the GI Bill, scholarships, and teaching positions to support the wife and family that came while he was attached to the Fifth Naval District command in Norfolk.

In 1959, degree in hand, he followed Horace Greeley’s advice to go west to join the faculty of San Fernando Valley State College, now CSUN, where he taught until his retirement in 1995. At Northridge he combined teaching, research, and textbook writing with activism in Democratic politics. He became president of the Northridge Democratic Club in 1963, an elector in the Electoral College in 1964, a regional officer in the CDC, and an intermittent delegate to the California State Democratic convention. His outspoken stand against escalation of the Vietnam War temporarily alienated him from mainstream politics and led to a long-term avocation in Renaissance and Baroque recorder music. Fully back in the swing of things by the 1980s, he combined political activism with political database building , maintaining the data base for the Nuclear Freeze in Southern California. He was also involved in many local and congressional elections in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1987 he became a commuter professor and (temporarily) absentee landlord, moving, with much political baggage, to Oxnard. GOOD Club officers quickly snagged him at the county fair, and he was appointed by Mayor Lopez to the Oxnard Public Library Board. Then it was the Ventura County Living Wage Coalition and CAUSE, the County Democratic Central Committee, and the California Clean Money Campaign. In the 1990s he served two terms as president of the GOOD Club. As a member of the Ventura Country Democratic Central Committee he worked on the executive board to provide inexpensive electronic voter data to clubs and candidates. In 2001 he was named Volunteer of the Year for Region 10 of the party for coordinating county voter registration. From 2004 to 2006 he served as precinct coordinator of the GOOD Club, receiving major recognition from labor, the party, and legislative bodies. Then, recovered from an illness, he again became president of the GOOD Club and resumed activity in the County Democratic Central Committee and the Fair Elections Campaign.

Behind this activism has been the conviction that the social contract that mitigated the economic collapse of the 1930s, the (con)federalist vision that U.S. provided the world and especially Europe at the end of WW II, and the domestic programs that treat all Americans as stake holders have been indispensable to our achievement of a “more perfect union,” domestic tranquility, and national security. Successful capitalism must provide incentives to more than a few winners who commandeer the rest. Our social fabric has been systematically undermined by the Friedmans and the Reagans whose deeds contradict their creeds.

Responsible parenthood and custody of our natural endowment are likewise indispensable perquisites for a rule of law that recognizes real persons, not corporate collectives, as participants in our polity. Activism is a commitment without end. Some dedicated band must fight for equity lest civilized society wither. As a professional historian, Al is all too aware of the historical record of imperial adventurers whose waste of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness constitute boundless marches of folly commonly celebrated as national epics.

Married for 28 years to Susan, Al has two sons and a grandson in Sacramento and a daughter in Oakland. Marriage added three stepsons and two granddaughters, who now reside in Palo Alto.

Allen Dirrim with editorial help from Dori Maria Jones.

Join us on Saturday, 27 February at 4:00 as we come together to organize Marie Panec’s campaign for the 24th Congressional District Democratic Primary Election.

Meet with Marie, members of her grassroots leadership team and new campaign staff. Share your concerns for the district, bring your ideas and help plan a course of action for the campaign and let’s win this election together!

Marie invites you to get engaged in her campaign. Enjoy some good food. Find out how you can be part of something great, take meaningful action, and make a difference in your own community.

4:00 pm – Saturday, 27 Feb. 2010
14886 Marquette St. Moorpark, CA 93021
R.S.V.P: panec4congress@gmail.com

Hosted by: Min Gu & John Baker
Sponsored by Friends of Marie Panec for Congress
www.panec4congress.com

Jim Dantona, an independent businessman and veteran of local, state and national government, has announced his candidacy for the office of Ventura County Clerk and Recorder.  Promoting fair elections, fiscal responsibility and protecting our future, Dantona has already secured the endorsement of the Ventura County Firefighters.

Dantona acknowledges “The average voter may not realize just how important is the work of Clerk and Recorder.  Besides recording and securing vital public records, the Elections Division is ultimately responsible for guaranteeing fair elections and timely results. In recent years, I think we’ve seen mistakes that call into question whether or not Ventura County has always accomplished that.”

Dantona’s government experience includes work with both Democratic and Republican leadership which he sees as a major advantage in this non-partisan position. “I have always said we do not need new taxes. What we need is new leadership and strict fiscal accountability to halt the waste of taxpayer dollars.  I will work to create more efficiency and embrace competent, proven technology that saves money and protects our records and our votes. And if Sacramento comes knocking on Ventura County’s door, I have the ability, the contacts and the guts to oppose them for trying to cover their own mismanagement of taxpayers dollars by raiding Ventura County funds.”

Dantona says he relates to many county residents today who are struggling through personal and professional hardship. “Believe me, I have been there and my past opponents have tried to exploit that fact, but I know that leadership, hard work and determination are what will ultimately get us through.”  A single parent, Dantona raised his three children on his own, founded an award-winning non-profit organization dedicated to keeping young people off drugs, in school and out of gangs, and was honored by     the FBI for doing so.  He has also managed large staffs for the State of California and consulted for two U.S. Presidents.