Hi All. Here are the minutes from last Saturday's meeting. If I missed
anything or got something wrong, please let me know and I'll fix it in the
minutes. Nick, if you could post the minutes to the website before the end
of the week, that would be great. We're hoping that all those who can will
attend the panel discussion on school choice this coming Thursday evening
at the Mechanic's Institute.
Minutes for June 9, 2018 Meeting of the Libertarian Party of San Francisco
taken by Aubrey Freedman.
*Attendees*: Nick Smith (Chair), Jawj Greenwald (Treasurer), Aubrey
Freedman (Secretary), Phil Berg, Oroteo Felix (guest), Caroline Liviakis
(guest), Jamie Dluzak (guest), and Starchild.
*Introductions:* Oroteo hails from Brazil and is interested in
cryptocurrency and was attending a hackathon in town today. Caroline came
to libertarianism via Ron Paul and hangs out with fiscal conservatives like
the Bay Area Conservatives. It sounded like she had met Winston Chin
before. Jamie lives in Alameda County but found it more convenient to come
to our meeting than LPAlameda County’s meeting.
*Chair’s Report:* Nick reported that our postcard mailing to 2,678
registered Libertarians in The City resulted in increased traffic of four
times the normal amount, though the newsletter went out around the same
time, so some of the increase could have been due to the newsletter. So
far 69 postcards have been returned by the post office due “Unable to
Forward” or “Return to Sender” problems. Nick has been trying to get us
back to the Cow Palace to table again at another gun show, but it’s being
held this week-end conflicting with today’s meeting. The next one is
September 22-23, so we voted unanimously to authorize $110 for a table at
that gun show with Dan The Man from the Golden Gate Liberty Revolution. Nick
reported a reasonably successful happy hour social for Tim Ferreira in his
run for Lieutenant Governor at the 21st Amendment Brewery last month, where
Richie Greenberg also joined us and plugged his campaign for Mayor. Nick
is still working on trying to get a monthly social set up each month. At
this point, it looks like it will be on the last Thursday of each month at
a watering hole in The Mission or near Powell and Market. He also noted
that the national convention in New Orleans is coming up in a few weeks,
and it appears that the only attendees from the LPSF will be Nick, Aubrey,
Starchild, and Michael Edelstein.
*Vice Chair’s Report:* Rebecca is in Stockton this week-end attending an
LPCA Executive Committee meeting as an At-Large member, so Nick gave the
report. Rebecca just sent off an invitation to attend the panel discussion
on June 21. He reported that 18 tickets have been sold so far for a total
of $85. He would like to have $75 allocated for refreshments for the panel
discussion. We voted unanimously to authorize the $75 for refreshments. There
was some question if Carol Kocivar as one of the panelists will still
attend, and at this point everything looks positive. Questions for the
moderator are still needed and should be sent to Rebecca. We also
discussed Rebecca’s plan for an LPSF annual convention (as the Santa Clara
and Los Angeles LP chapters have organized) in early January (see notes
below under LPSF Convention).
*Treasurer’s Report: * Jawj reported that we have $4,102.55 in the credit
union and $1,913.00 in PayPal for a total of $6,015.55. The postcard
mailing has already been reimbursed and deducted, so the only other
commitment at this point is the $160.00 for the Pride booth for an adjusted
cash balance of $5,855.55.
*Secretary’s Report:* Aubrey reported that membership is unchanged from
last month with 21 lifetime members and 27 regular, currently paid-up
members, for a total of 48. He noted that one of our members had the
ballot recommendation postcard returned to us because his address from the
Department of Elections listing was incorrect. We will correct that for
the next postcard mailing. He also shared the membership information from
the other Northern California affiliates: Santa Clara-94, Sacramento-47,
Alameda-46, San Mateo-38, and Contra Costa-30.
*Newsletter Report:* Aubrey reported that the June newsletter is still in
process. The first article which he is working on is timely, and he would
like to get the newsletter out before Pride in two weeks. It is regarding
the split with Outright Libertarians over Outright’s conspicuous silence on
the Supreme Court ruling on the Jack Phillips’ baker case in Colorado where
Phillips refused to make a cake for a gay couple. For the first time in
about 14 years, the LPSF will be at Pride under our own banner rather than
Outright’s, and this will be the perfect time to explain the Libertarian
spin on the discrimination issue. The second article that Aubrey is
thinking about for the newsletter is regarding the homeless issue and the
conservatorship legislation that London Breed and others are pushing to
force about 100 or so of the most problematic homeless into programs where
taking their medical would be forced, not voluntary. Jawj indicated an
interest in writing the article herself. Aubrey again stressed that
anyone—even guests—can write an article for our website and newsletter if
they feel moved about anything that is liberty-related. Nick reported that
he used the email addresses that he got from the recent Department of
Elections listing to send the May newsletter to. So this time the
newsletter went out to at least 3-4 times as many recipients as before: 1,797
recipients received the newsletter, and there were only 120 bounces and 40
unsubscribes (amazing). The current newsletter mailing list now has 1,643
subscribers! Nick also noted that quite a few people replied to the
newsletter mailing with positive comments, but one person was upset about
Starchild’s fantasy satiric article regarding Prop E and the health
department police and apparently took the article literally.
*Election Recap:* Aubrey reported that, as usual, it was a pretty dismal
election for liberty. The only highlight was that State Senator Josh
Newman, elected as a Democrat in Orange County a few years ago, was soundly
recalled by almost 60% of the voters for his YES vote on the gas tax
increases. Turnout in San Francisco was 39%. All Libertarians running for
office did pretty poorly—Istvan (.22% in SF and .2% statewide) came in
higher than Wildstar (.11% in SF and .2% statewide), Tim Ferreira (1.47% in
SF and 1.5% statewide), and Derrick Reid (.84% in SF and .9% statewide). Gail
Lightfoot did the best of the lot coming in at 2.29% in SF and 2.3%
statewide. All the incumbent statists were easily re-elected by high
margins, except the oldest and established ones seem to be losing their
luster as Feinstein only garnered 61.9% and Pelosi garnered 68.79% of the
YES votes. Richie Greenberg came in very low at 2.92% even though he ran a
very active campaign openly as a Republican. On the ballot measures,
statewide the most obvious problem was Prop 68, a $4 million bond for parks
and the environment (they say), which was approved by 56% of the voters
(79% in SF). For local ballot measures, all taxes were approved, with the
exception that the two competing measures for increased taxes on commercial
rents were both approved by over 50% but D needed 2/3 and clearly did not
get it, and C received 50.34%, so it looks like the worst of the two
measures will become the law, though that could change when all the votes
are tabulated within the next 30 days. Prop F for city-funded lawyers for
renters passed at a lower than expected 55.3%, so that could be viewed in a
positive light being that almost 70% rent in this city. The ban on
flavored cigarettes was upheld by almost 69% of the voters, and RM3 for
increasing the bridge tolls by $3 passed with a 54% counting all 9 counties
as an aggregate, though Contra Costa and Solano counties both voted NO on
it (but they’ll be stuck paying it anyway). Nick had better election news
and announced a few surprising and happy results: Jeff Hewitt running for
Riverside County Supervisor got 25% of the vote and came in second, and
Mimi Robson got 10% of the vote running for the state assembly, so both
will advance on to the November election.
*LPSF Convention*: Rebecca is working on putting together an annual LPSF
convention in January to stir up interest in the party and get folks to
start attending our monthly meetings. The Santa Clara LP has an annual
convention, and they usually pull in a decent attendance, so it’s time for
the LPSF to try it. The best spot is the Latino/Hispanic room in the Main
Library, but it’s already been taken by another group for January 12, even
though library rules clearly state a meeting room cannot be booked more
than 6 months in advance. The goal is to have the convention on the same
day as our meeting (which is also when we elect officers for 2019) to
inspire others to come forward and become an activist. Rebecca has
produced a list of the other libraries in The City that have meeting rooms
that could accommodate a local convention. Since we’ve tried other
branches before for two of our “Tax Day” panel discussions, and attendance
wasn’t so good, Aubrey suggested that we stick with the Main Library and
perhaps try January 5 as the convention date to motivate attendees to get
involved one week before the regular meeting and elections on January 12. Jawj
mentioned David Friedman as a possible speaker for the LPSF convention, in
which case no other speakers would be needed since Friedman is an excellent
draw and has spoken before in the Bay Area.
*Activist Reports:* Aubrey presented against Prop G (parcel tax for
government school teachers and personnel) at the general meeting of the San
Francisco Apartment Association. Nick attended the Bob Wenzel “Free
Exchange” event on June 2 and is thinking about planning some Independence
Day outreach like passing copies of The Constitution or Declaration of
Independence. Jawj worked as a poll worker inspector on Election Day. She
reported that voters had 5 pages of voting to get through in Oakland, and
she was very impressed with how most voters took a lot of time to fill out
their ballots; she noted that the ballot boxes were sealed, and she
delivered them herself to a central location. She did not see any evidence
of voter fraud. Phil, as usual, does his outreach to Lyft drivers. He
told us about the arrest and kangaroo court sentencing of Tommy Robinson in
the UK for talking publicly about a case in the UK that the public is not
allowed to talk about. He suggested, as possible activism, passing out
copies of Frederick Bastiat’s “The Law” at local law school graduation
ceremonies.
*Q&A with Joshua Smith:* This was done via podcast with Joshua calling in
from Washington state. Joshua is running for Libertarian National
Committee Chair against Nicholas Starwark. Joshua served in the Navy in
the war against Iraq when it invaded Kuwait and first noticed the wasteful
spending that went on in the military. He came to libertarianism via Ron
Paul and was later involved in the Occupy Movement in 2011. He rallied
behind Gary Johnson in his presidential runs and helped build up county
affiliates. He is unhappy with the current state of the national party and
feels more emphasis should be on getting local and state candidates elected..
He is supporting Alex Merced for Vice Chair. He wants our marketing
campaigns to go viral. Occupation-wise, he has worked in sales and
marketing at a facilities and manufacturing plant and also as an Uber
driver.
*Announcements:*
June 21 (Thursday) *LPSF 5th Annual Panel Discussion: School Choice*
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM - Mechanic’s Institute Library – 4th Floor Meeting Room
at 57 Post Street
Space is limited! Reserve your ticket!
https://lpsf.org/school-choice
June 23-24 (Saturday/Sunday) *Tabling at SF Pride Celebration*
McCallister Street between Larkin & Hyde streets (closer to Hyde)
Please RSVP on Meetup if you volunteer to help out!
June 25 (Monday) *Economics Lecture: The Historical Case Against the
Federal Reserve*
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Richmond Police Station Community Room at 461 - 6th
Avenue
Talk by Chris Silber – hosted by Golden Gate Liberty Revolution
https://www.meetup.com/RonPaulSF/events/251582199/
June 30-July 3 (Saturday-Tuesday) *Libertarian Party National Convention*
(New Orleans, Louisiana)
Come participate in the Libertarian Party’s once-every-two-years official
national gathering!
https://libertarianconvention.org/
July 11-14 (Wednesday-Saturday) *FreedomFest2018* in Las Vegas, Nevada
https://www.freedomfest.com/
Thanks!
Aubrey