Dear All,
At Aubrey's request, I am attaching and pasting below the LPSF Minutes of August 11, 2012. I will post it on the LPSF Website on Wednesday 29th.
Marcy
Minutes written by Aubrey Freedman
Libertarian Party of San Francisco
Minutes for Monthly Meeting at San Francisco
Public Library on Saturday, August 11, 2012
Attendees: John
Bechtol (guest), Marcy Berry (Vice Chair), Michael Denny, Francoise Fielding, Aubrey
Freedman (Chair), Les Mangus (Treasurer), & Starchild.
Activist Reports:
Marcy gave an interview at radio station KALW presenting the Libertarian
point of view regarding cities attempting to combat obesity by taxing sodas,
and she will let us know if and when it will be aired. Les continued to write letters to the editor
(not successful in getting them published lately) and also gave $100.00 to the
Gary Johnson campaign. Michael Denny
continued working on the Gary Johnson campaign and brought signs for those who
wanted them. Aubrey attended an MTC-ABAG meeting and spoke out against Plan Bay
Area and submitted an article to the Miraloma Park homeowners’ association
about Plan Bay Area (hoping it will be published).
Announcements:
·
Tuesday, August 21-6:00 PM-Property Rights
Tactical Training Workshop by Mimi Steel at Bel Mateo Bowl-4330 Olympic Avenue,
San Mateo, CA 94403
·
Friday, August 24-11:45 AM-Steve Forbes luncheon
speaker at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco
Treasurer’s Report:
Les reported that 1 new membership increased the current balance in our
coffers to $4,445.52.
Ballot Measures for November Election:
A.
Parcel Tax for CCSF. Both Marcy and Les wrote arguments against
this district measure. Favorable reception
to both versions. Les said he would
change a few words in his argument to make it apply to this specific tax for
CCSF.
B.
$195M Bond for Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks. All agreed the LPSF is generally opposed to
bonds, especially to fund things that should be funded by regular operating
budgets; so a NO vote on this one.
C.
Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Marcy was so upset about this one that she
started a ballot argument against it but couldn’t finish it. All opposed to this measure. There was some discussion at the tail end of
the meeting (when some people had left) that this would probably be the best
measure to submit as a paid argument, if we don’t win the lottery for 2 or more
of our arguments.
D.
Consolidating Odd-Year Municipal Elections. Didn’t have time for this one.
E. Gross
Receipts Tax. Both Michael and Les
agreed to write arguments against this replacement of the payroll tax with a
gross receipts tax. Michael pointed out
that companies would have to pay taxes on revenue that might not even have
yielded any net income. All opposed to
this measure.
F.
Water Sustainability & Environmental
Restoration Planning. Aubrey wrote an
argument against this measure. Favorable
reception, except that something should be added about why spend the money to
study something so ridiculous and also other environmental problems are getting
worse and this one isn’t. Since
Supervisor Elsbernd pre-empted the opposing argument on this one, no way for us
to win the lottery on this one, but it might be considered for a paid argument.
G.
Policy Opposing Corporate Personhood. Unanimous opposition to this measure, with
one of the major reasons being that this is a very one-sided measure by not
even mentioning unions, which are heavily involved in influencing
elections. Les agreed to write an
argument against this measure.
There was some discussion about sending out postcards with
our ballot measure recommendations, as we have done in the past. Though electronic transmission of our
recommendations would save the cost of printing and mailing the postcards (around
$100), the general consensus was that we will again do the mailing this
election. In addition, we will list our
recommendations on the website with a sentence for each measure explaining the
reason for our recommendation. Marcy
agreed to take care of the website recommendations.