Our Party is committed to democratic governance at every level (town, state, nation), and that includes inside our own political party!  Here in California, the undersigned Democratic Party caucuses stand united in advocating for grassroots enfranchisement.  See below.

JOINT STATEMENT RE VIRTUAL E-BOARD MEETING ON 10/24/21

All Executive Board members should have received an email from the CADEM Statewide Officers confirming that the Special Meeting called for October 24, 2021 at 10am, will go forward as a virtual-only meeting. We appreciate the efforts of our Party Officers in fulfilling their duties and advising that a Special Meeting of the Executive Board will be held with formal notice to all with an Agenda to be released at least 10 days prior to the Oct 24th meeting.

Every Democrat, from Statewide Officer to Delegate, should see this meeting as a victory for democracy within the Party. The failure to agendize the recommendations of the previous ad hoc committees interrupted our ability to be a party of and by the people. All Executive Board Members should be able to attend, make a motion, and have their voices heard. We will overcome this challenge and we will be a better, more inclusive, and more democratic Party because of it.

This meeting is an important opportunity to correct missteps of the recent past in accepting fossil fuel and law enforcement money. We appreciate the assurances from the CDP Officers not to continue to accept those funds prior to a formal vote of the Executive Board. However, the Executive Board of the Party must first vote on the 2019 and 2020 committee recommendations; then the new ad hoc committee can get to work to determine how best to move forward on any new recommendations.

In order to ensure that the “Ad Hoc Committee 2.0” being convened does not duplicate the work of the Ad Hoc Committee of 2019-20, and that the pool of potential members of the Ad Hoc Committee 2.0 is fully inclusive, we call on CDP Officers to affirm that the Caucus Chairs will be given the opportunity to appoint a representative from each of their respective caucuses to the ad hoc committee.

As we have noted previously, an in-person meeting was necessary only to ensure that the challenges of a virtual meeting were not used to silence Executive Board Members, as transpired during our most recent meeting. We trust that additional efforts will be made at this virtual meeting to make certain that the noticed Agenda is followed and to recognize all those Executive Board members who wish to be heard. If there is another failure, we reserve our right to call for another Executive Board meeting until there is a vote on the substantive issues discussed here.

Thank you to everyone that has engaged in constructive dialogue regarding this meeting. We humbly accept any and all criticism and trust that our colleagues accept that we have been acting in good faith to represent our members and Democrats across the state. The issues that  we, as a Party, address are not simple, but we are proud of our Party for tackling them nonetheless. We look forward to the meeting notice and final agenda contained in that notice.

In solidarity,

Taisha Brown, Black Caucus Chair
Igor Tregub, Environmental Caucus Chair
Carlos Alcala, Chicano Latino Caucus Chair
Konstantine Anthony, Disabilities Caucus Chair
Ann Crosbie, Children’s Caucus Chair
Ron Cohen, Veterans Caucus Chair
Ruth Carter, Senior Caucus Chair
Amar Shergill, Progressive Caucus Chair

Dear Environmental Caucus members,

I. Congratulations!

I would like to extend a hearty congratulations to all of our members who were appointed to a CDP committee. There was a lot of churn this year. We’ll be looking to you to ensure that our shared concerns on staving off a climate catastrophe are uplifted and taken seriously by the Party. If we can be of any support to you, please let us know.

II. Save Rooftop Solar Resolution

The fight to save rooftop solar continues. Below is a resolution template you can take to your DCC, club, and/or region. Please keep us posted. We will be submitting this for consideration at the August EBoard meeting.

Resolution in Support of Enhanced Access to Rooftop Solar and Net Metering

WHEREAS, Over the past two decades, hundreds of thousands of Californians have invested in rooftop solar to combat climate change, lower energy bills, and invest in local communities; and

WHEREAS, The State of California encouraged these investments via policies like net metering, which lets solar users share their extra energy with their neighbors for a bill credit and today rooftop solar, often paired with battery storage, is an increasingly affordable investment embraced by working class communities as a common and increasingly affordable solution to wildfires, blackouts, and rate increases; and

WHEREAS, net metering and, therefore, rooftop solar is at risk of being jeopardized by California’s investor-owned utilities, who are opposed to the growth of rooftop solar and storage because it threatens their business model, which depends on building an ever bigger and more expensive grid at the expense of ratepayers;

BE IT RESOLVED, that the [NAME OF ORGANIZATION] calls on Governor Newsom and the California Public Utilities Commission to:

1. Keep rooftop solar growing to fight climate change and build a safer, more resilient grid;
2. Prioritize equity by bringing rooftop solar and storage to more lower-income families and disadvantaged communities; and
3. Make solar-charged batteries standard with rooftop solar by 2030; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the [NAME OF ORGANIZATION] calls on Governor Newsom and the California Public Utilities Commission to reject any proposals by investor-owned utilities or organizations that side with them to slash solar bill savings or impose new fees on solar users that collectively would set back California’s climate change and environmental justice goals, consign the public to annual power outages, reduce customer bill savings, and harm access to solar energy by lower-income ratepayers.

III. Stand with Sunrise on July 15!

The White House is on defense, Igor. They want us to believe that Biden is doing enough to address the greatest threat to our generation. But the climate provisions in his bipartisan infrastructure deal are nowhere close to what he ran on, let alone what’s scientifically necessary.

On July 15, Sunrise hubs will unite in a day of protest to demand that President Biden and Congress push for legislation that will get us 1.5 million good, green jobs. Can you join us? Click here to let us know you’re interested, and let us know how we can support you in preparing for your July Day of Action event.

Dear Friends of Tesla Park,

For months there has been work behind the scenes at the Capitol to get language into the budget to preserve Tesla Park as one part of the legislative strategy.  The leadership of the Legislature included a Tesla Park item in the preliminary budget passed on 6/15/21. At the 11th hour, the Governor rejected the Tesla language and said he would line-item veto it if not removed.  In the final budget, now passed and signed, the line item about Tesla Park preservation was stricken out.  It is believed the OHV users/lobby/lobbyist Terry McHale of Aaron Read got to the Governor.

It is disappointing to know that presently the barrier to Tesla preservation is Governor Newsom himself (of note, while the Governor refused to protect Tesla, at the same time he did approve an additional $6.7M for CSVRA for ‘road construction’ over and above the usual budget allocation). But we have more legislative options this session that are still active and need our support.

Budget Trailer Bills

 Our focus now is to get the Tesla language into the Natural Resources (NR) Budget Trailer Bill.  While the timing is uncertain, we have to assume the bill could be taken up anytime.

We need your help to contact the Governor and his administration to support the Tesla trailer bill language in the Natural Resources trailer bill. We will do letters of support to the legislature and Governor based on prior letters.  We will ask you and your members to contact Secretary Crowfoot and the Governor.  Watch for calls to action beginning next week.

AB 1512

In addition to the trailer bill process, AB 1512 (Bauer-Kahan) is moving through the Senate, with a hearing on 7/8/21 in the NRW committee  https://sntr.senate.ca.gov/agenda .  Please help us get as many people as possible to attend the 7/8/21 hearing or call in to support AB 1512. 

If you have the opportunity, please thank the elected officials for their continued help and support to preserve Tesla Park. We need them to keep fighting. Senator Glazer and Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan have been great.  Alameda County Supervisor Haubert, Senator Wieckowski, Senator Skinner, Assemblymember Ting, Livermore Mayor Woerner, Mayors of Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon, Danville, EBRPD, LARPD and ACRCD, and Legislative Leadership have also all stepped up.

hank you for all you did last week to call the Governor – and thank you for your continued help as we move to the next stages over the summer. If you have insight on this process, please share.

Thank you for helping to save Tesla Park.

Friends of Tesla Park

www.TeslaPark.org

FriendsofTeslaPark@gmail.com

Follow us on social media:

• Twitter – https://twitter.com/tesla_parkand #saveteslapark
• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/SaveTeslaPark
• Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/saveteslapark/

Friends of Tesla Park is an alliance dedicated to establishing Tesla Park as non-motorized nature and cultural preserve.