Meeting of 11 August, 2012

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:

1. 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.
2. $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.
3. 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.
4. Consolidating Odd-Year Municipal Elections.  Didn’t have time for this one.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.