Libertarian Party of San Francisco Agenda: Saturday, August 13, 2016
Meeting Location: San Francisco Main Library – 4th Floor Conference Room
1. Welcome – Introductions 3:05-3:10
2. Membership/Newsletter Report 3:11-3:15
3. Treasurer’s Report (Bank & PayPal) 3:16-3:20
4. Website Update Report 2016 Report 3:21-3:30
5. November Election Ballot Measures 3:31-5:00
Meeting Location: San Francisco Main Library – 4th Floor Conference Room
1. Welcome – Introductions 3:05-3:10
2. Membership/Newsletter Report 3:11-3:15
3. Treasurer’s Report (Bank & PayPal) 3:16-3:20
4. Website Update Report 2016 Report 3:21-3:30
5. November Election Ballot Measures 3:31-5:00
Libertarian Party of San Francisco Minutes of Meeting of August 13, 2016, San Francisco Main Library.
The meeting began late at 3:16. Members in attendance were: Phil Berg, Les Mangus, Aubrey Freedman, Starchild, Michael Denny, and Ryan Porte. Ryan Porte requested that he be added to the LPSF Activist List.
Guests: Nick Smith, Philip Chi, and Don Orndell.
Membership and Newsletter: Still 20 Lifetime members, 23 Regular members paid and current. 250 people are receiving our newsletter.
Treasurer’s Report: $6,119.05 in the bank, up around $200.
Discussion about website tools: We agreed to provide Marcy with an editing tool that would cost about $45 per year, and to provide Marcy with some support in implementing any additional necessary tools. $500 or less was authorized to spend on service provider for fixing website image uploading and template problems (service quoted at $150), plus any additional unexpected problems provider might find.
Ballot Arguments for November 8, 2016: Many ballot measures we previously considered for opposition were pre-empted by members of the Board of Supervisors, mostly Aaron Peskin. So Supervisors will be the official opposition on the pre-empted measures. Other measures LPSF considered were:
1) Sugary Beverage Tax – Proposition V
- $.01 per oz tax
- Goes to General fund so only needs 51% to pass
- Tax paid by wholesaler
- Seems likely to pass, but noted by Ryan Porte that the tax in New York was eventually overruled as unconstitutional. Unclear about how it might connect to this measure.
2) Real Estate Transfer Tax – Proposition W
- Properties over $5 million
- Class Warfare
3) BART Bond – Proposition RR
- $3.5 billion ($7 billion overall)
- District Tax
- Alameda County is running the campaign
- Not accepting input from non-Alameda Country voters
- We decided to sign on to an existing opposition document rather than submit one of our own.
4) San Francisco Unified School District Bond – Proposition A
- $1.5 billion including interest
- 5 years ago the SFUSD said that was their LAST bond. And here’s another one.
- We agreed to submit an opposing argument for this measure.
5) 16 Year Old Vote – Proposition F
- After some discussion we decided to not submit an argument.
6) $19 million Tree Tax set-aside – Proposition E
- After some discussion decided not to submit an argument.
7) Acquisition and Rehabilitation of Affordable Housing – Proposition C
- Proposal is to utilize unused bond funds to fund loans to renovate concrete structure buildings used for “affordable housing” as well as acquire new buildings to be used for “affordable housing”.
- Agreed that unused bond money should be returned to the City treasury.
8) Non-citizens voting for School Board elections – Proposition N
- Agreed it was a “Feel Good” measure.
- Complicated
- It would have to be a Paid Argument
- Will decide eventual position and will put on our postcard. Will not submit an argument for the voters’ handbook.
9) Dignity Fund – Proposition I
- Set-aside from General Fund for Seniors and Disabled
- Starts at $38 million, then to $44 million and then to $72 million
- We agreed to submit an argument on this measure
10) Housing and Development Commission rule changes – Proposition M
- New bureaucracy to oversee the Housing and Community Division
- Transfer more appointments to the Supervisors
- Shares more power with the Mayor.
- Decided to not submit an argument
11) Issue of Vacancy Appointments by executive branch – Proposition D
- Normally the Mayor gets to appoint
- This would create a charter amendment to modify the policy so that a special election would have to be held if the appointee would be in the position for longer than 180 days.
- We agreed not to submit an argument
We divided up the required work on writing ballot arguments among those who volunteered:
Starchild – Sugary Drinks
Phil Berg – Dignity Fund Set-Aside
Mike Denny – Real Estate Transfer Tax
Aubrey Freedman – School District Bond
Ryan Porte – Acquisition and Rehabilitation of Affordable Housing (argument: return Bond money rather than redeploy for loans and new building acquisition).
Meeting was adjourned at 5:10PM although discussion continued unofficially for some time after.
Submitted by Michael Denny
The meeting began late at 3:16. Members in attendance were: Phil Berg, Les Mangus, Aubrey Freedman, Starchild, Michael Denny, and Ryan Porte. Ryan Porte requested that he be added to the LPSF Activist List.
Guests: Nick Smith, Philip Chi, and Don Orndell.
Membership and Newsletter: Still 20 Lifetime members, 23 Regular members paid and current. 250 people are receiving our newsletter.
Treasurer’s Report: $6,119.05 in the bank, up around $200.
Discussion about website tools: We agreed to provide Marcy with an editing tool that would cost about $45 per year, and to provide Marcy with some support in implementing any additional necessary tools. $500 or less was authorized to spend on service provider for fixing website image uploading and template problems (service quoted at $150), plus any additional unexpected problems provider might find.
Ballot Arguments for November 8, 2016: Many ballot measures we previously considered for opposition were pre-empted by members of the Board of Supervisors, mostly Aaron Peskin. So Supervisors will be the official opposition on the pre-empted measures. Other measures LPSF considered were:
1) Sugary Beverage Tax – Proposition V
- $.01 per oz tax
- Goes to General fund so only needs 51% to pass
- Tax paid by wholesaler
- Seems likely to pass, but noted by Ryan Porte that the tax in New York was eventually overruled as unconstitutional. Unclear about how it might connect to this measure.
2) Real Estate Transfer Tax – Proposition W
- Properties over $5 million
- Class Warfare
3) BART Bond – Proposition RR
- $3.5 billion ($7 billion overall)
- District Tax
- Alameda County is running the campaign
- Not accepting input from non-Alameda Country voters
- We decided to sign on to an existing opposition document rather than submit one of our own.
4) San Francisco Unified School District Bond – Proposition A
- $1.5 billion including interest
- 5 years ago the SFUSD said that was their LAST bond. And here’s another one.
- We agreed to submit an opposing argument for this measure.
5) 16 Year Old Vote – Proposition F
- After some discussion we decided to not submit an argument.
6) $19 million Tree Tax set-aside – Proposition E
- After some discussion decided not to submit an argument.
7) Acquisition and Rehabilitation of Affordable Housing – Proposition C
- Proposal is to utilize unused bond funds to fund loans to renovate concrete structure buildings used for “affordable housing” as well as acquire new buildings to be used for “affordable housing”.
- Agreed that unused bond money should be returned to the City treasury.
8) Non-citizens voting for School Board elections – Proposition N
- Agreed it was a “Feel Good” measure.
- Complicated
- It would have to be a Paid Argument
- Will decide eventual position and will put on our postcard. Will not submit an argument for the voters’ handbook.
9) Dignity Fund – Proposition I
- Set-aside from General Fund for Seniors and Disabled
- Starts at $38 million, then to $44 million and then to $72 million
- We agreed to submit an argument on this measure
10) Housing and Development Commission rule changes – Proposition M
- New bureaucracy to oversee the Housing and Community Division
- Transfer more appointments to the Supervisors
- Shares more power with the Mayor.
- Decided to not submit an argument
11) Issue of Vacancy Appointments by executive branch – Proposition D
- Normally the Mayor gets to appoint
- This would create a charter amendment to modify the policy so that a special election would have to be held if the appointee would be in the position for longer than 180 days.
- We agreed not to submit an argument
We divided up the required work on writing ballot arguments among those who volunteered:
Starchild – Sugary Drinks
Phil Berg – Dignity Fund Set-Aside
Mike Denny – Real Estate Transfer Tax
Aubrey Freedman – School District Bond
Ryan Porte – Acquisition and Rehabilitation of Affordable Housing (argument: return Bond money rather than redeploy for loans and new building acquisition).
Meeting was adjourned at 5:10PM although discussion continued unofficially for some time after.
Submitted by Michael Denny