Meeting of 9 June, 2018

Minutes for June 9, 2018 Meeting of the Libertarian Party of San Francisco
Location: San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin St., Sycip Conf. Room (4th floor)

Attendees:  Nick Smith (Chair), Jawj Greenwald (Treasurer), Aubrey Freedman (Secretary), Phil Berg, Oroteo Felix (guest), Jamie Dluzak (guest), and Starchild.

Introductions:  Oroteo hails from Brazil and is interested in cryptocurrency and was attending a hackathon in town today.  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.  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.  (Subsequently to the meeting, Rebecca posted that the January meeting will be on January 5—just that one time only on the first Saturday of the month to coincide with the convention—if she can book the Latino/Hispanic room.)  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/