November 2020 Meeting Minutes

Beach Cities Democrat Meeting Minutes

November 18, 2020

Jessica Accamando called the meeting to order and Ashley Tull lead the Pledge of Allegiance.  Jessica asked for visitors and there were none.

There was a brief discussion of the election night zoom call and folks gave their opinions on the election results. Many thought it was very stressful as the red state results came in first.  Susan Goodlerner said that Garcia in District 25 is ahead by about 1,000 votes, with 87% counted.  The mail-in ballots still need to be counted and other districts are still counting.

Roger Scham said that in the special election for Christy Smith more republicans were in the mail-in ballots.  Tony Hale added that we’re late in the game for vote counting.  It’s very close and the trend is hard to reverse.  If the uncounted votes are in LA County, she has a chance, but Venture will not be good.  Ann added that they are still curing ballots.

Jessica said that instead of holding a December meeting, she’d rather push emails to get folks to work for the Georgia senate run-off elections.  Dency added that we need to be careful not to overwhelm them.  They are 5 million and we are many more.  Connie stated that it could be talked about at the ADEM meeting the next night.

Jon Gran asked what was best in regard to all the Georgia donation emails he’s receiving.  Dency and Tony replied to give to the campaigns.  You’re never sure what other groups outside the campaign will do with the money.

Jessica moved to the next item, the changed newsletter format.  It will be an email and not a link, and will be posted on our website.

Next, she asked shall we have a December meeting?  Mark Drabkin suggested, maybe we can invigorate ourselves working for Georgia.

Dency said that we need to plan our January virtual party.  We make our money on this fundraiser.  Ashley suggested selling baskets.  Dency replied it’s an open canvas and we can do whatever we want.

OK Jessica said, we won’t have a December meeting, but I’ll put out links for helping the Georgia Senate races.

Tony said that he went to the virtual Roosevelt Dinner.  They used REMO software to allow you to move between tables.  It was very nice and social.  Maybe, we could do that for our party.  Then, the program was broadcast to everyone.  We could expand the invitation to Ted Lieu and Al Muratsuchi.  Dency replied, we need to find a weekend, when we can get those two stars.

Tony then moved to the ADEMS election.  Sergio is going to have a presentation tomorrow and there will before more details after that. You sign up online and then a ballot is mailed to you.  He added that he and Susan Goodlerner are on the same slate.  Susan asked Jessica to forward the information on how to register and to vote by January 11.  Tony said that he has a problem with the system.  The top vote-getter will be on the Board, if you indicated that you want to run for the board.

Larry Fox said that Vanessa Porter asked him to ask if you could contribute to her campaign because her dad has covid and she couldn’t attend tonight.  She has tested negative.  Vanessa is asking for $500 to retire her debt, since she didn’t raise enough funds.

Edna said we’ve never given more than $100.  If we give her more, we have to get a notary and do a lot of paperwork.  Are we then obliged to give everyone money?  Currently, we’ve only been doing robo calls.  We need to think about opening up the flood gates to everyone.

Lori suggested we ask folks to each give a small amount.  Dency thought that was a good idea and her address was given.  This was followed by more discussion and a motion by Tony to give the donation, which was seconded by Connie.  It passed by a majority.  Larry said donations could be given on her website, VanessaPoster.com.

Andrea Valcourt had a few announcements.

The Eviction Moratorium was extended through January 31.

Covered California enrollment is open.

PPE United can help small businesses get PPE.

Great Plates delivers free meals to seniors.

Jessica added that she’s going to re-institute South Bay Volunteers, if businesses have to close again.  So, watch for an announcement.

Bobbi Beuscher said that our website has a warning on it.  Mark and Jessica said that we have not been hacked and we have resources working on it.

Jessica stated that she put links in the Chat Box for the Georgia elections and will send them out tomorrow.  She likes Field Team ^ and they are accepting donations and the Westside Dems is another good organization.  I really want us to narrow in on the Georgia election, although I’m preaching to the choir.  Dency added that if we don’t get the senate, we won’t get anything passed with McConnell in charge.  Everything that’s wrong will be Biden’s fault and we could get another Trump term.

Mark asked if the texting is effective.  Dency replied that he is communicates via text and thinks this is an extraordinary method.  Ashley added that she works for a company that collects date and it finds this is better than calling.

Lori said that we have a senator to be appointed and we should be contacting our Governor with our thoughts.  Dency added that Karen Bass and Ted Lieu are good options.  It will be a very political decision.

Jessica interjected and said, let’s stay on the agenda and discuss this later.

The treasurer gave her report.

Tony said that 70% of the South Bay voted for Biden.  Trump took the Manhattan and Redondo vote on election day, but not Hermosa.  Dency added the Tony was the source for the Easy Reader’s great edition on the election.

Next, Jessica asked for elected reports.

Christian Horvath, Redondo City Council

This morning Janice Hahn visited our homeless project.  That can help us get additional funding.  It will have 15 beds near Target and will have security 24 hours as well as services for the people living there.  We hope to move these people into permanent housing, so others can follow.

Redondo will have an election in March.  As a charter city, we don’t have to follow the state’s schedule, and will save the city money.

The Green Line is going to start virtual outreach in February to get input on its two options as it starts the EIR scoping process.

The South Bay Fiber Network had a virtual ribbon cutting.  We are looking for ways to save cities money and ways to save citizens money.

John Gran, Redondo Beach City Council

During our City Council meeting last night, we looked at our budget numbers and sales tax is only down 15 – 18%, so that is good.  The TOT tax is also down.

Christian interjected that Covid-19 is increasing here, so wear a mask, social distance and wash your hands.  It is good that our numbers are lower than LA, but we still need to do our part and decrease them.

Jessica said she attended an Hermosa meeting to see how businesses can survive.  Our numbers are really bad.  I suggested we use the Police Department website, showing the police wearing masks.  Christian said the majority of letters he gets are from non-believes and agrees with Jessica.  Jessica said other topics were Shop Hermosa, promoting businesses that will ship your purchases for you, reviewing parking restrictions, and promoting Hermosa on HermosaOne.

Bob Wolfe said that there was a transit meeting with Metro CEO, who is on the Biden team.  The Silver line is being electrified, but is in a bad location.  The Chief Sustainability office can be used for reducing car tips and is a key to working on environmental issues.

Micro Metro has an Uber/Lift service, using Metro employees and has a pilot program.  I encourage electeds to weigh in on this.  It can be a public/private partnership.  Christian added that they are trying to get Uber to commit to a 10-year plan and be more policy focused.  Micro-mobility should be looked at by the South Bay.

The Redondo March 2 election will be for the following.

Mayor, with Bill Brand facing 3 challengers.

District 1, with Nils Nehrenheim running against 1 challenger.

District 2, with Todd Loewenstein running against 2 challengers.

District 4, with John Gran running against 1 challenger.

City Attorney, with Michael Webb running against 1 challenger.

School Board has 3 open seats.

Tony said that there was a Democratic Party Board meeting this past weekend.  We didn’t have a lot of changes and it was very short, with a small docket of resolutions, less than 30. One resolution was to end racist language in contracts and real estate documents, which passed.  There will be no in-person voting for the delegate election.  The County Committee had a very spirited debate on removing the Sherriff. The majority voted for the resolution, but it needed 60%.  He was very clever in talking his way out of questions in the resolution.

Jason Boxer is ahead by 300 votes, but Grettel Fournell is down by 80 votes.  Vanessa Poster won, but Vish lost his bid.  Christian added that Vish was not a very good politician and could not overcome the negative websites and didn’t spend enough money.  Dency stated that our West Basin Water District candidate didn’t campaign enough either.

Connie Sullivan asked if the outcome of the Beach Cities Health District race would change its project to improve the campus.  Christian answered that the balance hasn’t changed on the project and there’s a collation against the project as is always the case in Redondo.  Dency added that it would be a shame to have the District damaged because it does so much good work and provides a lot of services.

Jessica then adjourned the meeting, but offered that folks could stay on if they wanted to continue discussing the election.