DRAFT
May 19th CDCC Meeting Minutes
YMCA
Meeting was called to order at 7:08
Chair asked to dispense with calling of the roll – passed unanimously
A motion to accept the Minutes from the April Meeting was put forward by Mitch
Seconded
1 Abstention - Mushtaque Mirzaue Mirza
Reports of Officers
Chair – Danny Schlozman – We can now accept donations on ActBlue, we are on Twitter
@CambridgeDems, working with State Dems Party to acquire Vote Builder – gives us
access to a very rich voter file for campaigns, Dems have a cut-rate package offer and we
are looking work with the State Committee to upgrade $500.
Motion to Upgrade Vote Builder moved, seconded, unanimously approved,
Recognition of Polly Cobb – Polly has done a fabulous job and Chair asked that the minutes
reflect the appreciation of Polly Cobb for her able service.
Vice- Chair Helen Glikman – Thank you all for coming this is an excellent space, please
feel free to eat the pizza and thank you to YMCA
Treasurer – Bill McAvinney – Not much has changed since the last meeting and the
Committee didn’t take in any new money. We have $9400 in the account and we have
established the ActBlue Account.
Secretary – Jefferson Smith– Thank you for your patience thought this transition, if
everyone who speaks could introduce themselves, I can better record the names of those
that wish to be recognized. Announcement about the untimely passing of Carla Johnston.
Affirmative Action Outreach Officer – Brian Corr – Addressed Voter registration and to
establish an outreach system of community registrars to help get out the vote and
encourage a greater level of involvement. Want to make sure that folks are out there
engaging citizens about voting and voter registration
Mushtaque Mirza – Asked about those folks that recently become US citizens and
the outreach to them. Wants to urge more Ward Chairs to include more people from Asian
countries. As a member of the state committee, would like to see every Ward submit a
report to Brian about women, minority members and veterans.
Donna Barry –Committee and Ward Chairs should be active in getting a list of City
events and have a complimentary table to register voters
Bob Richards – Would like to work through the High School to get more kids
registered and bring to the next meeting the voter reg forms to distribute to the members
Recognition of Outgoing Officers
Avi Green – Recognized for distinguished service by Luarie Taymor-Berry
George –Thanked for his excellent service by Joel Patterson
Rachael Cobb – Recognized for her service to the City Committee by Helen Glikman
Mellissa Knowles – Recognized by Danny Schlozman as always attentive to every detail
and she will be missed.
Tax Expenditures Presentation
Rep Jonathan Hecht
Ward 9
Helen Glikman introduced Rep Hecht
Rep Hecht, here talk about an idea I have been working on with other progressives. I love
being a state Rep but the truth is that in recent years, mainly what we have been doing is
making hard choices about lousy options, those hard choices have focused on people of
moderate means, they have born the brunt of the choices we have had to make. We would
have liked to get out of the way of those hard choices. In the latest budget cycle we have
started out with no new revenues or new taxes being on the table. Want to try to expand
the resources that are available then to state government. What we decided to do along
with many progressives as part of the House Budget to focus on tax expenditures – it’s the
things that we allow to escape from the eye of the budget -- creating credits, deductions,
exclusions for certain populations. That part of our budget in the last 5 years has become
larger than the expenditure side of our budget. Tax expenditure budget, foregone revenues,
has gone up by $5B. It screams out for our attention but has gotten little attention. Many of
the exclusions are on auto-pilot and no one has taken a look at them to see if they are doing
what they were designed to do.
The working group that Rep Hecht informally chairs in the House recommended 3 different
proposals 1) freeze these expenditures 2) beef up reporting requirements from companies
or other entities should report on them and what is being accomplished or 3) establish an
ongoing commission to take that information and study it to see if there are some
expenditures should be repealed, modified or maintained. We were able to get a
combination in the House budget – a commission to study the tax expenditure budget and
then a mandate on the reporting requirements, some timelines that are designed to feed
into the FY 13 budget cycle. Should be able to make the same hard choices on the tax
expenditure budget as we are on the operational budget. The senate budget does not have
an analogous section to it, but other Senators are working to put that in there. MassUnited
group that is looking into this issue in Massachusetts and beyond to begin to address this
problem. Please visit Massuniting.org for more information.
Joel Patterson – collective bargaining vote? Really bothers me that the Speaker was going
to go down the path of removing the right to collective bargain from the muni employees.
Don’t understand what will be achieved by it and why would they adopt something that
removes
Rep Hecht – Not a new issue in Mass. This is a modest measure, but one that addresses the
problem that has been around a while and threatening jobs and services. After 10-15 years
of trying to address the problem, there is a feeling now to get off the dime. Some will be
restricted. Every other aspect of collective bargaining will remain. At the end of the day, the
muni workers will have far greater rights that other state employees. Under the
circumstances it is the right thing to do.
Avi Green – now that the bill is in the Senate, how much coordination is going on between
House and Senate progressive?
Rep. Hecht – A lot. We work very closely with Sonia and Jamie Eldridge on these and other
issues.
Bill – Why did you personally vote against the right for workers to collectively bargain?
Rep. Hecht – Our bill does provide them a seat at the table, but I’m not pretending that this
is collective bargain. Plan design in CA that needs to be bargained across all units. What
experience has shown is that it is very difficult for each nit to bargain individually
Bill – The reason that people didn’t go into the GIC is because you cannot bargain and have
no say in it. Savings are the same. What did you take the right away for people to negotiate.
Rep. Hecht – We have not be able to get those savings and this is not collective bargaining
and we don’t pretend that it is.
Mushtaque Mirza – What is the environmental budget looking like?
Rep. Hecht – Terrible. Were only able to put $60M back into the agency
Redistricting Resolution
Danny Schlozman – We are in the early stages of a process that will establish new precinct
lines that will allow the state house to draw new district lines for Rep, Senate and the
Congressional lines, several members of the committee testified at a hearing today, the
maps are good but not adequate where distances to walk to the polls gets harder. This is
very truncated process, comments are due at Noon tomorrow.
Garrett Anderson – Has a resolution on redistricting. Garrett read the resolution.
Laurie Taymor-Berry – 3 state Senators and 6 state reps, would this affect the number
that we would have? What would we prefer?
Garrett – This is just stating general principles
Avi Green – The best number of reps for Cambridge is 4 possibly 5. Not 3 or 6.
Mitch – Hecht represents a small part of us, he is responsive, he listens to our concerns,
Garrett – This is tough because we are trying to speak for the whole committee, the
resolution not about specific persons or districts.
Bill – Object to half a sentence in resolution, paragraph 6 last sentence “and to include the
majority of Cambridge in a single district in the State Senate”
Amendment proposed to strike the sentence
Lesley Phillips – Propose an amendment to strike that same sentence in Paragraph 6, last
sentence and replace it with “To no more than 2 senators”
Dana – Rise in support of the motion and resolution. I think we need to focus more on state
Senate District since none of them are exclusively or principally in Cambridge. Lives on last
street in Tolmans district
Danny asked for a motion to close debate; so moved; seconded; motion passes
Debate is Closed
Danny asked for a motion to accept the amended resolution with Lesley Phillips’ changes
So moved; seconded; motion passes
Danny asked for a motion to Adopt the Resolution; so moved; seconded
1 Member Voted no
Danny asked for a motion to Accepted the Amended Redistricting Resolution; so
moved; motion passes and Amended Redistricting Resolution Passes
New Business
Program: 2012 Presidential Election Presentation and Discussion
Dan Burgess – Ward 6 – talk a little bit about OFA, volunteer and we are starting to
organize again for 2012, we are 537 days away, starting to reach out to Obama and Patrick
folks, reaching out to people who were involved before and those who would like to be new
volunteers, a few events in Cambridge and Somerville, I will be around and have a sign up
sheet for everyone.
Announcements
Danny Schlozman - Targeting a CDCC fundraiser in the beginning of July
We have a whole lot of needs for the fundraiser so we hope you will volunteer.
Helen Glikman – fundraiser will help launch the 2012 campaign.
Alan Harwood – raised the issue of Secrure Communities. Asked could there be a motion
from this committee regarding Secure Communities? Busloads of Tea Partiers have been
disruptive at these meetings. Secure Communities is an initiative of the Obama
administration where anyone that is stopped by the police for any reason is fingerprinted
and their name is sent to ICE and FBI automatically. Many people have been put in jail from
questions about their illegal status and it raises further questions about the money that
private jails are getting for detaining people.
Donna Barry – Point of clarification. Any member of the city committee may draft a motion
in the city committee and happy to view at the next meeting for passage
Quinton - Climate Change week in Cambridge – it’s almost over. Cceag.org. Invite you to be
present at the action event
Motion to Adjourn
Seconded
Adjournment at 8:31pm on May 19th, 2011
Respectfully Submitted,
Jefferson R Smith
Secretary