[Sosfbay-discuss] South SC County Greens participate in San Benito?

[Gerry Gras]

Larry Cafiero_Liaison wrote:

> Santa Clara Greens --
> 
> The Green Party of San Benito County has discussed the possibility of 


I am glad to hear that there now is an active Green Party of San Benito
County.  Some time ago I looked at a map of counties and realized that
San Benito County was the closest inactive county.  Welcome to GPSBC!!


> Greens residing in the southern Santa Clara County towns of Morgan Hill 
> and Gilroy to participate and vote in the GPSBC meetings. 


That is kind of them.

> The GPSBC have 
> asked me to present this question to you on their behalf.
> 
> The GPSBC held their first meeting on March 25, and elected officers and 
> a county council. I attended the meeting and found their election of 
> county council and officers to be valid. As soon as the regional rep for 
> our region, Paul Franklin, reviews the minutes and affirms the process 
> of the election of their county council to the state coordinating 
> committee, they will be considered a functioning GP county, as outlined 
> in the state bylaws at Section 4-1.22.
> 
> The question had been raised during the course of the organizational 
> meetings of the GPSBC prior to March 25 -- since one Green in particular 
> from Gilroy who owns a home in San Benito and one who has contributed to 
> the discussion of forming San Benito on-line are residents of Gilroy and 
> Morgan Hill respectively -- have said it would be more convenient to 
> travel to the San Benito meetings than traveling to Santa Clara meetings.


That does not surprise me.  Of course how valid that is would depend
on where in San Benito the meetings are.  Looking at the map ...
If the meetings were in Hernandez, that would not be true.  But it
seems that the biggest town is Hollister, so I guess the meetings
would be in Hollister, and that clearly is more convenient.


> 
> In fact, a bylaw to that effect had been in the GPSBC bylaws originally 
> submitted for approval to the bylaws committee, but was withdrawn on the 
> bylaws committee's recommendation.


Are you referring to the GPSBC or GPCA bylaws committee?  I am guessing
the latter.


> 
> There are advantages to this arrangement: Primarily -- and this is my 
> hope going forward -- it gets people involved in the Green Party and 
> makes it easier for them to attend meetings. Also, it provides an 
> incentive for Morgan Hill/Gilroy to start a local in their area, as 
> outlined in Article 5 of the Santa Clara County bylaws. I am confident 
> that San Benito would welcome the formation of such a local, and would 
> sunset any bylaws accordingly should a Morgan Hill/Gilroy local be 
> formed in Santa Clara County.


It would be good to have a local down there.


> 
> The only hangup I can see is remote possibility "double voting" at 
> meetings -- that is, Greens from Morgan Hill/Gilroy participating in 
> both Santa Clara and San Benito meetings. If anyone sees this as a 
> problem or a hangup -- I don't necessarily see it as either, but I would 
> gladly field concerns or objections, and I'd welcome any suggestions for 
> resolving them.


I agree that double voting might be a problem.  But maybe not.

Some background ...

In Santa Clara County we welcome anyone to our meetings.  We do not
get many people who aren't Santa Clara County Greens, but we have had
at least one Santa Clara County Libertarian and one San Francisco
Green and two Santa Cruz Greens.  We probably have had others.

I don't remember any restrictions on anyone's right to speak, whether
Santa Clara County Green or not.

We rarely have votes, but I think that when we do, we only allow
Santa Clara County Greens to vote.  But we almost always reach
consensus, so for consensus decisions, all attendees are practically
equal.

I can't speak for the others, but I can't see a good reason why
we should object to San Benito allowing Santa Clara residents to
vote in San Benito meetings.

But if the GPCA bylaws committee objected to that, then what can
you do?  Hmm, I suppose that depends on their objection.

Also, FWIW, Santa Clara County residents south of San Jose are
not very involved in the Santa Clara County Green Party.  As far
as I know, the one and only south-of-San-Jose resident who
participates is Wes Rolley, who is quite active, but does not
come to meetings.  And Wes sometimes has different interests,
because he is sometimes in electoral districts different from the
rest of us.  He is Pombo's district.  And I think he is in a
(different) district that extends to San Luis Obispo.

Of course, if Wes were to spend more time with San Benito County
and less time with Santa Clara County, then we would be disappointed,
but of course he and others should be allowed to go where they want.



> 
> On a state level, this arrangement would not affect the delegate count 
> for plenaries, as those are still calculated solely on the basis of 
> registered Greens in each county from data provided by the Secretary of 
> State's office. This formula for calculating delegates will remain 
> unchanged.


I would be quite surprised if it was otherwise.


> 
> I realize that this may be too late for your agenda for the April 4 
> meeting -- and I cannot make this meeting to make a presentation -- but 


Sometimes it would be possible even at this late date to add it to
the agenda.  But we already have an agenda that is more full than
normal, so I don't expect it to happen this meeting.


> I believe there should be discussion on this issue for a possible 
> presentation at the May meeting.


I am unclear on what you are asking for here.  It seems that you
don't have a decision item for Santa Clara County here.  Do you
just want to know whether it is ok with us for San Benito to allow
Santa Clara County Greens to participate in San Benito?  Or are
you asking for some Santa Clara / San Benito collaberation?  Or ...??

Speaking just for myself, I am glad that San Benito is active,
and I believe in decentralization, and whatever San Benito County
and south Santa Clara County Greens want to do is ok with me, as
long as they don't make statements that say "the Green Party of
Santa Clara County supports/endorses/etcetera.." without getting
our permission first.

Gerry