[GPSCC-chat] Fwd: Re: [occupy-san-jose] Re: February 9: San Jose 2012 State of the City Address

[Jim Stauffer]

I would say there's very little movement to implement IRV on the county level. 
The county seems to be waiting for one municipality to lead the way.

San Jose, with half the population of the county, would be the best 
municipality to push for IRV. In 2009-2010 Californians for Electoral Reform 
and the New America Foundation made a major IRV push in San Jose. The city 
council is sympathetic/supportive of the idea. But a common response from city 
gov't is to wait for someone else to try it first. This is what San Jose did, 
deferring any decision until after Oakland and San Leandro implemented their 
IRV in 2010 elections. Also, budget problem get in the way since changing to a 
new balloting system is expensive, even if the new system saves money in the 
long run.

So, on the one hand San Jose is primed for IRV implementation -- a sympathetic 
city council and two near-by cities that had relatively good experiences with 
IRV. On the other hand, how do we pay for the change-over in a city wracked 
with budget deficits?

BTW, a much better source for info on IRV is http://www.fairvote.org/. Also, 
the common term used these days is Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), which I think 
is a better description than the marketing oriented "IRV."

I have PDFs of IRV flyers if you need anything like that.

Jim





On 12/29/2011 1:50 AM, Spencer Graves wrote:
> Hello, All:
>
>
> 1. What specifically is the status of instant-runoff voting (IRV) in San José
> and / or Santa Clara County? I remember having heard some discussion of this
> at Green Party meetings. I think we should suggest it to Occupy San José. I
> believe they could easily be persuaded to embrace it. (There is a Wikipedia on
> IRV. The article looks pretty good to me, but if you say any way it could be
> improved and would like to discuss changes, please let me know. I'm an
> occasional Wikipedian and could help you understand their rules and perhaps
> make the changes you suggest if they also seem sensible to me.)
>
>
> 2. What other issues do we have with the City of San José? I'd like to push
> them to switch from Wells Fargo to a local-only bank or Credit Union. (I've
> heard that California state law requires municipalities to use major banks,
> but I don't know the law on that. If you do, I'd like to know. I think we can
> get Occupy San José behind a move to change this.)
>
>
> 3. I'd like to encourage everyone to sign up to attend the MoveOn event on
> Monday, Jan. 9 at the San José City Hall Rotunda and maybe also Mayor Reed's
> State of the City address, Feb. 9; see below. Comments?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Spencer
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: 	Re: [occupy-san-jose] Re: February 9: San Jose 2012 State of the
> City Address
> Date: 	Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:33:42 -0800
> From: 	Tim Bonnemann <planspark at gmail.com>
> Reply-To: 	occupy-san-jose at googlegroups.com
> To: 	occupy-san-jose at googlegroups.com
>
>
>
> Well,
>
> It would be nice to come out with our own "State of the City" address, maybe
> the day before the mayor's:
>
> List the Occupy issues and how they apply locally. Dig through City Council
> minutes to show what if anything they have done in 2011 to address these
> issues. Mention the "innovative" ways the City treats concerned
> citizens/protesters and the damage (time, energy, money, lost income,
> reputation etc.) they've caused with their misguided eviction policy,
> citations and arrests. Compare current City Council priorities with what would
> be ours. That kind of thing.
>
> This might be a little project we could run over a few weeks leading up to
> February 9. Maybe involve a broader public (via blog, social media etc.), too.
> Like that original "We are the 99 percent" Tumblr, a "What's the state of
> (y)our city?" to capture some of the voices that likely won't be represented
> at the Feb 9 event.
>
> Mayor Reed's past SOTC speeches are here (with video):
> http://www.sanjoseca.gov/mayor/news/videos/videos_SOTC.asp
>
> Tim
>
>
> On Dec 28, 2011, at 11:59 PM, Andrew Fitz wrote:
>
>> You gonna mic-check chuckie?
>
>
>
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