January - League of Women Voters of South San Mateo County

THE VOTER
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF SOUTH SAN MATEO COUNTY
Celebrating over 50 years of service to our communities
Website: www.LWVSSMC.org
JANUARY 2014
Phone: (650) 325-5780
E-mail: info@LWVSSMC.org
Editor: Evan Hughes, evanhughesphd@aol.com, (650) 329-8698
Wednesday, January 29, 2014, 6:30-8:45pm
in the
Downstairs Meeting Room
of the
Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma, Menlo Park Civic Center
A Briefing on the “SAFER Bay Project”
by
Len Materman, Executive Director,
San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority
6:30: gathering & social time, with light refreshments; 7:00: speaker & discussion.
The SFCJPA is taking a lead role to develop projects to address sea level rise
in southern San Mateo County, on the bay side. One project is the Strategy to
Advance Flood Protection, Ecosystems and Recreation along the Bay.
[See Page 5 for Ann Draper’s background article.]
AND ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1:
Bay Area League Day
“A New Vision for Bay Area Open Space”
Metro Center Auditorium, 101 Eighth St., Oakland, CA
Saturday, Feb. 1, 9:30am—2:30pm
Registration begins at 9:30 and the meeting at 10:00. See Page 6 for the program and a mailin registration form. Online registration may be completed via www.lwvbayarea.org (under
"Calendar").
For more information, or for transportation needs, contact Ellen Hope at
ellenjhope@aol.com, or 839-8647
FROM THE BOARD*
At the first Board meeting of 2014, this past Monday, January 6, as we were naming possible topics for
our meetings this spring, we decided to seize an opportunity that arose for us to cover a topic in our
category called Climate Change and Local Issues. The topic addresses sea level rise, the Bay and “the
Creek” (San Francisquito Creek). The opportunity came to us thanks to the interest and initiative of a
new member, Ann Draper. On this topic, Ann combines her career experience in local government with
her interest in the environment, both local and global. Her article on the topic and the Jan. 29 meeting is
here on Page 5. Thank you Ann! More background on sea level rise and San Mateo County can be found
in the Jan. 8, 2014 issue of The Almanac. It is the cover story and begins on Page 13 of that issue (the
cover page of Section 2): “Can we rise to the challenge of rising sea levels?” by Dave Boyce. The Almanac story (http://www.almanacnews.com/print/story/2014/01/08/can-we-rise-to-the-challenge-of-rising-sea-levels)
is based on a conference held Dec. 9 at the College of San Mateo. I know that at least two of our members attended that conference: Joanne Bruggemann and Ann Draper.
Our discussion of potential meeting topics at the Jan. 6 meeting of the Board also included these: agriculture as may be relevant for the national League’s “update study” this March (per Page 9), healthcare
and health insurance as being implemented right now by Covered California (coveredCA.com), immigration policy as current in the US Congress and as being experienced locally in San Mateo County, and, finally, “payday loans” as discussed a bit at our Dec. 12 “Holiday Dinner and Program Planning” meeting
and as re-titled to be “responsible lending” per discussion that evening. “Responsible lending” as a possible study topic was discussed in an article by Ellen Hope in last month’s issue of The VOTER.
For other topics, or activities, that may interest you, see the “VOLUNTEER !!!” box, on Page 4 below.
Evan Hughes, VOTER Editor and Board Member, LWVSSMC
* “From the Board” is written by a different Board Member each month.
NEW VOICES
New Voices Indiegogo Campaign Succeeds!
Many thanks, one and all, for making the Indiegogo campaign for New Voices for Youth a success. More
than 90 wonderful, generous contributions made us reach our $15,000 goal and an additional $730 beyond the goal by the December 31, 2013 deadline.
Yes, "kids have a lot to say" and your support will enable our students at Menlo-Atherton High School to
continue making their voices heard through their video productions.
You can continue learning about New Voices activities on our website:
http://www.newvoicesforyouth.org/ and
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Voices-for-Youth/114442641997564
With appreciation from the New Voices team and the kids -Tanuj, Ana, Kathleen, Sheila, Carole, Betty and Veronica
NEW ROSTER IS OUT !!!
You should have received your copy of the 2013-14 membership roster (green cover). If you did not, please contact
Shirley Des Marais, Vice President, Administration, at 322-0778 or sdesmarais@pacbell.net. Also, please add these
names to your copy of the roster, using the insert enclosed in the envelope along with this January 2014 issue of The
VOTER: Gloria Eddie, Susan Grindley, Nancy (Lalu) Hunt Kiesling, Claiborne Jones, and Sally Stewart.
SAVE THE OLD ONE (2012-13 ROSTER)
Our new roster booklet does not contain our League BYLAWS nor our BOARD POLICIES AND
PROCEDURES. We suggest that your keep the old one (blue cover, 2012-13) for future reference.
The South San Mateo County League of Women Voters’ The VOTER
January 2014 - 2
BOARD NOTES
At their December meeting the Board:
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Reported on financials and membership;
Discussed the status of New Voices’ Indiegogo fundraising;
Finalized the letter and bookplates for the distribution of the Guide to California Government books to local high schools;
Reviewed the plans for the Holiday Party;
Discussed potential topics and venues for a January program; and
Brainstormed fundraising tactics to raise the funds necessary to bridge the gap needed to
meet the budget and forecast.
The next Board will be held on Monday, January 6 at the home of Shirley Des Marais.
Tracy DeMiroz, Board Secretary
BOOK GROUP
For our January meeting, we will discuss The Metropolitan Revolution: How
Cities and Metros are Fixing our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy, by
Bruce Katz & Jennifer Bradley. We will meet on Thursday, January 23 rd, at
Luise Maier’s at noon. Please bring your own lunch.
For additional details, please contact Judy Orttung, jorttung@comcast.net.
WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL PENINSULA CHAPTER
We held our most recent event on December 20 with David Kennedy, Emeritus Professor of
History at Stanford and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He provided an informative discussion
of how technology advancements and the all-volunteer forces have impacted societal norms
and may affect political and foreign policy decisions. He expressed concerns about the use of
unmanned aircraft to carry out assassination missions and the civilian casualties that occur
with a number of them. The all-volunteer force and the scarcity of children from congress and
other decision makers may be leading to a separation of the public from a commitment to
armed interventions, although the military is still held in high regard. The presentation was
based on Professor Kennedy’s latest edited book, “The Modern American Military,” that includes contributions by well known military and civilian leaders.
Our next event will be on Wednesday, January 15. We are pleased to be hearing from a member of the Swedish parliament, Göran Montan, as he describes “Sweden and the Case for Liberal Conservatism.” Scandinavian countries are dealing with challenges of a developed region
that may have lessons for the rest of the world as political, economic, education and health
care issues are described. Scandinavian countries may benefit from relatively small and homogeneous populations, however, they are dealing with challenges faced by other European
countries such as immigration, economic slowdowns, education, political infighting and health
care. MP Montan will describe a political reinvention which has allowed Sweden to avoid the
economic meltdowns many other countries have suffered.
The event will be in the usual venue of the Los Altos Youth Center, 1 North San Antonio Road.
Doors will open for refreshments at 7:00 PM and the program will be from 7:30 to 9:00 PM.
Our regular events are free and open to all and registration is not required.
Ralph Kuiper, Chair, Peninsula Chapter, World Affairs Council of Northern California
The South San Mateo County League of Women Voters’ The VOTER
January 2014 - 3
Feb. 22: County League Day
Independence Hall, 2955 Woodside Road, Woodside
(the building adjacent to Woodside Town Hall)
Saturday, Feb. 22, 9:30am—12:00pm
Speaker: Kevin Mullin, Member of the California State
Assembly, District 22 in San Mateo County
(from Brisbane to San Carlos)
Registration and light breakfast buffet begins at 9:30; speaker at 10:00;
followed by business meeting, combined with North-Central San Mateo
County LWV, to review, discuss and adopt our League county-wide positions and priorities.
For more information, or for transportation needs, contact Ellen Hope at
ellenjhope@aol.com, or 839-8647
VOLUNTEER !!!
In the March-May period we will need volunteers in Voter Service and Voter Registration.
Diana Post or Ellen Hope are the people to contact on Candidate Forums and other Voter
Services. (See the contact list on Page 10.)
AND, THERE ARE OTHER TASKS AND GROUPS: If you want to be part of a small group
(e.g., Book Group; Climate Change and Local Issues; planning a League study such as on
US agriculture policy, higher education in California, or responsible lending in San Mateo
County; or considering a position or advocacy, such as the issue of “responsible lending”
per our discussion at the Dec. Holiday Dinner and Planning Meeting), or if you want to
work on any League activity, be an off-Board chair, or be a member of the Nominating
Committee (which is active January-March), then PLEASE CONTACT:
Lisa Conrad (Membership), Ellen Hope (President), or any one of those listed on Page 10.
STATE OR NATIONAL? See content on websites in the box below, and also on Page 8 (for
State LWVC) and Page 9 (National LWV). BAY AREA? See Pages 1 and 7.
LINKS TO LWV WEBSITES
(1) Bay Area—lwvBayArea.org & BayAreaMonitor.org; (2) State—http://LWVC.org; and (3) National—http://LWV.org and also the national president’s announcements: Elisabeth MacNamara at
http://lwv.org/news-and-media. Our League, South San Mateo County, is at http://LWVSSMC.org.
The South San Mateo County League of Women Voters’ The VOTER
January 2014 - 4
Addressing Sea Level Rise in San Francisco Bay: The SAFER Bay Project
The level of the sea is rising throughout the world. A sensor near the Golden Gate Bridge has
measured an eight inch increase in sea level over the past hundred years. While there is debate
about the amount of future sea level rise (SLR) , there is no debate that in fact it is rising. Recent
scientific studies estimate that sea level will rise between 33 and 55 inches in the next hundred
years and as science progresses, it is anticipated that the projections for SLR will get even higher.
The primary reason for this is the thermal expansion of water. As water gets warmer, it takes up
more space. Measurements showing increases in the warmth of sea water also verify the trend to
higher sea levels. The second reason for sea level rise is the melting of ice found in polar caps to
water that is added to the oceans.
On top of the average level of the sea, are waves, tides and storm surge, which add to the height
of the seas we experience throughout the year. In California, this can be heightened due to climate conditions we call "La Nina" or "El Nino." When we are experiencing an El Nino, we get more
rain, sea level is warmer and the level of the water is higher. The last major El Nino was in 1998
and the Bay Area experienced significant flooding during storm events.
So why should we care about sea level rise? Because, since about the time that humans started
building cities and structures like bridges and ports, we have assumed that the level of the sea will
always be the same. This assumption is wrong because sea level has been rising for hundreds of
years and it will rise much more quickly in this century, thus threatening our shoreline development. While it may seem like this problem is a long way off, we will soon start experiencing negative impacts, some catastrophic, during extreme weather events and El Nino periods.
San Mateo County is the most vulnerable county to SLR in the State. Impacts will be felt on the
ocean side as well as the bay side. Significant infrastructure such as the San Francisco Airport, water treatment plants, bridges and freeways are in areas that are projected to be inundated by the
sea in the long term and negatively affected in the shorter term. On the bayside, past actions allowed for filling of substantial portions of the bay which now are occupied by residential
neighborhoods, vast industrial campuses and commercial buildings. Everyone living or working in
San Mateo County will directly or indirectly be affected by the impact of sea level rise.
In southern San Mateo county, on the bay side, the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority
(SFCJPA.org) is taking a lead role to develop projects to address sea level rise. In October 2013, the
SFCJPA board launched the Strategy to Advance Flood protection, Ecosystems and Recreation
along the Bay (SAFER Bay). Its objectives include: removing properties from the 100-year flood
plain assuming 50 years of sea level rise, enabling the restoration of historic marshlands, expanding opportunities for recreation and minimizing costs of maintenance. The work effort will focus
on the area starting at the San Mateo-Santa Clara County line where San Francisquito creek enters
the Bay, and extend north to include the shorelines of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park. The effort
will link to a similar effort in Santa Clara County called the Shoreline Project and hopefully link to
other efforts north of the project. The funders of the project include: the State of California, the
cities of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, Facebook, Inc. and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. During 2014 there will be opportunities for the public to learn about SAFER Bay and have input into
the project design.
You are invited to a briefing on the SAFER Bay project, the Executive Director for the SFCJPA , Len
Materman, will provide an overview of the project and answer questions. [See Page 1.] The briefing will be held January 29, 2014 at 6:30pm in the Menlo Park Library. (Speaker at 7:00pm; see
Page 1). In the interim, you can find more information on SAFER Bay at sfcjpa.org.
Ann Draper
The South San Mateo County League of Women Voters’ The VOTER
January 2014 - 5
League of Women Voters of the Bay Area
An Inter-League Organization of the San Francisco Bay Area
lwvBayArea.org
2014 Bay Area League Day
Saturday, February 1, 2014
10:00 AM to 2:30 PM
Registration and refreshments: 9:30 - 10:00 AM
Metro Center Auditorium, 101 Eighth Street, Oakland, CA 94607
Open space is more than just a beautiful landscape or a place to hike. Within the more than one million acres
protected permanently from development in the Bay Area, a new vision of the value of open space is emerging.
An ecosystem survey being conducted by the Santa Clara and Sonoma open space districts is developing data on
the cost-benefit value of investing in nature. Connectivity between open lands allows for greater use by the public and wildlife. Some open lands are being used as a baseline to study the effects of climate change. Habitat
conservation plans are being developed to enhance the provision of water supply by preserving and enhancing
watersheds and improving flood protection. Join us for our annual Bay Area League Day as we consider all of
this and more in the following program:
Keynote Address
Wendy Pulling, Director of Conservation Programs, The Nature Conservancy - San Francisco
Panel 1: Progress in Preserving Open Space
Jeremy Madsen, Executive Director, Greenbelt Alliance
Sam Schuchat, Executive Director, California State Coastal Conservancy
Beverly Lane, Board Member, East Bay Regional Park District
Panel 2: Economic Benefits of Open Space
Andrea Mackenzie, General Manager, Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority
Karen Gaffney, Conservation Planning Program Manager, Sonoma County Ag. Preservation and Open Space District
Panel 3: Future Challenges
Matt Brennan, Senior Engineering Hydrologist, ESA PWA
Nat Seavy PhD, Pacific Coast & Central Valley Research Director, Point Blue Conservation Science
Jenn Fox, Executive Director, Bay Area Open Space Council
The MetroCenter is located at 101 Eighth Street, off of the 880 freeway between Madison and Oak streets, and across from
the Lake Merritt BART Station. Using public transit (BART or AC Transit) is recommended. Limited free parking is available in two BART lots, one behind the MetroCenter (accessible from Seventh Street) and one adjacent to the station
(accessible from both Eighth and Ninth streets). Metered street parking is available; meters require renewal every two hours
with coins only.
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Registration
The cost to attend is $35 prepaid ($20 without lunch) and $40 at the door ($25 without lunch). Online registration may be
completed by visiting www.lwvbayarea.org (under "Calendar"). To register by mail, please fill out and detach this section,
write a check payable to "LWV Bay Area," and send both to 1611 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94612.
NAME: ___________________________________________________________________________________________
LOCAL LEAGUE OR OTHER AFFILIATION: __________________________________________________________
PHONE: ________________________
E-MAIL: ______________________________________________________
If you have any questions, please call (510) 839-1608 or send an email to editor@bayareamonitor.org.
The South San Mateo County League of Women Voters’ The VOTER
January 2014 - 6
League of Women Voters of the Bay Area
lwvBayArea.org
[continued]
BAY AREA MONITOR—NEW DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM:
SIGN UP FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION
The Bay Area Monitor is now available via email notice and then a click. [Ed. Note: This is the same
way that our local VOTER comes to you via email from Anne De Carli.] The Monitor would come to
you via an email notice from the its editor, Alec MacDonald, at editor@BayAreaMonitor.org. The Bay
Area League urges all League members who may be interested to give it a try. The BA League wants
to have a way to know the level of interest and be able to verify the scope of the distribution.
Please visit the subscription page at BayAreaMonitor.org and click on the “Subscribe” button. This
will enable you to enter the email address where you want to receive a notice when a new issue has
been posted. The Monitor, published six times per year, covers critical regional issues: transportation, air quality, water, land use, open space, and an assortment of environmental concerns.
One article, from the latest issue, Dec2013/Jan2014, has a Peninsula focus:
The Long Haul: Peninsula Passenger Rail Chugs to 150-Year Mark (by Chris Ingraham) - The
year 1863 was a big one for trains. In England, the London Underground opened for business. In New York, the
Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad opened, too, establishing what is now the oldest stretch of the New
York City Subway. Engineers in Sacramento, meanwhile, broke ground on the country’s first transcontinental
railroad. And it was a train, on November 18, 1863, that took President Abraham Lincoln to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he’d been asked to give “a few appropriate remarks” the following day.
As it turns out, exactly a month before Lincoln arrived by rail in Gettysburg, on October 18, 1863, the Bay Area
had a railway milestone of its own: that’s when passenger service first began running down the Peninsula from
San Francisco. By January of 1864, the line reached San Jose. Depending how you count the dates, then,
whether from the start of service or the completion of the line a few months later, now is a good time to reflect
upon 150 years of Peninsula commuter service and what it’s meant to the region.
The 50-mile corridor runs between San Francisco and San Jose, passing through San Francisco, San Mateo, and
Santa Clara counties en route. Although the corridor opened under the authority of the San Francisco and San
Jose Railroad Company, by 1870 the firm that would eventually become the Southern Pacific Railway assumed
operations. For over a century, they operated passenger service through the corridor without issue, until a struggle with the Public Utilities Commission over costs and services led Southern Pacific, in 1977, to petition to discontinue passenger travel altogether. The three Peninsula counties prevented the service cancellation by publicly
subsidizing fares until 1980, when the California Department of Transportation contracted with Southern Pacific
to provide passenger service. By 1987, the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board formed to oversee rail regulations through the multi-county corridor, and by 1992 they relieved the state of its responsibilities to operate passenger service, and outsourced the task to Amtrak. Today, Transit America Services, Inc. operates passenger
travel, though Union Pacific — the successor of Southern Pacific — retains the rights to freight service in the
corridor.
In all kinds of ways, trains have been integral to our national history: they’ve created new channels of transportation and communication, and they’ve made possible otherwise unthinkable expansions in industry, urban development, and commerce. The story by the Bay is no exception. Henry E. Bender, Jr. has recently told that story
— at least some of it — in Southern Pacific Lines Standard-Design Depots. Bender’s book explores the design
[continued next page]
The Bay Area Monitor [http://bayareamonitor.org]
The complete new Dec/Jan issue of the Bay Area Monitor: is at the above website. For information contact Alec
MacDonald, Editor, Bay Area Monitor, (510) 839-1608 or editor@bayareamonitor.org
The South San Mateo County League of Women Voters’ The VOTER
January 2014 - 7
League of Women Voters of the Bay Area [continued]
[Monitor article continued]
of train stations that, initially, were the most bustling centerpieces of towns that otherwise might not be noticed.
Today they stand, if at all, as historical remnants of a bygone time. Seven remaining depots along the Peninsula
corridor have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Millbrae, Burlingame, San Carlos, Menlo
Park, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, and San Jose Diridon.
Opened at a time before the ubiquity of cars (indeed, the internal combustion engine that signaled the advent of
the modern automobile wasn’t invented until 1885), the Peninsula rail service suddenly gave the region’s large
post-Gold Rush population access to areas outside its major cities. Today, it’s hard to conceptualize the impact
this access initially had because we’re accustomed to the urban density that finds many Bay Area towns merging
indistinguishably into the next. Bender, who has lived here since the early 1960s, points out that the region was a
lot less developed before the railway.
“When you go back to when it started 150 years ago,” he told the Monitor, “there was a fairly good-sized city in
San Francisco, for the time, and there was a fair-sized town in San Jose, and there were a couple tiny communities in between.” By tiny, he meant 50 or 100 people, referring to such places as Menlo Park, Santa Clara, or
Palo Alto, virtually nonexistent at the time, though they’re veritable cities now. “There was a lot of pastures and
grazing land in between San Francisco and San Jose,” he said, “which is certainly not the case today.”
Whereas the passenger service once provided novel access to areas largely off the map, today the communities
along the corridor are so well trodden that the rail operates as an expedient primarily for commuters accustomed
to traveling such routes regularly. And the prevalence of automobiles, of course, means traveling by train is no
longer the only option; it’s just a more salubrious one. Per passenger mile, trains are still much safer and produce
a much smaller carbon footprint than cars. In an age when gasoline-powered cars have become the standard, the
corridor rail service has persisted as a viable option, both connecting us to our past and signaling our future directions.
That future could well involve more services like those the Peninsula corridor pioneered. By 2029, the California
High-Speed Rail Authority intends to run a high-speed rail system from San Francisco to Los Angeles, relying
upon the Peninsula corridor for the first leg of the journey. When completed, it will be the first high-speed rail
system in the nation. Though over a dozen countries in Europe and Asia have such systems, the United States
remains notably behind. If our long railway past is any prologue, California is the state to catch us up. Already
we’ve come a long way. Bender can still recall riding the Peninsula train in the sixties and seeing fields out the
windows. “These days,” he said, “there’s not a cattle ranch in sight.”
Chris Ingraham works as a freelance writer while completing his Ph.D. in rhetoric.
STATE LEAGUE
(LWVC) - LWVC.org
Preview of June 2014 Statewide Ballot Issues
Two measures have qualified for the June 2014 bal-
lot according to the Secretary of State:
AB 639 (Bonds) Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention. AB 639 would amend the Veterans’ Bond
Act of 2008 to reduce the amount of bonds that are authorized to be issued from $900 million to $300 million,
and would enact the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Bond Act of 2014 to authorize the issuance of
bonds in the amount of $600 million, to provide multifamily housing to veterans pursuant to the Veterans
Housing and Homeless Prevention Act of 2014.
SCA 3 (Constitutional Amendment) Public Information. SCA 3 specifies that all local government agencies
are required to comply with the California Public Records Act and the Ralph M. Brown Act and removes the
mandate that the state reimburse local entities for the costs of following these laws.
The South San Mateo County League of Women Voters’ The VOTER
January 2014 - 8
NATIONAL (LWVUS)
League of Women Voters
1730 M Street NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-429-1965 lwv.org
League Sends Comments to Election Assistance Commission Regarding
Proof of Citizenship Requirements
The League of Women Voters of the United States (LWVUS) joined with the LWV of Kansas and the
LWV of Arizona to file comments with the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) regarding the requests made by the Secretaries of State of Kansas and Arizona to modify the national mail-in voter
registration form to include requirements that applicants supply documentary proof of citizenship.
Previously the League filed a motion and was allowed to intervene in Kobach, et al v. U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).
League Commends Administration’s Latest Step Against Climate Change
Washington, DC [01/08/2014] - Today the Obama Administration published a new proposal limiting the
amount of carbon pollution for new power plants in the Federal Register. This is an important step in the fight
against climate change.
“We are quite pleased that today the President has kept his commitment to confront the greatest challenge of
our lifetime: climate change,” said Elisabeth MacNamara, president of the League of Women Voters of the
United States.
“Power plants are the largest emitter of life-threatening carbon pollution in our country. Reducing the amount
of carbon pollution, which is the leading cause of climate change, is a life-saving measure that will protect our
children, our nation and the world from the devastating effects of climate change,” MacNamara said.
“The League has been proud to be a part of the push to garner support and collect comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in support of regulations to cut carbon pollution from power plants,” added
MacNamara. “Thousands of League members from around the country have already vocally expressed their
support for this life saving proposal. These same League members will continue to lead the way by expressing
their support for the finalization of this historic regulation that will reduce the deadly effects that carbon pollution has on the health of our children and our environment,” MacNamara stated.
“Carbon pollution comes at a high cost to all of us, contributing to more frequent and deadly weather that results in billions of dollars of recovery for communities and the federal government each year,” said MacNamara. “Today’s announcement is another important step in the fight to beat back climate change.”
“The League is proud to continue to stand in support of the President’s plan to cut carbon pollution from new
power plants and fulfill his commitment to people, not polluters,” concluded MacNamara. “We look forward to
continuing to work with him to implement this proposal, as well as a future proposal on existing coal fired
power plants. Together, these regulations will create life-saving measures to protect our children, our nation
and our world from the damaging effects of climate change.”
Contact: Kelly Ceballos, kceballos@lwv.org, 202-263-1331
NATIONAL STUDY ON AGRICULTURE
The LWV national Agriculture Update Study [an “update” which allows for some degree of simplification or
streamlining of the full-cycle League study process] will focus narrowly on: (1) current technology issues
[practices] in agriculture including genetically modified organisms (GMOs), herbicides, pesticides, agriculture water pollution, aquifer depletion, antibiotics in livestock, and accurate food labeling; and
(2) current agriculture finance issues including consolidation in agriculture industries, crop subsidies
and the federal agricultural regulatory process. The schedule of last fall called for State and local
Leagues to hold consensus meetings in Jan-March 2014 and then to send results to the national
League by April 4. The national committee for the study will then use April to analyze and see if there
is consensus for any update of LWVUS positions on agriculture policies.
The South San Mateo County League of Women Voters’ The VOTER
January 2014 - 9
OFFICERS AND CONTACTS FOR OUR LEAGUE
(LWV OF SOUTH SAN MATEO COUNTY, 2013-14)
President: Ellen Hope, ellenjhope@aol.com
Vice-President Administration: Shirley Des Marais, sdesmarais@pacbell.net
Vice-President Program: Denise Rice, denise08us@yahoo.com
Secretary: Tracy DeMiroz, tracy@demiroz.com
Treasurer (& Database Mgmt.): Jack Morris, jhmsvcs@sbcglobal.net
Director (Membership): Lisa Conrad, darnoc@earthlink.net
Director (Voter Services): Diana Post, dsuepost@comcast.net
Director (special emphasis on healthcare policy), Lynn Rosenstock, lbrnrosen@sbcglobal.net
Fundraising: Patti Fry, pattifry@stanfordalumni.org
Member Notices (inc. State & National Affairs): Anne DeCarli, anne.decarli@sbcglobal.net
Voter Registration: Joanne Bruggemann, joanneebrugg@att.net
Transportation: Onnolee Trapp, onnoleet@sbcglobal.net
VOTER Editor: Evan Hughes, evanhughesphd@aol.com
League Office: LWVSSMC, 713 Santa Cruz Ave., #9, Menlo Park, CA 94025
UPCOMING EVENTS CALENDAR (LWVSSMC)
JANUARY
15 Wed
7:00pm; WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL on “Sweden and the Case for Liberal Conservatism” with speaker
program: Goran Montan, a member of the Swedish parliament, at the Los Altos Youth Center, 1 North
7:30-9:00 San Antonio Road, Los Altos. Refreshments at 7:00; program 7:30-9:00. (See Page 3.)
23 Thurs
LWVSSMC BOOK GROUP at Luise Maier’s on The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities and
noon-2pm Metros are Fixing our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy, by Bruce Katz and Jennifer
Bradley. Contact: Judy Orttung, 847-1779 or jorttung@comcast.net. (See Page 3.)
6:308:45pm
LWVSSMC PUBLIC MEETING in the downstairs meeting room in the Menlo Park Library at 800
Alma, Menlo Park Civic Center. 6:30 gathering & light refreshments; 7:00pm, Speaker: Len
Materman, Executive Director, San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority. (See Page 1.)
1 Sat
9:30am2:30pm
BAY AREA LEAGUE DAY: “A New Vision for Bay Area Open Space” in Oakland at the Metro
Center Auditorium, 101 Eighth Street, Oakland (at Lake Merritt BART). (See Page 6.)
3 Mon
7:00pm
LWVSSMC MONTHLY BOARD MEETING at Ellen Hope’s. Contact: Ellen Hope, President, (650)
839-8647, ellenjhope@aol.com.
22 Sat
9:30amnoon
COUNTY LEAGUE DAY at Independence Hall in Woodside (next to Woodside Town Hall) at
2955 Woodside Road. Speaker: Kevin Mullin, Member of the California State Assembly for
District 22, Brisbane to San Carlos in San Mateo County. (See Page 4.)
7:00pm
LWVSSMC MONTHLY BOARD MEETING at Ellen Hope’s. Contact: Ellen Hope, President, (650)
839-8647, ellenjhope@aol.com.
All day
LWVC STATEWIDE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose
4 days
LWV NATIONAL CONVENTION in Dallas, Texas (See Page 8 in the Nov. 2013 VOTER.)
29 Wed
FEBRUARY
MARCH
3 Mon
MAY
17-18
JUNE
6-10
The South San Mateo County League of Women Voters’ The VOTER
January 2014 - 10