Notes – Peter Henry, Secretary
Attendance as of 7:46
AGENDA
7:00 Call to Order, Land Acknowledgment, Announcements
7:05 Announcements and Introductions – Welcome to New PCOs!
7:10 Election of SnoCo Dems Rep (replacing Heather Damron – gender not male)
7:25 Special Speakers: Housing, Caucus Info
7:55 Minutes, Officer Reports, Committee Reports
8:00 Bio Break
8:05 Minutes, Officer Reports, Committee Reports
8:15 Old Business
8:15 New Business: Resolutions (TBD)
8:25 Good of the Order
8:35 Adjourn
By 7:10 we don’t have a quorum yet (12 voting members required for quorum)
We cannot proceed with official business.
No concerns raised about proposed agenda
Joel Ware presented the Land Acknowledgment
No elected officials/candidates present
Kathryn Landowsky from WaCare (renamed “Whole Washington”) speaking on publicly funded healthcare
Would be financed by payroll tax which would still be cheaper than what employers are currently paying.
During COVID we were able to move a huge number of people to Medicaid – so it’s not too disruptive to quickly move to public funded health care. Even in 2017, 42% was public-funded coverage and 40% was private coverage.
How will we get this done? (it’s politics)
SB 5204 would cover everyone and covers much more than existing coverage (dental, vision, …)
We would need to pass an initiative, requires a goal of 400,000 signatures to get it on the ballot.
800 captains would each be responsible for gathering 500 signatures.
Q – How does it affect people on Medicare?
A – Doesn’t start out as single payer plan. Trust would be secondary to Medicare. Would apply to be a Medicare Advantage plan. Then would apply for a Medicare waiver.
Q – What would happen to Medigap coverage? It covers other states, foreign countries.
A – Wouldn’t need it. Including in another state. Not sure about foreign countries.
Q – How to resist pressure to privatize Medicare? There are still premiums for Medicare and Part B etc.
A – This is progressive, the more you earn the more you’d pay. Anyone up to 200% of federal poverty line wouldn’t have to pay premiums. We can do it easily because we’re taking back the profits from the health care industry. Medicare only covers 80%. Our plan has no copays/deductibles and covers 100%.
7:46 – We have a quorum!
Back to our agenda!
Introductions:
Louis Harris, Mukilteo City Council Member
Election of County Committee Person #1 (replacement for Heather Damron who resigned to assume office of 2nd Vice Chair). By our rules it must be someone of another gender than the other County Committee Person (Ahamad Ceesay)
No nominations. We will defer this to our next General Meeting.
Overview of LD Caucus March 26, 10 AM – Joel Ware
Joel will get the word out tonight (3/16) via Mailchimp.
Caucus purpose is to select delegates to the State Convention, June 25 in Tacoma (or delegate can choose to attend remotely).
Any Democrat in 21st LD can self-nominate and run. 21st LD has 23 delegates and 13 alternates.
Delegates will gather as a delegation and vote on resolutions and amendments.
State Convention will adopt the State Platform and Resolutions.
Limit of 2 resolutions per delegation. Each delegate can bring up one amendment to the platform
Refer to Caucus Rules document on 21dems website. Reviewed by JW.
Membership needs to be valid as of Feb. 24 in order to vote, but any self-identified Democrat may run whether they are a member or not. Current rules don’t include a minimum age requirement.
Minutes of Feb. 16 general meeting – shared in the chat: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lJ_80TDdeDB0RflX4tNIMPB4V0c68-6Pg-l3wfvfQ0k/edit?usp=sharing
Chair’s report – Joel Ware
Both vice chairs are not present.
Secretary – Peter Henry – no report
Deputy Treasurer – Sue Nicholls – no report. Joel will get her on the bank account, then Tom J. can resign, then we can confirm her at the next meeting.
Motion to accept minutes of Feb. 21 – Sharon – Motion; Suzette seconded. Passes w/o opposition.
State Committee People – Thom Garrard – Resolutions Committee waiting for 1 rep per LD to join them, to form draft Platform Committee. Revisions to 2020 State Party Platform. Some reorganization.
Sharon Holt – Redistricting Commission voted to settle the lawsuit. Hopefully next steps will be to promote process transparency, changing structure for nonpolitical members, continuing staff, … No bills posted yet.
Tech committee needs to follow State’s requirements for Zoom meeting for caucus. Currently in test.
We can decide to vote on chair at our next meeting, after redistricting reorg
No motion made.
Good of the Order
Tom Freeman – We are flying airplanes from Payne Field disproportionately over neighborhoods which are more heavily minority / immigrant. As the airport expands this will get more intense. Currently 5 takeoffs/landings per day. Scheduled to go to 50 then 100. This is an example of institutional racism. Perhaps Alicia Crank would be a good person to work with on this.
Motion to appoint Tom Freeman to Issues&Educations Committee – Peter Henry; Sandy Bond second
Passes 10-0
Sandi Bond – Not just sound pollution – also air pollution is an issue
Peter Henry – Seattle EA had a rally at John Stanford Center to protest Seattle Public School’s failure to bargain before removing the mask mandate.
Motion to adjourn – Sandy Bond; Al Apodaca Second. No objections!