Minutes from the 1-30-07 SCC meeting of the Green Party of CT. Quorum was met.

Site: Portland Senior Center, 7 Waverly Avenue, Portland, CT (a block east of the Portland Public Library) Phone: 860-342-6760 Time: 7:15pm to 9pm Facilitator: Clifton Thornton

Voting Attendees by chapters:
Central: Vic Lancia;
Fairfield: Patricia Kane, Robert Sanders;
Greater Hartford: Barbara Barry, Secretary of GP of CT; Mike DeRosa, Co-chairperson of GP of CT, Christopher Reilly, Treasurer Of GP of CT, Cliff Thornton;
New London: Christopher Nelson;
New Haven: Jerry Martin;
Northeast: Jean deSmet: Co-Chairperson of the GP of CT and Carol Silva;
Tolland: Tim McKee.

Non-voting attendees: none.

A. Preliminaries:

1. Introductions of voting attendees; 7 chapters were present=quorum; timekeeper=Tim McKee; ground rules.

2. Approval of tonight’s proposed agenda with the additions of: revisit part of the New Haven Proposal presented at 11-28-06 SCC meeting; Proposal from the Bylaws Committee; Patricia Kane presented the Green Party of CT with a $1000 check from the Working Families Party (WFP). No deletions.

3. Reviewed and approved the minutes of 1-9-07 SCC meeting.

4. Treasurer’s report by Christopher Reilly: expenditures: credit card processor fees; phone bill for the 800# for the state party which is answered by Mike DeRosa; $1000 from GPUS to GP of CT (because the GPUS has no PAC in CT) to Ken Krayeske, former political consultant for Cliff Thornton’s campaign for governor. Net Income: $662.14.

PK: $1000 check from the Working Families Party (WFP) to the GP of CT.

BB: Why does another political party want to give us, another political party, money?

Proposal from Robert Sanders and seconded by Patricia Kane: accept the check for the Working Families Party to pay for Ken Krayeske, (former campaign consultant for Cliff Thornton). PK: we need to support the people who do the campaign work.

JM: Proposal: find out the reason the WFP wants to send money to the Green Party of CT. Treasurer, Christopher Reilly is to do this and get back to the membership at the next SCC meeting before the State Party accepts the check. Then the SCC can discuss any potential actions.

Votes: Yes=8; No=2; Abstentions=1 i.e. adopted.

B. #1: Proposal for Amending the Bylaws, dated January 29, 2007 from the Bylaws Committee Patricia Kane and Caleb Kleppner. Committee suggests that the chapters review the proposed changes to Section X which is about amending the bylaws. The committee suggests that a means of amending/changing the bylaws needs to be clarified and easier to do. Then other areas of the bylaws can be addressed, if proposed.

“Section X. Amending the Bylaws

1. These bylaws may be amended by proposals originating from a chapter or from members.

2. A chapter shall propose an amendment to the bylaws by submitting a written proposal to the State Central

Committee for distribution either to the chapters or to the Annual Convention. If the chapter elects submission to the chapters, the Secretary shall distribute the proposal to the chapters within two (2) weeks of submission date.

3. A. If an individual member submits a bylaw amendment to the State Central Committee, the State Central

Committee shall immediately refer it to a Bylaws Committee for review.

b. The Bylaws Committee, within 60 days of its charge, shall then recommend that the State Central Committee: 1) submit the amendment to the chapters for consideration; 2) submit the amendment to an annual

meeting/convention or 3) reject the proposal. The State Central Committee may modify the amendment and shall then submit the proposal to the chapters for the next annual meeting/convention or reject the proposal.

4. To be adopted, a bylaws amendment must be approved by at least two-thirds of the chapters within 90 days of the communication of the proposal by State Central Committee to the chapters or by a 60% vote at an annual

meeting/convention.”

MD: The Green Party of CT, its members and the Bylaws Committee needs to be aware that state laws supersede party bylaws.

BB: Bylaws should reflect that “an individual” must be a Green Party member of CT. This is not reflected in this proposal nor does it define how many “members” are needed to be able to present a bylaws amendment.

PK: to get a clean copy to the Secretary.

#2: A section of the New Haven Proposal from the 11-28-06 SCC meeting regarding: “a rule change that would clarify the grounds under which a duly nominated candidate can be asked by the party to withdraw.”

TM: Fairfield Chapter wanted a candidate for the 4th Congressional District Election, to accept its chapter requirement that the candidate be willing to withdraw, if the chapter so advised the candidate. The candidate, Richard Duffee, accepted this condition and when the chapter voted to withdraw support for his campaign, Richard honored their agreement.

MD: The GP of CT has allowed the chapters discretion about their candidates while also seeking information from within the chapters about whether the State Party should endorse an individual to run as a Green Party candidate (to the Elections section of the Secretary of State). This helps to promote checks and balances. Note, the Elections section of the Secretary of State, allows for the substitutions of candidates such as the situation with Richard Duffee.

CT: This needs to be discussed more at chapters, SCC and/or perhaps a Bylaws Amendment.

Consensus: A potential proposal to amend the bylaws may be presented at the next February SCC meeting for discussion.

C. Reports:

1. CT Green Times: MD: Eric DeVos is dropping articles into a template and wants articles such as: reports from chapters, and article about Ken Krayeske’s arrest. Likely date of availability around 2-13-07 of 10,000 copies for distribution.

2. ACLU Lawsuit on “Campaign Finance Reform”: MD: there has been no hearing. The ACLU in New York City will be the law firm with Ms. Redmond in CT.

3. GPUS updates/reports from CTGP representative, Tim McKee: a) increased emphasis is being placed any Green Party candidates for federal and/or state officers regarding who they are and their sources of money; b) the 2007 GPUS meeting will be someplace in PA as previously determined; c) Tim is pushing for more GPUS campaign workshops for Green Party candidates and their campaign workers; d) need to maximize GPUS efforts in all areas in preparation for the 2008 elections; e) a presidential exploratory committee is being formed to address whether or not GPUS should run a presidential candidate in 2008 and any likely candidates. Hopefully, potential candidates will have name recognition and bring other things needed for a Green Party presidential campaign; f) GPUS is seeking a pledge from Green Party candidates that they will run “full out”; g) Tim is trying to promote regional Green Party meetings, communication, and cross-endorsement of events and issues. H) IL now has ballot status due to results of their 2006 campaigns.

4. GP of CT Website: MD: Eric DeVos went to Cameroon and got the keys to our website. Eric will have portals for each chapter in about 2-3weeks. This allows each chapter to update their own information with ease.

5. Political issues the CTGP has addressed with CT State Legislators: JdS: some of us meet with 3 staff members of the Senate ProTem, Mr. Williams. We discussed: universal healthcare, reforming the energy utilities, Campaign finance reform. The staffers listened. Several Greens will be testifying on 1-31-07 at the LOB (Legislative Office Building): JdS and CS will testify at 10am; TM stated there is an 11am hearing about the gay

marriage bill. Love Makes a Family will be testifying; MD: GP of CT which was the lone voice in the 1990’s against the energy rates and deregulation legislation which is now in effect. A group from the New Haven area will travel via 4 buses up to the legislature to address and their concerns about the current and scheduled energy rate increases and deregulation. State Senator Fonfara, (D. from Hartford and Wethersfield) and Rep. Fontana (D. from North Haven) are the co-chairpersons of the Energy Committee. Senator Fonfara was not at the first public hearing this month and we have not met with them. Other hearings will be scheduled. CT: a “medical marijuana” bill is being tied in with other bills so it may be difficult to support the whole bill.

6. Chapter reports:

New Haven: JM: we are working within the “Fight the Hike” organization.

New London: CN: continue with our community TV show. We have a candidate search committee for 2007.

Northeast: JdS: we are promoting immigration forum on TV. JdS may run for Willimantic First Selectperson (Mayor). We are looking for other candidates, also.

Fairfield: PK: David Bedell ran a film last week. We are looking for local candidates: Board of Education, etc.

Tolland: TM: we are still working with Manchester Community College to have speakers that are Greens; working with the Democrats of the town to do lectures about health care.

Greater Hartford: MD: David Ianno declined to run for the Hartford City Council for the Working Families Party. He still plans on running as a Green.

7. Date, place and time of next EC meeting in 2-07: to be determined.

8. Date, place and time for next SCC meeting 2/27/07: to be determined.

9. Addition: the arrest of Ken Krayeske: MD had for review, the official report from Leonard Boyle, Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety to Governor Rell.

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