Approved minutes of the 1-29-08 SCC meeting of CTGP Quorum was met. Portland's Senior Center, 7 Waverly Avenue, Portland, CT 06480 Phone: 860-342-6760 Time: 7:000PM
Voting Attendees by Chapters:
Central: Vittorio E. Lancia;
Fairfield: Paul Bassler, Richard Duffee;
Greater Hartford: Barbara Barry, Secretary of CTGP; S. Michael DeRosa, Co-chairperson of CTGP; Christopher Reilly, Treasurer of CTGP;
New Haven: Charlie Pillsbury,
GPUS for CT; Jerry Martin, Cliff Thornton, Co-chairperson of CTGP;
New London: Ronna Stuller;
Northeast: Scott Deshefy;
Tolland: Timothy McKee.
Non-voting attendee:
Harold Burbank from Northwest CT.
Facilitator: Barbara Barry, Secretary of Green Party of CT.
A. Preliminaries:
1. Introductions of voting attendees/non-voting attendees; chapters; quorum was met; timekeeper: Vic Lancia.
2. Approval of tonight’s proposed agenda. No deletions. Additions: summer intern.
3. Review and approval of minutes of 1-8-08 SCC meeting.
4. Review and acceptance of minutes from the 1-22-08 EC meeting.
5. Treasurer's report from Christopher Reilly. Balance of: $2639.99. Consensus: Treasurer is to remove the inactive chapters of: Hamden, Shoreline, Northwest, West, and the Women’s Caucus.
B. Proposal from the Policies and Proposals Committee: Internal Election Procedures: The election of State Officers and USGP Representatives will be held at a meeting open to all Connecticut Green Party members in April of each year. Ballots will be distributed to all Connecticut Green Party members for their receipt at least 2 weeks before the Annual Meeting. Although nominations will be accepted from the floor at the Annual Meeting, anyone wishing to have their name printed on the ballot must submit their name and the name of the office they are seeking in writing, at the last State Central Committee meeting prior to the Annual Meeting of the GP of CT. Lots will be drawn at the last State Central Committee meeting prior to the Annual Meeting of the GP of CT, to decide name placement on the ballot. The candidate does not need to be present for the drawing. The ballot will be distributed with a cover letter and statements from any of the candidates who wish to submit one. Statements are limited to 200 words.
The ballot should notify the voter that "None of the Above" should be used to indicate non-support of any of the candidates. For instance: if the voter can only support one candidate, the voter should list "None of the Above" as his/her second choice. In that way preventing election of other candidates from winning by default if the other voters leave their second choice blank. Voters may also be able to mark “abstain” on the ballot i.e. the vote is not counted.
Ballots are to be mailed to the CTGP Post Office box. The members should be told that the ballot must be postmarked no later than three (3) business days prior to the Annual Meeting. The members name and address must be shown on the outside of the envelope or on a separate inner envelope containing the ballot. The ballots should be kept in a secure location until they are turned over to the Membership List Committee and/or the Internal Elections Committee members at the Annual Meeting.
Anyone who does not receive a ballot can request one from a designated clerk of the Membership List Committee or Internal Election Committee. A ballot will be provided if the requester has met the CTGP membership requirements. All ballots, whether mailed or voted in person at the election, have to be placed in a sealed envelope with the voter's name and address written on the outside. This is to ensure people only vote once and that only eligible voters participate. To save time mailed ballots may be verified against the membership list prior to the Annual Meeting. People voting in person at the convention are instructed to seal their ballots and write their name and address on the outside. A sealed box should be available for the members to depot their ballots. At least 3 election clerks will be appointed at the last SCC meeting prior to the Annual Meeting of the GP of CT.
At the close of voting, the elections clerks will open the ballot box and separated all mailed ballots that had already been verified, ballots lacking names and addresses, and ballots that had not yet been verified. Clerks of the Internal Elections Committee will look up all ballots with names and addresses to verify they are from eligible voters. Clerks will note the number of ballots that either lacked names or were from people not on the mailing list. Clerks will open the former to see if there was any name inside the envelope. If not, the ballot is to be excluded as invalid. Then, clerks take the ballots from people not on our mailing list and check with the Membership List Committee to verify eligibility. All ballots must be numbered. For all contested races, enter the rankings from all the ballots into a program of the selected IRV (Instant Runoff Voting).
The following data should be retained for five (5) years by the Secretary of the Green Party of CT for future use: the actual paper ballots, envelopes and other materials mailed back; scanned images of all the ballots; the rankings on the ballots that were entered; round-by-round results of the IRV standings and the data entry of the IRV standings with results. All the elections data shall be given to the Secretary of the GP of CT on or before the next SCC (State Central Committee) meeting after the Annual Meeting of the GP of CT. The Agenda for all general membership meeting of the Party must be mailed to each member with a notice of all resolutions that the SCC plans to bring before the membership. The notice must also include a caution that resolutions are subject to amendments from the floor. Amendments from the floor require two thirds (2/3 ) vote from those eligible GP of CT voters. A Convention Committee will suggest rules for the running of the Annual Meeting of the GP of CT to the membership as the first order of business.
C. Reports: 1. Internal Elections Committee currently consists of Steve Fournier, Greater Hartford and Christopher Reilly. Scott Deshefy to assist with candidates talks; Vic Lancia to help with petitioning and registering voters; Barbara Barry to assist with campaign development committee. Potential candidates for CTGP internal elections must be provide to the Internal Elections Committee no later then the SCC meeting on the last Tuesday, March 25, 2008. The CTGP Annual Meeting will be Saturday, 4-26-08. Place and time to be determined.
2. Green Party of CT candidates. Harold Burbank of Canton has decided to run as a Green Party candidate for the 5th Congressional District. There is no current chapter in his area. Other CTGP Congressional candidates: 1st District: Steve Fournier of Hartford; 2nd District: Scott Deshefy, Coventry; 3rd District inclusive of New Haven and part of Middletown: none at this time. 4th District: Richard Duffee, Stamford.
3. GPUS reports from: Tim McKee GPUS Rep. had the co-chairpersons to sign the Presidential Party Designation Committee form for CT regulations. Tim also recommended that potential GPUS Presidential Candidates be invited to our GP of CT Annual Meeting. The date, time and place of it are not known at this time. The Secretary will extend an invitation to the known GPUS Presidential Candidates. Electors for the GPUS Presidential Candidate were determined by consensus to be: Tim McKee, Richard Duffee, Vic Lancia, Ronna Stuller, S. Michael DeRosa, Barbara Barry and Scott Deshefy. Tim recommends that the Green Party have 1000 candidates, nationwide in 2008. Charlie Pillsbury, GPUS Rep. advised that CT may have up to 20 delegates eligible to be voting members at the GPUS Presidential Convention in Chicago (7-10-08 through 7-13-08). Consensus for the criteria for the delegates to the 7-08 GPUS Presidential Convention: Delegates are: a) to be prorated based on the number of votes the GPUS presidential candidate gets at the GP of CT Annual Meeting in 4-08; b) the GPUS presidential candidate may pick their delegates from within the CTGP; and c) CTGP delegates will be free to vote for whomever they wish to starting on the 3rd ballot of the GPUS. Presidential Convention in 7-10-08.
CP: Dates and deadlines which the GPUS presidential candidate must meet in order to meet CT Secretary of State regulations: 4pm Wednesday, 8-6-08 is the time and date that all presidential petitions must be handed in to the appropriate town register of voters or to the Secretary of State. For all other GP of CT candidates: a form endorsing the designated GP of CT candidates by the GP of CT co-chairpersons, must be submitted by the close of business on Wednesday, 9-10-08, to the Office of the Secretary of State of CT,
Michael DeRosa, GPUS Ballot Access Committee: Arizona needs 20, 400 valid petition signatures to achieve ballot access for the GPUS presidential candidate. These are needed by 3-6-08 and they have about 10,000 at this time. GPUS has designated only $4,000 to be made available to all 50 states to gain ballot access, if needed. Mike requested that $100 from the GP of CT treasury be sent to the Arizona Green Party as a show of support for their petition drive. Consensus: agreed to this request. Media Contacts for the GPUS Presidential Convention and Campaign: Tim McKee, S. Michael DeRosa and Cliff Thornton.
4. GP of CT continues to address with legislators during the 2008 Legislative Session: Fight the Hike.
5. Summer Intern for the GP of CT. SMD: was approached by Alexander Goldman, a Brandeis college student, to be a summer intern for the GP of CT for college credit. Consensus: SMD is authorized to accept him if he appears to be an appropriate candidate. Tim McKee, Christopher Reilly, Scott Deshefy are also willing to meet and vet this potential 2008 summer intern.
6. CT Green Times newspaper. SMD: send articles to Mike DeRosa.
7. Actual and potential GP of CT candidates: HB: the reasons to support me as a GP candidate for the 5th Congressional District: support impeachment of Cheney/Bush; anti-war activities; the criminality of the federal executive branch; climate change. As an assistant state prosecutor in ME, I have worked on: voter fraud and and human rights and I have supported Ralph Nader
8. ACLU lawsuit SMD: I will be deposed for 2-1-08. CT: and I will be deposed on 2-8-08. TMc: we could consider demonstrating in front of the Bridgeport Court House on the day of trial.
9. Chapter reports: see the above activities.
10. Next SCC meeting 2-26-08 to be at Portland Senior Center. Next EC meeting in 3-08: to be determined.