Oregon Trail Democrats Minutes from Monthly Meeting January 26, 2016
Sunset Room, Clackamas County Bank, Sandy, Oregon
Oregon Trail Democrat's Chair Susan Gates called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. PST
Introductions included candidate for Clackamas County Commissioner position 4, Ken Humberston, his campaign manager John DeHaas (also chair of HD 41), and Walt Trandum, who is gathering signatures to file as a candidate for HD 52 representative.
Minutes: The minutes for the November 24, 2015 meeting were sent out and as there were no additions or corrections, stand as printed. Thanks to Gloria Bean for covering the meeting in the secretary's absence.
Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Sannye Phillips reported that our balance has not changed since our November 24, 2015 report. Current balance as of 01/26/2016 is $1313.99. Sannye will be paying $125 to the city of Sandy for gazebo rental for our September annual OTD picnic (we will get the $100 deposit back) and $60 for annual membership in the Sandy Chamber of Commerce.
You can become a member of the Oregon Trail Democrats by clicking on our web site: www.oregontraildemocrats.org A reminder: these dues allow us to help Democratic candidates and participate in community activities. If you want to know if your membership dues are current, please check with Susan Gates:
Our Facebook page is here and is being updated regularly by Jan Smith: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oregon-Trail-Democrats/131416233561434
Unfinished/ongoing Business:
OTD Holiday Party: Once again Beverly and Mike Persons hosted this event at their home Dec 6th. Many thanks to them. We had a great time, and a good turnout. Our very abundant donations of pajamas for children in homeless shelters in Clackamas County were brought to "Pajama Grandma" Marilyn, who sent a letter to us expressing her appreciation.
Neighborhood Leader Program: Dennis Ghelfi and Susan Drew are recruiting leaders and each have a territory they're working with--Susan D. in Sandy, Kelso and surrounding rural area; Dennis in Brightwood, Welches, Dover, Eagle Creek, Eagle Fern.
Peter Nordbye, who heads the Neighborhood Leader Program of Clackamas County, reported on efforts to recruit neighborhood leaders. In 2014, we had 304 NLs in the county. If you are interested, contact him or go to the Clackamas County Democrats' web site: http://www.clackamasdems.org/?page_id=2886
Peter Nordbye also discussed his letter of protest to State Senator Mark Haas, who donated $500 to Republican Mark Johnson's campaign recently. Rep. Johnson in this election will again use the fact that he got a donation from a Democrat, and claim it proves he is a bipartisan legislator. He did the same thing in 2012 when our Democratic Gov. Kitzhaber gave him a $500 donation. This hurts our Democratic candidates a lot.
Peter Nordbye, whose campaign against Johnson that year was damaged, is protesting this activity. If you agree and want to send Sen. Hass this message, please help us gather names (including your own) to the petition and get other Democrats to do the same. Peter had gathered 50 signatures at the time of this meeting. Contact Peter at .
New Business:
Feb 1 is the first day for precinct committee persons (PCPs) to file to have their names on the May primary ballot. PCPs must file each election cycle. The deadline for filing is March 8.
From the Clackamas County Democrats' web site: "Precinct Committee Persons(PCPs) are your neighborhood party representatives. They act as the local eyes, ears, and voice ofthe precinct, and in that sense, they are the most important persons in the county party. They represent the interests of your precinct as members of the county’s Central Committee, and they represent the party to the voters of your precinct."
If you are a registered Democrat and would like to serve as a PCP, please click through here to sign up: http://www.clackamasdems.org/
or download a PCP application form(MS Word).
Other important dates:
March 4 -6: DPO Platform Convention Delegates from the county parties convene biennially to determine the DPO’s platform and legislative agenda for the next two years. The 2016 convention will be held on March 4-6 at Hillsboro High School. Delegates must be named by the end of January. Clackamas County Democrats willappointas many as 84 delegates and 42 alternates at our January meeting. If you are a registered Democrat in Clackamas County and are interested in becoming a delegate, contact Susan Gates:
March 11: our annual Clackamas County Dems' fundraising dinner "Pot of Gold" (formerly White Donkey) will be held at the Monarch Hotel in Clackamas: 12566 SE 93rd Avenue, Clackamas beginning at 5:30p.m. This is a fun, informal dinner with a live auction.
May 17: Primary election. PCPs will be elected as will Democratic candidates for all county, state and national offices.
July 25-28: Democratic Party National Convention in Philadelphia. We have sent delegates to our party's national convention in the past by participating in our district conventions. All district level delegates will be elected at district conventions on
June 4, 2016. The 3rd Congressional District convention location will be announced by March 1. If you are interested in being a delegate, contact Susan Gates.
July 28: We are to provide the refreshments for the Clackamas County Central Committee meeting. Please consider attending the meeting and bringing a snack.
September 18th, Sunday from 1-4p.m.: Annual OTD picnic at Meinig Park in Sandy at the gazebo.
Tuesday, November 8th: Election Day
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We discussed whether to advertise that we will provide child care at our OTD meetings, Karen Trandum having volunteered to do this. We decided to put "children welcome" in our meeting announcements and fliers. We will also find out about insurance.
We discussed making up business cards and putting up fliers (as we have in the past) to advertise OTD, the Neighborhood leader program and our meetings. The business cards could be a 3 x 5 card containing the time and date of our meetings as well as our web site. Regarding the fliers: we would like volunteers to "adopt" places to put fliers up and maintain them.
Susan Gates brought cards which we signed: get well wishes for Larry Skidmore, former chair of the Clackamas County Dems, a thank you card to Doug Saldivar who does our web site maintenance, and a sympathy card to Tom Layne.
Dennis Ghelfi made a motion to approve the expenditure of $20 for a gift card for Doug Saldivar in appreciation; 2nd by Peter Nordbye. Motion passed.
Linda Layne's memorial service will be this Sat., Jan 30 at 1 pm at the Sandy Community Church. Marcia Brown is taking the lead in organizing the reception and many OTD members are participating.
Election of OTD officers
Dennis Ghelfi made a motion that we re-nominate the current slate of officers; after discussion, vote to re-elect the slate of officers passed. The 2016 OTD officers: OTD Chair is Susan Gates, Vice-Chair is Roger Fantz, Secretary is Mary Anderson, Treasurer is Sannye Phillips, and Sergeant at arms is Gloria Bean. We would appreciate others stepping into these roles and we would be more than willing to explain our duties. Susan would like us to consider taking the initiative to bring in speakers on issues that are important to us.
Announcements, Good of the Order:
Ken Humberston filled our group in on a land use situation brought before the Clackamas County Commissioners. They have voted to spend $450,000 to "re-study" the rural reserves in the French Prairie (Wilsonville) area, to give Chris and Tom Maletis the right to develop the agricultural land they own surrounding their golf course. The Maletis brothers want to make millions on speculative real estate development, and in the 2012 election donated $25,000 to John Ludlow, $14,000 to Tootie Smith, $15,000 Paul Savas and $4500 to Martha Schrader (who returned their donation).
Metro's urban and rural reserves designations were created to bring stable land use planning, and certain areas would be off-limits to development; which Tootie and Ludlow in particular want to overturn. More here: http://www.friendsoffrenchprairie.org/issues-lfcp.html
Sue Hines noted that the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners (BCC) has announced that the 2016 State of the County will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at the Public Services Building in Oregon City, starting at 6:30 p.m. All commissioners will participate in a Q&A session after the initial address.
Clackamas County residents and business owners, members of the media, and other interested individuals are welcome to attend and pose questions to the commissioners.
The Hood River Democrats are holding monthly meetings.
Reminder:
To keep informed on the Nestle Waters issue, please visit the Keep Nestle Out blog here: https://keepnestleout.wordpress.com/
Local Water Alliance is a group of residents from Hood River, calling for the people to decide on the proposed Nestlé bottling plant. Members of the Keep Nestlé Out of the Gorge coalition include Food & Water Watch and Bark. The Local Water Alliance has filed a ballot measure petition that would amend Hood River County’s Charter to prohibit commercial bottled water production in Hood River County.Oregon Trail Democrats endorsed Hood River County's #1455 ballot referendum at our October 2015 meeting.
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Thanks to Susan Gates for providing treats, and for coffee & tea set up.
Meeting Adjourned by Chair Susan Gates at 8:30 p.m.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, February 23, 2015 at 7 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Anderson
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