5th Congressional District Green Party
Membership meeting
September 23, 2006
Northeast Library
Notes taken by: Darrell Gerber
Facilitation: Neil Cunningham, Dave Berger, Joel Sipress
1. Facilitator: Neil Cunningham. Agenda amended to add 5 minutes at the end to discuss the recent call for unendorsement of Jay Pond. No unendorsement decision can be made at this meeting due to process requirements not being fulfilled.
2. Candidate Update
a. Dave Berger gave an update of a candidate forum that he attended in Northern Minnesota It went really well for him. Michael Cavlin also had a really good showing with the Indigenous People.
b. Michael Cavlin showed up on MPR with the Constitution Party candidate. Still unclear what they will do with Green candidates where there are no other minor party candidates in the race.
c. Jay Pond - Ashley James and Jonathan Fluck gave updates. Jay was at the Peace Demonstration and will try to show up later. Jay's been at a bunch of forums. He's been on Almanac. MPR had a debate he was excluded from-please send comments requesting his inclusion. May also be excluded from League of Women Voters debate?.call them to complain. Signup to volunteer and/or get a t-shirt. Lawn signs may not be available due to money. Volunteer coordinator is needed. Door knocking is the main big need right now. Need money. Jonathan showed the new Jay Pond video.
d. Farheen - Jonathan Fluck gave update. She got about 33% in the primary. This is a good showing. Need people to door-knock. Midtown Global market every day at 7AM to doorknock for 2 hours. Everyone welcome. Other needs are events/projects coordinator, handling requests at website, phone banking end of October.
3. Umbrella Update
a. Becki Kopp has been working on the reorganizing of the NW Metro Greens. Will setup GP locals for SD 45 and 44. This was due to legal requirements for constitution of a local political party. Will need to figure out, still, what to do with the Mpls local. Need to determine org. structure, money distribution, and membership. 5CDGP SC has thought it would be better to put some of this on the back burner due to the dissolving of the St. Louis Park local.
4. GP Outreach and Member Directory
a. Neil gave an update. An idea at a SC meeting for a way to increase membership communications and networking is to create a membership directory that lists names and contact information. He passed out a mock-up of a potential layout. Discussion. Lisa Boyd is concerned about the distribution. Would not be comfortable that personal info is distributed to others outside of the membership. Lenief Heimstead-what about long term upkeep and maintaining it. Darrell Gerber-we can't distribute the information without people's express approval. It also lowers the value to endorsed candidates if we make the info more broadly available. Stephen Eisenmenger-shares same concerns. Can incorporate it into the online database to make upkeep easier. Would help to better let people know the skills and interests of others. Molly Nutting?should make it entirely voluntary to help us build community. Eric Gilbertson?we talked about adding ability to edit and create personal profiles for those within the database they can select who accesses and views what. Ashley James-clarified what could be made available on the web database. Lisa Boyd-the list will be smaller if opt-in then can still maintain value of larger list for candidates. Diane-wants the list to be available by hard copy or each person can say they only want hard copy contact. This addresses those who are not comfortable with the internet. General sense was that we thought there might be some interest and need but that it needs to be explored more fully. Contracted for 5 more minutes. Kevin Chavis updated on outreach. He passed around a form for MeetUp.Com and suggested it would be a good organizing tool. For $12/mo you get a group with message boards, files available, file uploads, etc. The Boston Greens had 13 people show up at the last meeting. Lisa Boyd-who bears the cost? The organization. Molly Nutting-many of the features are already available on the website. Not sure that the party needs to put money into. Rosalind Nelson-People who show up the first time may be more interested in showing up to a social event first. Lisa Boyd-are the purposes of these events social gathering? Generally, yes, but not necessarily. Darrell Gerber?concerned about paying money to duplicate the resources already available we don't use. Need to consider the value of the MeetUp.Org name recognition. Kristina Gronquist-thinks it is well worth the effort to try to coordinate more outreach and social networking. Suggested benevolence toward it from the group especially if an individual would be interest in moving forward. Proposal made for 3 mo tryout to evaluate the service. Need to contract for more time or defer. Consensus to defer to the next meeting.
5. IRV Update
a. Darrell Gerber is presenting
b. IRV will be on the ballot in Mpls to use IRV in municipal elections
c. Lawn signs and lit are available
d. Fundraisers have been successful - Wienie Roast and Gala made $
e. Have been lit dropping and door knocking with candidates, including Farheen
f. Doing a poll in Mpls to get a feel of where people are - this is key volunteer opportunity. 3 phone calling sites for polling - sign up to volunteer
g. Volunteers need to help lit dropping. Have been canvassing in front of the Wedge and other locations
h. DFL has also endorsed
i. 5CDGP's intern, Dakota Johnson, has been doing a great job helping out
j. The League of Women Voters had a cable show on about IRV featuring Darrell Gerber and Kelly O'Brien (of the DFL) showing Tuesdays at 7:30
k. Op ed in today?s Strib about IRV written by Don Fraser
l. Cam Gordon having meeting 7-9:00 about IRV at Matthew's Park, 10/26
m. Flash cartoon ad on betterballotcampaign.org. Send it to your friends!
6. Treasurers Report
a. Eric Gilbertson passed the hat.
b. $271/mo coming in on direct deposit
c. July meeting $150 expenses
d. Event costs ~$450 include State Fair costs and Raspberry Festival.
e. $120 for this meeting
f. $500 in contributions to Jay's and Farheen's campaigns
g. $150 for IRV intern
h. Saving for January Antiracism training
7. Announcements
a. Stephen Eisenmenger - His group is opening a flower and garden consumer co-op. Opening is in a week. Noon to 4 on October 1st. 910 W 36st St. Grand opening will be end of October. Closed Monday, 10-6 Tues-Fri, 10-4 Sat. Founding memberships $150.
b. Robin Garwood - EPA is holding an important meeting Tuesday at Midtown Y from 7 to 9 to discuss the arsenic contamination in South Minneapolis. Will be first chance for community feedback on the levels of contamination that warrant remediation.
c. Eric Gilbertson - review the list of members we don?t have contact information for to help find them.
d. Dave Berger ? October 1st 2-6PM fundraiser for Green Party candidates. Information is at www.mngreens.org. Yoga workshops, music, food, etc. $15 to get in. More donations available inside. Between White Bear Lake and Stillwater.
8. Break
9. Facilitation by Joel Sipress of the Dean Zimmermann portion of the discussion. It will start with a talking circle to offer everyone the opportunity to air their thoughts and concerns. Then will move on the ratification of the press release. Move then to discussion of future steps especially regarding a press release for the sentencing.
10. Talking circle - 1 minute per person.
a. Joel Sipress - Shares many feelings that we are. Known them for years and have worked with them within the Green Party. Hopes that we can reach respectful and Green resolution.
b. Lenief Heimstead - Lives in Dean's old ward. Disappointed in his performance as a councilmember especially with the focus on PRT. Did not support his endorsement for the run last year. All of the charges and court case came on top of the. Not sorted out in her mind, yet, the whole issue.
c. Stephen Eisenmenger - Disappointed in Dean?s taking cash. Beyond what he expects from a Green candidate. Was not convinced that what happened isn?t illegal. Very concerned about the damage to the GP.
d. Robin Garwood - Also disappointed in Dean and the press release. Hard in Cam?s office to sort out what to do. They personally love Dean and Jenny so were hesitant to come out critical of them. But, felt they had to say that it wasn?t what Cam and the GP was about.
e. Eric Gilbertson - FBI targeting of Dean was unfair and unjust. FBI needs to be held accountable for their decisions of who to target.
f. Lisa Boyd - Can't profess to know Dean and Jenny well. Press release expresses her feeling well. While GP values hold us to a higher standard we are also human. Must be willing to make mistakes and to forgive people. Must be willing to take risks.
g. Barb Sadler - Very confused in the beginning. We have all done things that we are ashamed of. Dean did his action and is being forced to deal with it. We have to take ownership of our feelings and reactions and deal with them.
h. Tom - Press release is passive aggressive with two messages that confuses the points.
i. Neil Cunningham - Name is on the release and hit the send button. Felt he didn?t have much control over the content as it was formed by others. The process was probably as good as could be expected.
j. Darrell Gerber- Dean's actions were unethical, unquestionably. Not sure about legality. Dean has not publicly owned up to the mistakes and apologized for the negative impacts on the GP and movement. Would like to see that.
k. Ashley James - Dean made a mistake and needs to own it and acknowledge the impact of that mistake. Process: worst part was that we knew it was coming but didn't act early to start on it. Mistakes in putting it together could have been avoided.
l. Diane Steen-H - Thinks the statement should have stated our hope that he didn't intend to take money. Agrees that it is misplaced to target Dean in face of the other misdeeds going on in government.
m. Sue Leskela - Soft spot in heart for him. Concerns about the legal system. Doesn?t know the details about the crime and the legal defense to really know if it was a just outcome.
n. Kristina Gonquist - We hold ourselves to really high standards and present ourselves that way to the public. We point fingers at other people who are corrupt which makes it hard when one of our own does it. Has worked so much with accounting and knows the dangers of handling cash. Can?t believe the carelessness.
o. Rosalind Nelson - Doesn't know Dean well. Trying to compromise with feeling at hearing of conviction of Len Biernat. Wishes Dean hadn?t done anything to put himself in a category of Len Biernet. Should have known better when someone gave him a handful of cash.
p. Keith - Dean has strengths of working with people which were used against him by justice department. The people putting the press release together were working in a tough situation and did a good job with what they had.
q. Dave Berger - At fairs that week. Had concerns about the wording of entrapment in original that he blocked. Feels that the public comments out afterward have been good and fill in where the press release might have been weak.
11. Ratification of the Press Release
a. Copy of press release and a summary of the process use are available in the handout. Ashley James presents the press release and the process.
b. Joel Sipriss summarized the process for ratification.
c. Clarifying questions
i. Robin Garwood - Was there any consideration of discussing ethics during the process? Ashley, yes we talked about it and Dean's intent. There were strong feelings by some that we wanted to back up Dean. Had considered moving the last section to the beginning but it didn?t get moved.
ii. Darrell Gerber - Who are spokespeople and how were they involved? Neil Cunningham and Kevin Chavis. They were only involved as SC people for approval not any other way.
d. First call for consensus. Several concerns so no consensus.
i. Mark Snyder - Process described was admirable. No real value getting caught up in who contacted whom. Does not have a problem people urging SC and GPMN to create a press release. Likes that they were responsive. They brought together all of the people who should have been involved in the process. Does not want to be involved in every decision. People selected made a good decision.
ii. Lenief Heimstead - understands the pressure they were under. Can't support the outcome as being too sympathetic and apologetic. Not clear about what the GP is about.
iii. Robin Garwood - Wishes the statement said something about ethics and that his actions fell short of that. Ok with the process but not the outcome. More important for us to have done it than even in calling others out.
iv. Darrell Gerber - Shared concerns thus far about what was said. Press release isn't written well as a press release. Feels responsibility for not communicating and leaving better guidance for future spokespeople.
v. Diane Steen-H - Hopes that we can not just ratify or not but reflect our disagreement with its content. Should have also said something that reflects the impacts of redistricting and the redistricting lawsuit.
vi. Dave Berger - We should have planned better because we knew it was coming. Should have written drafts early and avoided problems of acting in the pressure cooker.
vii. Tom - Sees no value of rescinding the press release. Press releases take time to write well and we should be planning for the sentencing. Need to make sure to put the quality in before hand. Hard when you have people acting in the writing that can't act subjectively.
viii. Robin Garwood - Feels that a representative of local office holders should have been included in the group working on it.
ix. Joel offered that the concerns can be expressed and moved in the next portion that focuses on the future actions and ratify the press release.
e. Second Call for consensus. One concern remains.
i. Diane - States that her concern is that ratify must not indicate 100% comfort with the outcome and the process. No objections to this being indicated in the notes for the meeting.
f. Third Call for consensus. No concerns remaining.
12. Future steps with regard to the Zimmermann case
a. Start with a brainstorming
i. Darrell Gerber- Write the press release for the sentencing. Positive push by the party for ethics in public office. Build upon efforts already begun by Cam Gordon.
ii. Dave Berger - Prepare the sentencing press release.
iii. Jay Pond - Nasty stuff coming out in 5CD race and spreading to Farheen's race. The GP is going to have to take a stand to the use of race and religious discrimination and dirty politics against our endorsed candidates.
iv. Dave Bicking - We need to get good solid factual information out there with analysis. The Zimmerman for Justice group did that leading up to the trial. Thinks the GP should make sure that the facts are correct regarding the case.
v. Cam Gordon - We need to reach out to Dean and his family to be supportive and helpful in their trouble. There are more hardships coming ahead. Emotional, financial, etc. Also, how can we change our rules and guidance to make it clear to future elected office holders and endorsed candidates what is expected of them and to help them avoid making incorrect decisions?
vi. Tom - Dean is going to have problems with the indictment. The GP involvement would confuse whether it is personal or endorsed. We need to put something out at sentencing but would be a mistake to focus on Dean?s situation rather than the values and ethics of the GP.
vii. Ashley James - More formal structures of communication and accountability. Formal accountability meetings to communicate with elected office holders.
viii. Joel suggested combining Cam and Ashley's to more formal rules, guidance and support for GP candidates and EOHs. Both ok. Collapse push for positive principles in office (Darrell) and reiterating our values and principles (Tom's)
b. Strawpoll
i. Getting ready with press release - Majority indicate definitely must have begun moving forward with this. No serious concerns
ii. Positive push for ethics in public office - 4 think it's urgent to start now. No serious concerns.
iii. Proactive steps to combat dirty politics against endorsed candidates - 7 feel immediate need. No serious concerns.
iv. Getting facts out on Dean Zimmermann case - 4 feel need to move forward. 4 concerns about party doing that.
v. Reaching out to Dean and family - 8 feel immediate need. 4 serious concerns.
vi. Formal structure for support with clearer guidance - 11 feel need to address immediately. 1 serious concern.
c. 10 minutes additional contracted for
d. Actions
i. Press release
1. Tom suggested that those who have done releases work to generate a rough draft and have at least three iterations.
2. Cam suggested that spokespeople draft the release and it go out on the public email list.
3. Darrell - there should be multiple press releases generated depending on the possible outcomes
4. Dave Bicking - Don't put it on the public list because of people on there who might not be appropriate to see it before hand.
5. Joel put that together to include the spokespeople plus others in the room who would volunteer to help draft. Dave Bicking, Eric, Tom, and Darrell volunteer to help. They will meet face-to-face and prepare contingencies.
6. Joel proposed that the sounding board be anyone who volunteers today plus SC. Cam added a suggestion that any EOH and endorsed candidate should also be included as well as Dean and Jenny.
a. Molly questioned need to micromanage to the level of specifying the sounding board group. Joel responded that it is a safeguard against the writers getting tunnel vision and not reflecting the position of the party well. Suggests that the subgroup be empowered to select the group.
b. Diane questions the need to include Dean and Jenny.
c. Empower the subgroup to select the sounding board - Only one objection. Stood aside. That group is empowered to write the press release and send it out to the sounding board of their selection. They will consult with others at their discretion. Passed by Consensus.
ii. No time remaining for other items. Steering Committee is strongly encouraged to give significant time at the next membership meeting for those items. Anyone with concerns about any of them should bring them to the Steering Committee prior to that time.
13. Doug Mann calls for unendorsement (Doug Mann was not present)
a. Original 5 minutes allocated reduced to 1 minute by consensus to allow for Keith to make a statement.
b. Keith presented an idea that this group should strongly state that GP stands by the endorsement of Jay.
14. Elected official reports
a. Park Board Member Annie Young - Written update included in packet.
b. City Councilmember Cam Gordon - Passed out a couple updates and a survey. There is a lot that goes on in the city all the time and the survey offers a good opportunity to get feedback. Public hearing coming on the Civilian oversight of the police department. Working with the health department and foundations for a forum on youth violence. Poised to push the city to look at it as a public health issue rather than just a public safety issue. Includes preventative actions and interventions to diffuse chain of violent actions. Minneapolis may be creating a department of environment and energy. Cam is encouraging money for an energy policy person. Already funding an energy auditing person. Look for it down the road. Many public forums and openings on boards and committees listed on the handout. Highlighted the CEAC openings.
i. Lenief voiced concern about the state of the library system. Wanted to push having the city take on more efforts to support the library system. Cam said that the more letters and calls council receives the better to get them to move forward on it. There is concern about increasing taxes.
ii. Diane - Said that youth violence is also an economic justice issue as well. Most violent crimes involve an economic aspect such as robbery. There is a level of desperation created by poverty.
iii. Keith - Thanks for the De la Salle vote. Cam is not hopeful that it will end up stopping at any point but is hopeful that it will lead to better outreach from the school.
iv. Cam said that he is taking very seriously ethics in public service. He is clear in his mind that council members should not be fundraising and taking money from developers or anyone with business with the city. Wants to look at campaign financing rules for our candidates to also use as a model for the city in setting their rules. Doesn?t look good for the city with all the stuff that has been going on.
15. Meeting evaluation
a. Skipped due to time.
16. Meeting adjourned 3:30.
ke attire while Ellison dons a greenish, tweed sport coat and well-worn, brown shoes.
