At the March Action Committee meeting the committee decided that the President will screen all requests for speaking engagements and pass them along to the appropriate person. Syeda will fill a request for a speaker for the Kiwanis Club received from Tom Blalock. They would like a pro/con on the May ballot propositions on March 21 at the Marriott. She will do it with perhaps another League member with a working title of 

" Have You Been Propositioned Lately?"

CRIL would like a joint forum on the propositions. We will offer them a CD of Voting Matters program.

Reports from Specialists:

Jean Holmes noted that shifting State funds is not a good way to balance the budget. We will need to inform Voters that all propositions on the May ballot will need to pass so the budget will pass. The State needs to get rid of a 2/3 vote on financial issues.

Alex Starr and Sets Ammon noted that we do not yet know if here is stimulus money for any rail projects. Andrea will track any stimulus money that may be allocated locally.

Syeda testified to the Fremont Council on 3/3 on housing and will put the testimony on the website. The Housing Element was passed and sent to the State. It has a 2 year 10% reduction in impact fees to lure developers. There is a 25% decrease for the CBD. Jobs/Linkage fees were not accepted. Andrea will forward us a piece on Becaro and mobile home parks. We will continue to monitor this and advocate for all possible affordable housing. We should watch for opportunities to testify on this issue.

Observers report that the audio for Ohlone board meetings is poor and that the background materials are incomplete. Meetings may be reduced to once a month. 

SB810 is the new version of SB840 and League will support it. 

We are still trying to find and possibly re-assign observers. 

Sam is working on Facts for Voters and the revision of the observer report. All job descriptions should be reviewed and sent to Sam.

Miriam is getting sign-ups for interviews. She will send out copies of old questions. We have questions for state interviews.

Kay lined up the following Voting Matters topics for programs:

March 11^th- double tape with State Propositions (Alex, Sam, Andrea) and CRIL (Sam)- Ohlone runs.

April- Propositions run

May- BART runs

June- CRIL runs

Andrea will get "One Stop" info to Kay for a possible program. 

We should watch the Masonic Home project in Union City.

David Keers, Steve Waterhouse and Carl Guardino will be our recommendations to the Board for Annual Meeting speakers.

Next meeting: April 2 at 12:30 at Kay’s house.