Oakmont Democratic Club

Highlights of Previous Meetings

Descriptions of the last three meetings are followed by a comprensive list of the topics of previous meetings.

January 3, 2010

Santa Rosa Mayor Susan Gorin spoke on "The State of the City" giving us the bad news, the good news, and what the city is doing to cope.

The bad news:

decreasing sales tax income for 13 quarters
a decreasing supply of water
a search for a city manager
location on a major earthquake fault
an aging population

The good news:

Wayne Goldberg serving as the interim city manager
an improved web page
major road improvements that have put people back to work
improved major crime statistics
reduced gang activity

Improvements in the works:

an energy retrofit
improvement of public safety and transit
remodeling of ATT building on Third Street with offices, retail, affordable housing, and a new glass facade
continuing development of Railroad Square

To reduce costs the city is examining:

a two tier hiring process to reduce the salaries and benefits of new employees
a rotating brownout program of fire stations that will reduce costs but also reduce response time to fires and emergencies
turning off some street lights in low crime and low tree density areas
pressing the County Water Agency to reduce the water rate increase

October 7

Sonoma State University Dean of Social Sciences Elaine Leeder titled her talk "Prisoners are People Too!" She demonstrated how punishment instead of rehabilitation has affected California and the United States.

The United States has more people in prison than any country in the world. There are over 1,475,000 people currently incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Disproportionately they are poor African American or Latino men from 25 to 29 years old. Indeed, ten percent of all black males in the United States are in prison with 167,000 of them in California's prison system.

There has not been a rise in crime in the last five years, but there has been a huge increase in parole offenders being sent back to prison for minor offences such as missing a parole date. California has so many prisoners in the system that we have to ship some of them to other states. Many prisoners are there because of the three strikes law that was intended to keep violent prisoners locked up but instead the law has incarcerated many for drug offences or parole violations.

California spends $58.00 per day to house and feed each prisoner, and we will be taking care of the 34,000 prisoners sentenced to life under the three strikes law in prison nursing homes until they die. In addition, there is a real danger that the federal government will take over the California prisons because of overcrowding and lack of good medical care.

Leeder argues that releasing non-violent prisoners to home care, ankle monitoring, or group homes would be a better and more cost effective way to with nonviolent offenders.

August 7

Norman Solomon, national syndicated columnist on media and radio called us to return to the rich heritatae of the the Dmocratic Party. He pointed out the consequences of choosing guns over butter, failing to care adequately for our verterans, and failing to provide universal health care, which was first proposed by President Harry S Truman in 1947.

The Democratic Party must be more than "The Other Party." We must make our voices heard at every level of government. We cannot be a silent majority.

Meetings have been held on the following topics (chronologically listed with the most recent first): The Politics of Direct Democracy; The 2009 Presidential Transition; California Initiative Process; Post-election Analysis; Pre-Election Analysis; City Council Candidate Forum; Foreign Policy; Voting and Voting Machines in Sonoma County; Immigration; Post-Presidential Primary Discussion; 2008 Presidential Primary Candidates; Project Censored; Sonoma County Health Care; National and State Health Care; The Californa Legislature with Assemblywoman Noreen Evans; Affordable Housing in Sonoma County; Wal-Mart Business Model; Fair Trade versus Free Trade; Smart Growth; Campaign Finance Reform; Church/State Relations; Santa Rosa City Council Candidates' Night; Demographics and Future Politics in California; The Middle East with Chris O'Sullivan; Green Day; 6th District Congressional Candidates' Debate; Taking Back the Future Congressman with Mike Thompson; The California Public Utilities Commission with Loretta Lynch; 2006 State Ballot Measures; Project Censored; Economic Justice in Sonoma County; Universal Health Care with Assemblyman Joe Nation; State of the Schools with Sonoma County Schools Superintendent Carl Wong; California State Democratic Chair Art Torres.

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