An open letter to Greens from your Green elected officials, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and School Board Commissioners Sarah Lipson and Mark Sanchez. Dear Greens, We are writing to discuss a plan that will assist our work immeasurably. We have subscribed recipients of the SF Greens weekly newsletter to a new email list to which occasional messages will be sent out on an as-needed basis describing actions you can take to help us with policy measures and legislation. Coordinated mass action is the best way to impact decisionmakers. Therefore, we will be sending out individual action plans and talking points for specific issues in order to compete effectively with those corporate giants who are opposed to environmental and economic justice. The action plans may ask you to write letters to the editor, make phone calls to elected officials, send emails, or attend important committee hearings or rallies. Here are several examples of our recent activities that will give you an idea of what we may be requesting of you: 1.) Plastic Bags: at City Hall, you may have seen the uproar over our proposal to study the social, economic and environmental costs of proliferating plastic bags and to determine what solutions would be appropriate and equitable. The media blew this up into the false impression of "Ross Mirkarimi wants to charge poor folks seventeen cents per plastic bag," echoing the line of Safeway and the American Plastics Council. Letters-to-the-editor and to supervisors helped counteract this false impression. 2.) Superintendent's Salary Increase: late in 2004, the lame duck School Board called an improperly hasty meeting to grant Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman a platinum parachute including a $4,000 per month housing allowance and a $375,000 no-fault severance package. Your participation at the meeting might have helped prevent what many saw as an abuse of power. 3.) MUNI Fare Hike: Ross and Chris Daly are the only Supervisors actively fighting against MUNI fare hikes and service cuts right now. A coordinated mass action on our part may inspire the other Supervisors and the larger community to prevent these regressive proposals from becoming reality. We appreciate greatly the support you have given in the past to help us get elected. We need your continuing support in the future to help implement Green progressive policy and legislation. We hope you will continue to stay subscribed to this action list, but if you wish to unsubscribe, click here: <<mailto: action-unsubscribe@sfgreens.org>> (Unsubscribing from this action list will not affect your subscription to the weekly SF Green newsletter.) Look for our first call-to-action soon. Sincerely, Sarah Lipson Mark Sanchez Ross Mirkarimi