Randy Hicks is an amazing green. His continued advocacy at the state capital is commendable. Ever since I met him during the occupy movement, he has remained a vocal advocate for truly progressive changes at state, county and city levels. On Feb 14, 2018 7:59 AM, "GPCA Votes" <gpca.votes@gmail.com> wrote:

*Please send your discussion comments to gpca-votes@sfgreens.org <gpca-votes@sfgreens.org>*

Discussion has begun for the following GPCA SGA ranked choice vote:

Ranked Choice Vote ID #136 Ranked Choice Vote *Election: Coordinating Committee, unscheduled vacancy, one male seat, remainder of July 2017 - June 2019* Number of Seats 1 Ranked Choice Vote Administrators: Victoria Ashley, Brian Good, Laura Wells, Eric Brooks, Mike Goldbeck Discussion 02/12/2018 - 03/25/2018 Voting 03/26/2018 - 04/01/2018 Voting ends at Midnight Pacific Time

*Background*

This election is to fill one unscheduled vacancy for one male seat on the GPCA Coordinating Committee http://www.cagreens.org/ committees/coordinating, resulting from the resignation of Paul Larudee, elected in June 2017 http://sga.cagreens.org/vote/irvdetail?pid=125 , to serve the remainder of the two year term running from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2019. The Coordinating Committee's Duties and Authority are found here http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_8-1_Duties_and_Authority .

When such unscheduled vacancies occur, the Coordinating Committee shall publish a Notice of Vacancy and Call for Candidate Submissions to the active County Organizations, as per GPCA Bylaws 8-4.5 http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_8-4_Elections . This was sent on February 15, 2015.

According to GPCA Bylaws 8-2.1, "The Coordinating Committee shall be composed of up to 24 voting members, with 12 men and 12 women. Six men and six women shall be elected each year to serve staggered, two year terms" http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_8-2_Membership and 8-4.1 "Elections shall be conducted each year by the Standing Green Assembly using Ranked Choice Voting with a No Other Candidate option, with the six week discussion period beginning on the first Monday of May and the one week voting period commencing immediately thereafter" http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_8-4_Elections . 8-4.3(b) adds that the election as it is posted to the Standing Green Assembly shall include: "A full and detailed explanation of Ranked Choice Voting, an explanation of the No Other Candidate option, and an encouragement that delegates make their choices seriously and a reminder that they do not have to fill all seats unless they feel there are enough qualified candidates."

Ranked Choice Voting is explained here http://www.fairvote.org/ reforms/fair-representation-voting/choice-voting • http://www.fairvote.org/reforms/instant-runoff-voting • http://www.sfgov2.org/index.aspx?page=876 • http://www.acgov.org/rov/rcv. Ranking 'No Other Candidate' (NOC) means once NOC passed the approval threshold, no further candidates will be elected, other than those (if any) who have already been elected before NOC reached the threshold.

*Candidates:*

Randy Hicks Josh Jones James Lauderdale No Other Candidate

*Bio and Statement - Randy Hicks*

My name is Randy Hicks. I am a proud member of the Sacramento Green Party and of the state and national Green Party chapters. The reason that I joined the Green Party was due to the Democratic candidate for governor choosing to support the death penalty during the 2002 recall election. I have been involved in politics for 32 years supporting campaigns for various candidates who supported progressive causes. I also believe that after working for the Democratic party till the 2002 election, we need a 3rd party such as the Green Party that endorses and supports progressive causes such as Single Payer Health Care and Instant Runoff elections.

I was born and raised in an progressive area of Iowa, which is a very conservative state. I moved to Minnesota, where I received my Associates of Art degree in Sales and Marketing. I used my degree to promote progressive Green Party causes.

I moved to California, where I continued to support progressive causes. I had the opportunity to join Californians for Disability Rights, Inc., where I became active in supporting disability rights. I was then appointed by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to sit on the Disability Advisory Commission. As a member of the DAC, I learned to run meetings and Robert's Rules of Order. In addition, I have supported many other causes such as, environmental and economic justice, the Older Women's League. Health Care for All California, America Civil Liberties Union, LGBTQ rights, and introduced legislation on all of these causes to the California State Senate and Assembly.

As a member of LGBTQ community, I have worked with the Democratic party on LGBTQ causes. The Democratic party has only supported the LGBTQ community when they need our votes or are forced to support LGBTQ causes. For future generations of the LGBTQ community, the Green Party supports their causes.

As a proud member of the Sacramento Green Party, I believe that I can represent the key values of the party at the local and state levels. In addition, I ran for the Green Party council and won the seat. I am one of the few Green Party members who are currently sitting on an appointed or elected seat in Sacramento County.

What do I wish to accomplish on the Coordinating Council?

I am running for the Green Party Coordinating Council with new progressive ideas and bring a sense of order to the GPCA. As a member of the Coordinating Council, I also want to endorse the causes that serve all of our Green Party members at the local, state, national levels. I also wish to uphold all of the 10 key values of the Green Party.

As someone who has sat on the Sacramento Green Party Council and has ran successfully as a candidate for the Sacramento County Green Party Council, I have served all of the counties of California as a Green Party delegate in order bring change, progress, and viability to the Green Party.

I also believe that as a member of various county and state non profits and boards, I understand the processes needed to run a successful and organized campaign that represents and serves the interests of members of these organizations.

As a volunteer for various local and state government organizations who has ran successful campaigns for elected seat, I believe that I have the knowledge, experience, and knowhow to help the Green Party to be the party of the future.

I would be proud to represent the Green Party of California at the local and state levels.

*Bio and Statement - Josh Jones*

I have been active in political organizing for many years. Though a Californian, in 2008 I canvassed door to door for weeks in Reno, NV. In 2009 I advocated for Single Payer Healthcare, writing a letter of support to all of the U.S. Congress, the vice President and President - I was appalled when the ACA essentially became the Heritage Foundation proposal. I was in Occupy Davis in the winter of 2011, and was frequently on the news dismantling the concepts of "trickle down" and "corporate personhood". I protested at Monsanto headquarters in 2012. Some of my friends are now known as the Monsanto 10, and I've gone to support them in court - I think they will prevail!

During July 2015 I noticed a person named Bernie Sanders running for President. His lefty rhetoric appealed to me and I threw in with that campaign. I knew he was probably shilling for the Democrats, but the opportunity to pull the masses to the left was too good to pass up! I founded Davis for Bernie and eventually got 300 volunteers. Our local campaign won Yolo for Bernie with $5000, to the Dems $130,000 - with a lefty message for the people and people power. After campaigning in Reno, NV in Oct and Nov, before the campaign, and Utah, helping run the Caucus there, I was asked by the campaign to be Convener of the Congressional District 3 Bernie Delegate election on May 1st 2016. After the ill-fated primary, we went to protest at the DNC. "Jill not Hill!" was the rallying cry.

I attended the Green Party rally for Dr. Jill Stein in Davis, and immediately asked, "Is there an active Yolo County Green Party?" The answer was, "No." Then let's start it! As a result I was a founding member of Yolo Green Party County Council. Though through frustration l dipped my toe into the Dem Party with the ADEMs, recruited 10 lefties to invade the Dem Party(where we got 10x voter turn-out), became a Dem Party leader for 3 months, disgusted with obvious cheating and moving-the-goal-post, I returned to the Green Party stronger and with much learned experience. I am now a member of the Yolo Green Party County Council.

I have always been a strong advocate of sustainable energy, and worked for 4 years as a photovoltaic large array designer, as Lead Designer, at a solar electric engineering firm. In 2010 I created the industry standard for distributed energy generation, known on engineering plan sets as a "W" sheet - the discipline designation. "W" stands for wind, water, and sun, in comparison to "S" for structural sheets, or "P" for plumbing. I worked on a committee of 113 top building industry people to do this, with, for example, a Major in the Army Corps of Engineers, and an owner of an architectural firm in Chicago, et al. I hope, with all of us, that sustainable energy will prevail - I know it will.

I am a 4th generation Californian and have lived in California my entire life. I understand our state's diverse biomes and places, and the many types of folks who dwell here. There are many kinds of people here, both newcomers and people of many generations; mountain folk, desert folk, beach folk, and agricultural folk, both city people and countryside people, poor people and rich people, scientists and corporate owners, as well as Miwok, Pomo, and Chicanos who are often Aztlan. I think it's important to talk to everyone: to understand their perspectives, needs, and solutions to their experienced problems.

I think and feel that the Green Party is the party to defeat the Duopoly. I view the Green Party as the party with the most moral basis; that it it's the party of human rights, workers rights, labor rights, and environmental rights. I would be honored to be elected to the Coordinating Committee of the California Green Party. I ask that you to vote for me - to advocate for the people.

*Bio and Statement - James Lauderdale*

I am 69 years old and retired.

I live with my wife of 30 years in the San Gabriel Valley near Los Angeles in the 22nd State Senatorial District. We are both active in the East LA Greens.

I have been a registered Green since 2004, where I supported Peter Camejo in his several State and Federal election efforts. I had known Peter for over forty years. We had met and been associated in the revolutionary socialist movement beginning in the 1960’s.

Before retiring in 2014, I worked for seventeen years at various configurations of SEIU (Service Employees International Union, the largest union of public employees in the City and County of Los Angeles) in the capacity of organizer, and then doing administrative litigation. This latter was as lead senior civil service advocate, defending workers who were facing disciplinary action in the civil service system covering blue collar workers in the City of Los Angeles as well as thirteen other cities in LA County; I also handled disciplinary and contract violations that I litigated through the arbitration process.

In the mid nineties I was the chief negotiator for the Registered Nurses (SEIU) bargaining unit in Los Angeles County. I also worked as the Arbitration Director and Negotiator for Local 132, Utility Workers Union at Southern California Gas. I was a delegate for three years to the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Prior to the union staff positions, I worked as Journeyman Union Carpenter for sixteen years in Colorado and California. I attended college at the University of Colorado but was thrown out for antiwar activity during the 1970 Cambodia Invasion. I became politically active around the Cuban Revolution and civil rights movement. I belonged to the Denver chapter of SNCC in 1964. I have been a militant, revolutionary socialist since I was fifteen. I am from Boulder Colorado.

The work of building a ballot status, organizing party is difficult and extremely time consuming. It requires rethinking what it means to organize, and what it means to run and, occasionally, win. Our job is not to convince those who rule that we are trustworthy and competent, but rather to convince our newly emerging political base that those who rule are neither trustworthy or competent. Politics in this country is about the social alliances that are wound together to create and enable class rule. We need to stitch together a new social coalition the enables the transition to a new rule by a new class, the class of wage earners. Millions of these newly politicized people were energized and emerged out of the Sanders campaign, as well as new issues that have arisen and continue to arise. We need to organize them and enable them to exert an new and different kind of political power.

We need to register thousands more Green voters across the state to open up the California Green Party to being a truly statewide party. Our electoral campaigns need to see this registration process as central. We need to fashion a national Party out of 50 statewide parties. We need to be an electoral vehicle for the movements that are emerging. We need to see the Green Party as a crucial but initial part of a process of building a party that can lead and activate millions. We have work to do.

Full details will be available shortly at:

http://www.sjcgreens.org/sga_vote_cc_vacancy_male

*Please send your discussion comments to gpca-votes@sfgreens.org <gpca-votes@sfgreens.org>*

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