[Occupymendocino] GA Minutes of Oct. 20th

[Sheila Dawn]

Facilitator: Mark
Stacker: Claire
Secretary: Sheila

     A group of seven attended the GA in the new meeting room (off the side entrance) at the Senior Center.
     An hour of the meeting was spent on the first two agenda items: Getting feedback from those who attended the Oct 16th BOS-(Bd. of Supervisors) meeting at the Ft. Bragg Town Hall and discussing the possibility of having CJ Holmes come to Ft. Bragg to inform officials and the public on what is involved in having the County take over foreclosures of properties without clear ownership of loan documentation.
     Agnes would like to get the item of Foreclosure Town Hall on the Supervisors agenda. She has inquired about places to have that mtg. but has had no responses.  She also tentatively reserved the Library on two successive Thurs. evening dates for a community forum on foreclosure.
     Sheila reported that she handed a letter to Supervisor Smith supporting the need for a local solution to the current foreclosure problem and referencing two books, The Occupy Handbook edited by Janet Byrne and Citizen Moore by Roger Rapoport which address solutions to the problem.  In particular, the last chapter if the Michael Moore book specifically speaks to operating 'Land Banks' that are county run in Moore's home county of Genessee, Michigan. Moore book specifically speaks to operating 'Land Banks' that are county run in Moore's home county of Genessee, Michigan. 
    She also posted two flyers giving CJ's website on bulletin boards in both Albion & Mendocino.
    Tommy, whose home is currently in foreclosure, reported being in contact with Mike Thompson's office. He said they listened, allowed him to fax documents to the bank from their office but essentially had no power to influence the banks in their proceedings. He also mentioned the banks had no record of receiving the faxes he sent. He will be leaving the area within the next two months for Florida to help aging relatives.
    In response to Sheila's comment that we need to establish a base of support from homeowners & community groups who are trying to deal with the effects of foreclosures, Mark suggested putting up a poster to encourage people to contact  designated OM members to network with others who wish to put energy into a Town Foreclosure meeting.

 Several suggestions were offered in getting ,not only the numbers of foreclosures in Fort Bragg, (Zillow.com) but also names and contact info. Sheila noted that in Lake County that info was posted outside the Tax Assessor's office. Tommy volunteered to check out that possibility while in Ukiah.
  Agnes said she would need help from a coordinating committee to help contact the various individuals and community groups who showed interest.
  It was also stated that a firm commitment from BOS and City Council members to attend the meeting where CJ Holmes would present info on foreclosure solutions was necessary.
  Agnes noted that Gov't programs to help home owners through HAMP & HARP are being shut down.
   Several members committed to following up with a phone call to local officials to encourage their support.
 
   A threefold motion was made by Claire: Contact the groups that participated in the Love in Action meeting attended by Agnes to see if they wish to  support a Foreclosure Town Hall meeting; put out flyers in coastal towns to get  people with foreclosure problems interested in the same; contact individual Supervisors and City Council members to ascertain their commitment to the idea. It was approved with Agnes voting against.  She stated she did not want to put off the meeting with CJ until a later undetermined date.

Finances: $22 was collected from members. It will go to the Treasurer and a financial report was hoped to be received by Jessie at the next meeting.

   In other agenda items, Mark reported that the Go Daddy website is anxious not to lose our business and so there has been a delay in switching to the less expensive website approved at the 10/6/12 meeting.
    The group also agreed to forego the expense of keeping the OccupyMendocino.com (as opposed to the OccupyMendocino.net site) as a fall back link to those who typed in that name in error.
  The wording for the flyer was worked out to prevent further delays. Agnes & Claire agreed to 
give their contact #'s.
   The next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 3rd. Same time(2 to 4 P.M.), same place.
                      Respectfully submitted,
                        Sheila Dawn
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