[Occupymendocino] Minutes of 8/1/15 Meeting

[Ann Rennacker]

Present: Bob Lane, Agnes Woolsey, Dan Baker, Jinx Bridges, Ann, Richard Karch, Irene Malone


- Vendana Shiva Event at Willits Grange Sept 7, 15.  This is a benefit for the Charter of Mendocino project.  We will carpool, volunteers are needed.  Robin Sunbeam is organizing a silent auction and needs donations and folks to work at issuing tickets, pricing minimum bids, setting up, etc.  We will also have a food table for potluck items that needs to be kept clean and restocked, a clean-up crew, and some folks to run a beverage table.  Many donations are coming in, more are wanted if you have something of value to offer.  Agnes made a motion that we print the Tri-Fold about the Charter and we voted to order 100 color prints at Mendo Litho for 52 cents each, including tax.  Motion carried unanimously.  We also need yard signs, donations for ads, and more.  This is how we helped our ballot measure S pass to ban fracking based on community rights.


- Hwy Cleanup will be from 10-12 on Tues Aug 18th, which is a better day to be on the Hwy than busy Saturdays.  Ann, Dan, Irene, Jinx, Sheila will do.


-  Report on the Democrats potluck and Bernie Sanders video event at the Sr. Center.  There were 3,800 events around the same night, some were house parties, and the total number of folks that heard Bernie's message was around 100,000.  He has unprecedented following and has moved Hillary to the left.  Our Assemblyman Jim Woods spoke, had done a flyover of the forests and was alarmed by all the dead standing trees, the drought conditions, and spoke about his bill to stop unregulated marijuana grows from illegal water diversions and messes.  There is another problem he did not address about "Hack and Squirt" by MRC.  He took some questions from the audience, and Ann asked him what it would take to persuade Gov. Brown to stop the fracking during this epic drought.  He thinks that Brown is too entrenched in the oil money he has taken and since he is not running for another term, is intractable on the issue.  It is up to Counties like ours to pass bans, or to vote for a candidate who will act. It is disappointing as Brown is one who made a climate pledge.


- We discussed the memorial for Howard on Sept 21st, the International Day of Peace.  We will do a tree planting with a dedication to Howard as a lifelong peacemaker, and set up an annual Peace Award in Howard's name.  Zac is to be the first recipient, and we will get a redwood plaque to put engraved names of recipients on.  The tree is a Maple that will be placed in the small garden next to our meeting room, to be dedicated as the Peace Garden.  There is a hospital ceremony at noon on Sept 21, so we will do our ceremony at 2pm.


- Hospitality House update - The project to provide mental health services for homeless clients in the Old Coast Hotel was not stopped by the opponents, Concerned Citizens of Ft Bragg, because the petition they circulated did not gather enough valid signatures.   Their lawsuit was overturned by Judge Henderson.  Block Grant funds went through and escrow is proceeding.  The Hospitality House will start soon to build partitions for offices for mental screenings, job training, exercise classes, job coaching, and they are opening a juice and coffee bar to train people to work and serve the public.  There will be transitional housing units in five of the upstairs rooms.  No meals or showers will be offered there, they will go to the Hospitality Center on Harrison for those services.  It will have strict rules of compliance and cleanliness so the concerned neighbors will not complain.  Ortner is still the County's mental health provider, and hopefully they will report on how many they assist and the rate of success.  So far Tom Pizzollini, a former employee of Ortner, is the person doing the reporting and it has been scanty.  Smells like a conflict of interest, as the Grand Jury pointed out.


- Labor Day Parade - after discussing who can participate, we realized that we do not have enough people to hold banners, pass out flyers, and have a good showing.  We did well at the 4th of July Parade because there was a large community contingent, but the day of the Ft Bragg Labor Day Parade there is the Willits event the same day and not a big group to pull this one off.


Meeting adjourned 3:20.  Next meeting Aug 15th 2-4.




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