[Occupymendocino] Minutes of Occupy Meeting 11/21/15

[Ann Rennacker]

Present: John, Sheila, Irene, Agnes, Richard, Ann, Bob, Daniel

Stacker: Dan, Facilitator: Bob, Minutes, Ann

 - Petition update by Agnes:  Charter project is doing well on the Coast, we now have 900 signatures.  Agnes needs help on the following days:

11/22 at the Caspar Breakfast,  Sat. 11/28 at Safeway or Harvest, Sun Dec 6 at the Grange Breakfast in Inglenook 8 - 11:30, Dec 12 at Piccadilly Flea Mkt outside 9 - 3 or inside craft faire.  Robin is coordinating names of volunteers inland.

 - Peace & Justice mail for Zac is now being sent to Ann's mailbox.  We have $72 in P&J Checking acct.
 - Peace Garden donations $68, after paying for plaque and such there is $40 left to get plants, etc.  We need to weed the Bermuda Grass and some volunteer Nasturtiums, Ann and Richard will do some today and Dan will do some on Monday when he volunteers at the Sr. Center.  Richard will get Carrie to help with plan when she can and get a schedule.  Volunteers Dan, Ann, Irene, Richard,Sheila.

-  Action  for occupy list.  Bank Rally at: "Come to Meetings  to be a part of planning"

- John wants to make some signage welcoming refugees on MLK Day.  He also has a spare room in his house and is willing to host a family in transition.  Bob will find out what Government employees to contact, check who is in charge of vetting refugees and he will report back next meeting.

- John wants to start a Police Advisory committee with the new Chief, Fabian L and some High School students, some O/M members and some community reps from different races and ethnicities.  The topics for discussion are body cameras, drones, gang activity, vandalism, police activities, etc.

- Discussed drones and Ann reported that the Police have some new drones to surveil the Coastal Trail and areas of possible trespass grows in remote areas. Most of us don't like the idea of drones watching us when we are on the Coastal Trail or in the Forest, and object to their impact on wildlife, especially birds, and on airplanes.  The police could watch the Trail by bicycle, and get out of their squad cars to interact with citizens in a positive manner.  Drones in private ownership will soon be registered and monitored, but not Government drones.  The Government is using them as killing machines in foreign Countries, against the due process rules in the Constitution, and we feel it is contributing to the radicalization of terrorists and people whose family members, hospitals, wedding parties and friends are being killed without being accused or charged with any crimes.

- TPP papers have been released, which show it is a Corporate takeover of our rights, worse than NAFTA, will be bad for jobs and trade, cannot be voted upon or changed by Congress, and will allow Corporations to decide in their favor with "tribunals" of Corporate lawyers that can sue if the Companies feel that laws of citizens protecting water, land or air are in conflict with the Corporations rights to make a maximum amount of profit by things like Fracking, GMOs, Drug prices, farm methods, etc.  O/M will vehemently oppose TPP and make some new signs.

- Mental Health has now changed it's name and focus to Behavioral Health, and there is an agenda item on Monday's City Council agenda about the banning of all Social Service helping organizations in Fort Bragg being voted on in the June election.  There is a group called GoFortBragg that will write information in the election papers against the ban. The people who signed the petitions did not just target the Coast Hotel project, so the City's Attorney said it is discriminatory and unenforceable, and leaves the City liable for lawsuits.  A group of Fort Bragg people needs to go speak up on the issue.

- Street Protest time is 3-5, but Sheila wants to change it to 2-4 for the winter.  Not enough people want to change, so we will keep it 3-5.  Bob will be our Santa in a Red shirt and Black trousers, with a Santa hat.  We can put out a donation bucket, and do some Climate Change activism.

- There will be a Climate Change march on Saturday 11/28 starting from Bernie Headquarters on Main Street Ft Bragg and afterward there will be a movie shown about climate change.

- At the City Council meeting two weeks ago, the 2nd Tuesday was changed from the setup where John Fremont originally had planning meetings about topics of interest to community members to an open forum that any citizen can use to book a public meeting but which has to be booked monthly on a first-come, first-served basis with a $100 deposit paid to the City Manager, refundable if the facility is left clean and neat with the chairs set up as they prefer.  That does not allow John to ask guest speakers to plan a topic in advance, and so does not work for us.  Too bad, as we had several good discussions at those meetings.  Rex Gressert wanted it open to other groups, but he did not book it for a subsequent meeting.  His main objection was that we used Occupy rules to run the meetings with Facilitators, Minute takers, taking turns to speak after raising our hands, and he said that he thought John Fremont was a "City Council Plant" and that the topics were not of interest to his base.  John will go the the College of the Redwoods after our MLK event to try to get a classroom we can meet in to have our events.

- There was a City meeting open to the public about the future of the Millsite, and the possibility of daylighting creeks and having a high level of cleanup, with the Mill Pond excavated and maybe looking into bioremediation of the toxins.  We don't have any news about when DTSC will come hold the next cleanup meeting for the Public, but it may be in the Spring.  This winter is supposed to be wet due to El Nino.


Meeting adjourned at 2pm and there was a MLK planning meeting immediately following.





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