SJVGreens Minutes
Minutes of St. Joe Valley Greens
January 12, 2005; Tom Brown, recorder
Call to Order: Kathleen Petitjean called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM, in the Molloy Room of the St. Jo. Co. Public Library downtown branch, South Bend, IN.
Members and Guests Present: Attendance wasn't recorded.
Guest speaker: David Frank, We the People for 21st Century Democracy
David brought the chapter up to date on his grassroots democracy project. In a nutshell, David's organization wants to create a inofficial referendum system. The system will use public access television to present issues to citizens of St. Joseph County. At a certain point televised debate ends, and citizens vote for their chosen solution to the issues using telephones.
This inofficial referendum system will inform elected officials in the county regarding the concerns and the will of the community. The project hopes legislative councils introduce the winning proposals as legitimate proposals before the councils for a vote. The project will track the reaction of legislators to the straw polls and publish their findings. The project will also track the reactions of city and county administrations to citizens' desires as expressed in the non-binding referenda.
David believes $300,000 dollars is sufficient to create the system. 21st Century Democracy will ask the South Bend Common Council, the Mishawaka City Council and the County Council to each earmark $100,000 to fund the project.
Chapter members brought up issues of technical feasibility, minority protections, fundraising and community support. 21st Century Democracy is working on the technical issues with WNIT-TV and IVY Tech College. The group is planning a smoker to obtain seed money. David feels that minorities will have more, rather than less, voice in the referenda than they now do in the elected councils.
Here is a brief outline of the proposed referendum system:
- A random jury of 10 people will publicly hear issues and chose those which will be presented to the community on a public television and a public radio station. A simple majority decides which issues are selected. The jury will rotate each week.
- Those who want to propose a solution to the chosen issues have 30 days to prepare for a televised debate. The staff at the public TV station will help presenters prepare.
- The video and audio recordings of the debate air for 10 days on the public channels. Then the community votes using telephones to register their preferences.
Reports of Officers, Delegates and Committees
There were no reports.
Old Business
There was no old business addressed.
New Business
David Frank spoke until 8:15, and the chapter spent the rest of the evening discussing the issues David raised and whether and how to support the 21st Century Democracy project.
David Vollrath proposed that we decide first whether to support the project as a group or as individuals. The consensus was to support the democratic goals of 21st Century Democracy as a group and support the upcoming fundraiser as individuals.
We further decided to find out what other forms of individual and group support the project needs. Tom volunteered to attend several of the 21st Century Democracy lunch meetings.
Closing: Kathleen closed the meeting at 9:00 PM.
Next meeting: Our next meeting is Thursday, February 10, 7:00 PM, in the Molloy Room at the St. Joseph Co. Public Library downtown South Bend.
St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN