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Serving the people of San Jose, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Morgan Hill & Gilroy
March 2024
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President's Message
March is Women's History Month
Women make history every day, but it is nice to have a month dedicated to celebrating the groundbreaking achievements of women past and present. And we don't want to forget the work that still needs to be done to gain gender equality in our professional and personal lives.
It's an appropriate time to announce that the League Board voted in February to join a grassroots effort to obtain permanent recognition of the achievements of Janet Gray Hayes, San Jose's first woman mayor and the first woman mayor of a major American city. Her accomplishments were many including ending an era of unplanned sprawling growth, modernizing the San Jose Police Department, advocating for open government and greater public access, and inspiring other women to seek elected office. We are proud to say she was a staunch member of our League.
We also want to call attention to some of our long-time members (see article below) who have been active leaders in our League for many years. This month is a good time to give them a big THANK YOU for their contributions to us and to the community.
Several events are coming up this month and, of course, don't forget to VOTE by MARCH 5 in the Primary Election. See you soon!
Diane
Diane McNutt, President
Diane.McNutt@lwvsjsc.org
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Virtual Lunch With League
Kerrie Romanow
City of San José
Director of Environmental Services
Climate Smart San José
Thursday, March 21
12 noon-1 p.m. via Zoom
How is the City of San José doing in its efforts to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions? What are REACH codes and how is the City helping our community meet these codes? What other initiatives is the City implementing to protect the environment? These and other questions related to the Climate Smart San José plan will be covered with plenty of time set aside for Q&A with the audience.
Kerrie Romanow joined the City in 2006 as assistant director and has served as its top environmental leader since 2011. The Environmental Services Department, with a staff of more than 500, leads the Climate Smart San José program and manages a wide range of services: garbage and recycling, municipal drinking water and water recycling efforts, wastewater treatment and stormwater treatment management, and natural resource management/protection. Last year, The Climate Registry, a nonprofit of nearly 30 states and Canadian provinces/territories, honored Kerrie with its 2023 Leadership Award for her work.
Read more about the evolution of the 2007 Green Vision plan in the City of San José in the article at the end of this newsletter.
REGISTER now for this webinar and ask questions you would like our speaker to address in her talk. This event is free and open to the public so please pass along this invitation to others.
COMING UP IN APRIL
The April 18 Virtual Lunch With League will feature former San José Mayor Ron Gonzales and Guisselle Nuñez, authors of the newly-published Life in the FishBowl: Lessons To Help You Survive and Thrive in Elected Office.
COMING UP IN MAY
The May 16 Virtual Lunch With League will feature Todd Fries, Executive Director, Northern California Innocence Project.
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Coffee & Connections
Thursday, March 14
Drop by between 9-11 a.m.
iJava Café, 2306 Almaden Rd., San Jose
The first Coffee & Connections event was held in February and was a success in bringing together League members for informal discussion and social interaction. Attendees commented "There is power in the sharing of ideas and concepts," "We all had great conversations," and "Time goes by so quickly when you're engaged with others."
Please join us in March for more casual conversation about the League and our projects. To help us plan, please SIGN UP.
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Resources to be an informed voter
in March 5 Primary Election
VOTE411 - Use this website to research candidates and ballot measures, learn what you need to vote confidently. This portal replaces Voter’s Edge.
Virtual Candidate Forums - Watch videos of those you missed and find information about campaign finance.
Ballot Measure Pros & Cons - Watch an informative unbiased presentation on the pros and cons of Proposition 1.
California Easy Voter Guide - Review essential information in five languages, online or via download.
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Celebrate some of the women
(and men) in our history
Happy 20th anniversary to these League members who joined in 2004: Judy Chamberlin, Curtis Jones, Rita Norton, Sandra Serpa, Susan Skorey, Alice and Rodney Thom, Carol Watts and Rosaleen Zisch. What you have done for the League over the past two decades is incredible! We thank you for your continued support of the League's mission.
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Speaking of outstanding League members: Marie Arnold
Another anniversary to celebrate is 15 years of Lunch With League programs -- the brainchild of Marie Arnold, one of our most active and effective members. Since she joined the League in 1998, Marie has held numerous roles including chairing the Membership Committee, serving on the Board of Directors and the Nominating Committee, working on the Local Governance Structure Study Committee, visiting high school and SJSU classrooms to discuss voting and civic education, supporting fundraising activities and staffing countless League voter registration and information tables at community events.
Marie's unceasing positive energy and engaging personality are responsible for dozens of people joining the League and hundreds benefiting from informative Lunch With League programs. If you want to talk about women in the history of our League, Marie is at the top of the list of those who made a difference.
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Finding Solutions . . . Connecting the Dots:
Regional Health Equity & Inequities
Saturday, March 9 10:30 a.m. -1 p.m.
LWV Bay Area League Day 2024 focuses on creating healthy communities and the inter- connections of health and policy. Experts will define the interrelationship of social, economic, education and healthy living, and discuss solutions to Bay Area health equity and inequities. Speakers will discuss the right to a clean and healthy environment where communities can live, work, learn, play and thrive. They will explore the impact of housing affordability and stability on health, and the environmental impact on health, exposure to toxins, and location exposure impacting communities of color. They will examine the learning environment, the physical and mental health and well-being of students from cyber bullying to suicide and counselors.
Guest speakers include State Senator Aisha Wahab (District 10), state Chair of Public Safety and Health Committees, committed to advocacy work and legislation addressing housing affordability, civic engagement, education and economic inequality. She is joined by Dr. Mary Ann Dewan, Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools, plus representatives from housing, health, and environment problem solvers.
Register here for March 9
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League outreach at San Jose Museum of Art
Anita Romero, Roma Dawson and Gloria Chun Hoo represented the League at the annual San Jose Museum of Art Lunar New Year event. Our presence was so well received, the League has been invited back for the museum's "First Friday" events held every month. More volunteers are needed for upcoming months and if you are interested or would like to learn more, contact Voter Service Chair Sandy Mory.
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2024 Legislative Interviews Update
The 2024 legislative interviews are well underway with State senators and assembly members. This year’s questions, prescribed by LWV of California to be asked of all legislators, are designed to elicit their views on the health effects of climate change, what we learned about public meetings during the pandemic, and solutions to the housing crisis. League members also have the opportunity to ask each or our representatives what their priorities are for the coming year and discuss issues of local importance.
During the months of January and early February, LWV San Jose/Santa Clara members coordinated interviews with Senator David Cortese and Assembly Members Ash Kalra and Gail Pellerin. We also participated in interviews coordinated by other Leagues, including Santa Cruz (Pellerin), Palo Alto (Marc Berman) and Fremont/Newark (Alex Lee). We will finish in March with the Cupertino/Sunnyvale League (Evan Low).
Thank you to the following members of the San Jose/Santa Clara League who have participated to date, or committed to upcoming interviews: Roma Dawson, Vernette Drake, Curtis Jones, Raeena Lari, Kathleen Muller, Vickie Mueller Olvera, Kay Paumier, Tom Pavel, Julie Pollitt, Kathie Sheehy, Carol Watts and Rosaleen Zisch
When minutes from these interviews are finalized they are submitted to LWV California. We will also post them on our website in the coming weeks.
A huge THANK YOU to Kathleen Muller for coordinating this year's legislative interviews. It is a herculean task and your work is appreciated!
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Housing struggles don't stop interest in voting
Martha Beattie wears many League hats including Chair of Pros & Cons and serving on the Board of Directors. But she is also an active volunteer for The Window, a service located at 195 E. San Fernando St. in downtown San Jose, that provides a mailing address for about 1,000 people who don't have addresses of their own.
During election season, cubbies for The Window clients are full to the brim with ballots, voter information guides and candidate brochures since about 390 of the people are registered voters. It's a big task to sort through campaign materials to make sure everyone gets their ballot and voting information, but Martha reports it is also rewarding to know that so many individuals who are struggling with housing insecurities are concerned citizens who want to participate in democracy.
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Free Speech in the Digital Age
& The Mass Extinction
of American Journalism
Wednesday, March 27
12 noon-1 p.m. via Zoom
LWV of Palo Alto is tackling this thorny issue with guest speaker Rachael Myrow, Senior Editor of the KQED Silicon Valley News Desk. Register for this free webinar event HERE.
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Analysis: Past, present and future
of Climate Smart San José
By Gloria Chun Hoo
The world is in the midst of responding to increasingly dramatic climatic shifts, from more droughts to more dangerous weather events, wildfires, new temperature records. What is San Jose doing to address and respond to climate change? How well is it doing as a “climate smart” city? And what does this have to do with the global Paris Agreement on climate change?
These are some of the questions that our March 21 Lunch With League speaker has been asked to address. The focus of the program will be Climate Smart San José (CSSJ), the City’s climate action plan. It succeeds the 2007 Green Vision which had had limited community engagement and reach during a time of economic downturn and City cuts. Climate Smart San José was approved in 2018 as a far more ambitious program to meet goals set at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, France on Dec. 12, 2015 and signed by 196 countries, including the U.S. The City of San José program focuses on a community-wide approach to reduce air pollution, save water, and improve quality of life for residents of San Jose.
San José Clean Energy, a community choice aggregation program that allows the City to purchase cleaner, renewable energy (a development that the League followed and supported,) was launched in 2018. While power is still distributed and payment made through PG&E, customers can now choose to have their power come from “cleaner” renewable sources that the City of San José independently purchases. Anticipating increased need for electricity, last fall the City approved the creation of San José Power, a public utility which would be owned and operated by the City and would generate electricity for new large-scale developments in North San José and Diridon Station areas.
Other recent Climate Smart achievements: removing minimum parking requirements, requiring all-electric “reach codes” for all new construction and prohibition of natural gas in new construction. These “reach codes” are requirements that developers must meet and exceed the state’s minimum building requirements. Recently the City approved requirements that all new apartment buildings must have accessible EV charging units.
The City in 2020 also adopted a goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030 — an ambitious goal that means the City must find ways to absorb its carbon (CO2) output through various means. The four point strategy in the proposed Pathway to Carbon Neutrality by 2030 includes 1) increasing zero-emission vehicles; 2) reducing by 20% miles traveled by car; 3) switching appliances from fossil fuel appliances to electric; and 4) power from 100% carbon neutral electricity.
The City’s website offers residents information about moving toward electrification as well as explaining rebates and other incentives to make changes in their homes. League members and others concerned about climate change and making individual choices that contribute toward reducing their carbon footprint, should consider taking the Climate Smart Challenge
The work on addressing various ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) continues. This year the City is developing a Zero Waste Element Update and is in the process of getting community input and writing policies for both residential and businesses to reduce waste, increase diversion from landfill and reduce GHG emissions from waste.
Another important aspect of CSSJ is its Natural and Working Lands Element, which is in final draft state awaiting adoption. By working with the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, the City analyzed the impact of open space to sequester carbon and avoid GHG emissions. Under this new element, the City is committed to preserve and protect natural and working lands, expand use of regenerative agriculture techniques, restore and enhance oak woodlands, riparian corridors and increase access to urban green spaces.
It will take a multi-pronged approach, including lifestyle changes, to move our community toward a more sustainable future. Last year, the City kicked off the establishment of GoGreen Teams, a fun and friendly way to encourage small groups of families and friends to work together to be educated about climate disasters and how to be prepared for these events. Perhaps the League’s members would consider creating a GoGreen team?
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Gloria was a member of our League’s Climate Change committee and the statewide Climate Change Task Force. Her focus on the impacts of land use decisions on the environment and value of open space took shape as she worked on the League’s Coyote Valley Study Committee, and as a member of the San José City Planning Commission and as a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. She is currently Vice-President for Program and Advocacy and state Board member of LWV California and previously served as president of LWV San Jose/Santa Clara, and was a board member of LWV Bay Area.
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