President's Message

In-Person Lunch with League

Fresh Perspectives on Leadership

Thursday, March 20, 2025

11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

Sobrato Center for Nonprofits

1400 Parkmoor Ave., San Jose

In honor of Women's History Month, Lunch with League in March will offer two perspectives on women in leadership roles. San Jose Vice Mayor Pam Foley will share her experiences in business and as an elected official. Mary E. Gardner will summarize key points from the newly-revised edition of Women's Ways of Leading that she wrote with Linda G. Lambert. The book describes how women can get a fresh perspective on leadership with an innovative "Framework on Women's Leadership Development" that draws from an extensive study of women across various fields, ages and ethnicity. We are proud to say that both of these accomplished women are League members.

Box lunches from Panera may be ordered in advance for $25 (select your sandwich or salad choice when you register), or you may attend for free with no lunch (or bring your own). In either case, bring your own beverage. Deadline for registering with a lunch order is 8 p.m. Monday, March 17.

Parking: In addition to parking in front, there is a spacious parking lot behind the Sobrato building that is accessed from Race Street.

REGISTER HERE TO ATTEND WITH OR WITHOUT LUNCH

COMING UP APRIL 17

Mark your calendars for our April Lunch with League to meet the City of San José Housing Director Erik Louis Soliván who is completing his first year of this challenging position in May. Watch for details in the April The VOTER newsletter.

New Immigration Committee

A meeting to discuss organizing a new local League committee focused on immigration will take place on Monday, March 10, at 12 noon. Topics will include defining the purpose and goals of the committee and identifying other community organizations as potential partners. If you would like to attend, please sign up HERE and the Zoom link will be sent to you. Board members Sandy Mory and Elizabeth Marquez Bernardino are leading the new committee.

New Citizen Voter Registration

If you would like to help new citizens register to vote after their naturalization ceremony on Wednesday, March 26, at the Campbell Heritage Theatre, please email VoterService@lwvsjsc.org for information on available volunteer time slots.

Register now for March 8 League Day

Regional Government:

How Does It Affect You?

A keynote address by State Senator Josh Becker, SD 13, chair of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, will kick off LWV Bay Area's 2025 League Day, a Zoom event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Following his presentation, a panel from members of the MTC-ABAG executive team will discuss how the agency operates while maintaining separate governing boards. MTC and ABAG are partner regional agencies with a single staff to better advance local and regional priorities for transportation, housing and the environment while driving collaborative solutions. ABAG supports regional planning and cooperation among the 9-county Bay Area while MTC directly distributes more than one billion dollars a year to public transit agencies and other recipients, and, prioritizes requests from local agencies for millions more in state and federal funds.

Panelists will include Alix Bockelman, MTC-ABAG's Chief Deputy Executive Director, ABAG President and Napa County Supervisor Belia Ramos, and Sue Noack, incoming MTC Chair and Mayor of Pleasant HIll.

Submit your questions and comments in advance to lwvbayarea@gmail.com.

REGISTER HERE FOR THIS ZOOM EVENT

Federal Judiciary Study Consensus Meeting

Saturday, March 15, 10 a.m.-12 noon on Zoom

LWVUS has compiled policy briefs to help us answer important questions about the judiciary system during our Consensus Meeting. You may want to look at these as you ponder the questions.   We will be considering ideas such as:

• What are the most important ethical considerations for federal judges/justices and how would these be enforced? See Judicial Ethics and Enforcement

• What would be the implications of full public disclosure of recusal decisions by federal judges/justices? See Recusal

• As a result of term limits or other reforms, would more turnover in justices cause less stability of law? See Stare Decisis and Binding Precedent

• Some justices of the Supreme Court are critical of the shadow docket. Should the shadow docket be better controlled? If so, how? Shadow Docket

Other policy briefs and additional information are available on the national League website here. Our local Consensus Meeting is part of a fast-tracked national Federal Judiciary study that was approved at the LWVUS 2024 convention.

We hope these questions have whetted your appetite!

Rosaleen Zisch, Moderator

Elizabeth Marquez Bernardino, Note-Taker

Martha Beattie, Chair

Michelle Fernandez, Connie Hunter, Sara Malaun, Tom Pavel, Julie Pollitt

REGISTER HERE TO ATTEND

Left to right, Pierluigi Oliverio, Kathleen Muller, Anita Romero, Elizabeth Marquez Bernardino, State Senator David Cortese

Very timely legislative interviews for 2025

By Kathleen Muller, Legislative Interviews Co-chair

The first question LWV-CA directed us to ask each of our local state legislators this year was “What issues do you think the legislature must deal with in 2025?” When this question was presented to us last fall, there was no way of predicting how the landscape would shift by January.

During the months of January and February, members of our league met with – or have interviews scheduled with – Senators Aisha Wahab, Josh Becker, David Cortese and Assembly members Patrick Aherns, Marc Berman, Ash Kalra, Alex Lee, Gail Pellerin, and Robert Rivas.

What we have heard in response to that initial question is that the disastrous fires in Los Angeles and the change of administrations in Washington D.C. will both have tremendous effects on the priorities our California state legislature faces in the coming months. It will be a challenging year, with the urgent need now to address the devastation in southern California and potential changes to federal policies and funding, in addition to the other critical issues that were already on their plates.

During our meetings, we also had the opportunity to ask questions on issues of particular local concern. These have led to informative discussions on the insurance industry and how coverage in California was already challenging before the fires, housing availability and homelessness in Santa Clara County, our immigrant population, energy and climate issues. When minutes from these legislative interviews become available, they will be posted on our League website for all to read. I encourage you to do so.

Thank you to the following San Jose/Santa Clara League members who have participated in the 2025 Legislative Interviews: Elizabeth Marquez Bernardino, Rebecca Garcia, Mary Jo Gorney-Moreno, Meri Maben, Kathleen Muller, Julia O’Keefe, Pierluigi Oliverio, Teresa O’Neill, Kay Paumier, Tom Pavel, Anita Romero, Norma Ruiz, Kathy Sutherland, and Robert Wood. In some cases, our members participated in interview teams coordinated by neighboring leagues.

Let’s not leave money on the table!

If you are employed by a company that matches your donations to charity or your volunteer hours with an organization like the League of Women Voters, please take advantage of their generosity. Matching gift programs are one of the primary ways our large local employers contribute to this community, which is home to their workforce.

Benevity is a platform many corporations use to manage these employee matching gift programs. Local employers using Benevity include Adobe, Ameriprise, Apple, Cisco, Dolby, Google, NetApp, and Nvidia, to name just a few. The League of Women Voters San Jose/Santa Clara is registered with Benevity, so it’s an easy option for employees to select us as the recipient of a matching gift. We urge you to keep this in mind when you make a personal donation to LWV of San Jose/Santa Clara or log time on a League committee or event. Please also encourage your family members and friends to take advantage of the opportunity to double their personal donation to the League, if they have the opportunity. Make an online donation to our League HERE.

There are many other local employers – large and small -- that have matching gift programs, and manage them in different ways. Please take the time to investigate how to access these programs if they are offered by your employer and remind your spouse or friends to utilize them too. We want our League to have the financial resources it needs to do the crucial work of democracy, and these programs are there to provide much-needed support.

Women's Heritage Day

March 22

Our League will be participating in the third annual Women's Heritage Day at History Park, 635 Phelan Ave., San Jose on Saturday, March 22, 12 noon-4 p.m. There will be a wide array of performances and workshops as well as community group booths so it promises to be a festive, family-friendly community gathering. And it's free! Stop by our booth and say hello.

Santa Clara Rotary learns about LWV

Gloria Chun Hoo, who serves as a Director for both our local League and LWV California, presented an overview of the League of Women Voters to members of the Santa Clara Rotary on Feb. 27. Her talk included the League's purpose and principles as well as specific information on how we provide Voter Services and do advocacy work based on our positions related to important issues. Thank you, Santa Clara Rotary, for the invitation! Photo: Gloria is welcomed by Rotary Past President Tim Ford.