October President’s Report

By Kathy Bradford —

This month’s meeting was titled Making a Difference and Appraising the Governor’s Recall Results.  If you missed it, the segmented recordings are attached with their respective articles in this October Newsletter.  Featured speakers included Amardeep Gill, Los Angeles Alliance for A New Economy (LAANE) Grocery and Retail Campaign Director, who spoke about the CVS Workers contract negotiations and issues, the Fair Workweek Campaign, and the Clean Ports legislation.  She was followed by United Food and Commercial Workers Union 770 representative Rachel Torres who talked about maintaining critical worker status for grocery, drug store, and other vital services sectors.

Torrance Refinery Action Alliance (TRAA) Intern Nia Liggins talked about their latest actions and successes.  Nia was supported by comments from club and TRAA members Jane Affonso and Connie Sullivan.

LACDP Vice Chair Sergio Carrillo reviewed the Governor Newsom Recall results.  Ann Nye provided a digest of the legislative actions currently on Governor Newsom’s desk.

Two candidates running for LA County Superior Court Judge in the June 2022 election introduced themselves to the club.  They are Patrick Hare, a public defender at https://www.patrickhareforjudge.com/, and David Chiang, a deputy district attorney at http://www.davidchiangforjudge.com/.

Several upcoming events and opportunities for activism were announced as well.  The October 2 March for Reproductive Rights sends a message to the Supreme Court that we will not tolerate limits on our reproductive freedom.  It’s being held at three locations locally, and they all ask for you to bring your signs and ENERGY:

  • In Redondo Beach, the event starts at 8:30 am at Veterans Park, and after speeches, proceeds south on Catalina and the Esplanade for a round-trip of 2 miles
  • In downtown Los Angeles, the event begins at 10 am in Pershing Square with a march to City Hall
  • In San Pedro, the event begins at 11:00 am at the corners of 25th and Western Avenue

The links to these three October 2 March for Reproductive Rights events are posted on our HOME page, https://pvpdemocrats.org/ under Upcoming Events.

Palos Verdes Chamber of Commerce is holding its annual Legislative Forum (virtually) on October 15th at 11:30 am, featuring Congressman Ted Lieu, State Senator Ben Allen (recently confirmed his attendance), Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, and LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn.  Tickets ($30 for non-Chamber members) can be purchased on the Chamber’s web site – https://www.palosverdeschamber.com/events/annual-legislative-forum.

The Los Angeles County Democratic Party is holding its annual Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Awards for 2021 on Saturday, November 6th with a VIP reception (in person) from 6 to 7:30 pm, and a (virtual) awards program starting at 7:30 pm.  They will be honoring 48 Democrats of the Year from our 24 Assembly Districts, including AD 66 volunteers Cathy Familathe and Paul Seo, and the Pat Eastman Volunteers of the Year Shanna Ingalsbee and our own PV Democrat, Tony Hale.  Tickets can be purchased at the LACDP website – https://www.lacdp.org/roosevelt2021.

Finally, the PV Democrats would like to commend the PVPUSD Superintendent, school board members and staff for proactively addressing the threat of Covid-19 in our schools. PVPUSD is using the guidance provided by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, California Department of Public Health, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).  Decisions are also made in partnership with LACOE (Los Angeles County Office of Education).

PVPUSD has improved the facilities by:  replacing and upgrading air filtration, putting an air purifier in every classroom and reviewing and improving sanitizing protocols with custodial and maintenance teams; increasing the number of hand-washing stations on campus; equipping the custodial staff with backpack sprayers to help with disinfection of high touch areas like playgrounds and cafeterias; and, making sure windows were easily opened to improve the flow of clean air.

All students and staff are required to wear a mask at all times, except when eating, drinking, or doing some other activity that precludes it.  Students and staff do daily health screenings and COVID-19 testing is available at three school sites.  Simple to follow rules have been laid out for COVID-19 positive test reporting and quarantining for when symptoms appear or when contact with a confirmed case is known.

PVPUSD has also implemented an on-line dashboard providing information regarding COVID-19 cases on all campuses, updated daily, while also maintaining privacy and confidentiality for students and staff. The dashboard provides the community with transparency.  Last week, the board showed that 12 students and no staff had COVID-19; that is less than one tenth of a percent of the population of about 10,800 staff and students on the 16 campuses.

Overall, the PVPUSD supervisor, board members and staff have done a wonderful job of bringing the families of Palos Verdes back into the schools safely and they should be commended.

 

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