Resolution in Support of Affording California State Legislative Staff the Right to Collectively Bargain

Whereas, California State Legislative Staff are excluded from collective bargaining with their employers due to the Ralph C. Dills Act;

Whereas, there are workers in the California State Legislative Staff that work more than 40 hours a week, earn little more than $3,000 a month, and do not have protections against retaliation from their employer;

Whereas, the Democratic Party supports the labor movement because workers generally benefit from better working conditions, pay, and benefits after ratifying a contract with their employer;

​Therefore be it resolved that the Ventura County Democratic Party support California State Legislative Staff the right to collectively bargain with their employer;

Be it further resolved that the Secretary is directed to communicate this resolution to members of the California State Legislature in the Assembly and Senate representing Ventura County, Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, and Governor Gavin Newsom.

WHEREAS the Oxnard Elementary School Board of Trustees has set a timeline for the consideration of district election lines that calls for approval of the map by 06/03/15;

 WHEREAS, only 3 opportunities will exist for public comment and no opportunity exists for maps to be submitted by the public;

 WHEREAS, the next election for the Oxnard Elementary School Board of Trustees will not take place until November 2016;

 THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Ventura County Democratic Party calls on the Oxnard Elementary School Board of Trustees to delay approval of the final Trustee Area map until adequate time has been allowed for concerned groups and individuals to draw and submit their own proposed Trustee Area maps for consideration.

WHEREAS, modern cultivation of the strawberry favors applications of a number of hazardous fumigant pesticides including, but not limited to, 1,3-dichloropropene (brand name Telone), methyl bromide, chloropicrin (originally a World War I chemical weapon) and metam-sodium in massive quantities of 25 times or more the amount of pesticides used on other crops; and pesticides used on strawberries pose serious health risks for workers and people adjacent to strawberry fields, including but not limited to cancer (Telone and chloropicrin), breathing problems, deterioration of the ozone layer (methyl bromide); reproductive and developmental problems (methyl bromide and metam-sodium);

WHEREAS hazardous pesticides affect both workers in the strawberry fields, and students and teachers in Ventura County schools surrounded by strawberry fields, and hazardous fumigant pesticides linger in Ventura County schools even if they are sprayed when schools are not in session; and

WHEREAS, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation routinely grants exemptions from pesticide limits to strawberry growers and approves loopholes in regulations meant to protect the public,

THEREFORE, be it resolved that the Ventura County Democratic Party calls upon the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to adopt an ordinance phasing out, over five years, hazardous fumigant pesticides from use on strawberry fields located within Ventura County, with due consideration for workers, employers, schoolchildren, and teachers; and that this resolution be communicated to the Board of Supervisors;

THEREFORE, be it also resolved that the Ventura County Democratic Party calls upon the Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner to promote alternatives to hazardous pesticides that ensure the welfare of the public and the environment so as to achieve a phaseout, within five years, of hazardous fumigant pesticides.

Reference: Dark Side of the Strawberry

Sponsor: RL Miller

WHEREAS, the IHSS homecare workers make $9.50 an hour and were specifically excluded from the County of Ventura Living Wage Ordinance and have not received a pay increase since 2007;

WHEREAS, homecare workers do important work for the county, an aging population, and both disabled and mentally disabled citizens of Ventura County by keeping them out of more expensive facilities; they preserve the dignity and respect of their patients by letting them age in place or be taken care of at home; and homecare workers deserve the dignity and respect of making a living wage;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Ventura County Democratic Party will support and encourage the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to put IHSS workers on the County of Ventura Living Wage Ordinance;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Ventura County Democratic Party will disseminate this resolution to all Democratic organizations and clubs in Ventura county and elected officials, will encourage the participation of members to actively engage the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, and will work with other community and labor organizations in persuading the Supervisors to vote for a wage increase.

Sponsor:  Andrew Jiang, Political Coordinator, SEIU / United Long Term Care Workers

Passed by Ventura County Democratic Central Committee on 2/25/14

WHEREAS, a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959 and numerous other accidents, spills, and releases resulted in widespread radioactive and hazardous chemical contamination at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a former nuclear and rocket testing facility in Ventura County just outside the cities SSFL site is eligible for placement on the Superfund List of the nation’s most polluted sites; and

WHEREAS, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have entered into agreements with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to restore the site to its natural state by cleaning up all detectable contamination on their parts of the property to background levels defined by DTSC, but Boeing, which controls the rest of the property, is resisting full cleanup and advocating that most of the contamination of the entire SSFL site not be removed, and neighbors of the site are concerned about truck traffic from the cleanup; and

WHEREAS more than half a million people live within ten miles of the site, and federally-sponsored studies have found elevated cancer rates among those who worked at the site and in the offsite population associated with how close they live to the site;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Ventura County and California Democratic Party call for a full cleanup to background levels while mitigating cleanup effects on neighbors including by on-site processing of some contaminants and consideration of alternate routes for removal of material that cannot be decontaminated on-site; and

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Ventura County and California Democratic Party call on the state of California Governor and DTSC to assure that the agreements with NASA and DOE to clean up all contamination to background are fully and rigorously carried out and calls on the Governor, the legislature, DTSC,and EPA to use all their authority to require Boeing to fully clean up the contamination on the remaining portions of SSFL, and will send this resolution to all parties identified in this paragraph.

Sponsor: RL Miller, Chair of the California Democratic Party Environmental Caucus

Passed by the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee on 10/29/2013

WHEREAS, hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as “fracking,” is a technique that injects water, sand, and toxic chemicals at high pressure deep into the ground, often traveling horizontally, to extract oil or gas from shale or other dense rock;

WHEREAS, fracking uses large amounts of water, thus reducing its availability for agriculture and other public use; uses chemicals that can contaminate the water supply and can cause cancer; creates wastewater that can bring deep earth contaminants to the surface; releases methane gas that exacerbates climate change and pollutes the air with asthma-causing smog; can induce earthquakes; and continues our dependence on fossil fuels;

WHEREAS, fracking is currently exempt from regulation under the Safe Water Drinking Act and is not yet regulated in California, and as a result the chemicals are treated as trade secrets and location of fracked wells is not made public;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Ventura County Democratic Party supports an immediate moratorium on fracking with such a moratorium to remain in place until (a) legislation, ordinances, and regulations are put in place that guarantee public health and safety, and address the impacts of climate change; (b) immediate testing and disclosure of all sites currently being fracked or that have been fracked in the past; and c) substitution of renewable energy wherever feasible;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Ventura County Democratic Party send a copy of this resolution to the Governor of the State of California, United States Senators representing California, Members of Congress representing any part of Ventura County, members of the state senate and state assembly representing any part of Ventura County, and all members of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, asking them to take action.

Sponsor: RL Miller

Passed by the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee on 02/26/2013

WHEREAS the existing US immigration system has been broken for decades, was not appropriately addressed in the 1986 Immigration Reform Act or by the post-2001 reforms of the U.S. Immigration Service and Naturalization (now ICE), and no U.S. policy has been developed to alleviate the root causes of the massively increasing influx of undocumented immigrants since the 1990’s,

WHEREAS the militarization of the U.S. border and massive deportations have utterly failed to provide a long-term solution to the push-and-pull factors which bring immigrants across our borders and resulted in the death of thousands and separation of families,

WHEREAS the current Obama Administration has placed fair and comprehensive Immigration Reform on the top of its agenda and CAUSE, the Coastal Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, based in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, has done a substantive analysis of present policies and their effect on immigration,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Ventura County Democratic Party support principles of Fair and Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Specifically, we:

• recognize the full humanity of immigrants and protection guaranteed by law of their human and civil rights,
  
• stand in favor of laws which uphold family unity and the end of the criminalization of immigrants,
  
• believe that comprehensive immigration reform will provide economic opportunity to our region while upholding worker rights, especially concerning the farm workers who are vital in the local and national economy,
  
• seek a just and humane reform that will provide a fair process to secure legal residency and a path to U.S. citizenship,
  

THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Ventura County Democratic Party applauds and supports the efforts of CAUSE; will contribute to our democratic process by facilitating cross-cultural coalition building and educating ourselves, the public, and our elected public representatives about the complex historical and urgent present day elements of immigration reform; and will communicate passage of this resolution to CAUSE and to all members of Congress representing any part of Ventura County.

Sponsor: Ruth Maria Cappelle

Passed by the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee on 02/26/2013