Tues Nov. 12, 6:30 pm
Benicia Library, Dona Benicia room
Food Co-op & Candidate Endorsements
Our final meeting for 2019 was held on Tuesday, November 12 at the Benicia Library’s Dona Benicia room at 6:30 pm. We started a bit early for this meeting to make sure there would be plenty of time for our endorsement process, one of our most important functions of the year.
We had two presentations on the program:
FIRST… Paula Schnese, Executive Director of Cultivate Community Food Co-op, Solano Co.’s first community-owned natural grocery store, updated us on the Co-op’s activities and then introduced Jon Steinman, who is on a 130-stop book tour and author of Grocery Store: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants. Mr. Steinman previewed his book on concerns about trends among dominant grocers, and how the community food co-op model offers an alternative to the larger grocers’ influence on communities and food supply.
VIDEO OF PAULA SCHNESE’ PRESENTATION (5 minutes, video thanks to Pat Toth-Smith)
VIDEO OF JON STEINMAN’S PRESENTATION (40 minutes, with introduction by Paula Schnese, Steinman begins at 1:40, video thanks to Pat Toth-Smith)
Beginning at 7:30… we had two panels of candidates who will be on the Benicia ballot for the March 2020 Primary Elections. For each panel there were prepared questions asked to each candidate, as well as Q&A with the audience. The panels were:
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- Panel 1: CA Cong. District 5: Mike Thompson (incumbent), and Jason Kishineff, challenger.
- Panel 2: Solano Co. Board of Supervisors, District 2: Monica Brown (incumbent), and challengers Rochelle Sherlock and K. Patrice Williams.
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VIDEO OF THE CANDIDATE INTERVIEW SESSION – CA Cong. District 5, Thompson & Kishineff (28 minutes, with Moderator Maggie Kolk, video thanks to Pat Toth-Smith)
ENDORSEMENT RESULTS: Progressive Democrats endorse Mike Thompson and Monica Brown.
Following the discussion with candidates, non-PDB members were be asked to leave the room. The remainder of the meeting was closed to the public and open only to current PDB members. During this remaining time, members discussed the candidates and were given ballots for voting on whether and whom to endorse in each race.
PDB bylaws state that to receive the Club’s endorsement a candidate must receive 50% + 1 of the votes from those present voting. PDB bylaws also state that members are entitled to vote 60 days after payment of dues.
This last PDB meeting of the year was highly informative – on the food front and also about the candidates running for offices that affect each of us on a daily basis.
