Greens

Elected Greens Come to Santa Monica To Share Experiences and Form National Network

By Mike Feinstein, City Councilmember, Santa Monica and Green Officeholder

With both the invasion of Iraq abroad and the attack on civil liberties at home receiving overwhelming bi-partisan Congressional support, millions of Americans are looking for a meaningful political alternative to the Democrats and Republicans.

Yet finding such an alternative is no easy task, considering the hostility of the U.S. corporate-funded, winner-take-all electoral system to alternative viewpoints and parties. Given this, its not surprising that one of the most underreported - and perhaps most underappreciated - political trends in recent years has been the strategic growth of the Green Party in local government.

Greens have long focused on local races as a way of building the party. Over 175 Greens in 24 states now hold municipal and county elected office - more than double the amount from after the 2000 presidential elections. Now, after a historic weekend in Santa Monica, the party has taken this strategy a step further, organizing the Green officeholders themselves.

Against the backdrop of a sunswept Pacific Ocean and the majestic Santa Monica Mountains, fifty Green officeholders and other party leaders came to Santa Monica, February 21st-23rd, to attend the second-ever Conference of Green Officeholders in the United States. The weekend brought Green elected officials together to meet, share experiences and ultimately form the first-ever Green Officeholders Network. According to participants, the Conference was successful on all accounts.

"As a Green elected official, it was invaluable to meet other Greens from across the nation and talk about how we can effectively govern locally," said Brenda Konkel, one of three Greens on the twenty-member Madison, Wisconsin City Council. "I came home with a whole list of ideas to make my community better, including innovative policies to preserve and create affordable housing."

"Words fail me in expressing my pleasure to be part of this event," said Bob Jacobson, County Councilmember (aka Supervisor) from the Upper Puna-Ka`u-South Kona District of the Big Island of Hawai'i, who attended the Conference on his way to Washington, D.C. for the meeting of the National Association of Counties. "As the only elected Green in Hawaii, it helps me feel like I'm not on an island."

While a small number of cities and towns have more than one elected Green in their midst - including Arcata, Berkeley, San Francisco, Santa Monica and Sebastopol in California, as well Amherst, MA, New Haven, CT, and Madison and Superior, WI - nationwide, where Greens hold elected office, they tend to do so alone.

The desire to learn from each other and coordinate among themselves, was what brought Green officeholders to Santa Monica. Once there, they drafted a founding declaration of their common purpose:

- "To help network Green elected officials among themselves, with the rest of the Green Party and with the public at-large, and"

- "To promote Green policies and the organizational development of the Green Party."

To facilitate these tasks, ongoing regional and national Green officeholder gatherings are planned and a website has been created: (www.greenofficeholders.us) to help them coordinate their common actions - from anti-war resolutions to organizing for meetings of the League of Cities.

Better coordination is also in the offing between officeholders and the Green Party as a whole. Direct representation is contemplated for Green officeholders on various national party committees, as well as the editorial board of the national newsletter. A non-voting seat on the party's national Coordinating Committee is a possibility. Green officeholders will also participate in Green campaign schools and candidate trainings across the country.

There is also a desire to more effectively promote Green officeholders to the outside world - not just through party press statements - but as human-interest stories to a range of mainstream and other media.

Green Policies

While the weekend's 'conclusion' was the formation of the Green Officeholders Network, its 'starting premise' was "what it is to govern Green."

Saturday featured six hours of policy discussion, facilitated by local progressive facilitation gurus Joan Goldsmith and Ken Cloke. Topics ranged from green building guidelines and alternative energy systems, to land use, affordable housing, pedestrian orientation and transit-oriented development; and from education, living wage and integrated pest management, to promoting small business in the face of national chains and green tax policy.

The tax policy discussion led to a discussion centered around California's record budget deficit. To help address the deficit, Mark Sanchez called for a restructuring of Proposition 13 to more fairly tax commercial property. One of two Greens on the seven member San Francisco Board of Education along with Sarah Lipson, Sanchez argued that it has been this 'under taxing' that has lead to massive underfunding of schools, counties and cities since Prop 13 passed in 1978.

Local Flavor

With the meeting's venue being the Pico Boulevard office of the Westside Greens, the conference had a decidedly Westside flavor.

Friday night's opening session began with presentations by Santa Monica Greens Sandy Grant (Environmental Task Force), Jan Williamson (Arts Commission), Iris Oliveras (Architectural Review Board) and Lori Nafshun (Recreation & Parks Board).

In her comments, Williamson hit upon a typical Westside phenomenon - how skyrocketing land prices are making it increasingly difficult for people to survive - in this case the local artist community and its ability to live and/or work in Santa Monica.

With three elected and ten appointed Greens in office, Santa Monica boasts the second largest concentration of Green officeholders in the nation - 13. Berkeley, with twice the number of city boards and commissions, has 24 Greens in office - four elected and twenty appointed.

Next in the evening came Santa Monica's electeds - Mayor Pro-Tem Kevin McKeown, Rent Control Board member Jeff Sklar and yours truly, Councilmember Mike Feinstein.

McKeown highlighted the City Council's recent anti-war resolution, which he carried to the Council, as well the local ordinance banning ATM surcharges that he co-sponsored with me in 1999, which is now poised to go before the Supreme Court .

Throughout the weekend, both McKeown and I touted various aspects of the city's internationally-renown Sustainable City Plan - from Santa Monica as the first U.S. city to power its municipal facilities with 100% renewable energy, to the city's dry weather Urban Runoff Reclamation Facility, which cleans 300,000 gallons a day of various land-based pollutants before it reaches Santa Monica Bay. McKeown also presented details of Santa Monica's extensive programs for affordable housing.

For his part, Sklar talked about the big picture, alluding to the then-looming war in Iraq. "Don't believe the polls," he said, "they're fueled by false information. The Green Party has enormous potential to effect change. But we must remain committed to an identity as the party of non-aggression. If we do, we will most definitely grow. "

On the Beach, In the Whitehouse

Late Saturday afternoon, conference attendees moved down to the beach for a sunset reception at Back on the Beach restaurant. Famous for good food and a frequent site of progressive community events, the intimate setting provided just the right atmosphere for a stimulating Saturday program.

The evening began with a presentation by national Green Party organizer Ben Manski. One of five national Green Party co-chairs, at 28 Manski is already a seasoned organizer, active since age 12!, with a resume that includes years of activism in Madison politics, as well serving as Midwest coordinator for the Nader 2000 presidential campaign, the first National Director of the Campus Greens and on Steering Committee of the Independent Progressive Politics Network.

Citing the need for solidarity, Manski challenged the crowd of Green officeholders to draft an "electoral covenant' between elected Greens and the party at-large, as they attempt to democratize a system that is hostile to democracy.

Next came a wide-ranging discussion of the 2004 presidential race, led by San Francisco Green Ross Mirkarimi, California Nader 2000 campaign coordinator.

Next came a wide-ranging discussion of the 2004 presidential race, led by San Francisco Green Ross Mirkarimi, an advisor to the Green Party's national Presidential Exploratory Committee and former California campaign coordinator for Nader 2000.

Mirkarimi spoke of the need to learn from the 2000 campaign diagnostically, and not blindly pursue another national race without clear goals and a plan. "If we can't win the White House yet, and knowing what results we achieved in 2000, how would a 2004 Green presidential campaign build the Green Party - is the goal to exceed the national 5% threshold to qualify for public funds in 2008?"

Mirkarimi encouraged Greens throughout the country to instill a process dialogue that tackles hard questions about '04 that shouldn't wait until the nominating convention, such as: If the goal is to remove Bush, then should the next candidate be a nationally-recognized individual like a Nader, or should the party draw a talented but relatively unknown from within its ranks? What of the status of former congress representative Cynthia McKinney, or Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who carry progressive credentials and may be interested in running as a Green or independent?

At the same time, should the Greens run at all knowing that the party may gain some ground and/or risk be deliberate spoilers? Is there a progressive Democrat in the race worth supporting? What happens if the best Democrat doesn't win the nomination and candidate like Lieberman emerges?

Finally, if the Green Party uses its presidential campaign as a hammer or bargaining chip in 2004 with the Democrats, what are the scenarios that would induce this transaction: an exit-the-race strategy? - and what chips would Greens want the Democrats to implement, such as Instant Run-Off voting for statewide, federal offices; or a cabinet post like Attorney General or EPA? And has the Green Party grown to the point where such scenarios can be facilitated by a trusted few?

There are 63 Greens holding elected office in California and over 155,000 party members statewide. For more information about the Green Party, see www.cagreens.org