8-11 GA notes

Facilitation: Moderator = Wendy Sue, Notetaker = Will J, Stack = Ken C,

Committee updates:

Media-Meeting after GA, discussion of adding admins

Occupy 1 year anniversary-Held first meeting Friday, no date for second meeting set. There is talk of holding at Chicano Park, and there will definitely be street theatre

Stop TPP-Met yesterday. Arthur organized an interocc discussion for 6pm PST on monday 8/20. TPP meeting in Virginia is set for Sept 5th-11th

Other-Walmart march is on the 22nd

-Food justice meeting tuesday at 7 at Ben's place

Agenda topics

1) TPP discussion

2) OSD stickers

3) discussion about communication

4) Fire safety

5) How to address safety at events

6) Donna's privacy proposal

7) Beverly's Sonoma house

8) What we want of Media

Agenda

1) Stickers - Unanimous consensus to free up the stickers that was purchased by OSD finance committee several months ago for use by Occupiers

2) Donna's privacy proposal - Donna proposes that we do not discuss personal, private information in public space.

Anoki amends the proposal to include a preamble to GA discussing basic info about occupy, and some info about security culture, Donna accepts

Donna drops the proposal after several concerns come up, and a few vow to block

3) Discussion about how we communicate, proposed by Uma

4)  Beverly's house issue - more info at http://savesonoma.com/

5) Fire Safety - John Scanlon brought us info about the serious fire safety concerns throughout San Diego County. Below is the text of the doc he brought with him
 

2012 08 11 - An open Letter to San Diego County

San Diego’s Activist Organizations

Subject:           Fire!

San Diego County will unnecessarily lose hundreds of homes to wildfires this fall.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The Problem –

We are past due for a repeat of the major fires in 2003 and 2007.

There is an abundance of fuel in the back country after five years w/o a major fire.

We are now in a very active fire season.  July was the hottest it has been in the lower 48 since 1895.

We continue to be grossly underfunded and under-prepared at all levels to handle another catastrophic fire season. 

All levels of government are under financial constraints

The City of San Diego lost hundreds of homes in both 2003 and 2007.  Yet, we now have fewer firefighters per population than we had in those years.  The city has a mere 800 firefighters for a 2010 population of 1,307,402 or 0.61 firefighters per thousand – a full 500 firefighters below the standard of 1.0 per thousand.  And, the city has far more than normal fire risk with finger canyons and Santa Ana wildfires.  We have lost 125 firefighters in just the last three years.  This is the lowest level of coverage of the nation’s ten largest cities.  (1, 2)  In the early 2000s the average for the ten largest cities was 1.3 firefighters/ 1,000 population. 

Cal fire has a similar deficit of personnel and now has fire engines manned by 3 man crews rather than 4 man crews.  Cal fire in the County has lost 72 of its full time firefighters in just the last year. 

The Solutions -

Train 500 wildland-only, volunteer firefighters for San Diego County. 

Lease two Canadair CL 415 air tanker Super Scoopers for the fall fires.

Certify Marine Corps pilots for night flying in Cal fire controlled areas.

Share funding between all the cities in the County, the County, and the State.  

Inmate firefighters are used primarily to establish and maintain fire lines during wildfires.  They are only trained to fight wildland fires.  After just two weeks of full time training, they are put to work.  If convicts can be effective firefighters, so can regular citizens.  Inmates are full time while regular citizens would not be, but inmates are no longer available when they get out of prison while regular citizens can be available at times of peak need for years to come.  Further, the Governor’s Prisons/Jails realignment is projected to reduce prisoners available to be firefighters.  They will have to be replaced. 

San Diego County spent 3 million in the fall of 2008 for the use of two Super Scoopers.  LA County has leased these aircraft for 14+ years. 

The political problem -

Our political leaders at all levels have thus far refused to take any actions. 

We have less than three months till the Santa Ana fires begin.  There is no time left.  We must begin training volunteers immediately. 

The political solution -

Lobby all your political leaders at all levels to immediately implement the above recommendations. 

Lobby the real power in the County - our local plutocrats such as Papa Doug Manchester, Malin Burnham, John Moores, Dean Spanos, etc. 

This should be followed quickly by occupying San Diego City and County admin buildings and demanding they either immediately start training us or arrest us so we can join inmate firefighters.  After we are arrested, we will have to occupy portions of the county jail and demand they send us to Cal fire inmate training.  (3)

Any additional action ideas would be much appreciated. 

Sincerely,        John F Scanlon

13336 Caminito Ciera #38

San Diego CA 92129-6028

jfscanlon@aol.com

HP       858 538 1434  Cell      858 354 3336

Call or email me if you’re willing to be a wildland-only, volunteer firefighter.  We need hundreds.

1 http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/SD-Firefighters-Forced-Into-Overtime-161513405.html

2 http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/0666000.html

3 Both the San Diego City council and the County board of supervisors are not set to have public meetings again till Tuesday 9/11.  We’re left with office visits and occupations of other strategic areas outside of council/board chambers. 

The City of San Diego has always had funds available for redevelopment but not for basic public needs like minimal fire protection.  The City Council recently approved 5.9 million to fund Civic San Diego (CCDC) and approved Plaza de Panama knowing the City will have to back up any deficiencies in projected funding.  It is more than interesting that those who benefit from redevelopment, developers and the building industry, also benefit from rebuilding the hundreds of homes we lose in each of these major wildfires. 

The City’s loss of hundreds of homes, for the third time in less than a decade, will be due to criminal negligence. 

Contact Information:

Mr. Douglas F Manchester

Manchester Financial Group, Inc.

350 Camino De La Reina

San Diego, CA 92108

USA

619-293-1100

hlienert@manchesterfinancialgroup.com

Mr. Malin Burnham

Chairman

Burnham Cos.

4435 Eastgate Mall, Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92121

Mr. John Jay Moores

San Diego Padres

P.O. Box 122000

San Diego, CA 92112

(619) 795-5000

Mr. Dean Spanos

Chairman and President

San Diego Chargers
P.O. Box 609609
San Diego, CA 92160-9609

End of GA