Spindrift November 14, 2019

Bribery: Corrupt solicitation, acceptance, or transfer of value in exchange for official action

- Cornell Law School, Legal Encyclopedia

President Ken DuFour called the meeting to order and Joe Browm led us in prayer to help those in need, protect our troops around the world, and to give politicians the wisdom they so desperately need. People on both sides of the aisle agree, thanks for the nice prayer, Joe! Deane Bottorf was called upon to get us in a position to salute the flag.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS 

Honored Guest Jack Selcer and Dave Shapiro met in their synagogue ten years ago, they and their wives have become close friends and they have enjoyed traveling together. Welcome Jack, it’s great to meet you!

We’re thankful that the Annual Christmas Party will be hosted at Carol and Leo Fracalosy’s house (509 DeAnza Drive, CDM) again, December 7th. More details with cost and time are being determined but please save the date! Thank you for your gracious hospitality, Carol and Leo!

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Our membership is increasing! We have three new applicants and momentum is building as more guests are invited. Our members are doing a great job and leading the effort, Jeff Yeargain is doing a great job!

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Our membership is increasing! We have three new applicants and momentum is building as more guests are invited. Our members are doing a great job and leading the effort, Jeff Yeargain is doing a great job!

Team 3 is still in the lead with 8 points, teams 2 and 4 are close with 7, and team 1 has 4 points. Let’s keep it up, invite a friend to lunch!

MAIN PROGRAM - California State Senator John Moorlach is a great friend of the club, he’s been a visitor to our group for more than two and a half decades now. As OC Treasurer he guided us through bankruptcy to a solid economic foundation, he went on to the Board of Supervisors, and then to be the District 37 Representative in 2015 (special election).

John sits on 4 committees: Budget and Fiscal Review, Governance and Finance, Public Employment and Retirement, and is Vice-Chair of the Judiciary Committee. He’s a busy guy.

Power - electricity specifically has many difficulties right now. John introduced a bill a few years ago that would have caused power lines to be in much safer condition, it was bipartisan and fully supported yet the then Governor (Jerry) Brown vetoed it. Now, because the grid is so dilapidated, we resemble Venezuela, shutting off power for days at a time to hundreds of thousands due to high winds and dry conditions. In 2017 CNN reported that the season’s wildfires contributed about as much air pollution as all of the California vehicular emissions in 2014 at 10,000 tons. That’s astounding!

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John’s most handy approach in the beginning to address this (aside from his original bill) is to have an overlay of Population vs. Fire Hazard maps to direct the undergrounding of electrical power delivery. Sounds great to us John!

The Green New Deal calls for a shift to electricity. John gave a few examples of how that would be difficult. The first is that we’ve had the option for all-electric kitchens and houses for decades now and they haven’t been widely adopted. With gas, one can still cook and have heat during an electrical outage. UPS trucks run basically all day long, if the vehicle needs more energy it will need to sit for a few costly hours of non-productivity. Perhaps e-trucks will also have the range such that overnight charging will work just fine.

Taxes - California is one of the highest tax states. During the last 10 years, people have migrated away. With half of our income taxes paid by the top 1%, John’s worried that the elite are going to move away and take their (tax) money with them. Here’s a little research: The top 1% earn on average $1.7 mil per person vs $55k/person for everyone else. (https://howmuch.net/articles/income-inequality-by-state)

Homelessness and Mental Illness has been addressed in a few ways. John jointly authored a bond bill for “No Place Like Home”, Proposition 2 which passed last year addresses housing for mentally ill. SB640 expands the definition of “Greatly Disabled” to encompass treating sever mental issues as a severe medical condition. Using the Fairview facility to house the homeless is not the right solution; there is a mental health facility that just broke ground in Orange. It will be serving people in an outpatient, multi-service center intended to help people make a transition.

Some other thoughts from John: We should treat Cal-Trans like a homeowner’s association in that there should be a set-aside for repairs with every road and project. Without continuity in politics, California could really use more foresight. John introduced a bill to have a CFO for the state. Sounds like a good idea, would you happen to know a good CPA? Thanks for the always enjoyable talk, John!

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Football Pool Last time Shirley got both low and high score… this time she got the low again but lost the high score to Jeff Yergain ($34) and Linda Wood took 2nd Place.

RAFFLE

Raffle - Bob Wood ($10) and Jerry Nininger ($20). That’s a warm welcome back Jerry!

Greeter this Week - Ida Knowwho

Steve Pool - Editor