Indivisible meeting on Sept. 14 2020
Wright County Indivisible Notes Zoom Meeting Mon., Sept. 14, 2020 6:30/7:00 24 Members Present
90 Seconds Sharing
1. Karen Deitering asked if people had been receiving the SD29 Newsletter by e-mail. They will be sent weekly until the election with various SD29 candidates’ bio/background/policy information. Contact Karen if you are not getting them.
2. Renee Cardarelle asked for volunteers for the Get Out The Vote initiative she is organizing targeting low income, youth, and minority/black housing/schooling/etc. She received $1500 grant from Indivisible for this program. She needs people to sit at tables and talk to people about voting. Contact Renee if you can help in Monticello, Delano, Annandale, Howard Lake communities.
3. Sue Hedtke announced that our sewers and helpers have produced 7,102 masks for distribution to our community members.
4. Jane Conrad said Joe Biden is scheduled to come to Minnesota later this week when we open for early voting in the presidential election.
5. Jan Kittok explained how she is calling people from the DFL data base from an organized website we can access that gives you the ability to click and automatically contact someone in the data base. You can then explain how to vote if they need clarification.
6. Wendy Schoen suggested that we help Erik Putnam because we have an excellent chance of taking that district.
Agenda
1. Sue demonstrated accessing Steve Simon the Secretary of State of MN by typing in SOS. You will find information about voting (drive-up, dates, locations, etc.) Minnesota SOS will mail out ballots starting Sept. 18 (law says we can start voting 42 days before election day). Oct. 13 is the last day to register online. Absentee ballots can be requested until Oct. 2. You can go to your poll starting on Sept. 18 and vote. Prepare for lines.
2. Renee and John Deitering explained how to help our candidates by sharing their Facebook entries with your friends (public button). Go to candidates’ page and share with public. Do it often to expand their reach.
3. Lori Cocking reviewed office of County Commissioner. Two candidates are on the ballot: Mike Kaczmarek (pronounced Catch-mark) and Dan Bravindar for District 5. She has invited both to meet with us. Mike was anxious to meet with us and Dan declined. Mike and his wife have met with her and Lani and Shawne many times to discuss local issues. He is supportive of our values and concerns for the most part. Commissioners are largely ignored by the public unless there is a ditch or road issue. She explained that they meet every Tuesday morning at 9:00am. Notes are posted on the Wright County Website. It is a non-partisan office that authorizes expenditures of state and federal dollars for our community. Lori recommended that we organize our people to attend these meeting regularly and monitor their decisions, sharing them with Indivisible members. They are responsible for balancing individual rights with the rights of the public at large.
4. Mike Kaczmarek, 27-year deputy, spoke about his candidacy for Wright County Commissioner District 5. (He ran for sheriff last cycle, losing to Sean Derringer). He goes toward the problem not run away from it. He listens to all sides of the story and works to keep the spending down. He would like to change the time of the meetings so more people could attend with an evening meeting every other week. Currently the commissioners are spending huge sums to hire consultants to tell them how to resolve an issue. He recounts a $80,000 consultant fee for an 80-page report that the cities did not feel was accurate. The commissioners are paid to investigate and decide on the issue. Consultant fees in most cases should not be needed. Currently the commissioners have $16.5M for COVID, but they have not spent any of it because they have not decided how to spend it. Renee added that 25% of Wright County residents are low-income. The outgoing commissioner was not effective in the opinions of our members who attended their meetings and tried to influence some decisions. He (Charlie Borrell) is supporting Dan Bravindar.
5. Lani and Shawne Worley shared the schedule for the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Debates.
Presidential/Vice Presidential Debate Schedule 2020
Tuesday, September 29 Presidential
Wednesday, October 7 Vice Presidential
Thursday, October 15 Presidential
Thursday, October 22 Presidential
Tuesday, November 3 Election Day
See the SD29 DFL Debate Party Zoom invitation at the end.
6. Indivisible Challenge: Sue explained our CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE Mission to get all your family and friends to vote. Call relatives, youth turning 18 by Nov. 3, and any other Democratic supporters and ask them if they are clear on how to vote. Teach them SOS on-line to access information about voting in the area. Help them with dates for early voting or accessing absentee ballots before Oct. 2. Do this in the next few days to insure we get a great turnout for our candidates. November 3 is remarkably close. We must work hard now.
7. Next meeting is Oct. 12, 2020.