Colorado Dems with Disabilities

The Dems with Disabilities congratulate Julie Farrar for well run race.  While she did not garner enough votes to be in the run-off, we are proud of her nevertheless.  Great job Julie!

Julie Farrar

For City Council District 8

Roll With Me!

Walk and Talk Roll and Stroll

Around Ferrill Lake, City Park

Wednesday, April 20^th from 5:30 until 6:30

What issues should we work on together to make our community the best place in Denver to Live, Love, Work and Play?

Yesterday the State Executive Committee and State Central Committee met in Pueblo.  A number of our members were present along with our Vice-Chair Nick Isenberg and myself.

The Executive Committee approved the hiring of Alec Garnett as the CDP Executive Director.  Alec is former State Attorney General candidate Stan Garnett’s son.  Alec has been serving as the political director for the party since Rick Palacio was elected Chair last month.

The Executive Committee also approved paying the State Party Chair a salary.  Colorado will now join 27 other states in paying the Party Chair a salary.  The salary will be $75,000 a year, including beneift (in contract to the $170,000 the Colorado GOP pays their chair).

The State Central Committee was tasked with approving 20 amendments to State Party rules, and to approve the delegate selection plan.

The delegate selection plan submitted to the Central Committee still does not have an affirmative action plan.   The Central Committee approved the plan, and tasked the State Outreach Committee with drafting the affirmative action plan without further approval of the Central Committee.  The OUtreach Committee has two upcoming meetings, April 16, 2011 at 10 am at the Larimer County Headquarters, and March 23, 2011 at 11 am at the State Party Headquarters.  DWD members Carrie Ann Lucas and Jim Bowen are on the Outreach Committee as representatives of the 4th C.D.   Each initiative chair, or her designee is also a member of the Outreach Committee.  Because I am serving on the committee as a representative of the 4th CD, I am seeking to have a designee appointed to the committee to represent the DWD initiative.  If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Carrie no later than the end of business on Monday, April 11, 2011.

Party Rule amendments

Most of the 20 proposed amendments did not directly affect your initiative.  However, one rule exclusively dealt with Initiatives.  DWD members, along with members from all of the other initiatives had concerns about proposed rule.  Most of our concerns were addressed by amendments from the floor at yesterday’s meeting.  The new rule as adopted is attached.

As a result of the rules, we will need to amend our bylaws.  Please contact Carrie Ann Lucas at clucas@disabilitypride.com if you want to help draft the amended bylaws.

Access issues

The meeting did have significant access issues.  The meeting location, the Union Depot in Pueblo, does not have a barrier free restroom.  In addition, there were issues with the path to the buildign from the rear parking lot.  While the Party Chair and Executive Director tried to resolve the issues prior to the meeting (by placing a port-a-potty in the parking lot), people with disabilities did not have equal access.  .  It is extraordinarily frustrating to fight these issues year after year.  Rick Palacio was very apologetic about the Union Depot location, but the fact that institutional memory is erased every year remains a significant barrier to full and equal inclusion of people with disabilities within the State Party.

Even more disturbing was Sen. Udall’s office across the street from the Union Depot.  It has a large step at the front entrance, and no apparent accessible entrance. Do any of our Southern Colorado members want to join me in a letter to Sen. Udall about the access problems at his office?

As an initiative we have a number of responsibilities coming up in the next few weeks.  We are conducting a membership drive, we need to submit comments on the Delegate Selection Plan for the 2012 DNC Convention, we need to draft an outreach plan, and we may need to revise our bylaws to comply with new party rules that are expected to be passed on April 9, 2011.

Membership Drive

Most everyone on this list is or has been a dues paying member of the DWD initiative.  Dues for membership are $1 each year.  If you have not paid your dues for 2011, please send your dues to Joe Beaver, Treasurer DWD Initiative, 1925 Dudley St, Lakewood, CO 80215.  Please include your full name, mailing address and employer so that we can comply with campaign finance regulations.  For your convenience, a membership form is attached.  If you are unable to pay, please send in (or email) your membership form anyway.  We have a number of scholarships for dues for those unable to pay.

Delegate Selection Plan.

The CDP published the proposed Delegate Selection Plan on March 2, 2011.  You can find the plan at  http://www.coloradodems.org/2012DSP.pdf.  The portion of the plan that most concerns the DWD initiative is on pages 19-21.  However, this portion of the plan has not yet been drafted.  The CDP outreach committee has been tasked with drafting the affirmative action/outreach portions of the delegate selection plan.  Two DWD members, James Bowen and Carrie Ann Lucas both represent the 4th CD on the outreach committee, and Vivian Stovall chairs the committee.  James and Carrie are both working to ensure that the delegate selection plan has a requirement that 16% of the delegation are people with disabilities.  The affirmative action/outreach portion of the delegate selection plan should be drafted in the next week.  Comments are due by April 2, and the plan will be approved by the state central committee at its meeting in Pueblo on April 9.  We will need DWD members to submit comments later this week.  Assuming the plan does have a mandate for 16% representation, we will need comments to ensure that requirement remains.  If the plan does not  mandate 16% representation, then we will need to submit comments requesting that, as well as lobby Central Committee members for an amendment to the plan prior to its approval.  I will keep you updated as the plan is drafted.

DWD Outreach Plan

As a CDP initiative, we are required to draft an outreach plan that will be submitted to the state party.  I need volunteers to help draft this plan.  Our plan is due to the party no later than April 18.  I would like at least 2 other people to assist with the outreach plan.

Bylaws Amendments

Presuming that the proposed state party rules affecting initiatives will be passed, we will need to make some amendments to our bylaws.  Our bylaws are located here: http://www.demswithdisabilities.org/?page_id=62

The proposed rules can be found here:  http://coloradodems.org/rulesproposals.pdf

We need at least two volunteers to assist with drafting amendments to the bylaws.