www.lwv.bf.org

VOTERApril 2015

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF BENTON & FRANKLIN COUNTIES

www.lwv-bf.org

From the President

April 2017

Marilyn Perkins

It is hard to believe that it is almost April. While only threemonths have gone by in the calendar year, the League year isalmost over. Leagues finish one year and start a new one on
the same day –the day of the May Annual Meeting. Electedboard members usually serve a two- year term; half arechosen one year, and the other half the next year at theAnnual meetings in May. Some may be reelected or change
to a different position, but we always like to bring on somenew people to broaden the perspective of the board andenhance our connections in the community.
The only officer who does not begin her new position rightafter the election is the Treasurer, who has until June 30th to
get the books in order, either to carry on, starting July 1, or beable to hand them over to the new treasurer. We start paying
new dues to the state and national levels at this time. We paydues quarterly over the year. We collect local dues in
September from most members, but if you joined on February
1 or later of this year, your next dues won’t be due until
September of 2018.
I am not telling you all this to make your eyes glaze over, butto encourage you to come to the Annual meeting on May
18th. While we do conduct official League business, it is also
a time to meet other members, eat good food and learn about
opportunities in the coming year.
Soon after the Annual meeting, we will start planning for any
needed July forums for the primaries when there are morethan two people running. Voter turnout for the primaries isusually very low, and we are hoping to change this and thinkof ways to remind, encourage or cajole people to pay attention
and vote. As our members are well aware this is an uphillbattle, but maybe we should see it as an opportunity to engage
more young people and any others who may have thought
their vote didn’t matter. (Continued on p.2)

Officers
President:
Marilyn Perkins
1st Vice President:
JoAnne Dimond
2nd Vice President:
Janet Nail
Secretary:
Lora Rathbone
Treasurer:
Shirley Sonnichsen
Voter Editor:
Diane Molleson

ElectedDirectors:
Bree Bowen
Bev Hunter
Diane Molleson
Toyoko Tsukuda
Susan Leckband
Polly Parton

AppointedDirectors:
Ruth Giese
Judy Golberg
Ruvine Jimenez
Beverly Johnson-Torelli
Neil Norman

President’s Column (continued from p. 1)
People are hoping the added interest in national politics will carry over to local races, with more
people willing to run and more people voting. I certainly hope that is true and I hope our League
can help make that happen.

Public Banking Study

Toyoko Tsukuda
Toyoko Tsukuda will be recommending a study of public banking at the League’s Annual
meeting on May 18, 2017. She will also present this topic at the State Convention, and the State
League may, or may not, adopt it as an issue to study.
Unlike privately-owned banks, who are responsible to their shareholders, public banking is
operated through institutions owned by the people through their representative governments.
Seventeen states have proposed the establishment of a public bank to fund important projects inall areas of government, such as education, infrastructure and health care. To date, only North
Dakota has a public bank. In North Dakota, the state deposits its revenues in the Bank of North
Dakota. This money is loaned at low interest rates to North Dakota residents, which ensures thata high proportion of state funds are being invested in the state’s economy. The earnings on thoseloans are put back in the state treasury. This enables North Dakota to fund projects without
incurring new debt. During the recent credit crisis, it was the only state to report a budget surplus
every year since 2008. LWV Vermont adopted a study of public banking in 2013.

Orientation for New—and Potential—Members

Janet NailMark May 6 on your calendar. The League will be having an orientation and brunch at Janet
Nail’s home for new and potential members. Details will be announced in the May Voter.
Topics will include how the League is structured, available resources offered by local, state, andnational Leagues, and learning how to spearhead an official study or a simple informationseminar.
th

After the orientation, LWVBF member Ellyn Murphy will present the Climate Change Toolkit
the State League put together and answer questions on the impacts—and latest projections—ofclimate change. All members are welcome at either, or both, events.

Next Generation Public Disclosure Data Access Project
Toyoko Tsukuda
Most PDC data is currently available to the public, but getting to it is not easy. The PDC (PublicDisclosure Commission) would be well served to implement Open Data standards that would
allow the public to download bulk data and do their own searches. Since October 2016, the PDC
has been partnering with a LWVBF member and others from the community to develop acomplete replacement for the data access system. The scope of the project includes a newinterface for casual browsing, deep data access, and an Open Data interface for large datarequests. Most importantly, these goals are being developed by the community.
Phase 1 of the Data Access Project was completed on Mar 7th, 2017. In 14 weeks, the teampublished 5 million records on the State of Washington’s Open Data Portal. The data sets include
the following: all campaign finance contributions, expenditures, debts, loans, and pledges;
campaign finance registrations, reporting history, and filings; lobbyist employment registrations,compensation, and expenditures; and independent electioneering and communications. Each ofthe data sets is updated daily. The data catalog contains complete metadata for each dataset,making it easy to understand what is included.
The PDC will again be partnering with members of the community for Phase 2, Specific Search,and Phase 3, Fuzzy Search. Both projects will start in April.

April Table Talk: Public Health
Carol Moser, the executive Director of Greater Columbia Accountable Community of Health,will be the guest speaker at our April Table Talk on Thursday, April 6th at 5:30 pm in theBen Franklin Transit Center (Richland Wye/ 1000 Columbia Park Trail). She will be giving ageneral overview of the Greater Columbia ACH and what it does.
Carol Moser provided the following description about the organization:“The Greater Columbia Accountable Community of Health (GCACH) is a collaboration ofcommunity leaders from a variety of sectors with a common interest in improving health.
Accountable Communities of Health (ACHs) are an essential component of Washington's HealthInnovation Plan, known as "Healthier Washington," which aims to transform the health systemin the state to bring better health, better care and lower costs to Washington residents. Greater
Columbia ACH includes 10 counties and the Yakama Nation."

Treasurer’s Report

Checking: $3,956
Shirley Sonnichsen
Savings: $1,856
At the end of February, checking was $3,956;
Total: $5,812
savings was $1,856 for a total of $5,812.
Income: We received $822 from the table talk with Leo Perales at the Shilo and Kelly Pflieger’sdues.
Expenses: Expenses were $634 to Columbia Catering for the same table talk.
Membership: Danette Keagan is our newest member. Denomy Dage has two friends who would
like to join but they do not have checkbooks so will hopefully come to the next meeting. Theirnames are Bonnie Kendall from Richland and Kate Moran from West Richland. We will send
them the Voter and any other information. We welcome these three members to the League. This
would put our membership number at 55.

State Convention in June

Marilyn Perkins

The State Convention is a time when local Leagues come together to share ideas, attend
workshops and vote on business for the state for the next two years. It is a great opportunity tomeet members from around Washington and gain a better understanding of what the State
League does. This year, the convention will be held June 2-4 in Seattle. We can send delegates(who vote) and observers who are part of everything else, and we hope to send at least fourpeople from our League. If you are interested or want to learn more, please contact Marilyn
Perkins at jmperkins.cougs@frontier.com

March Table Talk on Syrian Refugees
The LWVBF’s March Table Talk on Syrian refugees featured guest speaker Amira al Salami,
who works in the Richland office of World Relief, an organization that helps refugees start a newlife in the U.S. From Iraq, Amira is a refugee herself. “No one really wants to leave theirhomeland,” she said. “Nobody can understand it until they become refugees, which is something
I personally do not wish for any person.” Amira lived in Jordan for about 18 months before she
was allowed to come to the U.S. For some, the wait is longer and includes living in refugee
camps where food is rationed. Amira noted there’s plenty of food the first ten days, enough forthe next ten days, but by the last ten days food is so scarce, “nobody has enough energy to talk.”
A former English professor at a university in Iraq, Amira was surprised by her limited career
options in the U.S. She turned down an offer to be a kindergarten aide, saying she could be more
useful as a translator. Happy at her job for World Relief, she “feels blessed” to be in America.
Amira ended her talk by introducing a newly arrived Syrian family. Her talk was well attended
and open to the public.

March for Science, Tri-Cities
The Tri-Cities March for Science will be held on April 22, from 11am-3pm at John Day Dam
Plaza in Richland. There will be speakers, science events for children, exhibits, and more.
Marches across the country are being planned in conjunction with the March for Science in D.C.
For more information, visit https://marchforscience.com/

To sign up for the League’s legislative newsletter, go to
http://www.lwvwa.org/positions.html and click
League's Legislative Newsletter and Action Alerts.
To find legislative bills and your legislators, go to http://app.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/

CalendarApril 2017
Thursday, April 6—April Table Talk on public health with Carol Moser, 5:30 pm, BF TransitCenter (Richland Wye/ 1000 Columbia Park Trail)
Thursday, April 20—Business & Planning Meeting, 5:30 pm, BF Transit Center (Richland Wye/1000 Columbia Park Trail). All members are welcome.
Saturday, April 22—March for Science, Tri-Cities. For more information, visit
https://marchforscience.com/

May 2017
Saturday, May 6— New Member Orientation and Brunch at Janet Nail’s home
Thursday, May 18—Annual Meeting, location TBD

June 2017
June 2-4—State Convention in Seattle

Email us atlwv.of.bf@gmail.com

League of Women Voters ofBenton & Franklin
Counties
P. O. Box 765,
Richland WA 99352