We are so pleased that you have joined us this evening to say thank you to Bert Boeckmann.
Valley VOTE has greatly benefited from Bert's generosity for many years in helping us meet our 2 primary Goals.
They are:
   #1 - informing and educating the public, and
   #2 - promoting good governance.

To satisfy the education goal we have had.. over the last 8 years... about 150 speakers visit Valley VOTE at our monthly meetings.
They are held, thanks to Bert, in the Community Room of Galpin Ford on Roscoe Blvd. Speakers have included: LA's Mayors, city attorneys, city controllers, councilmembers', L.A. department heads, state, county and other political leaders

Our members have the opportunity to meet, greet and ask questions of all our speakers. We also publish a monthly report summarizing the highlights of the meetings and they are available on our web site

Now with regards to goal # 2 - promoting "good governance"
Valley VOTE has issued 32 Press Releases since 2003 .

We have available for you tonight: a flyer with dates and subject of all these Press Releases. You can go to the Valley VOTE web site www.valleyvote.org for the details on each one. I would like to comment about a few of the Press Release to give you an idea of what we have been doing.

First let me discuss State Proposition 11 that was on the Nov.2008 ballot. We strongly endorsed Prop 11 in August of 2008. This Proposition called for the creation of an independent citizens commission that would draw legislative boundaries for California's Assembly and Senate districts.

Currently legislators draw their own district boundaries, resulting in a 99% RE Election rate in the California Assembly and Senate races.
Thankfully, Proposition 11 passed, and next month the 14 member citizens commission will begin their effort to have new boundaries completed by January 1, 2012.
We believe these new district lines will lead to more competitive races.
And, more independent representatives are expected to be elected.
This should reduce partisan legislative gridlock and hopefully lead to beneficial compromised solutions on many issues facing the state.

Next, let me discuss the Rate Payer Advocate for the LA DWP which has been in the news recently. Valley VOTE strongly supports a Rate Payer Advocate for the LA DWP.
See our SEPT 2009 Press Release for details. Investor owned utilities in California have the oversight of a State Rate Payer Advocate. They also have shareholders and a full time Board of Directors overseeing their operations. The increasing use of Renewable energy in place of coal in the next decade will drive power rates to about double what they were in 2008.
It will be to everyone's benefit to have the comprehensive trusted oversight of the LA DWP's operations by a Rate Payer Advocate.
We urge you all to help pass this issue that will be on the March ballot.
We believe, with its passage, everyone will benefit in the city, including the LA DWP,

Another important issue is L.A. City's Business Tax.
The Valley VOTE organization has a long history of calling for Business Tax Reform . 4 Press Releases were issued from 2004 to 2006 supporting overhauling the L.A. Business tax policies. To their credit the city has made great strides over the past few years on business tax reform and it continues to consider additional changes to make the city more friendly to new and existing businesses.

Now I would like to quickly mention a few other Press releases of importance.
In March of 2004 Valley VOTE was the first organization to support the construction of the CSUN Performing Arts center which will have it's official opening next month.

In October of 2005 we endorsed Greig Smith's Renew LA Plan for the handling of the cities waste.Progress is being made on this important program.
In April of 2006 we restated our long standing position on the Break up of the LAUSD. We recommend well operated charter schools as an alternative. For an excellent example check out the largest charter High School in the country, Granada Hills High, that has a 98% graduation rate, outstanding API scores, with a very diverse racial and ethnic student body.

In conclusion, I would again like to thank you all for attending, and the sponsoring organizations for supporting this special evening for an outstanding L.A. Citizen:  Mr. Bert Boeckmann.