| February 2024
Editor Jennifer Bales
jbales@me.com
| | | Your Nominating Committee at Work | LWVBC’s Nominating Committee has begun its work, with the goal of providing a slate of candidates for members to elect at the Annual Meeting in May. The Nominating Committee is made up of: Peggy Leech (Chair), Laura Coates, Emma Piller, Martine Elianor, and Susan Curtis.
We are looking for volunteers to fulfill leadership roles, potentially including co-leaders or leaders-in-training. Some roles are on the board of directors, and others are off board. We can be flexible!
Speaking from personal experience, these opportunities can be quite rewarding, as well as providing a good opportunity for growth. And LWVBC depends on its leaders as well as its many wonderful volunteers.
If you are interested in serving, or know of some good candidates, please reach out to members of the Nominating Committee (listed above) or send me an email: pegleech@aol.com.
| Make a Valentine for Your Elected Officials |
The Jewish Community Center in conjunction with the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office will host a “Standing Against Hate” community town hall from 7PM to 9PM on February 12 at the Jewish Community Center, 6007 Oreg Ave.
| | | Pro Publica Article - Women in State Legislatures in
Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona have achieved Parity | | A Pro Publica article from January 5, 2024, talks about the number of women legislators in the various states. A record number of women were elected to statehouses last year, and some western states have achieved parity. In Colorado, half of the legislators are women. Other regions, especially the Southeast, lag far behind. The article includes an interactive map (thumbnail at right) showing the numbers for each state.
| | | What’s Going On at the State Legislature? | |
The 2023 Colorado State Legislative session officially kicked off on January 10th and with it the start of the LWVCO Legislative Action Committee (LAC). For those of you who are new to the League, the LAC is a group of League members from all over the state who meet virtually every other Friday morning from 9 - 11 to discuss how the LWVCO should respond to bills. Members of the LAC adopt a topic area that they feel particularly passionate about and follow the bills that correspond to that topic area. Often there are multiple LAC members for a topic.
The LAC is run by Andrea Wilkins, the LWVCO Lobbyist, and Maud Naroll, Kathy Wilson, and Thalia Oster, Action and Advocacy Co-Directors for the LWVCO. Any local League member can join and recordings of the training sessions are available. LWVBC members currently on the LAC include Rionda Osman, Celeste Landry, Holly Monkman, Peggy Leech, Jeannette Hillary, Shirley Jin, Mary Anne Davitt, and Gaythia Weis.
Not every bill is followed. There must be a national or LWVCO position that underpins opposing or supporting a bill, plus the LAC prioritizes which bills to follow based upon available time & effort and how strongly it aligns with League priorities.
You can have an impact on legislation even if you aren’t on the LAC. Keep an eye out for Action Alerts in your email in-box. Each alert explains an important bill and requests that you contact your elected official to ask them to either support or oppose the bill. The Action Alert makes it easy & fast!
Want to see for yourself what the LAC is following? Then check out the Legislative Action Report and Master Bill Tracker. Articles on some key bills or areas are available in the Report and the status & summaries of all the bills followed by the LAC are listed in the Tracker.
Here are a few bills that the LAC is following that may be of interest to you:
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- HB24-1007 Prohibit Residential Occupancy Limits
The bill prohibits local governments from enacting or enforcing residential occupancy limits unless those limits are tied to a minimum square footage per person requirement that is necessary to regulate safety, health, and welfare.
- HB24-1065 Reduction of State Income Tax Rate
For income tax years commencing on and after January 1, 2025, the bill reduces both the individual and the corporate state income tax rates from 4.40% to 4.0%. The bill also exempts the rate reductions from the existing statutory requirements that tax expenditure legislation include a tax preference performance statement in a statutory legislative declaration and repeal after a specified period of tax years.
- HB24-1067 Ballot Access for Candidates with Disabilities
The bill requires the general assembly, the secretary of state, and each political party to ensure that the caucus process or any future alternative process by which candidates may access the ballot that is accessible to persons with disabilities remains an option in the state. The bill specifies that the petition process is not a means of ballot access that is accessible to persons with disabilities. In addition…
- SB24-005 Prohibit Landscaping Practices for Water Conservation
On and after January 1, 2025, the bill prohibits local governments and unit owners' associations of common interest communities from allowing the installation, planting, or placement of nonfunctional turf, artificial turf, or invasive plant species on commercial, institutional, or industrial property or a transportation corridor. The bill also prohibits…
- SB24-049 Content of Material in Libraries
The bill establishes a process by which a student, parent, or member of the community may object to a library resource in a school or public library. Each library resource that is reconsidered pursuant to the process must be evaluated based on standards applied by a committee for school libraries and a director of a public library. Members of the committee…
(... indicates that the bill description has been truncated. The entire description is available in the Master Bill Tracker.) | Information on the 2024 Primary and Caucuses | |
An article from Boulder County Elections provides information on the 2024 presidential primary as well as links to check your voter registration and make changes if needed.
The allocation of presidential delegates is decided in the presidential primary, held on March 5. Registered voters will be mailed primary ballots according to their party registration. Unaffiliated voters will receive both a Republican and a Democratic ballot, but may return only one of the two.
The Colorado Republican and Democratic parties also hold caucuses, which are a first step for candidates to get onto the June 25th primary ballot. Candidates also have the option to petition onto the ballot. At political party caucuses, voters registered with the party attend a large group meeting and then separate into precincts to voice candidate preferences and elect delegates to the party’s county assembly and/or convention. Boulder County Republican caucuses will be held on Thursday, March 7. Boulder County Democratic caucuses will be held on Saturday, March 9.
You may have heard that the Boulder County coroner recently resigned. The county commissioners will fill the vacancy in February for the short term. The person who is coroner for the final two years of the regular term will be determined at a “special election” held concurrently with the regular November election for county commissioners in District 1 and 2, our District Attorney and state legislators.
Caucus Information
| Meet Your Legislators Event Held January 6 | | By Holly Monkman and Susan Curtis | |
On January 6, the League of Women Voters of Boulder County sponsored a Meet Your Legislators event at Rule4. Thank you to all the Boulder County state senators and representatives for attending. They were Senators Stephen Fenberg, Sonya Jaquez Lewis and Janice Marchman; and, Representatives Junie Joseph, Karen McCormick, Kyle Brown, Jennifer Lea Parenti and Judy Amabile. Tim Waters, former Longmont City Council member, moderated the panel and discussion. Legislators discussed their priorities for the current legislative session, bills they planned to introduce and their intent and practices to reach consensus and compromise with other legislators. More than 60 members and community members attended the event. | | Boulder County Legislators at the Meet your Legislators event January 6, 2024 | Welcome to these new members who joined in December and January: Renee Hartsook, Emily Reynolds and Pamela Lurie.
Time For Merit Award Nominations:
It’s time to submit your nominations for LWVBC Merit Awards to be announced at the Annual Meeting Saturday, May 18, 2024 at Rule4, 9:30 a.m. - 12 noon. We want to honor those members and community partners who have made a major contribution to our work since July 1, 2023. Think of actions and events that were important and who made them happen. We want to hear from you!
Thank you to Martine Elianor who designed a new online tool to make it easy to nominate partners and members for recognition and awards. The link to the Merit Awards Nomination Form is here. Nomination Form You may nominate more than one person and in more than one award category. The tool will ask you to provide the name and information about this person and why they are deserving of the award. Specific information is very helpful. The deadline for receiving nominations is March 31, 2024.
The Membership Committee will review all 2024 nominations and make recommendations of award recipients to the Board of Directors at the April board meeting for their vote. We hope those nominating award recipients will be available to present the award at the Annual Meeting. We typically do not give the same award to a member two years in a row.
The Merit Award categories with definitions are:
LWVBC Community Partner of the year - Boulder County Corporation, organization or individual who advances LWVBC goals and is a true partner to LWVBC. The Community Partner award may be given to a non-league member.
LWVBC Member of the year - In recognition of outstanding service to the LWVBC
LWVBC Team Leader of the year - Issue or operations leader in recognition of outstanding service to the LWVBC
LWVBC Team Member of the year - Issue or operations member In recognition of outstanding contributions to a LWVBC team
LWVBC Emerging Leader of the year - A member who has been with the League less than three years who steps up to an important leadership role in LWBC
LWVBC Student Member Scholarships
The deadline to apply for 2024 LWVBC Student Member $500 Tuition Scholarships is April 1, 2024. We may choose to give more than one scholarship.
The qualifications for the scholarships are:
1. The student member will have been a member of the League of Women Voters of Boulder County for at least one year as of May 1, 2024 and fulfilled the 20 volunteer hours requested of student members in exchange for free membership.
2. The student member demonstrates an understanding of the mission and function of the League of Women Voters.
3. The student member has made a demonstrable contribution to the mission and activities of the League.
4. The student member is recommended by three members of LWVBC, one of whom is a member of the LWVBC Board.
5. The student can provide evidence of enrollment in a degree or certificate program of an accredited Colorado institution of post-secondary learning.
Please contact Susan Curtis at membershipdirector@lwvbc.org to receive an application form and description of the information needed. Additionally, Susan has contacted each LWVBC student member individually to encourage them to apply.
Did You Know?
Approved LWVBC board minutes are now available to all members on line. You will find the minutes under “Member Info” on the home page of our LWVBC website. You must be logged in to see the minutes.
The LWVBC Board of Directors meets 10 times per year and reviews policy, financials and other important League business. Minutes are typically approved at the next scheduled meeting, e.g. January meeting minutes approved at the February meeting and then posted as approved.
The minutes are posted to encourage you to stay in the know about our League and learn more about our practices and policies. Perhaps you will be encouraged to take a leadership role in LWVBC!
Not Just for New Members!
On the LWVBC home page online, there are two ways for new members to learn about our League and how to navigate and find important information. You can select the blue button in the upper right hand corner of the home page, “New Members.” Another way to access this valuable information is to select ‘Member Info” and scroll down the list to New Members.
The information is valuable to all our members as a way to learn more about navigating our website and finding the information of greatest interest to you. Take a look! You may be surprised at all you can learn!
| | By Holly Monkman and Susan Curtis | On the evening of January 17th, the League of Women Voters of Colorado, the League of Women Voters of Boulder County and El Semanario, a weekly Spanish language newspaper, sponsored a film-screening and panel discussion\Q&A of Nos Vemos Prontos at the Sie Film Center in Denver. The documentary explores the poignant journeys of Venezuelan immigrants, delving into the stories of individuals who are traveling across continents in search of a better life, driven by the loss of democracy in their own country.
Dr. Luis Torres, MSU Deputy Provost for Academic & Student Affairs and Chair/Professor of Chicana/o Studies (retired) joined Andrew Kirschenbaum, freelance documentary producer, giving context to the question, “How could this happen in a democracy that was once one of the wealthiest countries in the western hemisphere?”
|  | | Mr. Kirschenbaum’s 25 minute documentary chronicled the migration of Venezuelan refugees through Columbia from the Venezuelan border to Bogota. The documentary uses the voices of migrants themselves to tell their stories in their own words and through poetry.
The panel discussion facilitated by Beth Hendrix, Executive Director of LWVCO, and an El Seminario interview with some of Venezuelan migrants are available for viewing by clicking on the links. The trailer for the film is available on Andrew Kirschenbaum’s website.
Above: Dr. Luis Torres, Andrew Kirschenbaum, & Beth Hendrix
Left: Susan Curtis & grandson Andrew Kirschenbaum | | | Voting Methods Article Coming Soon
| | The Dec 2023 / Jan 2024 issue of The Boulder County Voter ran “A Better Way to Report Election Contest Results: Part 1 – Boulder County’s Multi-Winner Contests” and promised Part 2 in the February 2024 Voter. Unfortunately, the article was not ready by press time but should be printed in the March 2024 Voter. Meanwhile, please listen to this 9-minute KGNU interview on the topic of better reporting of election results: kgnu.org/the-way-most-places-report-election-results-is-pretty-misleading | |