WASHINGTON COUNTY DEMOCRATS
Meeting, January 9, 2013
Washington County Democrats met Wednesday, January 9, 2013, at 7 p.m. in
a second-floor meeting room at the Washington Public Library. Present were
Chairman Pete Morrison, Dave Ciha, Kay Ciha, Martha Dahlin, Karen Gorham, Mary
Martin, Steve Maxon, Doris Park, Shirley Pfeifer, Robert Spenner, state Senator
Rich Taylor, and Nan Stark.
1. Chairman Pete called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of
Allegiance.
2. The November 2012 minutes had been e-mailed to everyone with e-mail
addresses, and had been posted to the blog. No objections were brought forth
from those, and they will be filed.
3. Treasurer Kay Ciha presented the treasurer’s report and distributed
printouts of the report. Cash on hand on 11-14-12 was $1,680.20. Income was
$200.29 from a Mediacom refund; and $155.13 from donation of unspent campaign
funds from Richard Gilmore. (Donation is required for unspent campaign funds,
and Richard donated these to the Washington County Democrats). Expenses were:
to Go Daddy, for a three-year Web site subscription, $268.00; Mediacom (for
phone, cable and Internet), $182.04; Dodici’s (gift certificate for the
Patersons of Riverside), $100.00; one-year box rent for P.O. box 42, paid to
the USPS, $56.00; and Walmart (for file folders for audit), $14.07. Cash
available on 1-9-13 was $1,415.51. Pete said the treasurer’s report would be
filed for audit. Kay said she had received membership money from several people
just before the meeting. She reminded everyone that dues should be paid soon.
4. Report of the Chair: Pete stated that he believed we ended up the
2012 election season pretty well and the Democrats fared better than in the
previous election. President Obama didn’t lose by much in the county, and Dave
Loebsack was re-elected as state representative. He believed that Rep.
Loebsack’s coming to Washington a number of times helped a lot.
5. Old Business -- Pete said we had successes in the election and that
everything went well. He had e-mailed and texted campaign worker Ian Gray
couple of times to compliment him on the job he had done, as well as contacting
some of the higher-ups to let them know what a good job Ian had done. Ian may
be thinking about running for an Illinois House seat in the district where he
lives. Pete has also tried to incorporate some of the younger people who worked
during the campaign season, hoping we can keep them involved. He has been
encouraged in this effort by Lorraine Williams.
Next on the agenda was naming those people to serve on the nominations
committee. A nominations committee needs to come up with new officers to begin
their terms in March. Kay said we also need a place to meet for the March
convention -- an off-year convention. We will consult the state rules as to
what we need to do to prepare for that, such as newspaper advertising. Pete
said we have the second floor meeting room reserved for us for the next six
months, for the second Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m., and a deposit is no
longer required.
Pete nominated himself and Kay Ciha for the nominations committee. Bob
Spenner nominated Richard Gilmore. Richard was not present, so he will be
contacted and asked to serve. No one else offered to serve, so Nan Stark was
named as a possibility to sit in on the committee as well.
Pete thinks we need to hold a workshop this summer
6. New Business -- State Senator Rich Taylor spoke about upcoming
legislation. He believes gas tax will be a big issue. Increasing the gas tax
has the support of the governor and the Republicans and limited support of
Democrats. He thinks the tax will be increased gradually and may be tied to
inflation. Pete brought up the matter of cars that don’t use gasoline. Dave
Ciha said those could be set up so their mileage can be read.
Sen. Taylor said legislation would include discussion of the large
surplus of funds being held. Commercial property tax will be another issue.
Sen. Taylor’s district includes the southern three townships of
Washington County, all of Henry and all of Lee counties, and the eastern four
townships of Jefferson County. It is District 42. His e-mail is rich.taylor@legis.state.ia.us.
Pete needs to find out where concerns from us should be sent. Rich will
try to be here for the legislative briefings in January, February and March.
The first briefing will be at 10 a.m. Jan. 19 at the courthouse.
Adhali Larios has a Face book page called Iowa Affirmative Action, and
we should have that attachment on our Web site, <iowawashingtoncounty.com>.
We went around the room and introduced ourselves and where we were from,
and discovered that a wide area of Washington County was represented that
evening. Pete remarked that he had met quite a few new Democrats recently and
will send them e-mails, etc. The Iowa City Democrats are keeping their office
open.
The next meeting will be Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, at 7 p.m. in the
second floor meeting room of the Washington Public Library.
Motion was made and seconded to adjourn, motion passed, and meeting was
adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Nan Stark, Secretary
