Wellstone Hosts Councilmember Valenzuela at February Meeting

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento is proud to announce Sacramento Councilmember Katie Valenzuela as the featured speaker at our Feb. 4 membership meeting. Valenzuela will be presenting for the People’s Budget Sacramento, an organization that promotes participatory budgeting (PB) for both the City and the County of Sacramento.

According to the Participatory Budgeting Initiative, PB is “a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend part of a public budget.” They further add that PB “gives people real power over real money.” 

People’s Budget Sacramento plans to promote PB by presenting an alternative budget to the City Council of Sacramento that reflects the community’s priorities. They are also promoting more engagement in the budget process as well by recommending changes including participatory budgeting for the City and County but are not seeking formal charter changes at this time.

“The foundational principle of the People’s Budget is simple: residents deserve more of a voice in how our money is spent, and budget spending should reflect community needs and priorities,” said Valenzuela on behalf of the organization. “Since our inception, we’ve engaged thousands of residents through our survey tool, and advocated at the City and County for spending decisions that reflect community priorities. This year, we’re hoping to work with decision makers to build a participatory, community-led budget process for the 2021-2022 budgets, and hope for support from the progressive community in Sacramento to make that vision a reality.”

The program is scheduled to begin at the start of the membership meeting at 7 p.m. The presentation is expected to last approximately 40 minutes and will be followed by 20 minutes of questions and answers. 

The meeting will be held over Zoom due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For security reasons, the meeting credentials will only be sent to subscribers of the club’s email list. Guests are welcome to subscribe by going to wellstonedems.club.

More information about People’s Budget Sacramento may be found on their website at peoplesbudgetsac.com.

Wellstone Contact:

Joshua Cameron

(916) 538-0385

media@wellstonedems.club

Wellstone Co-Hosts Arden-Arcade Community Table

ARDEN-ARCADE, Calif. — Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento along with the Arden Community Council and Mutual Assistance Network will be hosting the Arden-Arcade Community Table, a food, diaper and toiletry distribution, on Saturday, Jan. 30. The event will be held in front of Kico’s Mexican Food on 2324 Arden Way and will last from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until supplies run out.

The Community Table is geared towards serving the community of Arden-Arcade but anyone in need is welcome to partake. 

“People in Arden-Arcade are facing many challenges since the pandemic began including not having enough to eat,” said Magali Kincaid, Wellstone’s political director and a lead organizer for the event. “We need to come together as a community and take care of each other.”

The event is intentionally located in the western half of Arden-Arcade, which has both a higher poverty rate and lower school test scores than the eastern half. 

“Western Arden-Arcade is very vulnerable to economic downturns,” said Austin Schlocker, CEO of the Arden Community Council. “Holding an event like this is an opportunity to not only provide for those in need but to also bring our community together so we can build back better when the pandemic is over.”

Participants can either walk or drive up to the event and grab what they need. Available items will include canned food, fresh bread, soap, toothbrushes, and diapers and shall be distributed first come, first served. Participants must wear face masks and adhere to state and local social distancing guidelines. 

The organizers are asking for additional donations so that as many residents can be served as possible. There are three ways to donate. To donate items in advance, contact Magali Kincaid. To donate items on Jan. 30, bring them to the event. To donate money, send payment to the Venmo account @JDKincaid.

Event Contact:

Magali Kincaid

political@wellstonedems.club

Wellstone Contact:

Joshua Cameron

(916) 538-0385

media@wellstonedems.club

Virtual Oktoberfest: Progressive Women of Color Candidates Forum

As the COVID19 pandemic forces us all to socially distance, we are doing something new this year.

On October 1 at 7pm, we are hosting a virtual panel entirely comprised of progressive women of color candidates.

This will kick off a month of campaigning every weekend for our endorsed candidates and legislation so we score progressive wins up an down the ballot this November.

Statement on the Police Lynching of George Floyd

BLACK LIVES MATTER

We condemn the police’s murder of George Floyd – a modern day lynching.  

George Floyd’s death is yet another highly visible extrajudicial execution in a horrifically long list of thousands of Black and brown people killed by police.  

From Breonna Taylor to Meagan Hockaday, to Oscar Grant and Stephon Clark – there are too many innocent victims for us to even attempt to express the magnitude of this tragedy and brutality. 

Police in this country are completely out of control – they can kill anyone, anywhere, at any time, for any reason, with zero consequences. 

Police must be held accountable, and their terrorizing of Black and Brown communities must be stopped – immediately.  

We stand in solidarity with, and believe we should follow the leadership of, Black-led groups like Black Lives Matter and the CDP African American Caucus. 

We support people fighting back against a police / surveillance state designed to punish and oppress those with darker skin.  

We demand the firing, trial, and conviction for murder of any and all police who kill unarmed people – beginning with Floyd’s murderer and his three accomplices. 

We demand the resignation of any District Attorney or Attorney General too cowardly to prosecute killer cops.  

We demand amnesty for all protesters peacefully exercising their first amendment rights in the face of police brutality and agents provocateurs. 

We demand that cities everywhere defund the police and review all existing contracts with law enforcement.  

We demand a national system for tracking police killings, and local independent oversight commissions with the power to subpoena and fire police officers.  

We demand liberty and justice and equal treatment for all, and an end to the plague of White Supremacy.  

BLACK LIVES MATTER 

Wellstone Statement on Police Lynching of George Floyd
Wellstone Statement on Police Lynching of George Floyd

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Demand an equitable pandemic response.

Now is the time to call your legislators.  
Make sure they don’t follow Trump’s reckless “leadership”, or resort to typical, ineffective, neoliberal, trickle-down band-aids.  

Find your City Council Member     Find your County Supervisor
Find your US House Member        Find your CA State Legislators 
Contact Senator Feinstein        Contact Senator Harris 

Wellstone is suggesting these policies as a starting point.

  1. (Federally) Immediate passage of Rep. Jayapal’s Medicare-for-All H.R. 1384 
  2. (Federally) Provide guaranteed reimbursements for states to acquire all Personel Protective Equipment (PPE) needed for healthcare workers 
  3. (Federally) Raise the minimum wage to at least $15 per hour, tied to inflation, with hazard pay for any essential employee 
  4. (Federally) Extend Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to all persons as an unconditional grant for non-corporate economic stimulus 
  5. (Federally) Establish a Federal Job Guarantee 
  6. (Statewide) Enforce a moratorium on evictions and mortgage payments 
  7. (Statewide) Extend Calfresh benefits to all California citizens who want to sign up, by waiving all income/wealth means-testing 
  8. (Statewide)  Establish a CA single-payer system in advance of any federal system 
  9. (Locally)  Establish a local public bank to invest counter-cyclically.
  10. (Locally)  Establish a housing guarantee and Renters Bill of Rights. 
     

Please take a few minutes to place a call to your representatives.  

Let us know how we’re doing!

PLEASE TAKE OUR SWOT SURVEY!

As part of our ongoing efforts to be transparent and bring in as many stakeholders as possible as we draft our first ever Strategic Plan in 2020 (a YUGE election year), we want to ensure all members can easily provide input.

The SWOT Survey is a standard assessment tool that looks at:

  • Strengths: what we do well and should do more of
  • Weaknesses: what we don’t do that well, and need to improve
  • Opportunities: things we should go for!
  • Threats: things we need to be aware of as endangering our organization

We would love to hear from you! In the SWOT Survey, you can either take 2 minutes and give a short one sentence response, or go into greater detail.

Questions? Please contact us.