From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
"Assemblymember Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, selected the idea for “benefit corporations” as the winning entry in his annual “There Oughta Be a Law … Or Not” contest, which this year garnered 120 entries.

Huffman introduced Assembly Bill 361 and very quickly picked up a powerful co-author in Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, D-Van Nuys, who is chair of the Assembly’s budget committee.

The idea for the law came from Trathen Heckman, founding director of Daily Acts in Petaluma; Jeff Kletter, CEO and co-founder of Kinesys in San Rafael; Chris Mann, CEO of Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products in Sebastopol and Stuart Rudick, founding partner of Mindful Investors in Mill Valley.

Under the proposed law, owners of California businesses could voluntarily distinguish themselves as “benefit corporations” by operating with “an eye toward the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit,” as Huffman put it in a letter to his Assembly colleagues.

These companies could consider the needs of a community first, without fear of legal action from shareholders for not maximizing profits."

The following is a comment by Kay Tokerud, SRNC:
Ten percent of America’s workforce is for non-profits. Now, for profit companies want preferential treatment if they qualify as ‘community benefits’ corporations? Who decides what is beneficial for the community? This is a crude attempt by some to get on top of the heap by claiming that their company does something better than all the rest. Certainly they are after something. Jobs, contracts, political positions, perhaps?

Remember the Accountable Development Coalition? They have claimed to be the community and they, of course, are the community’s spokesperson who will decide what benefits the community. This is crazy. The community is made up of individual voters who will say what they want whenever there is an election. There is no legal definition of community benefits and there is no group of people who have the right to decide what benefits the community. This is part of the process of the blurring of lines between individual rights which are the law of the land and this new concept being promulgated by unelected people who want to have some additional rights to determine what is best for all.

I can’t call it socialism or communism because it isn’t. It does have a name however, it’s COMMUNITARIANISM. This is a hybrid form of government being pushed that ‘balances’ the rights of the individual with the rights of the community. Trouble is, there are no legal rights of the community in the law. That’s made up. Communitarianism has already advanced in the European Union and is taught at American universities as a form of governance. They will impose this on us if we let them.

Don’t be fooled. We are going down a slippery slope when individual rights can be balanced away because of someone’s idea that the community (whatever that is) is more important than an individual. There ought to be a law against this type of thing happening in America. Oh, there is, it’s called the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

Why is it that everyone who refers to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is considered to be an extremist now?  As a liberal Democrat I don't see why the founding law of our nation is considered to be right-wing.  It isn't.  It's American.

The Fair Political Practices Commission has found Michael Allen guilty of conflict of interest charges and is in the process of fining him.  He is guilty of lobbying the City of Santa Rosa for land use changes to a parcel owned by SCWA.  His campaign slogan of 'Our Values Our Voice' is a farce, as is his appointment to the Assembly Ethics Committee. 

Those who thought we had some sort of vendetta against Michael Allen should ask themselves now why they would defend someone who is guilty of vote selling and secret lobbying.  The FPPC doesn't investigate, find guilty, and fine innocent politicians.

KEEP YOUR EYE ON MICHAEL ALLEN.

A friend sent us this copy of Lisa Maldonado's twitter account bio:

• Name: Lisa Maldonado
• Location: en la lucha
• Bio: just your average labor boss, working for the revolution, all about the class struggle and waiting for the great leap forward.

She's in the fight (la lucha).  What is she fighting for?  Working for the revolution.  What revolution?  Class struggle?  Great Leap Forward (Chairman Mao of China's rallying cry).

Michael Allen really has the C-team here.  This sounds like communist rhetoric, and sadly, I'm not name-calling.  I don't have to.  She did it herself.  Revolution and Great Leap Forward---these are alarming statements, and her bulldog aggressive attacks on us are stunning from someone in the public domain.  What the heck is this?  I'd say it's high school play-acting but Maldonado is in a position of trust in the unions.  Is she in some fantasy land or does she know something we don't?

One guarantee:  She goes with Michael Allen to Sacramento.  Is this what you want?

I was a union member for nearly 30 years: 7 with Communication Workers of America (CWA), and 22 with SEIU.  I encouraged others to become members of the union, and asked them where they'd be without it---minorities, women---would they even be employed?  When the issue came up regarding whether union dues should be used to support candidates I was in favor of it.

Now, however, I realize that as a rank and file member I had no idea what was going on with my money or how the unions had morphed from the Cesar Chavez model of fair representation for the voiceless to the gorilla in the room playing back door politics.

The creation of ever-fragmenting groups here in Sonoma County is an example of this.  We've been accused of picking on poor Michael Allen but he is the nexus around which much of this swirls.

Look under the rock and he is invariably there with one of his hats on and with his hand out.

• The Accountable Development Coalition (creating artificial community  consensus to forward a self-serving machine):  He was a founder

• The North Bay Labor Council (Lisa Maldonado is executive director, need we say more):  He was president

• Solar Sonoma County (using pressure to enact legislation requiring labor-installed solar installations):  He was a founder

• Santa Rosa Planning Commission:  As a planning commissioner appointed by Gary Wysocky, he tried to get a requirement into the General Plan which would force all property owners to have energy tests on their homes (union) and mandatory energy upgrades (union work)

• Who were his biggest campaign contributors for his runs for City Council (he lost) and 7th Assembly District?  Unions.  Electrical Unions.  Potential installers of solar.   In both races he raised tens of thousands more than anyone else.  Union money. My money. Your money.

Who is the big boss now?  Who is carrying the big stick?  Who is not accountable to the people who pay the bills?  Who needs a light shone on their bullying tactics?  No union should be able to rest on the saintly laurels of Cesar Chavez or those who fought for workers rights in the early days of organizing.  If it's dirty we don't want it.  Root them out.  Clean up the unions.

 

Great job by the person who revealed that Lisa Maldonado (North Bay Labor Council) helps train people to use community coalitions to do the bidding for the unions. Now she is saying people should be more transparent. She is hand in glove with the ADC and Michael Allen. The local green movement has been hijacked by the ADC which claims to represent the entire community. No one owns green. It’s just conservation and efficiency. They are making it into a social agenda that’s designed for them to be able to control which developers get approvals and which companies get the jobs. They also engage in political campaigns, like Michael Allen’s.

The ADC should be the last group that anyone listens to. They have more conflicts of interest than any local group I’ve ever heard of. Let’s face it, they get money to lobby on the behalf of select private interests and have no place in the decision making process. The audacity of the ADC is shocking. Santa Rosa,  I now refer to it as Little Chicago, is an embarrassment to all those who still believe that our opinions and votes matter.

This is an important debate about community coalitions that seek to have more influence or even exclusive influence over elected officials’ actions. Do they own these officials? If they do, it is a very sad day. Do we need to have a ballot initiative to ban the use of Community Benefits Agreements that give exclusive rights to a small select group of people? Who are they anyway, and how many of them are there? Does anyone know who paid them to kill the Lowe’s project in Santa Rosa?

The Press Democrat has recently published two Close to Home articles, one from the Accountable Development Coalition touting their impact on area land use planning, and the other from Keith Woods of the North Bay Builders Association telling it like it is.

Lisa Maldonado, wearing so many hats that you can barely see her, is the executive director of North Bay Labor Council (hired by Michael Allen and his biggest supporter) and plenty more.  She's spending her time posting on the Watch Sonoma County website supporting the ADC (founded by Michael Allen) and trashing anyone who opposes Michael Allen.  Now someone on WSC has posted this revealing information:

TroublemakersAugust 4, 2010 at 11:37 amAccording to a website devoted to Bay Area labor “troublemakers” Lisa Maldonado and Martin Bennett are among the instructors.

http://labornotes.org/bayarea

Bay Area Troublemakers School
Turning Crisis Into Opportunity

May 30
Laney College, Oakland
Workshops including: Nuts & Bolts Organizing Skills; Youth in the Labor Movement; Aggressive Grievance Handling; The Fight for Single-Payer Health Care; Community-Labor Alliances. Scroll down for a complete list!

REGISTRATION
Register at the door!
Regular registration: $20

Building Solidarity County by County: Central Labor Councils and Organizing [Panel & Discussion]: How Central Labor Councils use community coalitions and advocacy to assist unions in moving and coordinating organizing campaigns. Panelists will address the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act and organizing efforts at the Port of Oakland, among others. T.C. Wilson, Alameda CLC, Martin Bennett, North Bay CLC, Lisa Maldonado, North Bay CLC

                                                          ***
Using community coalitions and neighborhood groups, and then fragmenting themselves into as many subgroups as possible, these people manufacture consent and make themselves the spokespeople for our community.  

This is completely unacceptable to us and we will fight it.