Discretion is the Better part of Valor
Pat McKinley showed how he got to be Chief of the FPD by not telling a joke and moving on to introducing guests. Jeff Wolf was the guest of Drew Napolin. Dave Weigand was the guest of Mike Escalante

Wally Bartelt had the winning ticket for the Opportunity Drawing, drew a golf tee and received $25 ( God knows why!)

Propositions: (pseudo democracy in what is really a republic?)

Jim Hogg introduced his colleague Brent Romney from Western State College of Law and Professor Romney's topic, Propositions in California.. America is founded upon a concept of representative government, i.e. qualified voters elect legislature, who in term proposed and pass laws for executive review and judicial interpretation. California has been increasingly given to proposed and passing laws by direct vote of the electorate in forms of propositions and referenda. Propositions can be useful in that issues that may have "bottled up" in legislative committee, e.g. criminal sentencing conventions, can be brought out in the open for a decision. On the other hand, propositions may be crafted in ways that deny flexibility and discretion. The current "three strikes" which may be reviewed by the US Supreme Court on constitutional grounds.

Propositions can be placed on the ballot anytime that petitions are presented with the signatures of voters to equal at least 5% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election ( when we elect our "goob".) These petition efforts may not be a true "ground swell" of grass roots support, but rather the result of well financed professional petition suppliers who are paid by the name. Romney used the "medical" marijuana campaign as an example of such a campaign. Voters may be easily confused by conflicting messages as in the case of the Prop 52, which would make it possible to register and vote on the same day. The supporters and opponents of Prop 52 both included prominent law enforcement groups. Is this good or bad for law enforcement? Other issues, such as the one in OC re the clean up of the El Toro prior to transfer to the county may have purposes that are not clear to the average voter. Romney gave us a lot to think about whether we should be a democracy rather than a republic, when it comes to legislating.

Closing items

President Mike did not tell a joke (thank goodness!!) but he did say how glad we all are to see Dr. John Davis and indicated that we should see things as they are and work towards making them what they should be.