February 2014

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Wednesday, February 5th

Liaison Conference Call Minutes

 Attendance:

Congregational Updates

Paramus (Sally) World Book Night is in April, and Central Unitarian Church is participating. This is a literacy campaign tied in with Shakespeare’s 450th birthday.

Princeton Frances is exploring possible collaboration with an organization that educates people about how to enroll under the Affordable Care Act.

Summit (Lorraine) The congregation is sending 15 people to the “Moral March” rally this weekend in Raleigh, N.C.

Montclair (Cecilia, Diane) Montclair organized a social justice themed Sunday service, and prepared a survey on UULMNJ and how people can get involved. As yet relatively few people have replied to this survey, and the social action committee is considering next steps.

Washington Crossing (Lynn) – The congregation has prepared a survey to solicit feedback about the UUA’s congregational study issue.

Issue / Task Force Updates

The New Jim Crow (Jim deBoer)

Work continues to move towards the creation of a separate task force for this issue. The position paper is almost complete and ready for submission for the Board’s consideration at its February meeting. Please let task force chair Al Stawsky know if anyone in your congregation might like to get involved with this (alynways@gmail.com).

Sandy Relief (Lorraine)

The state Department of Community Affairs has recently released its proposal for how it intends to spend the next round of federal Sandy relief funding. Its technical title is “substantive amendment #7”. Our partner organizations, the Housing Development Network of New Jersey and Fair Share Housing, are critical of this proposal, in that it doesn’t sufficiently address the needs of those who need replacement affordable housing, those who are renters, or those who are minorities.

There are three public hearings scheduled for next week on this proposal; those underlined havevolunteered to attend:

Tuesday, Feb. 11th: Stockton University, Atlantic County (101 Vera King Farris Drive, Galloway, NJ 08205; Performing Arts Center; 4–7 pm)

Wednesday, Feb. 12th: The NJ Institute of Technology, Newark (150 Bleeker Street, Newark, NJ 07102; Campus Center; 5:30–8:30 pm) Sally Gellert and Jim deBoer

Thursday, Feb. 13th: Brookdale Community College, Monmouth County (Robert J. Collins Arena; 765 Newman Springs Road, Lincroft, NJ 07738; 4–7 pm) Lorraine Wearley and Rev. Rosemary Newberry

As you can see, we need someone for the first session in Atlantic County! It is very important that we participate in this process because of the numerous problems in how the state expended the initial round of Sandy funding. In addition to the issues mentioned above, African-American and Latino applicants were turned down at substantially higher rates than Euro-Americans. And, of those whose initial requests were denied, 80% had their requests accepted upon appeal. This raises the question of how thorough the initial application review process was — presumably if uniform standards had been applied, we would not have seen such a disparity between initial determinations and subsequent post-appeal determinations.

The task force is preparing talking points for people willing to give testimony. If you are interested, please register online: http://bit.ly/SandyPublicHearings.  In addition to next week’s hearings, we have until March 5th to submit written comments by email: sandy.publiccomment@dca.state.nj.us  or by mail to Gabrielle Gallagher, NJ Department of Community Affairs, 101 South Broad Street, P.O. Box 800, Trenton, NJ 08625.

Minimum Wage (Lorraine)

A request has come in from the national level for us to contact Senator Menendez to encourage him to sign on as a co-sponsor of the federal minimum wage legislation, and also for us to send letters of support to local newspapers. We are unsure however what the timing is of this legislation. Please stay tuned for more details.

Gun Violence Prevention (Craig and Diane)

The winter agenda will include several bills that are being re-introduced in the state legislature, involving magazine limits, background checks, and safety training. We are hopeful that many of these bills will again find support among the legislature, and are considering how to encourage the governor to support these measures as well.

Meanwhile, New Jersey Together (a faith-based community organization) is asking mayors and town councils to evaluate their gun procurement policies. Of all guns sold in this country, 15% are bought by local law enforcement, and 25% are purchased federally. Our goal is that as municipalities put out bids, they ask gun manufacturers how/whether they are:

• developing smart gun technologies that use biometrics to make sure that guns are only used by the people to whom they have been issued
• microstamping of bullets
• monitoring of the distribution of the guns they manufacture

At this point, the goal is to obtain some baseline information. Perhaps later on, we can think about beginning to make purchasing decisions based on the gathered information. West Orange recently passed such an ordinance, requesting the information from its suppliers.

How can UU’s get involved? There will be some upcoming training by New Jersey Together. We might also think in terms of a statewide conference call for people to learn more about how to do this in their communities. Diane will develop a list of where New Jersey Together is already active.

Upcoming Action Alerts

Jeh Johnson (pronounced ‘Jay’) is the new Secretary of Homeland Security. The Immigration Task Force would like to write letters to him expressing concern about the immigrant detention policies in Essex County. You’ll get this letter via Salsa, which will enable you to send it directly to him as an email.

The National Day Laborers’ Organizing Network has filed a petition to the government to reduce and halt deportations. There will be a mobilization on April 5th entitled “2 million, Too Many, Not 1 More”. (The figure of 2 million refers to recent deportations.) Sally will keep us posted.

The governor withdrew New Jersey from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative several years ago. A lawsuit is underway to reinstate REGGI, and we will be circulating a petition in support of REGGI.

Other Notes

Annual Plenary

Coming up soon on Saturday, April 5th, is our Annual Plenary. Please register early! We’re planning a liaison training to take place after the meeting; other details will be announced shortly.

Departure of Jim deBoer

UULMNJ Issues Organizer Jim deBoer is stepping down from the Legislative Ministry at the end of February in order to accept a call as pastor of the Federated Church of Livingston. Thank you very much for an excellent opportunity to learn more about advocacy in our state and to make a difference!

The Next Call – Wednesday, March 5th, 8:00pm

Thank you for your participation!