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Date: 2/28/2021
Subject: LWVSC March 2021 Newsletter
From: League of Women Voters of the Space Coast



LWVSC bi-monthly Newsletter Header

With the 2021 Florida Legislative Session due to start on March 2nd, this is an opportune time to remind ourselves that we can make an impact on the choices that our legislators make and that our voices do count. Just this month, action taken by LWV of the Space Coast was instrumental in getting a resolution recommending the Florida Legislature pass Medicaid expansion this session, was approved by the Palm Bay council. This resolution provides a strong mandate for members of the Brevard delegation to do what is right for the voters they represent. A big thank you to LWVSC league member Susan Connolly for her excellent speech in support of the resolution. 
 
One effective way to make your voice heard is by responding to action alerts received from LWV of Florida. Often these alerts require a quick turnaround, but just sending one email or making one call does make a difference. Below is a sample of some of the bills for which you can expect to see action alerts in the coming weeks: 
HB 1/SB 484 – Combating Public Disorder: Should this bill become law, peaceful protesters exercising their first amendment rights would risk being arrested and charged with a third-degree felony even if their conduct were not violent or disorderly. LWV of Florida strongly opposes this bill.
SB/SJR 1238 – Percentage of Elector Votes Required to Approve an Amendment or a Revision: If passed this bill would change the percentage of elector votes required to approve an amendment or a revision to the state constitution from 60% to 66 and 2/3%. This bill would further challenge the citizen-led initiative process by making it much more difficult to pass a constitutional amendment. LWV of Florida strongly opposes this bill.
SB 90 (no house companion) - Vote-by-mail Ballots: If passed this bill would require voters to sign-up for vote-by-mail (VBM) on an annual basis. Currently voters are able to sign-up for VBM for at least two years. This will make it more difficult to access VBM and is effectively a form of voter suppression. LWV of Florida strongly opposes this bill.

Finally, save the date for LWV of Florida Lobby Day scheduled for April 8th. Usually, this event requires travel to Tallahassee, but this year it will be a virtual event so please take the opportunity to participate. Thank you in advance for responding to action alerts and doing all that you can to oppose harmful legislation and support bills that promote good public policy.

In League,
Jo Shim
LWVSC President



This Month's Hot Topic

Restoring the Lagoon Remains a Hot Topic

Join us for a Zoom Meeting on Saturday, March 13th from 3 pm to 4:30 pm


Guests will be:
 
Kara McGuirk Woods, from the Marine Resource Center. She is the Lagoon Watch Coordinator.

Hannah Atsma is the Project Coordinator of the Ocean Research & Conservation Association's One Health Fish Monitoring Project.

Katelyn (Katey) Leban is the Conservation Oyster Coordinator of the Brevard Zoo.
 
 

     Members of the Month

Seeta Durjan Begui
Enid Naranjo-Rosado
Congratulations to Enid Naranjo-Rosado and Seeta Begui LWV of the Space Coast (LWVSC) members of the month for March 2021. This month we are celebrating two of our members from the islands. Although from different parts of the Caribbean, both Enid and Seeta have a lot in common. They are both fun-loving and share a heritage of wonderful food and celebrating major events in a big way with parties and parades. 

Enid is from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico which is a US Territory. She now lives in Palm Bay and has been an active member of the League since she joined last year when she volunteered for several voter registration events before the 2020 general election. Currently, she is interested in working on legislation to get better protections for victims of human trafficking who are minors and she is an enthusiastic member of the Education committee.  

Seeta is from Trinidad and Tobago and is well known in Brevard for her radio show “Viewpoint with Seeta and Friends”. The show creates a platform where community voices can be heard. Members of LWVSC have been on the program many times discussing topics such as Medicaid expansion and different aspects of voting. Seeta ran for Florida House District 52 in 2018 against Thad Altman. She supports many community organizations including the Brevard Caribbean American Sports and Cultural Association (BCASCA) based in south Brevard.  

LWV of the Space Coast thanks Enid and Seeta for all their work in the Melbourne/Palm Bay community and for their many contributions to the work of LWV of the Space Coast. 


CONTACT 2021-2022

They're here!!
 
Our Contact Directory of Elected Officials has been printed and is being distributed throughout the County.  They should be showing up at your local library branch shortly and other locations as we send them out to local governments and community groups.  

And if you know a community center, house of worship or other local group that needs copies, please let us know and we will arrange to get them to that group.  Contact Rob Grisar at robgrisar@yahoo.com or call him at 321-783-6995. 

As always, individual copies can be obtained by mailing a stamped self-addressed business size envelope to: LWVSC, PO Box 360823, Melbourne, FL 32936-0823.  

Of course, the easiest way to get yours is to go online and download it from our website. 
 


Committee Spotlights


 
 
 
The Education and Justice Committees had a joint meeting in February with guest, Dr. Danielle McKinnon.

Meet Dr. Danielle McKinnon

by Fran Baer and Kathy Ebersberger
 

February is designated as Black History Month. Some would ask, “What about the other 11 months of the year? Do we continue to pay attention to the history, contributions, and tribulations of people of color”? The School Board of Brevard County responded, “Yes”, when they created a new position in October, 2020.

 

The District’s very first Director of Equity and Diversity was hired. Dr. Danielle McKinnon came to Brevard Public Schools from Valencia College and Eastern Florida State College where she served as Assistant Dean of Allied Health and Dean of Nursing and Student Development Specialist respectively. She brings with her a Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion Merchandising, Clothing and Textiles from Florida State University, a Master’s Degree in Counseling and Psychology from Troy University and a Doctorate in Philosophy from Capella University.

 

The Education and Social Justice Committees had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. McKinnon at a joint Zoom meeting in February. Her presentation helped us better understand the role she is expected to play in closing the achievement gap of our minority and marginalized populations which she identifies as students of color and students with disabilities. Currently, the 71,000 student population is 15% African American, 11% Hispanic and 18% students with disabilities. She fully recognizes the challenges, which she sees as opportunities to make positive change using the available data. Gathering accurate data is one of her objectives. To that end she proposes an equity audit and more anti bias and anti racism training for staff. She knows progress takes patience, understanding, listening and learning. Her commitment to intentional design and hard work make her a commendable choice for the position and our committees look forward to working closely with Dr. McKinnon to achieve the full potential for all our children and community.

For more information check the District’s new portal, Heart To Heart, where every month an employee will be featured. February was Dr. Danielle McKinnon month.

 

 


Florida Wetlands
by Maureen Rupe
 

The Florida Wildlife Federation, Earth Justice, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Miami Riverkeeper, St. Johns Riverkeeper, Sierra Club, and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Environment Protection Agency’s decision to transfer power over wetlands dredge and fill permitting from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection..

This transfer allows  Florida to formally take over the Clean Water Act’s protection of marshes, cypress forests, ponds and other wetlands. Earth Justice is representing the group who is claiming that giving the power to cover these permits to Florida is giving away everything to developers and miners, who invest large amounts to legislators for influence and control over Florida politicians. 



"Growing Up Under Jim Crow"
by Kathy Ebersberger
 
The Social Justice Committee sponsored a panel discussion entitled “Growing Up Under Jim Crow” on February 27, 2021. Jim Crow, the racial caste system, was the legal system and societal norms that legalized segregation and relegated African-Americans to second-class citizenship. African-Americans were denied equal schools, medical care, housing, transportation and accommodations, among other things. 

The distinguished panelists shared a wide variety of their life experiences under Jim Crow.  The panelists were:

Miss Rosemary McGill
, a life-long civil rights activist who attended the March on Washington in 1963
Mr. Leroy Smith, an educator who taught in Brevard County schools before and after desegregation, and, 
Mrs. Alberta Wilson, an LWVSC member who serves as the Chairman of the Board of the National Congress of Black Women. 

The panelists’ stories of growing up in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s were sobering and inspiring. They all described the vibrant African American community they grew up in as instilling respect and love.  Unfortunately, they all agreed that Jim Crow has evolved and persists in 21st century Brevard. They shared their concern about the thriving racism in Brevard that seems to be becoming even more violent in nature.  

The 54 attendees were inspired to get involved to create a community where each person is treated equally and with respect. There is much work to do.

International Relations Group
March 2021
 
The March International Relations meeting will be a zoom meeting on Tuesday, March 9th at 1 p.m.
 
 Kathy Ebersberger will be leading the topic, The Two Koreas.  This is the third presentation for 2021.
 
We use the Great Decisions Publication from the Foreign Policy Association for our topics.   League Members and the public are invited.  If you have not previously attended our meetings please contact Joyce Calese, chair of the International Relations group so you will receive the link for the zoom meeting. Joyce’s e-mail address is calese37@gmail.com  

Exploring Remedies to Preserve Quality of Life for Brevard

by Terry Mott, Co-Chair, Sustainability Committee  

Last month I mentioned Resilient Brevard, a project the Brevard County Natural Resources Management Department & the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council have launched to help Brevard County create an economically and environmentally resilient community.  “Resilience” here is defined as:
The capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a region to plan, sustain, adapt, recover, improve & grow collaboratively through specific actions and implementation strategies geared to address specific vulnerabilities.
The project includes a survey for citizens to identify what matters most to them about quality of life in Brevard and what they believe the County should do to make Brevard more resilient to the impacts of climate change that threaten quality of life.
While at the time of this writing, the full results of the survey have not been released, water quality has been identified as one key element that measures quality of life.  And that’s both good and bad news for Brevard. 
The bad news:  Since there are about 1,000 people moving permanently to Florida every day (with most of them moving to coastal regions) and water from Brevard County flows into both the Indian River Lagoon and the St. Johns River (two watersheds that are already both impaired), this scenario is what sustainability professionals call a “wicked” problem.
“Wicked” here means a problem that is systemic in nature with myriad causes and one that cannot be resolved using a linear (singular approach) solution.
The good news is that Brevard has a stellar cadre of professional scientists and citizen scientists who volunteer to help educate the general public about how we each play an important role in sustaining water quality.
For example, here’s a list of recommendations from the Marine Resources Council (MRC) to help citizens reduce pollutants entering our waterways.

(For further details, see:  https://savetheirl.org/get-involved/tips-for-reducing-lagoon-pollution/ )

● Follow fertilizer rules in effect;
● Dispose of pet waste in the trash;
● Take your car to the carwash;
● Properly dispose of medicines; 
● Properly dispose of trash;
● Keep lawn clippings out of the street;
● Kill weeds naturally; 
● Plant native vegetation;
● Test your soil;
● Build a rain garden;
● Build a rain barrel;
● Attend workshops;
● Speak up: encourage local officials to adopt policies that protect our water bodies; and
● Volunteer
There is no shortage of opportunities to volunteer.  In addition to MRC, here’s a list of some of the organizations and agencies working to sustain water quality that welcome volunteers:  Brevard County Natural Resources Management Department, UF/IFAS Brevard County Extension, Keep Brevard Beautiful, Brevard Zoo, Ocean Research & Conservation Association, Recycle Brevard, Florida Native Plant Society, Brevard Sustainability Working Group, and the Sustainability Boards throughout Brevard.
Our Sustainability Committee also welcomes volunteers to help promote programs that support water quality initiatives and ensure quality of life in Brevard.  For additional information, contact Co-Chairs Susan Little at ergajn88@gmail.com and/or Terry Mott at terrymott93@gmail.com

Membership Renewals

New League Year begins April 1, 2021
 
Club Express will be e-mailing reminders to members in March notifying everyone that it is time to renew your League Membership.  We thank all of you for belonging to League this past year.  If you are a new member joining in February or March your membership is already paid.
When you receive your notice, you will have the option of paying with your credit card, Paypal, or mailing a check to our Post Office Box.  Most of you complete the online payments.  We look forward to your renewals.  Thank you!  

      New Members and March Zoom Meetings

NEW MEMBERS
We welcome  Rosemary Galliher and Patricia Brown this month.
 
Thank you to all members who donated in December to Students in Transition.  Total was $735. 
 
March League Zoom Meetings 
Tuesday, March 2nd League Board Meeting 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Tuesday, March 9th International Relations Meeting 1 pm to 3 pm
Saturday, March 13th Recycling Committee Meeting 10 am to 11 am
Saturday, March 13th Restoring the Lagoon Remains a Hot Topic  3 to 4:30 pm
Monday, March 15th Social Justice Committee Meeting  6 pm
Wednesday, March 17th Education Committee Meeting 10 am to 11:30 am
Saturday, Marth 20th Social Media Committee Meeting 10 am to 11 am

Upcoming Annual Meeting

Save the Date for League's Annual Meeting.
It will be a Zoom Meeting on Saturday, April 10th
1. You will be receiving an e-mail soon with important documents that will be voted on at the annual meeting. 
  • Proposed Programs of Work
  • Proposed Bylaws
  • Proposed Budget
2. Each year we provide information in our newsletters about the officers and directors who will be voted on at our annual meeting. Below you will find pictures and biographical information of the three new proposed Directors and Nominating Committee Members for the coming year. (later 2 additional nominating committee members will be chosen from the new board)
 
3. In the April newsletter we will provide photos and biographical information of the Officers to be voted on at our annual meeting. 
 

Beth Lambdin - Director
JoAnne Terry - Director

Stacey Bagg - Director
Yvonne Minus - Nominating Committee Chair

Hilah Mercer- Nominating Committee
Lee Sorensen - Nominating Committee

Information about Directors and Nominating Committee Members
 
Directors
Beth Lambdin -Beth joined the LWVSC in 2017. She has participated in various get-out-the-vote initiatives since moving to Brevard County in 2005. Beth is keenly interested in politics (and accountability), thanks, in part, to her mother’s legacy of active League involvement (and with other civic organizations) in upstate New York, and from living thirty years in Washington, DC.
In D.C., Beth worked at The Washington Post as the Plant Personnel Manager and Manager of Employment and EEO. She made a mid-life career shift into education and taught and tutored children and adults with learning disabilities for about a decade. 
She holds a B.A. in History from Hood College, a M.B.A. from George Washington University, and a M.S. in Special Education from Johns Hopkins University. 
Beth writes: Her film reviews, essays, and autobiographical sketches have been published in various regional and national newspapers and anthologies. She is the author of the soon-to-be-released collection of personal essays, "Love You, Sweetie", extraordinary ordinary true stories of one woman’s quest to love, be grateful, and stop complaining.
Beth currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Unity of Melbourne as the secretary. She is a moderator for Braver Angels, a citizens’ organization committed to bringing people together across the political divide. Beth lives with her husband, Jim, and their cats, Cayce, and Catsby in Cocoa Beach, Florida, where she devotes part of each day picking up trash on the beach. 
 
Joanne Terry - I am a Los Angeles area native (a real Valley Girl) and retired Satellite Systems Engineer.  I worked for 17 years at Boeing Satellite Systems before moving to Brevard County and accepting a position as a Chief Systems Engineer at Harris Corporation in 2004.  I was honored to receive the Outstanding Technical Achievement Award from the Space Coast Chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in 2008.
I have been a resident of unincorporated Satellite Beach since 2011.  In 2015 I realized my life-long goal of retiring from engineering and cruising the Caribbean.   My husband and I sailed our 42' sailboat to Puerto Rico in 2016 and we enjoyed six months a year sailing the Caribbean Islands before sailing home in May of 2020.  
I became active in politics during the 2020 election season, stepping into the role of campaign manager for one of the local candidates for elected office.   In this role I learned a lot about the Brevard electorate and how partisan our politics have become.  I was reminded of my early experiences with the LWV in California where I received the Non-Partisan Voting Guide in my mail every election.  It was my guide to voting as well as prompting issues-focused discussions with friends and family.  
I became a member of the LWVSC last fall and sent the Vote411 link to all my contacts.  Here in Brevard, I believe our issues cross partisan boundaries and can help bring us back together as a community.  Our environment, our senior population, our growing diversity, our need for a strong space industry, including STEM education, and our dependence on tourism all cross political boundaries.  
My goal for serving on the board of the LWVSC is to help realize the League's objectives of providing information and encouraging community involvement on the issues that unite us.
 
Stacey Bagg -  My career has been with NASA, and over the last 11 years I have had the privilege to work at 4 different centers (NASA Glenn Research center in Cleveland, OH; NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL; the Jet Propulsion Lab or JPL in Pasadena, CA and here at Kennedy Space Center). I've always loved space exploration, and for all the trials of this past year I'm so thankful to have watched SpaceX launch American astronauts from American soil again for the first time in 8 years; To watch the Mars Perseverance Rover - which I worked on at JPL- launch, and to see it land on Mars in 2 weeks!!; And to be working my dream job as technical assistant to the Flow Director of the Artemis missions - putting together the rocket that will take us back to the Moon this year, and in a few years take the first woman to the Moon.  
I became aware of some of our community trials when I transferred to KSC 3 years ago, and when I was getting my driver's license. I was asked to sign a petition to allow former felons voting rights. That shocked me, since in my ignorance I thought voting was an American right.  I signed and voted then, but unfortunately it took me until this year to really dive into the history of voting rights inequality and understand where we are and how we got here.  I hope I can continue learning and help increase voting access and equity in our community through the League.  I have found so far that I'm very aligned with many of the League committees and values, and I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do! 
 
Nomination Committee Members
Yvonne Minus, Chair of Nominating Committee - 
I was born in Atlanta, GA, and grew up in Sarasota, FL. I graduated from Marsh Draughon College in Atlanta and have been a resident of Melbourne for 40 years. 
I am currently serving in my second 4-year term as a member of the City of Melbourne City Council. I represent District 3. Additionally, I am the Secretary of the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization (SCTPO) and the President of the Melbourne Police Community Relations Council (MPCRC). I am a member of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPOA) and the Past President of the Space Coast League of Cities (SCLOC). I am a member of several other organizations as well, but I just wanted to mention a few.
I have been nominated to be the Chair of LWVSC’s Nominating Committee, a position I held in 2019. I have been married for 21 years to my husband, James. 
 
Hilah Mercer -
 I like to think of myself as a lifelong learner and educator. My birth family moved to Bartow, Florida the year before I started kindergarten. I graduated from UF in 1971 with a degree in Elementary Education and started teaching in Seminole County. The children who struggled to learn interested and bewildered me most. 
My husband and I moved to Brevard in 1979 and started our family. I graduated from UCF with a master’s degree in Exceptional Child Education in 1983 and taught for Brevard Community College’s Lab School Program. In 1988, I went to work for Brevard Public Schools as an Alternative Learning Lab, Exceptional Student Education, and Elementary Specialist teacher.  During this time, I attended UCF again and earned a modified degree in Educational Leadership. From 1997 – 2001, I served as the assistant principal of Roy Allen Elementary in Melbourne.
In 2001, I became the principal of Challenger 7 Elementary in Port St. John. My next step was to open Quest Elementary in Viera in 2004. Quest went from 435 students to nearly 900 students in three years.
I then moved to Cambridge Elementary Magnet School in Cocoa, which is a Title I school that qualifies for federal funding. The eight years I spent as principal at Cambridge were the most gratifying, grueling, and rewarding of my career. In 2011-12 I was selected Brevard Public Schools’ Elementary Principal of the Year, was named a finalist for the Principal Achievement Award for Outstanding Leadership from the Florida Educational Commissioner and was named a University of Florida Distinguished Educator. I remained at Cambridge until my retirement in 2015 and still miss many aspects of the job. 
My father was on the Polk County School Board when I was a child. That was the beginning of my interest and respect for both politics and education. The League’s mission, which focuses on education and advocacy, drew me to membership after retirement. I serve on the Education Committee. I am also  a member of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, an elder at Rockledge Presbyterian Church, and president of Brevard L.I.F.E., a women’s investment club. I love to spend time with my husband, visit my daughters and grandchildren, travel, read, and walk daily to enjoy nature. 
 
Lee Sorensen - My family and I moved to Brevard County in 1959, so I was privileged to grow up on the coast watching rockets, monkeys and people being launched into space. A product of Brevard Public Schools, I attended Florida Atlantic University and earned a degree in education. I began my career working in mental health for children and their families in South Florida. After a hiatus in Virginia, my family and I moved back to the space coast, where I began a 30-year career teaching students with varying abilities at Devereux and BPS.
It was while working with students with emotional and behavioral challenges that I saw first-hand the impact the arts had on my students. I took an opportunity to volunteer as a teacher liaison with Very Special Arts of Florida – Brevard Advisory Board. Fast forward 15 years and I am now retired from BPS and employed by the Brevard Achievement Center where I am their Arts Program Manager. I use the arts to help raise disability awareness in our community in addition to facilitating some fantastic annual events. 
My job is part-time (most days) which allows me time to pursue other interests and passions. As a retired educator, I continue to support and advocate for improving public education for our teachers, their students and families and our community. I attended a LWV Space Coast Hot Topic Event on how teacher pay impacts our communities' property values, etc. It was after that event that I joined LWVSC and its Education Committee. I have recently volunteered for the Observer Corps to watch our school board meetings online. 
To help with keeping a balance, I love a good day at the beach with my family and friends, especially with my three wonderful grandchildren. I also love to travel and books have always been a good friend.  I enjoy live music, live theatre, and art shows. 
As we all move forward through these very challenging times I am looking forward to meeting and learning more about you and the League and supporting your good work.
  


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