Democratic Club Gears Up for Annual Meeting

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Do you have a burning question you want to pose to a Pacific Palisades elected official?

The Pacific Palisades Democratic Club 2019 Annual Meeting gives community members a chance to do just that on Sunday, January 27.

“It’s a wonderful political and community forum for people to hear what’s going on in their town,” PPDC Vice President of Communications Adam Wolman explained ahead of the event. “This is a rare and unique opportunity for Palisadians to do this.”

This year’s event is slated to feature State Senator Ben Allen, Assemblymember Richard Bloom, and Congressman Ted Lieu.

“The main idea is that we will have time to ask questions of your elected officials and an idea of what they’re planning on working on for the new year,” event organizer and Vice President of Programming for the Democratic Club Janet Turner explained.

Last year, Senator Allen spoke about how the state was trying to counteract some of the things that the federal administration was doing that were hurting the state of California. Turner shared she expects to hear more on that at this year’s event.

Assemblymember Bloom will give an overview of legislative priorities for the upcoming Session, an overview of Governor Newsom’s proposed budget and what to expect with Governor Newsom’s new administration, a representative from his office shared ahead of the meeting.

Each elected official will have 20 to 30 minutes. Turner explained that each will talk for part of their allotted time and take questions that are relevant to the community for the remainder. 

“Elected officials usually stay a little time after or before their time, if someone wants to pull them aside to talk about something more personally related,” Turner explained. 

“The fact that the Pali Dems have been so active and influential for so long, when we say we’re doing our big meeting in January, all of the politicians take us seriously,” Wolman shared, adding that past appearances have included Senator Kamala Harris and Mayor Eric Garcetti.

“Members and constituents feel they can come and ask their representatives what’s on their mind,” Turner said.

The meeting will take place from 2 to 4 p.m., with a mingle scheduled from 1:30 to 2 p.m., at the Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club. Admission is free with a suggested donation of $10.

Part of the meeting time will be set aside for club business, which will include presenting the new board to membership and voting on the slate.

For more information, visit palidems.org or call 310-230-2084.