November Minutes
Democratic Party of Baxter County
Meeting Minutes
Donald W. Reynolds Baxter County Library
11/4/23
Chair Derek Huber called the meeting to order at 10:22 a.m.
Donnie Huffine: Pledge of Allegiance
Minutes: Called for any changes to October minutes. Called for approval of minutes, Mary O’Sheilds made the motion, Johnny Rickman 2nd, and all were in favor. The October minutes were accepted.
Treasury report: Karen is out of town and we will put our current financials in the official minutes for everyone to see and approve in December.
Update: We collected $505 in donations at this meeting.
Chair Update: Derek Huber
Elections: It is now time to register if you want to run for office. We have all the papers here to do so. We would like to bring filing fees to $0 and appoint JoAnn as the filing secretary. The state has said it is up to us to set this fee. Glenda Huffine would like to make a motion to set our filing fees to $0 and to appoint JoAnn as filing secretary. Beth VanderStek 2nd the motion. Motion passes. The Democratic Party of Baxter County Filing fee will be $0 and JoAnn Baeten will be our filing secretary. The filing period goes from November 6th @ 12:00 p.m. to November 14th @ 12:00 p.m. You must file during this period. Johnny Rickman made known his desire to run for JP. Filing for City Council will be July and August 2024 and all of those positions will be open. We will also put out a press release that we are looking for democratic candidates to run. In the back of the room we have our City Council and Quorum Court maps to see where you fall and if you would like to run in your district.
Fundraiser: We would like to move our fundraiser to a Spring event with our candidates. Possibly Back 40.
FOIA: Linda Williamson has acquired the FOIA lawbook from the state and those are available to anyone who would like to grab one.
VAN: We had some delay getting started but we have finally gotten everyone registered and we can now use VAN. We will use this for elections like Derek and Johnny running for JP. We can use this in the Spring to help us possibly do a membership drive as well.
Vice Chair Update: JoAnn Baeten
School District: JoAnn has been attending the School Board meetings and committee meetings to decide how to proceed at our The MHSD is under state review and has until 2030 to fix the big top. We know they tried to pass a mileage twice to take care of this and that failed. Our local Fire Marshal gave a list of recommendations to the school. They are working on doing these things with the hope that the State Building Commission will take them off of this list. They have a master plan and they will submit this to the state in February. There is a surplus at the state level, it would be a good idea to see how we can tap into some of that to help these rural struggling schools.
Paper Ballots: JoAnn attended the meeting with Colonel Reynolds at the Ramada, and now their argument is, that there is a bar code that they cannot verify what it says because it is a computer, and the bar code can be changed. It is obvious that they are grasping at straws because everything else is being proven that the way our elections are held is safe. Also, there was recently a committee formed that wants to explore the option of paper ballots. They had a meeting last Friday at the courthouse with a JP member, Dennis Franks, there to oversee. Derek and JoAnn attended. Dennis Franks did a great job showing that paper ballots cost much more than our current process. Canda Reese explained how our machines are secure, and how we have performed an audit to show that our elections are proven to be correct. All in all the JP’s do not agree with changing to paper ballots and do not want to move on from this.
Reports of Officers and Committees:
History: Mike Breton has written an article about our former State House and State Senate member, Vada Sheid. Mike visited with her son recently, but recommended that members check out her autobiography, “Vada, Nothing Personal, Just Politics.” The library has several copies.
Local Beats/Election Committee: Steve Blumerich, President of Friends of the River gave an update on the landfill issue. It has been quiet which is good news, the buyers from IL have been quiet. The endgame is to get EDQ to get them to change the status of the landfill to closed. Once it is closed it cannot be opened. The Friends of the Rivers are going to ask the Mayor and Judge to go to the upcoming board meeting for the landfill to officially close this landfill.
Johnny Rickman mentioned that the committee working with FOIA is going around the state talking about FOIA to groups and maybe we could get them to come here and speak to us.
New Business: Glenda Huffine would like to put together a potluck, winter, member appreciation event. Derek and Glenda will talk about this and plan something.
Johnny Rickman mentioned he would love to see us get out and volunteer in the community. Ashley mentioned we could form a Hospitality/Service sub-committee to handle volunteer projects going forward.
Steve Blumerich mentioned we could offer a scholarship through the group. Derek said he could talk to the DPA about making this happen.
Poll Worker Committee: The county will be looking at this after the New Year.
Chair Derek Huber adjourned the meeting at 11:26 a.m.
Next DPBC Meetings: (1st Saturdays)
December 2nd: Baxter County Library 10:15 a.m.
City Council Meetings: (1st and 3rd Thursdays)
Nov 16th: City Hall 6 p.m.
Dec 7th: City Hall 6 p.m.
Dec 21st: City Hall 6 p.m.
County Quorum Court Meetings: (1st Tuesday)
Nov 7th: County Courthouse 6 p.m. - Paper Ballots will be discussed
Dec 5th: County Courthouse 6 p.m.ocratic
Mountain Home School Board Meetings: (3rd Thursdays)
Nov 16th: Central Office 6 p.m.
Dec 21st: Central Office 6 p.m.