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California is broken, but the people can fix it. On August 11, Full Circle Fund joined forces with Repair California and Bay Area Council to convene over 350 people to discuss the possibility of a California Constitutional Convention. The non-partisan event, moderated by Full Circle Fund CEO Amy Lesnick, featured a panel of cross-sector leaders including our very own Jeff Camp, chair of Full Circle Fund’s Education Circle, Jim Wunderman, CEO/ President of the Bay Area Council, Andrew Giacomini, Managing Director of Hanson Bridgett and Steven Hill from the New America Foundation. The event was San Francisco’s first major opportunity to learn more about and ask questions the process that could profoundly affect California for generations to come.

>Click here to read more about the movement to call for a California Constitution Convention…

Full Circle Fund convened the panel to bring attention to the paralysis that has rendered both the California legislature and local communities useless in implementing the innovative, nimble solutions are needed in dire economic times. We recognize that an overhaul of the California Constitution will facilitate Full Circle Fund, and similar organizations, to fulfill our mission to drive lasting social change within California.

Jeff Camp began the evening by demonstrating how California’s education system is failing many and a Constitutional Convention would be able to address most of the systemic problems that schools, districts, and local communities are facing. Check out his presentation below.

Jim Wunderman built on Jeff’s comments noting that what is happening to education can also be said about other issues across the state: water, prisons, transportation. He argued that the most effective way to get all the needed reforms passed would be vis-a-vis a constitutional convention, rather than trying for a 2/3 vote in the legislature or a ballot that had “propositions A-Z”.

To explain the legal aspects of how this could be done, Andrew Giacomini took the microphone to explain that it will be two propositions on the ballot: one to allow the people to call for a California Constitutional Convention via the initiative and the other one to call for a the convention.

Steven Hill concluded the speaking portion by explaining the delegate selection process.

The panel stayed on stage to answer questions and take comments from the overwhelmingly supportive audience about the powerful tool to bring change to California. One member of the audience summed up the evening by asking the panel if they found it ironic that they were using the initiative system, a main source of the constitutional amendments that making change impossible, to call for the convention.

>Watch the video of the event on this page: Part 1 is at the top of this posting and Part 2 is below…

>Click here to read an additional article from Repair California’s Adrian Covert…

> Click here to view a slideshow of photos by James Manniello from the event.

Posted in California Constitutional Convention, Bay Area Council, Hanson Bridgett, Amy Lesnick, jeff camp