Agenda Item 10.4 Jan Bernstein1
Beth Minor
From:Jan Bernstein Chargin <jbchargin@gmail.com>
Sent:Monday, September 16, 2024 5:48 PM
To:Public Comments
Subject:EXTERNAL - Fwd: Agenda item 10.4, Resolution on elections as requested by an outside group
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jan Bernstein Chargin <jbchargin@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 16, 2024 at 5:43 PM
Subject: Agenda item 10.4, Resolution on elections as requested by an outside group
To: <citycouncil@cityofgilroy.org>, editor@gilroydispatch.com <editor@gilroydispatch.com>
Esteemed Councilmembers:
Is this a joke? Perhaps a late April fools prank?
I read in jaw-dropped amazement the agenda item entitled “Consideration of a Resolution of the Gilroy City Council
Calling for a Legally Valid 2024 General Election.”
Legally Valid Elections are undeniably good things, but does the City of Gilroy have ANY jurisdiction over this matter? I
remember when a group of Gilroy citizens asked to have a resolution considered to call for a ceasefire n Gaza. I
remember these citizens being told by some on council (rather rudely) that this was not within the powers of the Gilroy
City Council as enumerated in our charter. Imagine my surprise when these same councilmembers decided to bring THIS
resolution to a vote! Either said individuals are hypocrites or they have “evolved in their thinking” so that we may expect
never to hear this tiresome argument again.
That’s not even the worst part.
This resolution was requested, and the text helpfully furnished by an outfit calling itself The United Sovereign Americans.
Is there a chapter in Gilroy? How many members does it have? The United Sovereign Americans’ website shows a
chapter in Monterey but not in Gilroy. Didn’t the mayor once suggest barring people from outside of Gilroy from even
speaking at council meetings, let alone introducing resolutions? Perhaps her thinking on this has evolved.
According to Los Angeles Times (May 2024) “United Sovereign Americans is part of a cottage industry
of far-right election deniers that has sown disinformation since Trump lost his reelection
bid.”
According to Democracy Docket, it is “ a nascent far-right legal group that’s organizing to
disrupt the 2024 election with a series of lawsuits aimed at upending the voting process in a handful of
states.”
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City Council Meeting09/16/2024 Agenda Item 10.4
2
I am absolutely dumbfounded that the Gilroy City wasted staff time to format the
resolution and write up the agenda item cover sheet, and will now waste their own and the
public’s time by actually entertaining this.
Vote NO and maybe we can forget that this embarrassment even made it this far.
Sincerely,
Jan Bernstein Chargin
Gilroy Resident
Registered Voter