Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show July 19 2012

President JOHN SYLVESTER called the meeting to order with a reminder to turn off cell phones and asked PP MONA ARMISTEAD to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
BONNIE BURDETT provided some thoughts on love and marriage from the perspective of children who were asked “What is marriage?”  Alex, age 6, said “It’s when you keep the girl and don’t have to give her back.”  Two other children weighed in with, “finding someone who has freckles for someone else who has freckles” and “when you get shot with an arrow and the rest is not too painful.” (I am so paraphrasing here!)  Then there was something about lingerie so use your imagination there.  Bonnie ended with a quote from George Elliott, “I like not only to be loved, but also to be told I am loved.”

SINGING ALONG
Song leader KAREN GREGURAS, who says she sounded great in the shower, but needed help with the high notes, paid tribute to the “Good Old Summertime” with the song of the same name.

President JOHN thanked Greeters: JARRETT FISHPAW, ABBY AHRENS and MIKE ABRAMS; photographer JOHN HAMMERSCHMIDT; Sergeant at Arms FRANK VERLOT and LEW FRASER; and cashier SAM PESNER, filling in until CYNTHIA LUEDTKE arrived a little late to serve her duty.

VISITING ROTARIANS
President Elect JACK KELLY welcomed visiting Rotarian Matthew from Florida who has moved to the area and is looking for a new club.

AND GUESTS
Rotarians with guests included: CLARI NOLET with Dad, Don Miller from Florida; BONNIE BURDETT with main squeeze Harm; MARY PROCHNOW with guest of the club Taylor Robinson of The Passerelle Group; JACK KELLY with guest of the club, George, from Go Go Gyro.

OUR NEXT PROGRAM
Next week’s program will feature Taylor Robinson with a presentation about what’s going on in downtown.

AWARD PRESENTATION
President JOHN called RICH CASEY to the podium to finally present the Carl G. Warren Award given for the “greatest personal commitment to world peace and understanding” in honor of the1986-87 District Governor.  JOHN thanked Rich for his devotion to the Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project (LARAP) and Rich replied that it was really a team award for all the members of LARAP.  He also said LARAP will be applying for a $250,000 grant from Rotary International and needs to raise $160,000 in the coming year. LARAP also needs help with marketing, PR, grant writing and the web site so please let Rich know if you can help.

NEW MEMBER INDUCTION
Membership Director RANDY GARD presented two new members to the club who received their red badges and a standing ovation.  RON LABETICH, sponsored by SAM HARDING, was born in Alameda, CA and played basketball at SJSU graduating with a degree in Business Administration.  An active member of the community, he’s lived in Los Altos for 42 years and has spent 20 years in commercial real estate.  He’s also a tennis player and organic vegetable gardener. 
GARY BROWN, sponsored by SAM PESNER, is from Long Island, N.Y. and is a graduate of University of New York.  He’s lived in Silicon Valley for 30 years where he worked at Sun and Cisco before retiring to move back east. However, he missed sunny California so he moved back to become operations manager at Spangler Mortuary.

NEEDING SOME SUNSHINE
President JOHN told us that GARY MAGGARD suffered a stroke last week and is in rehab in Los Gatos.  Sunshine chair JUDY OTT sent a card around to sign and all our good wishes are shining on a speedy recovery for Gary.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
PAUL SCHUTZ announced the Veterans Support Group would meet after the LARC meeting at the Chamber office.

RON STEFANI said it’s the last opportunity to sign up to be song leader as spots are already taken through August.  Just call him if you want to sing.

According to FRANK VERLOT, the WCS meeting will be held on Tuesday morning at 8:00 p.m. at the First Republic Bank conference room. There are many exciting projects in the works so please attend if you are interested in getting involved.

BONNIE BURDETT, past chair of Partners for New Generations (PNG), shared a special $150 donation and card from a nine-year old fan. Tony, an Almond third grader, asked his friends to donate to PNG for his birthday and Bonnie wanted us to know that we can donate, too.

KAREN GESSERT reminded everyone that the social event on Friday, July 20 would be at the Pesner’s.

DENNIS YOUNG announced there is still money in the pot for the LAREF Matching Grant program so please participate.  JEAN NEWTON FRAGUGLIA said everything is on the LARC website and you can download detailed information about each of the approved organizations there as well as the donation form.

DENNIS also made a “shameless plug” for everyone to come on down to Maltby’s to support Relay for Life as Young, Craig + Co. employees will be bartenders.

A FINE TIME
Recognition Chair PHIL ROSE had a purpose so volunteer DENNIS YOUNG had to wait while Phil proceeded with his new approach to fining.  He asked all those with birthdays in July to stand and all those who had already been fined to sit down. The rest had a choice to talk or not but still needed to fork out $20.  GREG DABB let us know that his birthday was today for a $40 fine and he put on a Chef Chu’s hat as a plug for LARRY CHU while mentioning some strong mai tai’s.

KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM celebrated his 44th wedding anniversary by joining the president’s club along with BILL PALMER who celebrated his 67th anniversary.  RANDY GARD said his 26th anniversary paled in comparison but he paid $40 for that and because his photo was on the front page of the Town Crier along with his partner in crime, STEVE SHEPHERD.  JOHN BOGARD’s 44th anniversary on June 30th netted $44 for the club.

In a rare event, finer PHIL ROSE apologized for his fining, or something like that for $20.  DENNIS YOUNG said his wife, Roberta, was touched by the thank you card from the club after she had hip surgery. KAREN GREGURAS was thrilled to become a grandmother of a new baby girl named Clare on Friday the 13th.  BEVERLY TUCKER half way joined the president’s club as a tribute to making it half way through her goal of completing the ironman.  Go Bev!

STEVE ANDERSON was so hoping STEVE SHEPHERD would tell us about golf just one more time.  CYNTHIA LUEDTKE said she owed big time for a mix-up on her calendar about cashiering today, and paid something in for SAM PESNER for stepping in, but paid an additional $50 mostly as a thank you to KENDRA for getting her a new name badge with CYNTHIA (her preferred name) instead of Cindy and a new classification of Internet Marketing Sales.  JUDY OTT told us about her children participating in a bike ride across the state of Iowa in memory of their father who passed away.

Then it was on to vacations and PHIL started with his own vacation that included hosting his youngest daughter and two granddaughters while his son-in-law worked at the US Open.  Of course, the perks included an incredible round of golf at the Olympic Club where, in addition to spending a lot of time in the rough, Phil managed to par one hole and enjoyed the course just prior to the big event.

BONNIE BURDETT has been back and forth between Colorado and Iowa with other little trips here and there.  RON LABETICH has just been hanging out in Los Altos where it’s nice and quiet, but he and his wife, Marilyn, will attend a family reunion in Bethlehem, PA and also visit Philly and New York City where they will see five different plays.  ABBY AHRENS took 23 family members away on vacation and found out “she’s the girl” when it comes to pinball machines.  LARRY MADSEN was trying to figure out how to get STEVE SHEPHERD in trouble, but instead, said that he and his wife will probably visit their daughters in Truckee, Port Townsend and close to home in Palo Alto but “haven’t done zilch so far.”

MARGE BRUNO will attend the Bruno family reunion in Massachusetts calling the group “verbal, vocal, loud and spirited.”  JACK KELLY said he loves Carmel Valley Ranch and so far this summer has attended the US Open and helped his daughter move to San Francisco.  JEAN NEWTON FRAGUGLIA said she spent quite a bit of time in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and thanked everyone for their kind thoughts and messages after her dad passed away but asked if she could tell the group about her son, Chad Newton, and his wife, Grace Nguyen, who are both chefs.  They have recently opened a new fast, casual restaurant in Palo Alto at Town and Country called Asian Box, which has become very popular and generated a lot of press including a photo of daughter-in-law Gracie in the August issue of Food and Wine magazine.

THE ROTARY PROGRAM

GARY WALDECK introduced speaker Jeff Rosen, who practically needed no introduction as the District Attorney for Santa Clara County.  Rosen, who said he feels “refreshed and energized about the world” after talking at Rotary Clubs, indicated he sometimes uses the Rotary Club test when he has difficult decisions to make. He asks himself whether or not a Rotary Club would consider it reasonable, well thought out and whether they would think he is doing the right thing. 

His first case in the district attorney’s office in 1995 involved a young man spitting on an older woman and his quest was to get justice for her.  His last case before becoming District Attorney was the highly publicized murder-for-hire case in Los Gatos where his approach was exactly the same as his first case---to get justice.   He said he brings that same passion to his job as District Attorney.

The District Attorney’s office is the largest office north of Los Angeles and employs a large number of lawyers, investigators, support staff and a CSI-like crime lab that has two main differences from the TV show.  It doesn’t solve cases in 25 minutes and there are no short skirts at crime scenes.  The DA’s office prosecutes around 40,000 criminal cases a year but ¾ of them are misdemeanor cases like driving without a license or petty theft.  The office has a high solve rate compared to other cities because of tremendous community support.  The office focuses on four main themes:  Standards,  Integrity, Transparency and Hard Work. 

Rosen mentioned some significant prosecutions including a high tech robbery case that resulted in the recovery of most of the stolen computer chips; a street gang murder case that took over an hour and a half to read the guilty verdicts for 58 different counts; and a focus on real estate fraud and elder abuse. Rosen said that his take on undocumented immigration is “live and let live” unless a crime is committed and noted that most victims of undocumented immigrants are other undocumented immigrants. 

A recent field trip with the San Jose Police Department to the Museum of Tolerance that focuses on racism and genocide put things into perspective for Rosen.  “What are we doing to strengthen civility and minimize racism and hatred to promote tolerance?”

Rosen also talked about two ballot initiatives.  The first one he supports is the reform of the three strikes law.  He is in favor of modest reform so that the punishment fits the crime.  He does not support the second one, which is to abolish the death penalty.

Rosen also recapped the recent case regarding defendant Lynch, who was molested by a priest and was on trial for beating the priest.  Rosen said he was not surprised by the verdict but believes in standing for justice within the law not revenge outside of it. 

Though Rosen joked about charging $10 a question as a fine, he did answer several.  Asked why we can’t get rid of the gangs, Rosen replied that it is like a disease or cancer and the goal is to remove it by prosecuting and putting gang members in prison.  He also said it was important to give young people something to do to keep them healthy.

When asked if he would prosecute the priest for perjury, Rosen said there were some misconceptions about lying under oath and some legal obstacles but that they were currently conducting research about it.  Although the standards to convict are high, Rosen said they will look at it closely but most importantly they will be transparent in explaining to the public why or why not they file charges.

MEETING ADJOURNED
President JOHN thanked DA Jeff Rosen for an informative talk and adjourned the meeting with his tag line and dry wit, “Have a good day, unless you have made other plans.”

AROUND AND ABOUT - ROTARIAN PERFORMING SERVICE

This last week NORM PROFFITT was seen delivering food to the RotaCare Clinic at El Camino Hospital. What's particularly significant about this activity is that Norm's wife Carol founded the the free climic which subsequently joined the Rotacare organization. A plaque on the wall behind Norm displays a picture of Carol and tells the story of "How It Began."

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

Taylor Robinson Co-Founder, Passerelle Investments, "Investing in Downtown Los Altos"

Taylor brings to Passerelle over 10 years of sustainable construction and development experience. Her passion is for understanding and implementing new technologies and managing diverse teams. Prior to forming Passerelle with Amanda Tevis, Taylor worked as a development consultant in Silicon Valley and at Cahill Contractors in San Francisco. While at Cahill, she led the effort to obtain the first LEED-Silver Certification in San Francisco with David Baker's Folsom Dore Project. Taylor holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and a master's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley where she was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She lives in Los Altos with her husband, son and their labradoodle Kona.