Posted by Mary Murphy on Aug 09, 2017

Pledge and Invocation

To start our meeting President Mike Horwitz asked Ted K. to lead the pledge of allegiance, followed by Rev. Paul Watermulder who reminded us to be thankful about the beauty of the day. 

Visiting Rotarians and Guest of the Club

Paul Watermulder proudly introduced Senator Jerry Hill Rotarian, and Paul's lovely wife, Lynn. Our erstwhile absent but very welcome Bonnie Bertetta was visiting today.  The debonair Bob Hortop was guest of the club. Rosemary Azum was visiting from the San Mateo Rotary Club.  Bob Doerr introduced James Johnson from the Rotary club of Irvine. Welcome James. Anne Lassahn, MPA was the guest of Bonnie Bertetta. Helen Galligan, wife of Joe Galligan, was a welcome addition to today's meeting.  Ami Anderson was introduced by Delia Montano. Ami is the Marketing Director at Mills Estate Villas. Hope to see you again, Ami. Suzanne Juptner was proud as punch to introduce us to daughter, Maddy Frappier. Jennifer Pence was delighted to have the club welcome our own Rotary scholar recipient, Nicole Quiroz, who welcomed the opportunity to thank us - she's quite an accomplished doctor in waiting. Definitely a full house. 

Announcements

August 19 and 20th will see Burlingame on the Avenue, sponsored by the Burlingame Chamber of Commerce. Burlingame Rotarians will be manning the beer and wine booth, tips will go to the club and help contribute to the Service Fund.  See John Delaney if you want to volunteer.
Cary Koh called for sponsors and volunteers for the Golf Tournament which is coming up super fast - it will be October before we know it. Reach out to your golf buddies and get them on the green at the Peninsula Golf and Country Club.  
Stan Moore was really excited about all the wine contributed for the Golf dinner event. If you haven't brought your bottle in please do so at the next meeting...and we thank you.
Past President Stan Moore also fessed up to having purloined the 'gavel' which he dutifully handed over to President Mike, with apologies. Yeah right!
Bill Tiedeman gave out envelopes with Rotary Foundation Raffle Tickets for all members to have fun selling to friends and family.  Cheri Delacy, Membership Chair, made a plea for more members. 
Jennifer Pence was delighted to bring our Rotary Recipient, Nicole Quiroz, to the podium to tell us what she's been doing with all that scholarship money. Well, she is a straight A in Pre-med and is a research student studying brain tumors. She thanked us profusely, and we are very proud of her. Well done, Nicole.
Bob Hortop was asked to join Mike Horwitz President's club but he hesitated and Senator Jerry Hill beat him to it. Well done, Senator Hill. Bob finally acquiesced followed immediately by Paul Watermulder. Senator Hill has that affect on people.

Program

An enthusiatic Paul Watermulder introduced 'friend to many' Senator Jerry Hill as speaker for today.  Senator Hill spoke eloquently of his district which encompasses 25 cities from Brisbane to Sunnyvale and Pacifica to Santa Cruz. He is proud of reaching out to those communities in his 'Java with Jerry' events which, since the legalization of Marijuana, he is thinking abou renaming 'Joint's with Jerry.' Senator Hill talked about how lucky we are to live in California, the 6th largest economy in the world, and event more that 55% of the Patents come from our 'corridor' here in San Mateo/Santa Clara County.  He compared Texas and California and 'we win everytime.'  Wages, economy and innovative thinking. 
He spoke about electrification of our trains and buses and informed us about a new company called Protera which moved to Burlingame 2 years ago with a few people and now have 80 employees. Protera makes electrical buses and will help alieviate the traffic in our area.  Traffic....one of the major challenges of living where we live. Senator Hill spoke about the high cost of living and about affordability and housing. He mentioned Bill SB 1 which will add 12 cents tax to gas to fix our roads and infrastructor. The Senator drives an electric car. He said we will be adding an HOV or express lane to highway 101...it's happening now.  Poverty can still be experiences even in our affluent area which has 18 to 20% of people living in poverty. He talked about California's carbon footprint and how 'cap and trade' is helping to reduce it.  In the Q & A session which followed Senator Hill answered questions about the homeless, age discrimination, public employees retirement 'embarassment' and a brief word on the disfunction in Washington, D.C. California will keep the regulations regarding protecting the environment despite Washington which is rolling back Federal regulation. Also more people are covered by medical insurance with the ACA and he is committed to protecting that insurance. He briefly mentioned immigration and that if someone is arrested for a crime California notifies ICE and he says that residents of California regardless of status will have a right to judicial process. 
He finished by telling us what motivates him to do what he does; PG&E explosion in San Bruno, the case of Bret Studebaker who was killed on a party bus and Handicap placards and the abusive use of them. He told us the story of a 12 year old girl marrying a 28 year old man and how he is working to redress that situation. Apparently it is not a crime to marry at 12 years old right now. Finally, he said that more people are arrested and held rather than deported which is causing a tremendous burden on our system and must be addressed.  Thanks Senator Hill for all you do.