By Gwen Davis

A full agenda was at-play for the 34th District Democrats' monthly meeting Wed. night.

Highlights of the meeting:

—> Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rassmussen informed participants about malicious activity in the state legislature: “I wanted to alert you to legislation that reverses lending reforms,” he said. Existing laws that were put into place to protect vulnerable consumers against PayDay and Money Tree scams are being threatened. The bill already passed the Senate. “If approved in the House, it would reverse our consumer protection laws. It is really outrageous. It’s sponsored by some Democrats,” he said. "Please urge people in your community to vote against HB 1922.”

—> The Washington Fair Trade Coalition staff took the floor regarding the “Fast Track" Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) bill. The presenters explained what it was and urged participants to lobby against it. “We want to be clear that we are in favor of trade agreements but are opposed to agreements currently being discussed in congress,” Elizabeth Stanton said. Her co-presenter, Gillian Locascio then explained: “When NAFTA was passed 20 years ago we were promised that [our problems would be." But after millions of jobs being lost and corporations exploiting workers all over the world, it’s clear that the only entities who won were the major transnational corporations.

The term “market access” is not necessarily favorable, she said. The distribution of wealth over the past few decades has been awful. “Trade is just one piece of it, but it’s a very important piece,” she said. “Pre-globalization, the interests of the people in the area and the investors are more aligned." But as investors expanded their grips with globalization, they were able to sell to the lowest bidder and trade became no more than a race-to-the-bottom which exploited people everywhere. NAFTA is the root of the problem and the NAFTA legislation was not transparent when originally passed, she said. “Trade agreements need to be negotiated to everyone’s interest.”

She encouraged participants to lobby against TPP.

—> Mayor Ed Murray attended the meeting: "On April 1st minimum wage will raise to $15 because of you,” he said. "In June and September we will put more buses on the street since any time since Metro was created in the 1970s. Going forward we still we will get even better.” The mayor also brought up police reforms. "This is the year we’re going to get police training,” and better relations in the community, he said.

He took questions and comments.

“Affordable housing ,” a participant brought up to the mayor. “The city council approved hundreds if not thousands of units [in West and it’s changing the nature of the neighborhood because it’s only for people who can afford fairly luxurious rents. It is upsetting to the social order to this place that you want to call home in West Seattle,” he said.

Murray responded: “I think we can do better,” and we are moving down the right road, he said. “We are targeting how we give incentives to the private sector,” and to other stakeholders in the housing field. "I think we can get this right. In one sense 20 years ago we got a lot of things right in the city, he said. The thing we didn’t get right was all the things to make a city livable [such as transit and. “We will make things right for families who want to live here.”

Another commentator: “Back in 2005 is when I moved to Seattle, this city was very open. But the pay gap and the homeless problem we have have not seemed to make critical gains."

Murray replied: “The IT sector has not [been." They provide high-paying jobs but nearly all people in IT are male. “We also need to invest money to reduce homelessness. It’s one thing for Seattle to lead, but we need partners on the state level and partners on the federal level. I think we can do something but we are going to need partners.”

Summary of meeting:

Vice chair report spoke about the Earth Day fundraiser and how the endorsing meeting was moved to May 20. “We would like to have a vote to approve the budget for 2015,” he said. In anticipation of 2016, this year is the "productive year", a member involved in the budget explained to the audience. “We are also anticipating saving $5,000 and we are going to do the same thing this year,” she said. Participants were encouraged to ask more specific questions after the meeting. A vote took place and the budget was passed.

“We’re not having an auction chair per-say, we’re doing it by committee,” she continued about the upcoming auction. “This is a great opportunity for each and every one of you; this is a way you can support the 34th without spending a penny. We don’t want the Republicans back in office in 2016.”

A member who attended the 34th District’s lobby day reported how it went this year: “We went to Olympia and we met with our legislators and participated in some hearings,” she said. "I suggest next year you all join us.” She additionally announced an upcoming call-in town hall, which she encouraged everyone to participate.

Last up were questions for District 1 candidates. Each candidate was asked to give a tweet about thesmelves and answer a random question. Seven of the 10 candidates showed.

The meeting concluded with further business, including PCO appointments.