Tom Henry passed around a get well card for Ed and Betty Stokes.  John Sherry reported that Bob Aguilar is recovering.  John Sherry also announced that the Rotary Foundation “Day at the Races” is at 11:15 am on December 5^th at Golden Gate Fields.  Our club will be sitting with the Berkeley Rotary club.  Ten percent of the proceeds will be donated to the Rotary Foundation.  Please contact John if you are interested in attending.

John Fazel asked if anyone would be able to host their exchange student from Brussels, who needs a new host family for at least two months, starting in January.  Please contact John with Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary if you can help.

Jay Lifson reminded us of upcoming events, including coffee with the Mayor on Friday November 13,  and the Lafayette Library grand opening on Saturday, November 14.

There will be no lunch meeting on Thursday, 11/19 (and no meeting on Thanksgiving, 11/26).  Instead, we are joining the Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary Club at 7 a.m. on Friday, 11/20, at the Lafayette Veterans Memorial Building, for the Chamber of Commerce’s Community Thanksgiving Breakfast.  The guest speaker will be California State Controller, John Chiang.  The November board meeting for Lafayette Rotary will be on 11/19 at 5:15 at the Chamber of Commerce.

 On December 3, there will be a Club Assembly at our lunch meeting.  On December 10, the Lafayette Rotary Club will have its Holiday Lunch at the Lafayette Park Hotel.  Both the Thanksgiving breakfast and the Holiday Lunch are no charge to those with prepaid meals, but please make sure you sign up.

Troy Feddersen gave an update on the Interact Club at Bentley School.  This is the first full year for this Interact club, which was organized in the middle of the school year, in early 2009.  Troy attended the Interact District Conference in El Cerrito, on November 8.  There were 420 students there from throughout District 5160.  District Governor Elect, Karl Diekman, told Troy that next year the plan is to have the Rotarians’ District Conference together with the Interact District Conference, to encourage greater interaction between the two groups.  Troy said that our club would also be integrating the Interact students with Lafayette Rotary events in the future, including inviting Interact students to an upcoming Thursday lunch meeting.

John Sherry took a poll to see who was interested in having either a holiday breakfast and/or a morning gin fizz party this year.  Talk to John if you would like to provide your input.

Guest Speaker:  Gayle Uilkema, Contra Costa County Supervisor, District 2.

Tom Henry introduced Supervisor Gayle Uilkema, who started off by explaining the Board of Supervisors recent decision to support the Pomo Indian tribe’s plan for a casino at Point Molate, near Richmond.  In exchange for the Supervisors’ support, the county would receive $12 million annually from casino profits.  The money would be used for public health, law enforcement, detention facilities and traffic mitigation.  It would also pay for a gambling addiction treatment and prevention program.  She pointed out that the Board of Supervisors had no vote of authority over whether a casino would be built.  The decision would ultimately be decide by the federal government, under the department of the Secretary of the Interior.  If it does get built, we should at least make sure that public costs are paid for.  This is just the beginning of a long process, as it seems that some groups are prepared to go to court.

Contra Costa County cut its budget by almost $100 million last year, and is looking at another $56 million cut this year.  Taxable sales are down 15.8% (somewhat less than the 18% drop for the Bay Area).  To put it in perspective, the state of California has a much bigger budget shortfall, now projected at $5.7 billion.

Supervisor Uilkema said she has been attuned to polls of her constituents.  74% don’t want state health care.  They are concerned with road quality, open space, overdevelopment, and quality of education, but also against taxes and ways to pay for it.

There are two program areas that Supervisor Uilkema discussed as being worthy of our awareness and support:   one is the foster care system that supports 1,000 or so local foster kids, and the other is Youth Court, a program in which youth sentence their peers for minor delinquent offenses and other problem behaviors.  It is an encouraging program that could help address youth violence and drug problems in the west part of the county.  There is a pilot program now in Livermore.

What does Supervisor Uilkema see in looking toward the future?  There will likely be restructuring of services forced on country governments by budget shortfalls.  Sales and property tax revenue may decline until 2013.  Commercial real estate will also likely be in decline over the next few years, and there may be little development over the next three to four years.  You may see more lawsuits against government.  And people will generally be more thrifty.

Yet, Supervisor Uilkema concluded by describing her outlook as very hopeful.