Senate District 17: Many Deserve our Appreciation!

While there were some unfortunate process delays in the SD 17 Convention due to some early floor challenges, SD 17 proceeded through the Convention agenda with no additional complications, unlike what we have heard about other Conventions around our region that lasted as late as 2:00 AM! The intent of the leadership team was to be open, fair, and inclusive while balancing the need to accomplish the aim of the convention, which was to elect our Delegates and Alternates to go to the State Convention.

We appreciate all the candidates and elected officials who stopped by to acknowledge our proceedings. We regret that timing was not on our side in order to hear from each and every one of them. Elected officials who stopped by were: U.S. Congressman Al Green, U.S. Congressman Nick Lampson, and State Representative Dora Olivo. Even Harris County Democratic Party Chair Gerald Birnberg came by to extend a warm greeting!

Local candidates who addressed the crowd were Richard Morrison (Candidate for County Commissioner Precinct 1), Milton Flick (Candidate for 400th District Court), Martin Siegel (Candidate for Justice 14th Court of Appeals), Saeed Gaddi (Candidate for Sugar Land City Council), Russel Jones (Candidate for Mayor City of Sugar Land) and Jonita Reynolds (Candidate for FBISD Trustee Position 5). Other candidates who were present and circulating among the crowd were Noel Pinnock (Candidate for Missouri City Council) and Greyling Poats (Candidate for Mayor, City of Missouri City).

Sending their regrets were Lieutenant Colonel Rick Noriega (Candidate for U.S. Senate to unseat John Cornyn) and Albert Hollan (Candidate for Justice 434th District Court). Noriega was on duty with the National Guard and Hollan was attending a Boy Scout event important to his son.

Temporary Chair Len Goff and Permanent Chair Harrison Gregg deserve our sincere thanks for taking on this challenge in this extraordinary year of exponential growth. With the close contest between our presidential candidates, tensions are understandably high; but thanks to Roger Harris, Chairman of the Rules Committee, and Ron Reynolds, Advisor who effectively served as Ombudsman and Mediator, SD 17 was able to adhere to the State Party Rules and move forward judiciously.

We owe much gratitude to Credentials Committee Chair Skip Belt, who shouldered the responsibility for his committee's review and resolution of the few challenges brought forward in SD 17. We also appreciate Temporary Secretary Thomas Mudd and Permanent Secretary Keasia Daniels, whose diligence with the volume of paperwork on all the Delegates and Alternates coming from the precinct level and those advancing to the State have been critical to our process. And we thank Merdie Robertson for stepping up to manage the Nominating Committee that selected our At-Large Delegates. We are especially grateful to Len Goff's 90 year-old mother who delivered a very inspirational prayer to get us started with the day.

As the point person for preparing the facility and intake process, I personally want to recognize the Dulles High School Head Custodian David Vialano who worked with us with the same professionalism as those I've experienced in 4-star hotels! Beverley Jones was immensely helpful in the preparation of signs and name tags and other logistics for the event.

It was also particularly heartening to have so many well-intentioned volunteers come forward to help us properly sign in and direct Delegates and Alternates to their seats. Beverley Jones and Judy Belt deserve thanks for getting the volunteers checked in and positioned to help. Some volunteers directed people to the precinct map to confirm their precinct so they could approach one of 17 sign-in tables for their precinct. Delegates and Alternates were greeted at the tables by other volunteers who signed them in by precinct. They were directed to a Delegate Resolutions table if any questions or issues arose about their delegate status, where the Credentials Committee Chair assisted Merdie Robertson to address them. Otherwise, they were directed to a floor map of the auditorium to determine their seat location. Yet another volunteer would point them to the right door and aisle to get to their seats. There was very good feedback on the intake process since people were expecting to stand in long lines to be admitted which did not occur.

We appreciate all those precinct and delegation chairs who referred volunteers to us.

Please thank the following volunteers for helping the intake process in SD 17:

(I apologize if anyone was missed; I am using our volunteer sign in sheet as my only reliable memory!)

Precinct 2028
Pollie Brown

Precinct 2030
Noel Pinnock

Precinct 2061
Pat Dyer
Karstena Ocklberry

Precinct 3006
Ken Stubbe

Precinct 3009
Patricia Blake
Carl Garrison
Grant Garrison
Judy Lusky
Malvern Lusky
Suzanne Kornblit-Rosenberg

Precinct 3022
Linda Shores

Precinct 4049
Eulanda Corley-Bryant
Pat Jerrells
Amaka Okoroha
Lambert Okoroha
Beth Taylor

Precinct 4062
Khrhysna McKinney

Precinct 4064
Anna Boling

Precinct 4105
Ralph Cruse

Precinct 4109
Elaine Carroll

Precinct 4110
Estella Coleman
Gwen Gray

Precinct 4111
Josh Cinquenierni
Bryce Cinquenierni
Melinda Dunn

Precinct 4119
Royce Robinson

Precinct 4129
Ike Samad

Precinct 4131
Pam Akpotaire
Noreen Brooks
Diana Perez