Chapter 9

“ My name is Joyce Koupal and I am a public citizen. No one has defined what this means and so I will define it for you. A public citizen is a human being who understands the relationship of a person to the political system within her state or country, who believes that democracy is individual participation in government, and who further believes final responsibility rests with the people and therefore that final authority can never be delegated. A public citizen carries out these beliefs by acquiring the skills of positive thinking, self-esteem and the ability to simultaneously creatively think and do. And that’s the important thing I have said to you. It is the bottom line!

“I march to a different drummer and most people don’t understand what I am about to say. Therefore, I now know that what I say most people interpret in a different way. Therefore, you will be very angry with me at the end of the day because I don’t agree with anybody here. Eventually, not today, you will understand because I am searching for the way to tell you what I mean. Hopefully you will understand someday.

“The first thing I will insult you with is two objections. First, there are more than three commissioners here and that is a quorum. However, this is not a public meeting and it has not been posted. Second, Mr. Leatherwood and his group cannot use my statements. I can’t stop them, but I want this objection on the record.

“I know exactly why Proposition 9 (Political Reform Initiative of 1974) was written the way it was. I was involved at all drafting stages. Proposition 9 is a reflection of what I have learned in my many years of political involvement. This involvement began in 1962 in Placer County, hailed by political scientists as the most corrupt in the state. At the statewide level I was intimately involved in the attempt to recall Reagan. This was a particularly valuable experience because I was involved on an entirely nonpartisan basis. I was in the state capital when Jess Unruh was called "Big Daddy," and at that time my husband and I were called the "KoupaI-Kaiser Klan." My crime was the search for justice. Since that time I have received threatening calls and letters, my privacy has been invaded, I have been shot at, and the "California secret police," called the CII, has kept files on us and even released them to our political enemies such as Ronald Reagan and Standard Oil. I have lived with the idea that my life is an open book; my telephone has been tapped and private detectives have followed my children and myself. Only yesterday Southern California Edison Co. began showing a film around the country portraying my husband and me with the likes of Hitler and Mussolini.”

[1] "California's 1974 Political Reform Act: The Implementation and Impact of Proposition 9," Proceedings of a Workshop, May 30, 1975,California Government Series II, NO. 5September 1975.Institute of Governmental Affairs, University of California, Davis, California.