Let me begin this email by apologizing to Mark Selzer. It appears
that I misquoted his exact words at the recent Judicial Committee
meeting, and took his comments to mean that he had filed a complaint
with the California Secretary of State against the Libertarian Party
of California. Such a complaint would constitute an explicit
violation of Bylaw 5 Section 10 (B) (see
http://ca.lp.org/bylaws/2005/Bylaws2005-2006Final.pdf), which in turn
would result in the indefinite
suspension of Mark's membership in the Libertarian Party of
California. Since officers must be county central committee members,
this would also leave the position of LPC Southern Vice-Chair vacant.
After the September 22nd Judicial Committee hearing regarding the
legality of holding the 2006 state convention on a cruise ship, it was
discovered that the hearing had not been properly recorded. In the
absence of a recording, it was impossible to verify the exact wording
of Mark's testimony. My own recollection was that Mark had said at
one point "I filed a complaint with the Secretary of State." I later
discussed this with Aaron Starr and M Carling, who had also listened
to the Judicial Committee hearing, and they agreed that they had heard
the same thing. This led us, and other members of the Executive
Committee and Operations Committee who had not listened in on the
teleconference call but who relied on our recollections, to conclude
that Mark had admitted to a violation of the Bylaws as described above.
Even though an official recording was not made, the teleconference
call was tape recorded independently by Mark Dierolf. He made his
recording available to Mark Selzer, who turned it into an MP3 file
which Brian Holtz has now posted at
http://holtz.org/Library/MarketLiberal/MediaAppearances/ (scroll down
to the last link on the page). I have just finished listening very
carefully to the recording. It is of good quality, and as nearly as I
can determine without subjecting it to rigorous scientific analysis it
appears to be a valid reproduction of the Judicial Committee hearing.
The relevant portion occurs approximately 30 minutes into the
proceedings, when Mark Selzer says the following in response to a
question from Starchild:
"I have not received any kind of word from the Secretary of State
whether or not this is legal. She may have a problem as well with it
under state law. She may find something in state law. In fact, I
think it is illegal because of the fundraising aspect of conventions,
certainly under the new BCRA rules and I think we may just be putting
ourselves in a lot of hot water here. It's a scary thing for me to
come back and have one of our rivals decide that they have heard about
our yacht convention and that they are going to make a complaint to
the Secretary of State and will have our..." (at that point he was
interrupted by Starchild with another question).
The exact words "I have filed a complaint with the Secretary of State"
cannot be heard in the above recording. Mark's statement may have
been interpreted by myself and others listening to it to mean that he
had filed a complaint with the Secretary of State and was waiting for
a response ("I have not received any kind of word from the Secretary
of State"). Even if Mark had not in fact filed a complaint, his claim
of having done so would constituted a "threat" under Bylaw 5 Section
10 (B). (That was how Paul Ireland remembered Mark's comment, when
Paul wrote in an email dated September 26th: "Actually he stated that
it was his intention to file a complaint to the secretary of state.")
Mark Selzer has insisted in recent emails, as well as in private
conversations with myself and Aaron Starr, that he never filed a
complaint with the Secretary of State, and that he never said he had
filed a complaint with the Secretary of State. Mark's position is
that he was only warning of the danger that some other member might
choose to file a complaint. On Friday, September 30, 2005 Mark signed
an affadavit in which he categorically affirmed that the has not and
will not file such a complaint, nor encourage anyone else to do so,
nor threaten to do so in the future. A copy of that affadavit is
attached.
Based on this new information, the LPC Operations Committee
(consisting of Ted Brown, M Carling, Willard Michlin, Aaron Starr, and
Daniel Wiener) has unanimously rescinded its previous motions of
September 28, 2005 in which it approved a pardon of Mark Selzer and
restoration of his LPC membership, as provided for under Bylaw 5
Section 10, contingent upon his signing of an affadavit (which was
subsequently received and is attached); and the appointment of Ted
Brown as interim Southern Vice-Chair until the next Executive
Committee meeting which will be held in November. The Operations
Committee affirms that Mark Selzer is and at all times remained a
member of the Libertarian Party of California as well as LPC Southern
Vice-Chair.
Daniel Wiener