So the upshot of tonight’s state executive committee meeting, with regard to the Libertarian Party of San Francisco’s status, is that they (wisely) passed on declaring our county inactive over technicalities, but did vote to withhold dues sharing with us for a year. Pointless action, but it doesn’t really hurt us since we have money in the bank and haven’t really been spending much recently anyway.
The issue of proper meeting notice was not raised at all. Initially only the eligibility of some of our officers to hold those positions was raised by the chair, and then if I recall correctly someone asked about the fine and I explained that issue (the Secretary of State claiming we need to pay them $2790 for not filling out a form in a timely manner). Amusingly (politicians are famous for punting on tough questions!) there was no real debate over the question of whether such fines ought to be paid by the party. I don’t think anyone believed (or certainly wasn’t saying) that the fine was proper or reasonable, but neither did anyone say we should fight it.
Here’s the motion language I got down from the Zoom chat. The final version may have been slightly altered from this wording, but this was the gist of it (moved by Loren Dean of San Diego):
I move we suspend the dues-sharing donation from the Libertarian Party of California to the Libertarian Party of San Francisco County, holding such monies for one year, or until such time as LPSF can show that they have both A) a properly constituted executive committee and B) have reduced to zero any and all outstanding financial obligations to all relevant government bodies, whichever comes first.
So basically they’re just going to withhold the money we’d otherwise get from member dues for a year, unless we pay the fine first. The issue of our officers’ eligibility is mostly already fixed – our treasurer Terry Nycum has, and our vice-chair Jawj Greenwald either has or I hope soon will pay her state dues, while our secretary Richard Fast is scheduled to regain his voting status in the party in August that he lost due to having resigned his membership last year and subsequently rejoined the party only to find out there’s a “waiting period” in the bylaws before he can become a full voting member again.
Thanks to Jawj and Richard, along with his mom Janice and former vice-chair Jeff Yunes for joining me on the meeting by Zoom or phone. Unfortunately the state chair was being his usual dictatorial self and would not allow any of them to speak when the issue came up. (I was given a brief opportunity to speak, and to answer two or three questions from ExCom members.) On the bright side, nobody seemed eager to declare us inactive, and a couple voiced strong reservations, and in the end the chair did not push the issue.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Chair, Libertarian Party of San Francisco
(415) 573-7997