[Lnc-business] Motion to Rescind - Request for Co-Sponsors

Tue Sep 20 00:16:10 EDT 2016

Fellow LNC members, it is with great regret that I have to present this
Motion and ask for support, but I feel this is our duty – our duty to our
Bylaws, this Party, and its members.  I will give my narrative support
following.

*Move to rescind the authority granted to the Chair to negotiate and
execute a campaign contract and the Joint Fundraising Agreement and rescind
any signatures already executed.*

Procedurally, I note I voted to grant this authority and thus have standing
to bring this Motion.  I note the contract has not yet been signed by the
campaign, and thus, there is no agreement.  This motion should put the
campaign on notice that there is a dispute in the LNC, but at least one
member.

To recap the events of the last few days.    On Friday we learned that the
Chair had signed a campaign contract and the Joint Fundraising Agreement
with the campaign and that he had decided, upon advice of counsel, to keep
them confidential until Inauguration Day.  When I requested to see the
documents, I was presented with an NDA, and this whole thing began.  It is,
to me, without dispute, that we agreed to keep the negotiations
confidential until they were signed but were silent on any silence
afterwards.  On these grounds and the over-reach of the NDA, I refused to
sign it.  I asked if the contract itself required confidentiality until
Inauguration Day as arguably we granted the authority to negotiate that
term when we granted this authority to the Chair.  On Saturday, at
14:28CDT, the Chair responded to me and us that this provision to keep the
contract confidential was NOT a provision of the contract but was a
decision reached unilaterally by him on advice of counsel.  Starchild and I
objected that the Chair did not have this authority and that such would
require a vote of the LNC in Executive Session or otherwise.  Starchild in
fact proposed a Motion for that very thing.  However, a mere forty minutes
after advising me that the contract did not contain such a provision, the
Chair advised us that the contract did, in fact, contain an eternal secrecy
clause, a fact which he verified with counsel today.  When I saw all this
happening, and in light of my earlier lack of information in which any
earlier agreements would be rendered null, I formally withdrew my request
to see the documents until these issues could be resolved.

This should be very disturbing, because one thing has become patently
clear.  *The Chair did not know there was an eternal secrecy clause in the
contract when he signed it. * There is then quite obviously some negligence
here.  I do not know if it is negligence of the Chair or professional
negligence of LNC counsel to advise of all the potential and reasonable
implications, but a contract was signed in complete ignorance of one of the
key terms.  This is unacceptable and is reason enough for the LNC to take
control of this situation and rescind the authority and the signatures.  I
argue that it is our fiduciary duty to do so.

But let’s put that reason aside, though that is justification enough.
Let’s stipulate that the Chair and LNC counsel knew full well that there
was an eternal secrecy provision and went ahead with it.  Such a provision
must be repudiated as it usurps and abrogates our rights and privileges as
Committee members to be able to publicly enforce our Bylaws and represent
our members, and further is in direct conflict with our fiduciary duty to
this Party, its members, and our Bylaws.  How so?  Well I can think of a
few ways it is possible, and this is not intended to be exhaustive as the
unknown can contain quite a few subjunctives.

Does the contract create potential financial liabilities for the current
committee, its members, or future committees? If the answer is "I can't
tell you" unless I waive my rights, the contract makes the budgetary
process impossible and thus we abrogate our public duties.

Does the contract create potential liabilities that could be visited on
state affiliates that are not separately incorporated? If the answer is "I
can't tell you,” why should that be believed?  Why should the state
affiliates and members, who can never see it, be assured?

Does the contract potentially violate the Statement of Principles?  Well if
I am sworn to secrecy, I have lost my right to press this case to the
Judicial Committee and through the appeal process in the Bylaws (as well as
the same right of the membership), then such rights are rendered null and
void making a mockery of our Bylaws.

I would also note that this completely hobbles the membership from being
able to judge for itself if either side is upholding their sides of the
bargain.  It is opaque and completely unaccountable.  It further prevents
the members from using the lessons learned from the successes and failures
of this contract (as all things can be improved on) in negotiating and
crafting future contracts with future campaigns and thus is a complete
abrogation of our duty to the future of this Party and the members’ rights
to ensure the same.

There is the further issue that I am being ask to agree to a secrecy
provision in order to see the contract to judge for myself whether it is
there, in effect having to “pass it, to see what is in it” and to
proactively waive my rights and bind myself to a repellant stipulation.
This is the way the corrupt state and duopoly behave, and should not be the
way the Libertarian Party is conducted.

Lastly, this is indeed a rumour, but it was told to me, and I have to, in
the discharge of my duties consider it- no matter how incredible, if there
is any chance that it could be the case, particularly since I have to waive
my rights to ascertain for myself, a source, allegedly from within the
campaign, has relayed that there is a eternal non-disparagement clause in
the contract.  I find that difficult to believe (but I would have earlier
thought the idea of an eternal secrecy cause to be ridiculous), and if so,
absolutely repellant to the Libertarian principles we are supposed to be
upholding in our modeling of transparency and integrity to the watching
world, but if there was, I couldn’t tell anyone.  And without waiving my
rights, I cannot even know if I am supposed to be bound to any such thing.
And if anything was done by the campaign (and I am NOT alleging anything
would be) that while legal would be against our principles or our duty to
the Party, I would be unable to say so to the membership nor pursue any
redress.   I do not think our Chair would ever agree to such a thing.  But
.... an eternal secrecy clause was agreed to unknowingly, how do I know
this wasn't too?  Or what other clause that I cannot even imagine, and once
I learn of it, I am bound to silence to the grave? This is unacceptable.

All of this is reason enough.  I have no desire to put a target on my back,
and I literally am sick about this, but my duty compels me to protect
rights and duties and the integrity of our judgment and our Party Bylaws,
and potentially, our Statement of Principles which is the only charter for
our existence.  I feel I have been put in an impossible situation.

I want to be perfectly clear here. This is NOT about the campaign. Anyone
who uses this email to attack or belittle is doing so against my express
intent. This is ONLY about the LNC, its rights and duties, and the members’
rights.  This is on our doorstep and no one else.  We have only ourselves
to praise or blame.

-- 
*In Liberty,*
*Caryn Ann Harlos*
Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona,
Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann.
Harlos at LP.org <Caryn.Ann.Harlos at LP.org>
Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado
<http://www.lpcolorado.org>
Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus
<http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
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