[Lnc-business] Email Ballot 2017-02: Historic Preservation Committee

[Joshua Katz]

Folks, I take responsibility for not paying enough attention until now to
notice what I think is a serious problem with the wording of this motion.
In actuality, the problem I'm going to point to is not fatal for this
particular motion, for reasons I'll discuss below, but I have to point out
that, in principle, I have a concern about it.

It was previously asked if a motion of this sort creates a chair for life.
That problem was dealt with here by limiting the life of the committee.
Presumably, the intent of the motion is that the committee's real job will
be recommending to the LNC a more permanent structure of some sort to keep
this happening, together with a set of things that need to be done.  So
far, so good.

My objection, and we should be cautious about the precedent being set here,
is the "...to appoint up to 4 others."  When a power is delegated, it often
is lost by the delegating body, unless it is taken from the committee's
hand, which requires a higher vote threshold (unless done during a partial
report or a report has been missed).  A person who is empowered to appoint
up to 4 others is empowered to appoint 0 others as well.  Thus, such
language gives permission for a person to be a committee unto themselves,
even when this is not intended.

In this case, there are many reasons this isn't a problem.  Most
importantly, there's just no reason to suspect that the person involved
would do such a thing - but this is a poor reason for creating potential
problems.  The committee also is not empowered, and can only make
recommendations - the worst that a dictatorial chair could do would be to
gain some agenda time and the imprimatur of a committee, both of which
could be dealt with.

So, I don't see this concern as a reason not to vote for this, but I do
want to make a note for future reference that we should avoid this
formulation in places where it could matter.

Joshua A. Katz


On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 7:58 PM, Alicia Mattson <agmattson at gmail.com> wrote:

> We have an electronic mail ballot.
>
>
> *Votes are due to the LNC-Business list by January 23, 2017 at 11:59:59pm
> Pacific time.*
> *Co-Sponsors:*  Goldstein, Harlos, Demarest, Bittner
>
> *Motion:*  The LNC establishes a Historic Preservation Committee to help
> preserve and publish historical documents of the party and to manage
> LPedia.  This committee is granted a budget of $5,000.  Caryn Ann Harlos is
> appointed chair with authority to appoint up to 4 others.  This committee
> will expire at the end of the LNC meeting preceding the 2018 LP National
> Convention.
>
> -Alicia
>
>
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> Lnc-business mailing list
> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org
> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>
>
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