[Lnc-business] contractors and delegate status at convention

[Wes Benedict]

Dear LNC:

I wanted to open up a discussion regarding convention attendance and 
participation by 1) Staff Employees, 2) Staff Contractors, and 3) 
Non-staff Contractors. This is for disclosure purposes, to review the 
LNC's policies, to disclose my personal additional restrictions and 
recommendations, and to also give the LNC time to make any policy 
adjustments you might want to make.

It matters now because I think we have some staff contractors willing to 
pay all of their expenses, including flight, hotel and as much as a Gold 
Package, to attend the convention, and in those cases I want to make 
sure it's also okay for those people to serve as delegates.

There are three categories mentioned in the first paragraph above, and 
I'm describing them below:

1) Staff Employees - people listed here https://www.lp.org/staff/ that 
meet the government's definition of "employee."

2) Staff Contractors - people listed here https://www.lp.org/staff/ that 
meet the government's definition of "contractor" (confirmed by legal 
counsel).

3) Non-staff Contractors - people NOT listed here 
https://www.lp.org/staff/ that might have been a vendor or done some 
contract work for the LNC for compensation, like ballot access 
petitioners, some graphic designers, telemarketers, etc.

You can find examples of who's in what category on page 30 of this 2017 
page document:

https://www.lp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2017_08_19-20-LNC-Minutes-approved.pdf

The LNC's Policy Manual, Section 2.01 subsection 3) Employment Terms:

Page 20: 
https://www.lp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/20180115_LNC_Policy_Manual.pdf

"Employment agreements shall specify in writing that registering as 
delegate to any national
party convention constitutes an immediate resignation of employment."

That section clearly prohibits 1) Staff Employees from being delegates. 
that section does not prohibit 2) Staff Contractors or #) Non-staff 
Contractors from being delegates.

The LNC's Policy Manual, Section 2.03 subsection 4) Conventions:

Page 30: 
https://www.lp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/20180115_LNC_Policy_Manual.pdf

"4) Conventions
The Party shall not directly or indirectly compensate or otherwise 
underwrite or subsidize the
convention travel, lodging (excepting room upgrades which the Party 
received at no cost),
entertainment costs or speaker fees/honorariums of any Convention 
delegates. This policy
shall not prohibit the Party from underwriting organized convention 
events offered to all
donors of a particular level. Nor shall it prohibit delegates from 
receiving complementary
meals or access to convention events in rough proportion to their level 
of volunteer work. All
volunteer compensation must be approved by the Convention Oversight 
Committee, and
contemporaneously published when actual compensation is received. "

That section prohibits everyone, including 2) Staff Contractors and 3) 
Non-staff Contractors from having expenses covered by the Party and 
being a delegate.

But, staff contractors paying their own way appear to be allowed to be 
delegates, and that's been our practice in prior years.

In case it helps to use a specific individual as an example, I'll do 
that here. Our Press Secretary, Richard Fields, is a contractor, and 
plans to attend our 2018 Convention in New Orleans at his own expense 
(paying his own airfare, hotel, and purchasing a convention package). 
While I would have liked for the party to bring every staff member 
including Richard to the convention and to cover all of his expenses to 
attend the convention and have him "on the clock" while there and 
writing press releases, we try to keep our convention costs under 
control and so I've only selected a portion of our staff I feel are the 
most critical to have on location at this convention. Since Richard is 
paying his own way to be there, and since he's not an employee, I think 
he is not breaking any rules if he decides to serve as a delegate at the 
convention. Richard is NOT intending to serve as a delegate, so his 
situation is entirely flexible on this matter. However, I wanted to 
bring this issue up the the LNC because I think I would be correct in 
saying that Richard is allowed to serve as a delegate if he chooses to.

My intention is to inform Richard and any others that fit his similar 
situation (not being compensated at the convention, covering their own 
expenses, a contractor and not an employee) that they are allowed to 
serve as delegates at the convention if they'd like to and are picked up 
as delegates by a state.

If there's substantial disagreement with my previous sentence, I'd like 
the LNC to clarify the situation further by amending the Policy Manual 
as needed. And, if I see discussion along the lines of seriously 
considering a change, that will help me help staff make educated guesses 
on how important it is to keep various options open.

I am comfortable with the current policy, or with a policy amendment, 
though I lean towards keeping the current policy and practice.

Thanks,

-- 
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict at lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership