[Lnc-business] The fiduciary duties of the chairmanship

[Nicholas Sarwark]

Dear All,

Since our bylaws and policy manual make me the person who decides on party
decisions and how to speak or behave on behalf of the party in the absence
of an explicit LNC decision to override my authority, I thought it might be
worth letting the LNC know how I exercise those prerogatives.

While members of the LNC or other party members may have particular
functions they think are most important, my role as Chair is to make sure
the LNC is best able to meet the purposes outlined in the bylaws:

“The Party is organized to implement and give voice to the principles
embodied in the Statement of Principles by:
1.functioning as a libertarian political entity separate and distinct from
all other political parties or movements;
2.electing Libertarians to public office to move public policy in a
libertarian direction;
3.chartering affiliate parties throughout the United States and promoting
their growth and activities;
4.nominating candidates for President and Vice-President of the United
States, and supporting Party and affiliate party candidates for political
office; and
5.entering into public information activities.”

In the current situation relative to a proposed second sitting in Orlando,
we have an LNC that as of today has no financial obligation to any event
venue in the future and is owed approximately $45K by the convention A/V
vendor as a deposit refund.

There are members of the Convention Oversight Committee who would like me
to make the LNC liable for up to $105K in liquidated damages and to convert
that approximately $45K refund into a new contract for A/V services at an
in-person convention to be held less than 6 weeks from now.

>From a financial and prudential perspective, the proposed contract is bad
for the Libertarian Party. That is my opinion and the opinion of the
special counsel to the party. The current contract puts more risk on the
LNC and less on the hotel. It was negotiated by the Convention Oversight
Committee Chair without my input or approval. In fact, the Convention
Oversight Committee Chair has not taken my phone calls or communicated with
me directly for nearly a month. That is a choice he is allowed to make, but
I thought it worth sharing with the LNC so they can better understand the
situation we find ourselves in.

A subcommittee of this committee has taken it on themselves to decide what
contracts are beneficial, whether we are allowed to hold an online
convention, and what our delegates will have to do to hold this Libertarian
National Committee accountable for their actions this term. That is upside
down from how things are supposed to work. Delegates should decide who
represents them on the LNC, not LNC members deciding who will be able to be
a delegate.

I hope that helps give people a sense of how I intend to execute my duties
as Chair as long as I hold the office.

Yours in liberty,
Nick