[Lnc-business] Addressing some false statements

[Caryn Ann Harlos]

And if it is your duty to help the delegates with their “stupidity” (your
words) - are you now agreeing you should chair the convention as required
by Bylaw 6.3?

On Sat, Jun 6, 2020 at 12:07 PM Caryn Ann Harlos <caryn.ann.harlos at lp.org>
wrote:

> Your complaints are against a caucus email which was not authored by
> anyone on the LNC.  I wrote to all the people who wrote us offering to
> speak on the phone primarily to clear up the fact pattern.
>
> Your rewriting of the history of the contract is duly noted.  You
> initially refused to sign any contract (and still haven’t).  Your
> justification on the liquidated damages clause is a late added
> justification.  You could have added all that in earlier meetings of the
> CoC but chose not to and then blamed other people for your refusal.  At one
> CoC meeting discussing the contract you stayed silent and then left
> abruptly.
>
> Your threats above are also very inappropriate when speaking as the chair,
> a habit you keep engaging in.
>
> If you want that freedom, you should resign.  Until then you need to
> maintain the impartiality required of a presiding officer and stop
> threatening people.
>
> On Sat, Jun 6, 2020 at 11:39 AM Nicholas Sarwark via Lnc-business <
> lnc-business at hq.lp.org> wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> There are a number of false statements circulating on social media and
>> among members of this board. While this email will be of no help to those
>> LNC members who have said I am dishonest and acting in bad faith, it may
>> be
>> of some use to people who have not yet sunk that low.
>>
>> Let's begin with ones from an email that an internal caucus sent to all of
>> their members:
>>
>> “I’m sure most of you know that current LNC Chair Nick Sarwark tried to
>> kill the in-person Orlando convention during the online presidential
>> nomination proceedings over Memorial Day weekend.”
>>
>> False. I successfully presided over my third convention as Chair, working
>> through obstruction and delay to get through the nomination of President
>> and Vice President. When that work was over, I took the opportunity to let
>> the body know that I would not preside over the second sitting, and that
>> if
>> they wanted to select a replacement, they could do so. Since that was a
>> statement on the issue of whether to adjourn immediately or take up the
>> election of Chair, I passed the gavel to Mr. Merced. Even had the Chair
>> election been taken up, it would not have cancelled a second sitting.
>>
>> “What you may not know is that he has since said that he refuses to take
>> part in an in-person convention and refused to sign the contract with the
>> host hotel.”
>>
>> First, I will attend the second sitting of the convention in Orlando and
>> will participate as a delegate from New Hampshire. The rest of my family
>> will not be coming to Orlando because our country is still in the midst of
>> an infectious pandemic and our family has chosen to minimize the exposure
>> of ourselves and others to air travel and large meetings.
>>
>> Second, I refused to sign a contract with a $105K liquidated damages
>> provision because it presented a great risk to the Libertarian Party. Once
>> a contract that removed that provision, reduced the room rate by another
>> $20 per night for our members, and lowered the required hotel rooms
>> (though
>> keeping a larger block available), I tried to move quickly to execute it.
>>
>> The four LNC members of the Convention Oversight Committee then attempted
>> to put in provisions damaging to the Libertarian Party, in breach of their
>> fiduciary duties and over the objection of the two people who have to
>> approve a contract of that size under the policy manual, myself and Mr.
>> Hall.  The provisions they urgently decided had to be in the contract were
>> both ones that would cause a seven-day delay in the event of an emergency
>> that required cancellation, because it would require approval of the whole
>> LNC, which is not possible in a period shorter than an email vote or
>> electronic meeting. There is no argument that these provisions put the
>> Libertarian Party in a better position, they were designed to increase the
>> risk of cancellation.
>>
>> “He also removed Dan Hayes, chair of the Convention Oversight Committee,
>> from that committee for not sharing Sarwark’s views on an in-person
>> convention.”
>>
>> Mr. Hayes was removed based on a number of factors, some of which were in
>> my email announcing his removal. He has been personally abusive to
>> colleagues and members of the Libertarian Party staff, which combined with
>> his negotiating against the best interest of the Libertarian Party and
>> taking weeks to finish a contract that should have been ready to sign at
>> the first sitting showed that he is less effective in the role than Ms.
>> Ryan, who successfully produced the Orlando convention without screaming
>> or
>> yelling at the rest of the members of her committee.
>>
>> “But in the meantime, Sarwark added a clause to the contract that would
>> allow him to cancel the convention unilaterally, and then instructed a
>> staff member to sign that contract, resulting in two different contracts
>> being sent back to the hotel.”
>>
>> There was no clause added by myself or at my direction to the contract
>> approved by our Special Counsel, approved by myself, and approved by the
>> hotel. The contract transmitted by the Secretary had four clauses added to
>> it the day before the contract was due by the four LNC members of the
>> Convention Oversight Committee, clauses that were not ever present in any
>> of the versions of the contract they had insisted was “ready to sign.”
>> Going from having a vote to force someone to sign a contract with
>> excessive
>> risk to trying desperately to stop me from signing a much improved
>> contract
>> without a poison pill is tough to do in less than 24 hours, but Mr.
>> Goldstein, Ms. Mattson, Ms. Adams, and Ms. Bilyeu moved very quickly.
>>
>> To clear up a legal misunderstanding, getting the $105K liquidated damages
>> clause removed does not make cancellation free of risk or cost to the
>> Libertarian Party. It means that the hotel would have to show what their
>> actual damages are in the case of a cancellation. If a hurricane hits,
>> it's
>> better for us to be on the hook for the actual cost of cancellation, not a
>> $105,000. Reducing the risk for the party is the fiduciary duty we all
>> have
>> to the party, which is why it was so confusing to me to see two other
>> officers of this board try to increase the risk to the party by signing a
>> contract that increased the risk to the party.
>>
>> “There is now a motion from Harlos before the LNC, with six co-sponsors,
>> to
>> suspend Sarwark so we can go ahead with the planned convention without
>> further roadblocks.”
>>
>> Let me state clearly that the changes I made to the Convention Oversight
>> Committee membership are to make that committee work more efficiently to
>> make this convention a success. Mr. Rosen called me on the day the
>> contract
>> was executed to reiterate his commitment to having this exceed even our
>> highest expectations, a sentiment I reciprocated in our conversation. It's
>> no secret that I think a mass in-person gathering during a pandemic is
>> stupid. But as long as I'm Chair, if the delegates decide to do something
>> stupid, it's my duty to help them do the stupid thing as efficiently and
>> with as little damage as possible.
>>
>> My last point, which I will place in all capital letters just to make sure
>> nobody misses this truth:
>>
>> I DID NOT INTEND TO CANCEL THE CONTRACT WHEN NEGOTIATING IT, WHEN
>> EXECUTING
>> IT, OR AT ANY POINT PRIOR TO THE SECOND SITTING IN ORLANDO.
>>
>> I've been exceedingly disappointed at the number of people on this LNC who
>> have my email and phone number, who know how to ask a question, who chose
>> and continue to choose to believe lies about my actions and intentions and
>> can't summon the human decency to ask me directly. My disappointment with
>> the behavior on this LNC will be channeled as a delegate, as it was in
>> 2012.
>>
>> Yours in liberty,
>> Nick
>>
> --
>
> *In Liberty,*
>
> * Personal Note:  I have what is commonly known as Asperger's Syndrome
> (part of the autism spectrum).  This can affect inter-personal
> communication skills in both personal and electronic arenas.  If anyone
> found anything offensive or overly off-putting (or some other social faux
> pas), please contact me privately and let me know. *
>
> --

*In Liberty,*

* Personal Note:  I have what is commonly known as Asperger's Syndrome
(part of the autism spectrum).  This can affect inter-personal
communication skills in both personal and electronic arenas.  If anyone
found anything offensive or overly off-putting (or some other social faux
pas), please contact me privately and let me know. *