Last updated on April 8, 2024
Monday AM: I made an editing pass, mostly for spelling and grammar issues. I also obtained the discussion after the Executive Session, which did not do anything. (Added at end).
Meeting is starting. 68 people are present. Meeting came to order at 4:07 PM Eastern. They are preparing to livestream. They are taking attendance. Two regional alternates, Hall and Redpath, are absent.
Public comment: Cannot always tell who is speaking
Discussion of Michigan. Urge that we adhere to our principles.
Speaker from California: MI convention, 111 attendees, elected delegates in properly called convention. LNC should not get involved. Members’ rights should be protected.
Andrew Chadderdon (MI Chair). Claims invalid delegates were inserted into MI state convention. Asks support for his position.
Travis Bost, WV Vice Chair. Rise in support of spending the money to defend the state party by spending the $5000.
Speaker: I am greatly disturbed that people are considering not supporting our Michigan affiliate and Mr. Chadderdon. If suit continues, we may see similar suits elsewhere. I have donated to the $5000.
Former Nebraska chair Matthew Lawrence. I am here in support of Mr. Chadderdon.
Pietro Geriaci of NY : I support the MI State affiliate against the LNC. I suggest that income has fallen because opponents were criticized.
Tyler Bargenquist, Louisiana: Resolution LPLA calls on LNC to drop its lawsuit over Michigan.
Secretary complains about use of the chat box for rude comments.
Speaker supports Chadderdon faction, then complains about pay for joining the NatCon debate.
Dana Carver: Affiliate did not ask for the $5000. The LPMI board was not consulted or informed. Mr. Chadderdon asked for the money. He refused to seat elected members of the board. One non-state-resident filed a complaint. Credentials committee seated them.
On chat: Chadderdon says Carver is incorrect.
Rutherford speaks up for public comment and people being able to hear our business.
Jami van Alstine speaks up for Chadderdon and claims the delegate list has been submitted to the NatCon credentials committee.
Someone claims some MI delegates to their state convention were seated improperly.
Candidate for Congress Wylie, who is running against Boebert, supports the funding.
Reminder: Deadline for submitting a list of delegates and their addresses is approaching. Submit it or no delegates from your state will be seated at NatCon.
Shawn Levasseur: Letting Chair override delegates is a bad idea.
Move to extend by 6 minutes to hear comment from the last three people asking to be heard. Motion passes with 2/3 vote.
Colin Fitzgerald: Supports LNC support for the Intellectual Property suit.
Rebecca Whiting. Speaks in support of the lawsuit.
Speaker: Asks LNC support for MI affiliate.
Ford: Move standing committee and Region reports to the end of the meeting.
Harlos: Strike all regional reports that were not submitted in writing and leave the COC report where it is. Passed as amendment.
Complaints about what is being said on the chat. Secretary asks permission to censor comments from the chat.
Agenda amended.
Harlos moves to move to first order of business, the Tuniewicz motion on funding the intellectual property lawsuit. Tuniewicz: We need to hear the financial report first; alternative is unwise. Harlos: Waste of time.
Rufo claimed ‘ill-informed’ is more polite than ‘unwise’.
Agenda approved as amended.
Tuniewicz speaks on his motion. We voted to do the IT suit. I supported it. Suit does far more harm than good. The suit is too expensive given our financial issues. Our Legal budget is now six figures. Drop the suit for the good of the party.
Watkins called the question. Passes without objection.
Vote on the Tunieqicz motion: Yes Hagopian, Tuniewicz, Vest; vote is 3-11-2, Chair not voting. Motion fails.
Conflict of interest: Updated on the one-note.
Chair’s Report: March: slight improvement in income; 90k$ in non-convention revenue and 38k$ in convention revenue. Did some layoffs. Need to use new tools and CRM. Chair: we gave $1500 to Rage Against the War Machine Claims RAWM has submitted its proper Federal paperwork and is FEC compliant. The fundraiser last December lost $3000. Urges moving from expensive hotels to cheaper places. Information on costs and income for Rage Against the War Machine are available to the public.
Harlos objects to the above discussion because it refers to a different group. Ford says Rally was good. Harlos objects that Tuniewicz cannot respond.
Vice Chair: We are leasing out the HQ. We have a prospective tenant. HQ has been cleared out. Historical items now in the basement. Roof is in need of replacement. Four leaks apparent. Issue goes back to 2020. Roof replacement appears to be $7000-12,000.
Hagopian: My report appeared on the public list. Tuniewicz: Is there any New Data. Hagopian: We did not have another 40k$ drop. Chair: $90.7k$ of non-convention income in March.
Secretary’s Report: I have been training people for Secretary operations at the convention.
Operations Director Report: Ms. Kennedy. Written report submitted. There have been many changes. Membership has stabilized. Most donations are from people who have not donated since 2022. HQ closure saved money. Cost was $71K/year including staffing; electronic operation is ca. $5K/year. Zoho tool replaces the CRM. Cost is independent of how many Zoho apps we use.
Much effort put into Audit preparation. Accounting line will increase significantly. Much effort into making operations stable, in case staff or LNC changes. Sales and unemployment tax have been automated. Matt Thexton was extremely good, but we no longer have a headquarters to manage.
Zoom chat was disabled.
Zoho analytics are checking what we are doing. We respond in a timely way to contacts. We are giving classes and recording them.
Tuniewicz compliments Kennedy. What were the attendance at master classes? Kennedy: Attendees ranged from 22 down to 6.
Hagopian: Project expenses for March. Current expenses estimated at $97K$ for March. McArdle: May be further drops in April. Kennedy report: EOM down to $46,857.
A series of LNC members sing Kennedy’s praises.
IT report: Involvement with ZOHO is progressing and improving.
Meeting recesses for 30 minutes.
They have returned. Attendance is being taken. No one is present for Region 8.
Food and Beverages and Room Block requirements have been met. $30K in room charges expected. A/V in the $70K range. Convention bags ca. $30K (hard to hear). Other costs estimated at $20K. Need $230-260K of income to break in. Have under $120K of income. There are table sales, dollar total not yet available. Also selling individual meals and meeting rooms. Presidential straw poll has raised close to $3000. She blames people who want to give no money to the convention for creating the need for the Presidential straw poll. We are doing social media promotion to build convention attendance. Google ads to be discussed in executive session. Chair expects that the national convention will do really well.
Malagon asks some questions that are a bit pointed. Q: Donors to Presidential debate. Can they ask for refunds? Must ask within 30 days. A/V expense will be perhaps $70,000 or perhaps $100,000.
Harlos concerned with internet connectivity. Also, there is a literature policy.
Hagopian defends selling slots for the Presidential candidate support.
Chair: we may have some large donors. To buy tickets, etc., contact Angela McArdle. TJ Ferreira: Contract is excellent. Issues are being worked on. All delegates will have a badge and a delegate ribbon. Alternates will be covered.
Public discussion. We advance to financial discussion. Roof repair on HQ. Cost estimate $7-12,000. We have a potential tenant. Market rent might be $8-10,000 per month. Historical Committee wants to recover items from HQ basement for Colorado storage.
Quorum check: There was quorum.
Harlos says she will not join an executive session if the anonymous member associated with the demand letter threatening a lawsuit against the LNC does not reveal himself. Back and forth. Malagon says he is not the member in question. Tuniewicz says the same. Move for executive session for purpose of discussing contracts, donations, and personnel. Move to call the question.
Secretary objects to calling the question. We advance to a vote.Yes – Nanna, Nekhaila, Tuniewicz, Darr, Hyman. Chair does not vote. Motion fails. Nanna says he is not suing. Ditto Rufo, Hagopian, and Benner. Ditto Watkins, Yeniscavitch, Ford, Hayman, Darr, Hays, McArdle, Hertzsch. Tuniewicz wrote the officers saying he was not the litigant.
They say that they will advance to executive session in a breakout room. There are amusing electronic consequences, not the fault of any LNC member. The people not on the LNC stay on YouTube. In some hours, they may emerge from executive session and vote, then hear some reports.
Addenda: The reports were not heard. They return after two hours.
Motion by Hagopian to direct the Chair and the Treasurer to secure preapproval for a secured line of credit backed by HQ building equity in an amount up to $250,000.
Hagopian: This is just the preapproval. We have to return to get approval once we know what the terms are.
There is back and forth as to what should be approved or not, and what the Executive Committee can or cannot do Hagopian withdraws his motion, without asking approval of the body, but there was no objection.
Harlos moved a different motion: Motion by Hagopian to direct the Chair and the Treasurer to obtain a secured line of credit backed by HQ building equity in an amount up to $250,000 on the terms most favorable to the party with drawing upon the line of credit being approved by the Executive Committee.
Opposed: Hagopian, Hays, Nanna, Tuniewicz, Darr,
Abstain: Malagon, Rufo, Watkins.
Fails, lacking 2/3
Secretary asserts that the Chair is already authorized to seek preapproval.
They vote 10-4-1 to adjourn without hearing from the Audit Committee.
“Secretary asserts that the Chair is already authorized to seek preapproval.”
That was due to an ongoing executive committee e-mail vote that was to be completed that evening and was passing.
People familiar with the matter advise us that Tuniewicz informed the LNC that he did not sign the demand letter because it demanded that Ms. McCardle resign, he did not expect her to be re-elected as chair at our DC convention, so he thought that pursuing such a suit didn’t make any sense.
The requirement for inclusion in the POTUS debate at convention should be the same as the requirement to be entered into nomination; anything else is antithetical to a fair process!
“Complaints about what is being said on the chat.”
Now I’m curious what’s in the chat!
Mr. Chadderdon raised these same objections at the convention. The delegates overwhelmingly overruled him. The convention is the highest authority in a state party
Actually, a violation is still a violation, and violations of absentee rights do not go away, as these same people found out.