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Because the bylaws specifically calls for two co-chair positions, the council does not need to approve of the election. It is mandated by the bylaws.From the bylaws, section 5.8, “If a Green Party of Colorado officer’s position is vacated in between official state meetings, the Council or both co-chairs in agreement may make a temporary appointment in the manner as specified in the Procedures and Guidelines until the next state meeting under consultation with each local.”This is precisely what is being done in this proposal.With the vacancy, it is not democratic for me to unilaterally make the choice. The council must decide via this vote. There is also previous precedent here: http://gpco.fullydefiant.com/forum/index.php?topic=234.0Further, the Boulder cochair nominated one of the candidates up for election, raising no objections, therefore presumably your own chapter approves of this process.Please take a vote, or if you will not, ask your chapter to appoint an alternate who will.
Because the bylaws specifically calls for two co-chair positions, the council does not need to approve of the election. It is mandated by the bylaws.
Andrea, There is no mandate for Council to fill a vacant co-chair position.From the bylaws, section 5.8, “If a Green Party of Colorado officer’s position is vacated . . . Council . . . may make a temporary appointment". This gives Council the authority to appoint a person to fill the vacant position, but certainly does not mandate it.I agree that http://gpco.fullydefiant.com/forum/index.php?topic=234.0 is a relevant precedent. This was proposal 004-15, submitted by the chair to appoint Laura Clark as co-chair and Chris Allen as treasurer. Council agreed to the proposal using our standard agreement seeking process. I suggest Council follow the precedent set in 004-15 and use our standard agreement seeking process on this proposal, 008-16.Doing so will put Council in compliance with party bylaw 5.8.Voting should be halted until Council agrees to fill the vacant co-chair position.
The voting will not be halted. Please cast the vote per the instruction of your local, or move aside so that an alternate from your local can be chosen to vote.There is already precedent for this, as I mentioned. Your continued attempts to derail a democratic process that not only follows party custom and the bylaws, are becoming disruptive, with no clear purpose. Please vote or ask your local to name an alternate to vote in your place.
As much as I don't want to wade into this, Harry is correct. The bylaws do say “may” and also says “… both co-chairs in agreement…”. Since we only have one co-chair at the moment, both co-chairs in agreement is not possible. Therefore only council can make this appointment and it must go through the proper process. We must first verify that the council wants to fill the second co-chair position for such a short term and then have another election at the state meeting. In the absence of such a motion in agreement-seeking, we ride with only one co-chair until the state meeting. Both co-chairs can only agree to fill a vacant position other than their own with the possible exception that agreement is made prior to one co-chair vacating.Andrea - there is no need to accuse Harry of obstructing progress. He is helping us follow the bylaws. Lets keep it a civil discussion of what the bylaws say and the intent of the bylaws.Michael HaugheyJefferson County Green Party
Given your post, Michael, should we assume that (a) you withdraw your second to nominate Arn Menconi and (b) cancel the vote you cast here?How should we interpret your intent here?
Andrea, is your request that I either vote or step aside made from your role as the acting Facilitator for this proposal or are you asking as the sponsor?
I believe the vote should stop. However, should the vote continue, my second and vote shall be counted.Michael HaugheyJC Greens
The call for nominations was posted October 4 and hasn't met any resistance until now. Restarting the process now would only serve to delay getting our interim co chair in place so we can pivot towards the party building work we so desperately need to focus on.Given that neither the bylaws nor the Policies document detail the process for Council appointing the interim and this isn't a traditional proposal but rather an election, our determination (co chair, secretary, and now-former facilitator) was that this would be the best and most democratic way to proceed. In other words, it's not possible for this proposal to be out of order, since the procedure isn't specified anywhere. The Procedures and Guidelines document also explicitly allows this flexibility: 'Suspension of these procedures may occur with issues of urgency, again at the discretion of the convener/facilitator' (top of page four). As co chair, Andrea has now taken the place of acting facilitator since the resignation of Brittany Hoover. Based on these facts, I believe voting should proceed.
As co chair, Andrea has now taken the place of acting facilitator since the resignation of Brittany Hoover.
Sean, thank you for making Andrea's appointment of Andrea as Council Facilitator known to the party. It is not surprising that Co-chair Andrea thinks she is the only Green in Colorado capable of facilitating this forum and did not see a need to notify Council that she had appointed herself. Andrea may not understand the conflict of interest created by sponsoring and facilitating the same proposal. There is no way, now, for a Council member to BLOCK this proposal, because the Facilitator Andrea being the Sponsor too, will simply declare the BLOCK out of order. But, for the record, my position on this proposal to appoint a co-chair is BLOCK. At midnight Facilitator Andrea will declare the election closed with Dave Bell winning, having received a majority of first-place votes. Sponsor Andrea will thank Council for supporting the proposal. Co-chair Andrea will congratulate Co-chair Dave with high hopes the party officers will be unified and the Steering Committee will be able to function again. Council is witnessing a coup, to be consummated at midnight. Andrea Merida, aided and abetted by Sean Friend and Dave Bell, has obtained monopoly power over the Green Party of Colorado's decision making process and total control of party assets. Council members can no longer submit proposals without Facilitator Andrea's determination that the proposal is in order. The perfect coup, like the perfect murder, goes unnoticed. In this case, Andrea relied on identity politics to draw attention away from the real issues, reminiscent of the 2016 Presidential election.Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump used identity politics and intersectionality as the basis for their campaign strategies. Intersectionality is a powerful tool. Hillary appealed to female voters. Donald appealed to oppressed workers; people fed up with business as usual in government, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party; and (deplorably) a small, passionate population of nationalist, white supremacists. In my view, Hillary's strategy lost because many women identified more deeply as oppressed workers and marginalized voters than as females. Rulers throughout history have used "Divide and conquer" to rule. This is a critical time in our country. We must be a vigilant people; indivisible.I would appeal to Council to unify the party around a true leadership team. Here is what we could do:Form a leadership team of 5 to 7 people or so to plan a 2017 Annual Meeting that will unify the party and adopt a strong, staffed program for the 2018 election cycle. The team must include people of different genders, skin color, etc. In particular, including newbies and oldies, alike, in planning the 2017 annual meeting is critical to unifying the party and getting strong grassroots commitment to participate in the 2018 election cycle.I will submit a separate proposal to this effect. Hopefully, Facilitator Andrea will allow Council to discuss it.Thank you for reading this, Harry HempyCouncil Member, Greater Boulder Green Chapter
Your commentary is not germane to this thread, and you will still be bound by the basic requirements for proposals. Only locals may submit, not individuals.As you will not cast a vote, please refrain from further unrelated commentary here and confine any other comments to the discussion threads.Thank you.
The role of council facilitator is explicitly part of the co chair duties unless a designated facilitator is appointed by the co chairs. Please check the bylaws and the Procedures document for clarification.This Council is run democratically. Since 26 out of the 34 council representatives from ten out of eleven chapters have already voted on this proposal, your accusation that a coup is taking place is completely unfounded. If this had followed your preferred method of going through Agreement Seeking, your block would have just forced this to a vote, and we would be in exactly this place. Given that your block would have just forced this into voting anyway, I personally would like to hear from the Boulder representatives who they would vote for as the new interim co chair. Registered Greens in Boulder County have so far had no say on this question, since their council representatives have not voted.
Sean,I see nothing in the bylaws about the facilitator, one way or another. Perhaps there was a resolution?Michael HaugheyJC Greens
“3.5.1. The Co-chairs will alternate as conveners/facilitators of the Council or a convener/facilitator will be elected by the council."See the Procedures document, accessible through this link: http://coloradogreenparty.org/about/procedures-guidelines/
Section 3.7 of the Procedures and Guidelines document is also relevant, as it states that the co chairs can cooperatively appoint a new facilitator. Until an interim is in place, this obviously wouldn't be possible.'The GPCO co-chairs, after conferring together, can make a "good until challenged appointment" of a volunteer for a vacancy to any of the following positions: coalition representative; meeting facilitator or council facilitator; meeting agenda collector; press relations director; representative to a GPUS committee, other than the GPUS-CC; web master; archivist; state phone line minder, or any other nondecision-making position'
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