January 27, 2009Dear Fellow Contra Costa Republican Central Committee Member:The purpose of this letter is to provide information regarding certain actions that weretaken at the January 6, 2009 organizational meeting, in violation of Committee bylaws.My intent in sending this letter is to share information with all Committee Members tofacilitate prompt correction of this problem which, if unaddressed, could jeopardize our county party’s credentials status, which is essential to voting at next month’s state partyconvention.Our common mission is to build the Committee into an effective team, to further Republican principles and elect strong Republicans to public office. Unfortunately, theevents which transpired at the January Committee meeting have distracted us from thismission. We are best served by taking action to resolve these issues without delay.I believe that most Committee Members agree that following established rules isnecessary to any well-run organization. I also believe that most Committee Memberssincerely desire to follow our organization’s bylaws and act with integrity. That said,please know that it is my sole purpose, in raising these concerns, to ensure that theCommittee follows its rules (i.e., Committee bylaws) and that the leadership is heldaccountable for doing so. I have no desire to be a troublemaker or “take over” theCommittee or its leadership, as has been suggested by recent rumors – I just want tosee our Committee conduct itself in an “above board” fashion, consistent with our ownrules.First, a review of the facts regarding the January 6, 2009 Committee meeting is in order.At that meeting – specified as the “biennial organizational meeting” by Article XI of our Committee bylaws – certain actions were taken which conflict with the Committeebylaws, as follows:1.
Amending Bylaws Absent 14-Day Advance Distribution of ProposedAmendments to All Committee Members.
Bylaws amendments were adopted at the January 6, 2009 meeting, despite the fact thatsome members had not received the proposed bylaws amendments fourteen (14) daysprior to the meeting, as required (Article XIII, Section 1). At the meeting, severalmembers advised that they had not received the bylaws until arriving at the meeting thatevening. Because all members did not receive the bylaws as required, the TemporaryChairman, Tom Del Beccaro, properly should have deferred the bylaws item to a futuremeeting.To rectify this issue, an annotated copy of the proposed bylaws should be distributed toall members, by both e-mail and U.S. mail, at least 14 days prior to a Committeemeeting, at which the matter can be considered.2.
Filling Committee Vacancies in a Manner Contrary to BylawsRequirements.
Contra Costa Central Committee bylaws specify that Committee vacancies may be filledafter the following requirements are satisfied:
•
The Committee completes its biennial organizational meeting
and itsExecutive Board positions are filled consistent with bylaws Article XI, Section2. Completion of this organizational process must precede any actions to fillvacancies, because new members cannot be appointed until there is anorganized Committee (that is, with Elected Executive Board in place) dulyauthorized to appoint them;
•
Supervisorial District Chairs are elected
by the Regular Members in eachDistrict (Article VII, Section 1);
•
The Supervisorial District Chair from the district in which the vacanciesoccurs is to
solicit the names of all interested Republicans
residing in thedistrict in which the vacancy exists (Article IV, Section 8a);
•
The Supervisorial District Chair shall call a
meeting of the voting Regular members who reside in the district
, for the purpose of electing a qualifiedRepublican to fill the vacancy by majority vote (Article IV, Section 8b); and
•
The Committee Chairman calls for
an election to fill Committee vacanciesto occur at the next regularly-scheduled Committee meeting
followingthat at which Committee vacancies are identified (Article IV, Section 8c).At the January 6 meeting the Temporary Chairman, Tom Del Beccaro, permitted thefilling of Committee vacancies prior to the organizational process and absent the District-level publicity and recruitment process set forth above. Doing so clearly violatesorganizational bylaws.To rectify this issue, a new organizational meeting should take place, to properly seat thenew Executive Board and District Chairs before calling for filling of vacancies per theprocedure set forth in the bylaws.3.
Filling Executive Board Positions in a Manner Contrary to BylawsRequirements.
Contra Costa Central Committee bylaws require Executive Board positions to be filled bya majority vote of Regular Members. Regular Members are those “members of theCounty party elected to the County Central Committee by the voters in the biennial directprimary election for the Republican Party” (Article III. Section 2.a.). Because Committeevacancies were filled improperly, the election of Greg Poulos and Darcy Linn toExecutive Board positions was not permissible because neither Poulos nor Linn wereeligible for appointment to these positions (because they were not Regular Members, asdefined by the bylaws, on January 6, 2009).To rectify this issue, a new organizational meeting should take place to properly seat thenew Executive Board and District Chairs
before
calling for filling of vacancies per theprocedure set forth in the bylaws.It should also be noted that the unapproved draft minutes of the January 6 meeting,recently distributed via e-mail by Committee Secretary Tom Fryer, contain an inaccuratestatement which should be corrected by the Committee, as follows:
•
Under the Call to Order section of the minutes, it is stated
: “As to the immediatefilling of the vacancies, it was pointed out by Temporary Chairman Del Beccarothat this process would require a 2/3 vote as it was at variance with the sequenceof events set forth in the By-Laws. The intended process was reviewed for the
Letter to Contra Costa Central Committee MembersJanuary 27, 2009Page 2 of 3
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Ken Hambrick addresses need for Contra Costa County Republican Cewntral Committee can get its organization back on track to follow its own bylaws as it reforms its leadership.
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