Date: Sat, 03 Feb 2001 14:05:13 -0700 (MST) From: atheist_libertarians@yahoogroups.com Reply-To: atheist_libertarians@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 21:31:42 -0700 From: cartero@nguworld.com (Mike Dugger) Subject: [lpaz-discuss] Who let the dogs in? To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com Reply-To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com
An open letter to the Libertarians of Pima County
Dear Libertarian State Committeeman,
Having had the opportunity to observe a small portion of the meeting of the Arizona Libertarian Party, Inc. board of directors yesterday, I am compelled to share some observations. Note that I refer to the meeting as an ALP, Inc. board of directors meeting rather than the statutorily required organizing meeting of the Arizona Libertarian Party required by ARS 16-826.
The official organizing meeting was held in a hotel near the one where ALP, Inc. met and was conducted in strict accordance with the statute. Unfortunately, the seven state committeemen who were in attendance when the meeting commenced just after 1:00pm on January 27, 2001 chose not to nominate, let alone elect anyone to the offices of chairman, secretary or treasurer, as required by the statute.
One could conclude that the 19 Pima County Libertarians who comprise the statutory committee (as they are the only ones who meet the statutory requirements to BE state committeemen) are flouting the statutes which the Arizona Libertarian Party has committed to obey pending the outcome of the current appeal of last year's court decision of Judge Robert Myers. At the very least it shows that Judge Myers contention that the statutory system is the only way to ensure that the state knows the who are the proper agents of a political party to interface with is falacious. Obviously, the statutory scheme can only lead the statutory ponies to water, but it can't make them drink. It must now fall to the ALP Primary Committee to appoint people to the statutory offices.
On the other hand, the ALP, Inc. board meeting violated the statutes in a number of ways which is why I am writing today. My observations were limited, but I was still able to note at least two or three significant ways in which the ALP, Inc. board meeting violated the statutes which govern political parties.
First is the matter of the number of state committeemen. This number is very easy to determine upon reading the statutes involved. First of all, as was noted at the meeting itself, only Pima and Yuma counties were allowed to elect precinct committeemen at the September 2000 primary election as per ARS 16-821. As was also noted, no one from Yuma county ran for a precinct committeeman position. This means that only Pima county elected precinct committeemen, 56 of them in fact. This, according to ARS 16-825, entitled Pima county to elect only 18 state committeemen plus their county chairman as an ex-officio committeeman.
These 56 elected precinct committeemen were the only ones eligible to vote for or be elected as state committeemen at the Pima county organizing meeting which took place on January 13, 2001. That Peter Schmerl contends that a larger number were eligible based on a court decision which doesn't even relate to precinct committeemen is simply further evidence of his tireless efforts to confuse and confound the issues surrounding just who constitutes the bonafide leadership of the Libertarians of Arizona. It will not hold up in any court and Pima Libertarians need to wake up and smell the coffee.
As evidence that Schmerl is being purposefully dishonest in his interpretation of who is qualified to be a state committeeman I offer the following. Early in the ALP, Inc board meeting Bob Bushkin asked the chair, Schmerl, if he was aware of any attorney general's opinion relating to the term of office of precinct committemen. Schmerl and John Zajac both professed to having no knowlege of any such opinion. However, page 243 of _Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated, Title 16, Elections and Electors_ contains the following reference:
"7. Term of office Since the office of precinct committeeman is filled by election every two years, a precinct committeeman's term of office is two years. [Op.Atty.Gen No. I87-078] "
Either Schmerl is woefully ignorant of the very statutes he has relentlessly litigated to enforce, or he lied about his knowledge of this Attorney General's Opinion. In any event, any precinct committeeman who failed to seek reelection in September 2000 has lost his position. Therefore he or she cannot be counted toward the total number of precinct committeemen in Pima county for the purpose of inflating the number of state committeemen. Unfortunately, it may require still more expensive, damaging and divisive litigation to settle this issue. Then again it may just be academic due to other considerations.
Second, Maricopa county Libertarians were not permitted to elect precinct committeemen at the September 2000 primary election. Therefore, no one from Maricopa county - most notably including John Zajac who is registered to vote in Maricopa county - was eligible to be a state committeeman, let alone an officer of the state committee of a political party. John's election as a party officer is null and void. (see ARS 16-825 and ARS 16-826A)
None of this is to say that yesterday's ALP, Inc. meeting was an illegal board meeting of that organization, but rather, I am merely showing why it must not be confused with the state organizing meeting required by Arizona law. That meeting, as I've already noted, was nearby at the Quality Inn at South Mountain. I am not familiar enough with the bylaws of ALP, Inc. to determine whether the aspects I've pointed out would be in violation of ALP, Inc's own bylaws, thus calling its very standing as a viable organization, or at least the business conducted yesterday, into question.
In any event, having been to the ALP, Inc. meeting for even a short while; and having observed the people in attendance - I can state categorically that there were, for the most part, two groups of people in attendance there. The first being the small group who have guided the party into and through 6 years of expensive, damaging and divisive litigation who were managing that dog-and-pony show. The second, larger group consisted of those who comprised the dogs and ponies jumping happily through the hoops which Schmerl and Zajac spent the day holding up for them. I should note that there was another group of proxies who didn't bother to attend, but rather, who simply empowered Scott Stewart, of the afformentioned first group, to dictate the outcome of virtually every vote yesterday. I hope those proxies were all from ELECTED precinct committeemen.
Finally, as if all this weren't enough, the very location of the ALP, Inc. board meeting was in violation of the statutes governing a political party. ARS 16-826A requires that
"The state committee shall meet in the city where the state capitol is located no earlier than ten days after the last county meeting of the party and in any event no later than the fourth Saturday in January following a general election..."
I will assume that everyone in attendance at yesterday's meeting, including Peter Schmerl who called it, is aware that Phoenix is the city in which the capitol of the state resides. However, the Grace Inn at Ahwatukee, where the ALP, Inc. board meeting was held, sits on a county island outside the city limits of the City of Phoenix. see http://www.ArizonaLibertarian.org/images/island.htm
Unfortunately, we will probably never know whether this fact is evidence of Peter Schmerl's incompetence, or more ominously, his way of secretly mocking those in attendance by fooling them into thinking that they had driven all the way from Tucson for the purpose of fulfilling the requirements of the statutes. Rest assured that my belief is the latter. At any rate, you might as well have met at a Tucson Denny's as the Grace Inn at Ahwatukee as far as Arizona law is concerned.
So to those of you who did take the time and make the effort to drive all the way to Maricopa county and spend your Saturday helping to perpetuate Peter Schmerl's ALP, Inc. - an entity created solely for the purpose of gaining standing to intitiate and perpetuate the expensive, damaging and divisive litigation which most of you purport to despise - I have this to say: "Lie down. Sit. Roll over. Shake. Good doggie."
Regards, Mike Dugger, Provisional Chairman, Arizona Libertarian State Committee
ps. for reference to the statutes please see either http://www.ArizonaLibertarian.org/news/PurcellVHancock.htm or http://www.azleg.state.az.us/ars/16/title16.htm and scroll down to sections 821-828.
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