August 7, 2021 Plan of Organization Amendments at the SEC

 The Plan of Organization Review Committee has released a rather lengthy report making numerous changes to the NCDP Plan of Organization.  Mostly these recommendations are made under the pretext of streamlining the SEC meetings which have gotten bogged down over the years and are made even more unbearable with the advent of virtual meetings.  Yet with everything done with virtual meetings since mid March 2020, much of what the party presents to us is done with even less transparency than ever before.  Now they want to turn the SEC members into rubber-stamps for the state party officers, staff and consultants - all but eliminating our ability to amend what is brought to us from other committee meetings were we have little to no input or other involvement.

PORC Recommendation 1 (Local Alternative Plans of Organization)

Due to the hardship in holding a County Executive Committee with several hundred members; the SEC, in 2019, approved lowering the quorum required for the CEC in Mecklenburg County. We recommend renewing that Alternate Plan of Organization from Mecklenburg County.

PORC Recommendation 2 (Local Alternative Plans of Organization)

Due to the hardship in holding a County Executive Committee with several hundred members; the SEC, in 2019, approved lowering the quorum required for the CEC in Wake County. We recommend approving this Alternate Plan of Organization for Wake County lowering quorum and including Regional Vice Chair roles.

Vote YES with amendments:

I'm not really buying the argument for that it's that much harder to hold a CEC meeting with 40% quorum requirement vs. 35%. With virtual meetings, we have not had a problem making or exceeding quorum – we've had more problems handling the overwhelming number of people who want to participate both as credentialed CEC members as well as non-credentialed attendees.

There are many things that could be done to hold meetings where you make quorum of 40% - like holding the meetings on a weekend during the day instead of a weeknight with people having to commute across the county from work and miss dinner.

My real objection to these two recommendations is the fact there is little if any input or discussion/debate within the county party over the language of the LACPoO for any county. Pretty much only the county party officers or even just the County Chair and a few others write the language up to the last minute with little to no input from knowledgeable members of the county party who deserve to have input into the county party Plan of Organization. Here in Wake County, I might want to have input on including the District Coordinators and Tech committees into the LACPoO, which would also cover minimum qualifications for selection, and limits to how they can interfere with precinct organization. I might also want to formalize the Resolution and Platform Committee process so that it's handled the same way year after year and we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

I favor voting YES on both plans, but submitting language to the PORC to amend the PoO re these Local Alternative County Plans of Organization to require that any county contemplating creating their own LACPOO must create a LACPoO committee to accept amendments from active Democrats and hold meetings to discuss and debate proposed language and then vote on a final document published and distributed to the CEC members at least 14 days before a CEC meeting where that document can be discussed/debated/amended by members of the CEC. Otherwise, these LACPoO documents end up being solely written by the County Chair – which is not very small “d” democratic.

PORC Recommendation 3 (DEC Voting In Districts Wholly In A County)

Current voting on any District Exec Committee is weighted with the various County Chair and 1VC from each county carrying a large number of votes calculated based on population. The remaining District Officers and Exec members have one vote each. In Congressional Districts that are wholly in a single district the two county leaders can always outvote other district leaders on any divided issue. The Leadership from the 2nd and 12th have asked for a way to spread out that weighted vote among more people. Representatives from the 2nd & 12th District and Wake & Mecklenburg counties working with us join the PORC is recommending this amendment.

I favor voting YES on Recommendation #3.

PORC Recommendation 4 (County BOE & Chair Appointments)

Current 2.06 was last amended during the "dark times" (McCrory Administration) when we had a 4 member BOE. It hasn't been updated to reflect the 2019 law that has the Governor appoint the local BOE Chair and the POO does not speak to it. This recommendation codifies what counties did in 2021 and follows the current model of selecting BOE members with confirmation by the County Executive Committee.

I recommend voting YES on recommendation #4.

PORC Recommendation 5 (Appointed Treasurer)

Treasurers have unique statutory requirements unlike any other party office. They are required by law to submit timely reports to the BOE and maintain accounts of the Party. Many counties struggle to find qualified candidates that are willing to stand for election or have folks run who are not qualified to do the job. Currently the State Treasurer is appointed by the State Chair and appears to be a good model. We recommend this amendment.

Lately we've had a lot of problems with Treasurers who aren't doing their jobs in an accurate and/or timely manner. Having an appointed Treasurer means that you don't have to ask an elected Treasurer to resign or file a petition to remove them, which can take time and still result in a problem with the SBE. That being said, once the Treasurer is appointed, it should at least take a meeting of the elected county party level officers to remove the Treasurer for cause, so the appointment process can begin.

I recommend voting YES for #5 with an amendment to require a vote of the elected county part officers to remove the appointed Treasurer for cause. Any Treasurer can resign from office by notifying the County Party Chair and the elected county party officers in writing. 

PORC Recommendation 6 (Immediate Past Chair Ex-Officio Officer)

Party Chairs at every level have a significant amount of knowledge and experience after having served. Frequently that knowledge is lost after their term ends. This allows for the Immediate Past Chair to remain on the board and to share their experience. We recommend this amendment.

There is absolutely no reason why a current Party Chair can't reach out to an immediate past Chair for advise and share their experience. But why should they get a vote? It's bad enough that most Chairs are picked by the Governor and this would give the governor yet another vote on the Executive Council and SEC. And what happens if an incumbent Chair is beaten by a challenger – if the SEC members wanted that person to have a vote, they'd have voted for them to be Chair. And what if a Chair has to resign due to some conflict or scandal – would you want them to have a vote?

I recommend voting NO on #6. 

PORC Recommendation 7a (NCDP Finance Committee)

In an effort to streamline SEC meetings, a Finance Committee is created as a subset of the Executive Council to draft the State Budget and allow more input in it’s creation. We recommend this amendment.

I'm not buying that a Finance Committee report would help streamline SEC meetings. We still have to vote for the budget, and except for the most recent SEC meeting where the budget was provided on-line, the real time-killer is the need to look at the budget for the first time at the SEC meeting. As for the often purported reason that we don't provide advance copies because we don't want the Republicans to see what we spend – so what? We've lost two decennial elections in a row for all the good this secrecy has done us.

I recommend voting NO on 7a unless it is amended to include advance publication of the budget along with all other SEC meeting documents a minimum of 14 days before the SEC meeting.

PORC Recommendation 7b (SEC Candidate Filing Period)

In an effort to streamline SEC meetings, Candidates for NCDP State Office will file in advance. This also allows for more transparency by allowing ample time for due diligence of candidates. We recommend this amendment.

I recommend voting against 7b because it might cause conflict with diversity requirements. Also – it would allow for “rigged elections” - what would happen if all but one person dropped off the slate for each position – and no one else could run? 

It would need to be amended to allow floor nominations to fulfill diversity requirements and to allow for increased communication for SEC members and other interested active Democrats.

PORC Recommendation 7c (Streamline SEC Meetings)

The SEC Streamline select committee suggested changes to SEC agenda’s to more balance SEC meetings.

• (1) Shift the approval of Affiliated Orgs to the odd numbered Summer SEC - YES

• (2) Only hear Resolutions from the P&R once per year (during the summer meeting) - NO

• (3) POO Amendments presented to SEC for an up/down/refer back vote – HELL NO!

• (4) Following DNC model, create a Finance Sub-committee of Exec Council to deliberate and modify draft budget from staff. Council still can amend. Present Summary to SEC for an up/down/refer back vote only. No amendments on the floor.  This is already covered under 7a - I recommend voting No – the DNC is a poor model where consultants & lobbyists who are also DNC members who can rig contracts without other member input or amendments. Too much of what our party does is done by a few people who wear too many hats without enough transparency - why make it worse?

• (5) Create filing period ahead of SEC for officer/DNC elections, prohibit running from the floor. This is already covered under 7b - I recommend voting NO – would cause conflict with diversity requirements. Also – would allow for “rigged elections” - what would happen if all but one person dropped off the slate for each position – and no one else could run?

We recommend these amendments.

I have (numbered) these bulleted items for discussion. I do know lately we've tried to cram too much stuff into any one meeting. I long for the days when we had competent Chairs who could run a meeting smoothly without having to turn around and ask staff for advice. And we would know a year in advance when we'd have SEC meeting and state conventions – in even years those meetings would take place on the same weekend to save on travel and other expenses. And that would give people enough time to make arrangements for childcare, rides, etc. And even give people time to plan for the meetings that would lead up to the conventions and SEC meetings.

I'm not buying the pretext that these items are being proposed to streamline meetings. If we really wanted to streamline meetings, the committee that came up with these ideas would have been much more diverse and taken suggestions from a wide variety of active Democrats. Right now there is little input from SEC members elected from the counties – it seems like the suggestions offered up allow for more top-down control of the party and make the SEC members little more than a rubber-stamp for decisions they have little to no input in.

If we really wanted to streamline the meetings, we'd elect people who really knew how to run meetings effectively. I long for the days when we'd have an effective Chair like Jerry Meek or David Parker who could not only get meetings done on time, but also got an even bigger agenda taken care of during the meetings then we are doing now. Just because the Governor likes a particular person to run the party for them, doesn't mean that person is gifted at running the meetings in a streamlined matter. I for one am not willing to give up my voice in the party because we have officers who can't lead meetings effectively.

Back on February 29, 2020, I urged the SEC to table the discussion of and vote on the Code of Conduct to discuss the virtual meetings we were undoubtedly going to start having in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain people wanted to shove that Code of Conduct down our throats even though it was a piss-poor document with no definitions of the conduct/behavior they sought to prevent/control. So now we have a Code of Conduct that is still too overly-broad and overly-vague (and therefore unenforceable), but even more importantly we failed to use our last chance to meet in person to discuss how we'd hold virtual meetings that would give members the same rights to participate as we have at in-person meetings. And we never considered how to research ways to make sure the meetings take place in a balanced way for both our rights of participation and not running too long and wasting time.

The problem with most of them is that if for some reason the Chair doesn't include these items on the agenda for the specific meeting, the business won't be dealt with. We've had State Party Chairs or Executive Directors forget to schedule resolutions for the second meeting in an odd year (like in 2015), meaning all the work done to handle resolutions at the precinct/county/district level was wasted. And we've even had state party officers and staff fail to schedule SEC meetings at all until virtually the last minute (in 2014, 2016 and 2017) which screws everyone up. So any of these items that pass must have language controlling the state party and committee chairs to make sure they do their jobs to schedule and notice these meetings in a timely manner.

(1) I've long since favored moving the approval of affiliated orgs from first meetings of odd numbered years. There is simply too much to do at the first SEC meeting of an odd year to deal with approving affiliated orgs.

(2) I do not favor only hearing resolutions during the second SEC meeting. The reasons we started hearing resolutions at all SEC meetings was 1) that a previous Chair didn't hear resolutions during the 2^nd meeting of an odd year (in 2015) for reasons that defy rational explanation, and 2) that so much work goes into resolutions during a year that we cannot afford to run out of time to pass those resolutions at the SEC by limiting them to the second meeting of the year.  That will force people to start fresh at the next round of precinct meetings without knowing that the process might fail them again at the state level.  

(3) I do not favor only having POO amendments presented for an up/down/refer back vote.  Over the last few years, active Democrats have had their rights to amend the POO severely curtailed by creation of a committee that was originally created to eliminate conflict and ambiguity in the Plan, but instead has become a creature with a mind of its own, making more work for itself and in one instance created an Auxiliary Organization Council of Review which was later shot down because the Auxiliary groups said they didn't need it.  We need more not less input on the Plan of Organization - so this section is a very bad idea!

I've already covered my reasons for voting NO on items 4 & 5.

PORC Recommendation 7d (Clarify PORC process).

This clarifies the process of POO Amendments and only applies if Recommendation 7c passes. We recommend this amendment.

This amendment turns everyone on the SEC except for elected state officers and members of the Executive Council into nothing more than rubber stamps.  That is not what our county delegates and/or CEC members elected us to be and do.  

I recommend not only voting NO but HELL NO on item 3 under 7c and make 7d unnecessary. 

Wake County Progressive Democrats potluck for January 17, 2018 - plus update on our status with the PCNCDP!

Dear Progressives:
 
Sorry again for the lateness of this message.  But between the cold weather and other weird events, lots of things have been going on.

FIRST:            The original speaker scheduled for our January 17^th potluck was Wake County Board of Education member Dr. Jim Martin to talk about vocational-technical education in our public school system.  Because there are some rather bizarre things going on in the Wake County Progressive Democrats and the statewide progressive caucus (which I will go into later in this e-mail), so Vice President Mike Pierce and I thought we should reschedule Dr. Martin for our February meeting.  We will use our time this coming Wednesday to discuss the current and future issues affecting the Wake County Progressive Democrats.

SECOND:            Due to forecasts of 1 to 3 inches of snow on Wednesday, with a high of only 32 degrees, we might cancel the meeting if either NCDP staff at Goodwin House decide to close down due to weather.  We also know that just because weather in Raleigh might be clear, it doesn’t mean other parts of the county will be.  We will let you know as soon as we do if we can hold the meeting that day by sending out e-mail and posting to Facebook.

Weather-permitting, our meeting will be held on our traditional 3^rd Wednesday of the month - January 17th from 6-8:30PM at NC Democratic Party Headquarters/Goodwin House, 220 Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, NC 27603. This is a potluck, so please bring some food or beverages to share. If you can, please come early at 6 PM and help us set up. We will start eating at 6:30.  To RSVP, please do so on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/1454755441303861/ or by e-mail at wakeco.progressivedems@earthlink.net

THIRD:            I’d like to apologize for those people upset by the cancellation of our December holiday party – especially those who were left in the dark by some officers failing to perform their duties.

I prepared an e-mail which was forwarded onto another officer for distribution through our website e-mailer, but some folks tell me they never received it.  Furthermore, while we had our regularly scheduled meetings in September, October and November – the last report on attendance, membership and donations/dues that I received was for August.  They could not have been sent a notice of cancellation even if everyone else got one – but there was no official notice except for the ones I sent out.  I posted a similar message to our FB account, and I called up several long-time members to give them the news.  This is why I am sending in through my old earthlink e-mail address.

At one of our summer board meetings, we scheduled our December holiday party at an officer’s house – exact date and time unspecified.   By late October, this officer had some family issues requiring out of state travel that caused this location to become unavailable.  I asked the other officers – including those responsible for our activities – to find another suitable location for the event (free where we could bring our own food). Throughout the entire month of November, they were not able to find a spot available on the two weekend dates we had in mind, with enough time for the board members to do all the work required to hold the party and make it a successful one.

Since no specific time/date and location had never been agreed upon or even previously announced, it didn’t require a board meeting to cancel this event – it cancelled itself. 

Sorry to all our friends and fellow progressives who wanted to attend – some officers dropped the ball and I intend to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

-->

--> FOURTH:            The Wake County Progressive Democrats have been under continuous attack over the last two years from establishment conservaDems, the usual fauxgressive minions – and now from other ambitious progressives!
 
During a May 2017 PCNCDP interim officer teleconference call, interim PCNCDP officer Wendy Ella May made a motion to grandfather the Wake County Progressive Democrats, as well as their officers, bylaws and existing members, as the organized Wake County Chapter of record.  That motion was properly seconded, and proceeded to discussion and debate where the subject of our bylaws came up.  According to interim officer Wendy Ella May, they discussed the bylaws in effect at the time (passed on June 18, 2015 and available on our FB page) and upon examination they were found to be acceptable.  Discussion and debate was closed, and the interim officers voted unanimously to approve Wendy’s motion.

I was first informed in-person of the results of that vote by interim officers Wendy Ella May, Mike Pierce and Stacey Piesche on Sunday, June 11, 2017 - when they attended my 57th birthday party.  They told me that Wake County was the first organized county and the Wake County Progressive Democrats were the official chapter of record, with everything grandfathered in.  We’ve got screen shots shot on June 12 that were posted on our FB page – along with 24 likes – to prove this.  

 

This is a screenshot I captured at 4:41 PM on June 21, 2017 - a few hours before our June 2017 potluck meeting - showing once again that Wake County is organized - with updated information:

PCNCDP interim President David Nelson came to our June 21, 2017 Wake County Progressive Dems potluck to formally announce this.  I remember this and so do many others.  We’ve got written statements from two candidates for public office and one other Wake Progressives officer to back this up.  Our Treasurer said the same thing at our June meeting as well as subsequent meetings (including our July pool party)  – with this information used to induce people to apply for state caucus membership and pay dues. 

-->
Now the statewide caucus claims we are not organized anymore.  They claim that Wake is contested county – which means a 2^nd group interested in becoming the official county chapter of record.   

Our own Communications Chair and Treasurer Stacey Piesche is the 2^nd organizer (something not allowed under chapter organizing procedures which direct additional organizers to the original organizer - me!) and she has scheduled an organizational meeting for January 28^th, 2018.  And that any current members of the Wake County Progressive Democrats want to vote at the January 28^th meeting, we have to apply for membership and pay dues before the 28th.  But why do they think anyone in Wake County would want to join the statewide caucus just to vote in an election or at any time in the future when they didn’t honor our organized status the interim officers already voted on back in May? 

Now I know that many of the officers in the new caucus at the state level have little to no actual experience in the Democratic Party at the state officer level before, so they may be over their heads.  There are many people who run for party office and find out they are in over their heads.  Another issue is people running for many different offices and not being able to have enough time (or interest) to do all the work for all those positions.   

Part of the problem with not taking membership applications until June 2017 was too many officers wanting to do most everything on the internet.  Why not take those individual member applications on paper and accept cash and checks until county/district chapter procedures were formulated and the website was up?  If we had done this immediately after the September 2016 SEC meeting, imagine how many members we could have signed up at the November 13 meeting in Greensboro - attended by 100 people?  Imagine how many people we could have signed up at the February 2017 SEC meeting?  At county conventions in April 2017, and at the District Conventions in May 2017? 


-->

There have been no grievance petitions filed with the PCNCDP Judicial Board to challenge our status for any grounds, and there haven’t been any mediation hearings, Judicial Board hearings or rulings on the matter.  There have also been no PCNCDP executive committee votes to rescind our organized chapter status. 

So how did we go from being organized as early as May/June 2017 to being declared an unorganized contested county?  I suggest that you ask Stacey Piesche or Mike Pierce if either of them show up on Wednesday, January 17 for our potluck meeting (weather permitting). 

If either David Nelson or Bob Hyman show up, you might want to ask either of them what legal right they have to unilaterally undo the results of an interim state caucus board vote on Wake County’s organized status?  PCNCDP bylaws don’t allow the President or any individual officer to unilaterally rescind a chapter’s organized status.

Then there’s the conflict of interest with Bob Hyman not only being the appointed Chair of the Bylaws committee (that writes the bylaws) and on the Judicial Board members elected in August.  I see nothing in the PCNCDP bylaws that he wrote that give him or anyone else the authority to issue a unilateral ruling to rescind Wake County’s organized status.  While the PCNCDP bylaws do not address conflicts of interest, I would think that anyone would know it’s not a good idea to let the same people that write bylaws serve on a body that hears grievances based on whether or not officers including himself are fairly administering those bylaws.  In the real world, it’s called “Separation of Powers”.

If there is a legitimate problem with the interim officers vote back in May, or something else that has come up, why didn’t the board wait until a grievance was filed and a judicial board order was issued?  How can Dave Nelson drive all the way from Pitt County to Raleigh and tell us we are organized in June, and by December not be able to point to any Judicial Board order or board vote to rescind Wake’s organized status?  

If there is a legitimate problem in Wake County, why not file a grievance and let the Judicial Board do their job (with people who don’t have conflict of interest)?  If they issue a ruling and something is found wanting with Wake County, surely they can treat Wake County as fairly as they have treated other counties – where they grant them probationary status while the chapter works to remedy the situation?  

Why weren’t all those things done for Wake County? Let’s ask Stacey and Mike and whomever else shows up on Wednesday (weather permitting).  

Sincerely,

Chris Telesca

President, Wake County Progressive Democrats - the FIRST organized county chapter of the Progressive Caucus of the NCDP!

PR Latta’s Garden

Paul Richard “P.R.” Latta was one of the founders of the Wake County Progressive Democrats.  He was also a grassroots labor union and Democratic Party activist for decades.  Both the NC AFL-CIO and the Wake County Young Democrats give an award named after P.R. Latta, because of his many years of activism on behalf of labor and the Democratic Party.  Mr. Latta passed away at the age of 95 on August 17, 2014.

P.R. grew up a rural Democrat from West Virginia.  During the depth of the Depression, while his family was poor, they had a family garden to provide enough food for the family and others in the community – a giving tradition PR continued in his own home garden in north Raleigh until 2013.  I worked in his backyard garden to help him out in his later years, and he did share his vegetables with me and my friends who also came there to help him.

But even more important than the vegetables that he shared with me was the knowledge and experience that he shared and the example he set.  P.R. reminded me so much of my paternal grandfather – not just because he had a garden and a basement workshop crammed full of tools hanging from nails in the ceiling joists – but because P.R. was a teacher and a mentor to those who sought him out.

After I worked my butt off running the sign shop for the Wake County Democratic Party in the primary and general election of 2008, I was invited to P.R.’s house on Christmas and New Year’s Day to have egg-nog with P.R. and a handful of Democratic luminaries.  P.R. told me that he invited me because I had proved myself as a hard worker who got the job done and didn’t make excuses for failure.  He was my “sea-daddy” – one of the best mentors any grassroots Democratic Party activist could ever have.  And after my father passed away in March 2013, P.R. became even more of a father-figure to me.

P.R. Latta was a fixture at every Democratic Party meeting I’ve been to, and all of our Progressive potlucks we had.  He served as the first Vice President of the Wake County Progressive Democrats, and later served as the Outreach Coordinator.  When he finally stepped down from that office, I was deeply honored that he asked me to take over that position. 

Even though he was slowing down in his later years, he attended Democratic Party events – like the Wake Democratic Men’s Club where he set up the PA system, monthly Wake Dems board meetings, SEC/CEC meetings, and county/district/state conventions.  I helped him hold his 2014 precinct organization meeting.  He attended all the conventions up to and including the 2014 NCDP State Convention held on the 70^th anniversary of the D-Day landing in WWII – an event he participated in.  He attended our June 2014 potluck before his health started to seriously decline.  After a few extended stays in the hospital, a stay in a nursing/rehab facility in Zebulon, he transitioned to hospice care and then passed away on August 17, 2014.  I visited him often in the hospital and several times at the nursing/rehab facility and several times in hospice – including shortly before he passed away. 

Several times during the last year of his life, P.R. told me he was proud of me and the work I was doing in the Democratic Party and specifically with the Wake County Progressive Democrats. And every so often I talk with his family members – specifically his daughter-in-law Lucy, and his sons Ricky and Ken.  They thank me for protecting “Pappa’s legacy” and for working to keep the Democratic Party honest. 

P.R. was one of the founding members of the Wake County Progressive Democrats back in 2004.  That happened at roughly the same time as other progressives attempted and failed to form a statewide auxiliary group.  Mr. Latta felt that no county progressive auxiliary could ever hope to get much accomplished unless it was part of a statewide group that had a seat on the NCDP Executive Council.   I know that P.R. would be very proud that there is now a Progressive Caucus of the NCDP, and that the Wake Progressive Democrats worked with so many other progressive Democrats across the state to make that happen at the NCDP SEC meeting on February 11, 2017.

A succession of great progressive activists Democrats have been President of the Wake County Progressive Democrats: P.J. Puryear, John Hollingsworth, Chris Lizak, Jesse Goslen, and Tristy Evely.  Each of us handed over the office of President to someone who was worthy of the job – because they had actually done something in the group to build it up and make it better than it had been before.  When Tristy Evely got a new job and wasn’t able to handle the responsibilities of the Presidency, she asked me if I would take over from her because the then current Vice President didn’t feel he was up to the job.  I was honored and deeply humbled that she asked me.  But I asked P.R. first – and he told me I was up to the job and would be “a damned fool” if I didn’t run for the office. 

Grassroots activism often takes a backseat to the millions if not billions of campaign dollars used to influence voters.  Sadly we’ve gone and lost the last 4 election cycles by focusing more on what money can buy instead of what volunteer activism can do. 

Political scientists have often said that activists can play an important role in low-turnout midterm elections.  As former Congressman Brad Miller noted in his blog: “PR and I did agree that democracy would be better if the personal endorsement of a candidate’s sign in a citizen’s yard was as important in politics as big money.”

At the church during P.R.’s memorial service, I sat in the same row with the past Presidents of the Wake County Progressive Democrats.  It dawned on me that the Wake County Progressive Democrats was P.R.’s “garden” – and that I had a duty to preserve and protect the legacy that he and other grassroots activists left us.  And to make sure that next President was also worthy of that legacy.  That’s why I am running for another two-year term as President – to protect and preserve P.R. Latta’s grassroots legacy.  

I'm not running for other positions in the party other than Chair of my own precinct.  I've done a great job there, increasing Democratic votes for some races by over 50%.  Precinct Chair and President of the Wake County Progressive Democrats is all I want to do - and I have the time to do the job well.  I am not going to spread myself too thin running for positions on other boards, nor promise to do work that I can't deliver or fail to show up to do the work.  Now that we've got a full slate of great candidates who promise to show up to all meetings,  and do all the work - we can really move forward to get more grassroots activists active and engaged in the Democratic Party.  

Please vote for our slate so we can continue to do the work of preserving and protecting P.R. Latta's legacy.  

We, 7 out of 9 current Executive Officers of the Wake County Progressive Democrats whose names are listed at the end of this posting, do hereby endorse and support the following candidates for upcoming Executive Officers on February 15, 2017: 

President - Chris Telesca ** (nominated at January potluck)

Vice President - Mike Pierce ** (nominated at January potluck)

Activities Co-Chair: Quanta Edwards ** (to be nominated at February potluck)

Activities Co-Chair: Kelley Barker (to be nominated at February potluck)

Outreach Chair: Randy Jones (nominated at January potluck)

Policy Chair: Joshua Bradley ** (nominated at January potluck)

Communications Chair: Stacey Piesche * (to be nominated at February potluck)

Tech Chair: Grant Gordon (to be nominated at February potluck)

Secretary: Christina Thompson (to be nominated at February potluck)

* - incumbent officer seeking new position

** - incumbent officer seeking same position 

 

Why we are running for office!

-->

My name is Christopher Jon Telesca and I am the currently elected President of the Wake County Progressive Democrats. Rather than write up something cute for my own campaign ad, I wish to let you all know why the entire Executive Committee (aka the Board) is endorsing a slate of candidates for election on February 15 - listed at end of blog post!

 

1.            We practice what we teach: democratic procedures and values throughout the Democratic Party.  

 

We have a great (but not perfect) set of bylaws – which requires that well follow the NCDP Plan of Organization, Roberts Rules of Order.  We also follow applicable state and federal laws.

 

We have an Executive Committee (aka the Board) that meets to plan our activities.  No one person runs the group – and no one person should be running for any office in the Wake Progressives claiming they can single-handedly change the group.  

 

Nothing gets done and not one dime gets spent without running by one or both groups.  Everything from what bank we use, to what activities we participate in, and even if we buy hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza, turkey or ham for our various parties – it is all done by a vote of the board and/or membership.

 

Perhaps you’ve heard the sayings “many hands make light work” and “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”.  We are only as good as the officers who show up and do the work.  Nearly everyone has been a member of a group where someone runs for an office and doesn’t show up and/or do the work – putting more of a burden on everyone else who does show up.  And sometimes things don’t get done as well or as quickly as we would all like.  But the Wake County Progressive Democrats doesn’t operate on the whims of one officer, and therefore no one candidate’s campaign promises to make significant changes to the group can actually deliver on those promises. 

 

Our current bylaws do not allow for the removal of members for missing too many meetings or for dereliction of duty.  Now that the bylaws for the Progressive Caucus of the NCDP has passed at the state level, we will have to amend our County chapter bylaws to allow for removal of members for those reasons.  That should clear up a lot of the problems we are having now.

 

2.            All officers will work to achieve the objectives set forth in the bylaws.  

 

We are working to achieve the objectives set forth in the bylaws.  Part of the problem is that while we are the same group with roughly the same objectives that started out in 2004, the Democratic Party isn’t the same as it was back then.

 

We had our first organizational meeting in June 2004 where the progressive “Greendogs” (younger supporters of Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich feeling alienated from the Democratic Party) joined up with the older “Concerned Democrats” (older party officers and former electeds concerned about the lack of transparency and small-d democracy in the Democratic Party at many levels).  From that time on - we had the blessing and support of then Wake Dems Chair Lorrin Freeman and ED Linda Watson who was a founding member of our group.  We also had auxiliary status either from that point or shortly thereafter. 

 

But we earned our auxiliary status  – because we did the physical volunteer work in the Democratic Party that no one else wanted to do.  We set up and staffed the sign shop, put together precinct officer training, put together precinct packets and address postcards announcing precinct meetings, set up and operate the Election Day “War Room”, set up for and clean up after party events, etc.  Stuff that wasn’t getting done by people who whose activism was limited to attending catered dinners, getting pics taken with political leaders, and writing checks.  Not that there is anything wrong with that – but that’s not how we roll!  And when we needed information to organize precincts, we got it from the county party.  One night in January 2008, we organized 9 precincts at an OFA meetup!

 

How times have changed!  After Wake Progressives helped elect a State Party Chair in 2005 and elect a whole new county party board made up mostly of grassroots activists in 2007, some establishment folks vowed to never again let progressives get a chance to look good doing what we do best – volunteer activism and precinct organization. 

 

Today many people have a different respect for democratic procedures and values – as well as a problem sharing information with an auxiliary like ours that wants to organize precincts to give a larger and more diverse group of Democrats a voice in the party and a seat at the table.

 

With the creation of the Progressive Caucus of the NCDP, we can get access to statewide Votebuilder data that we can’t get right now at the county level – we will know which precincts are organized and which are not.  Working with other similar grassroots organizations will make precinct organization all that much easier.

 

3.            Our membership is steadily increasing especially among young people.  But we’ve gotta keep the party from scaring them off!

 

The Wake County Progressive Democrats started out by attracting a lot of younger progressive Dean and Kucinich people starting in mid 2004.  But they stuck around to help build the Democratic Party because Howard Dean said: “If you want to take back your government you first have to take back your party.” 

 

We noticed an increase in interest in our group beginning in 2014 - we had increased membership especially with younger people attracted to politics because they wanted someone like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders to run for President.  Much in the same way an earlier group was attracted by Dean & Kucinich in 2004 and even Barack Obama in 2008.  

 

While they were attracted to our group, other factors turn them away from becoming active in the Party – like the way Bernie Sanders and his supporters were treated by the DNC in the 2016 Presidential election cycle.  From the way Bernie was treated while he was a candidate to the way his delegates were treated at the DNC Convention, people did notice something was “odd” – and sadly too many voted with their feet.

 

We had a gradual increase in membership from the spring of 2015 when Bernie declared and then three notable drop-offs: one after the March Primary, another after DNC convention, and then again after Labor Day 2016.  One young female Bernie supporter was supposed to our July pool party – but she ended up quitting her job, closing her FB account, and leaving the country to protest the way Bernie was treated by the DNC.  

 

4.            One of our main objectives is to encourage volunteerism in the furtherance of our electoral process – fundraising is a secondary goal!  

 

The Wake Progressive Dems has from the start always focused largely on volunteer activism.  Many people are sick and tired of “pay to play politics”, so we don’t focus on raising tons of money to give to the party and to candidates.  We prefer to give something they don’t see much of – volunteer activism!  

 

Our main monthly meetings consist of potluck dinners – and contributions aren’t mandatory.  We share with each other because we know that there some people can’t afford a $20/month dinner and shouldn’t feel left out of progressive politics because they can’t afford to pony up for a catered meal.

 

Fundraising is important, but many other Wake County groups can and do focus on fundraising activities.  If you love raise money for candidates – spend time with us, but by all means join one of the other groups as well!  But we are not alone - other Wake County groups do not exist mostly to raise money to be donated directly to the party and candidates.

 

We encourage our members to donate their time to candidates, and also donate money if they wish to do so.  We give money to the party – we’ve been one of the biggest supporters of the NCDP State Party Fair booth over the years in terms of both money and working volunteer shifts.  

 

That being said, we do need money to carry on our mission.  We’ve done a great job of fundraising the last few years.  And with a full board working together in the areas of policy, activities & outreach that will be much better supported by communications and technology, we can raise more money from current and new members and still be true to our original mission. 

 

5.            Wake County Progressive Democrats speak up to make sure democratic procedures and values are being followed!

 

We don’t treat the Wake County Democratic Party or any other party committee as enemies – but no Democrat should ever be a mute rubber-stamp.  We speak up to question whether democratic procedures and values are being broken.  Party officers and delegates who have a seat at the table and a voice in the party deserve to be heard and answered when they have a respectful and reasonable objection.  Better knowledge of party rules and parliamentary procedures will help our members and other Democrats not feel left out of the political process. 

 

Officer Endorsements:  The Executive Committee of the Wake County Progressive Democrats has 9 elected and 1 appointed officers. Currently the Outreach Chair is vacant. That leaves us with 8 elected and 1 appointed officers, for a total of 9. 

 

We, 7 out of 9 current Executive Officers of the Wake County Progressive Democrats whose names are listed at the end of this posting, do hereby endorse and support the following candidates for upcoming Executive Officers on February 15, 2017: 

 

President - Chris Telesca ** (nominated at January potluck)

Vice President - Mike Pierce ** (nominated at January potluck)

Activities Co-Chair: Quanta Edwards ** (to be nominated at February potluck)

Activities Co-Chair: Kelley Barker (to be nominated at February potluck)

Outreach Chair: Randy Jones (nominated at January potluck)

Policy Chair: Joshua Bradley ** (nominated at January potluck)

Communications Chair: Stacey Piesche * (to be nominated at February potluck)

Tech Chair: Grant Gordon (to be nominated at February potluck)

Secretary: Christina Thompson (to be nominated at February potluck)

* - incumbent officer seeking new position

** - incumbent officer seeking same position 

 

Current Activities Co-Chair Linda Suggs wishes to withdraw her name from nomination for Activities Co-Chair.  George Frink wishes to withdraw his nomination for Communications Chair.  Furthermore, although she understands that seconds to nominations aren't necessary, current Treasurer Stacey Piesche wishers to hereby withdraw her second to the nomination of Bill Bryan for President. 

 

We have endorsed these candidates because they have pledged to perform their assigned duties per our bylaws, and to attend all board meetings and potlucks, and observe and follow all of our WCPD bylaws, the NCDP Plan of Organization, and all applicable state and federal laws. We have endorsed the incumbent candidates because they have performed the duties per our bylaws, have exemplary attendance records at board meetings and potlucks, and have observed and followed all WCPD bylaws, the NCDP Plan of Organization and all applicable state and federal laws.

 

We Seven have endorsed the candidates listed above - and no others. Please draw any conclusions you like from that fact. 

 

Chris Telesca - President

Mike Pierce - Vice President

Linda Suggs - Secretary

Stacey Piesche - Treasurer (appointed)

Joshua Bradley - Policy Chair

Nancy Brooks - Activities Co-Chair

Quanta Monique Edwards - Activities Co-Chair

The gauntlet has been thrown down - time to pick it up and fight back to WIN!

Some of the same people who attacked David Parker last year and called for his resignation in the wake of the Adriadn Ortega sexual harassment scandal were supporting a candidate besides Randy Voller for Chair of the NCDP.

They cannot seem to accept the fact that Randy won.  They promised to never let up on him and to run him out of office.  They have never let up on that promise.

Some of these same folks tried to state a coup by hijacking the April 28th State Executive Council meeting in Raleigh.  They tried to run an alternative agenda and ram through several resolutions designed to weaken the powers of the NCDP Chair. 

When they failed at that attempt, different members of the group filed a petition against Randy Voller with the NCDP Council of Review.  The details of that petition were leaked by documentary film-maker Frank Eaton from Winston-Salem.  He admitted that he was asked to sign the petition.  Then Frank released a video (presumably shot in his own home) entitled: "For the Good of the Party".  Links to the video were posted on Facebook and various blogs, and written about in various newspapers. 

• Stacking the State Executive committee

There was no stacking of the State Executive Committee.  Frank and his friend allege that Randy Voller stacked the State Executive Council - a different body altogether.

They claim that Randy Voller appointed more than three Sustaining Fund Co-Chairs to the NCDP State Executive Committee, which violates the letter and custom of the NCDP Plan of Organization. 

Randy did appoint a number of people as Sustaining Fund Co-Chairs because many people with lots of experience in the Party were retiring from more active roles in the NCDP, and he wanted to retain their experience to help raise money for the Party.  What rational person could have a problem with that? 

The relevant section of the NCDP Plan of Organization (4.06) does not specify how many Sustaining Fund Co-Chairs the NCDP Chair may appoint.

Composition. The members of the state executive council shall be: the state chair, each of the three state vice chairs, the secretary, the treasurer, the chair or co-chairs of the Sustaining Fund, the chair for minority affairs, the advisor to the Teen Dems, the state presidents of all state auxiliary organizations with by-laws approved by the state executive committee, the congressional district chairs, the members of the Democratic National Committee from North Carolina, the national committeeman and the national committeewoman of the Young Democrats of North Carolina, and three at-large members appointed by the state chair. These three members appointed by the state chair shall reasonably reflect the geographic, racial, ethnic, and gender makeup of registered Democrats in North Carolina. The state chair shall serve as chair of the state executive council.

Here is Section 4.03 of the NCDP Plan of Organization:

4.03 APPOINTED OFFICERS
The state chair shall appoint a treasurer, a sustaining fund chair or co-chairs, a chair for minority affairs and a state advisor for the Teen Dems, all of whom shall serve at the pleasure of the state chair as appointed officers and all of whom shall be voting members of the state executive committee.

It should be significant that while the POO does not specify the specific number of co-chairs of the Sustaining Fund that the chair can appoint, the POO is very specific about the three at-large members of the State Executive Committee appointed by the state Chair:

...three at-large members appointed by the state chair. These three members appointed by the state chair shall reasonably reflect the geographic, racial, ethnic, and gender makeup of registered Democrats in North Carolina.

Even P.R. Latta agrees with me that Randy Voller appointing more than 3 Sustaining Fund Co-Chairs is not a violation of the NCDP POO!

Some - like the 4 people who filed a petition against Randy Voller with the NCDP Council of Review - suggest that custom dictates no more than three such Co-Chairs may be appointed, but there is nothing in the NCDP POO that requires a Chair to follow "custom".

Roberts Rules of Order do address custom (RRONR 11th edition, Section 2 Rules of an Assembly or Organization, page 19), but when a question is raised about custom vs rules, custom loses. Especially when a vote is taken and the rules win.

• Derailing investigations into his own behavior and actions

What specific behavior and actions are they claiming need to be investigated? Frank's video suggests things need to be investigated, but he mostly he does not go into specifics.  When he does, he gets the details wrong.

Unless Randy is violating either the NCDP POO or state or federal laws, nothing needs to be investigated. Neither Frank Eaton nor any other Democrat in the state has the God- or POO-given right to look over Randy's shoulder!

• Bullying NC Democratic Party employees

As someone who has been in and out of Goodwin House for years, the NCDP staffers have not had adequate supervision over the years. It's been a frat-house mentality with no adults in charge. I've seen state party employees almost start physical fights between themselves with party activists and officers present. I've seen staffers drunk on duty, whether stay on their feet or fall on their asses, and otherwise make jerks out of themselves at Party functions in our state and in other states as well. I've been drunk-dialed and drunk-texted by NCDP employees, and when I complained to party officers about it - I was told they would be disciplined AFTER the next election. And I've been called in to provide volunteer labor when other staffers who were supposed to do the work (or arrange for other volunteers) never showed up nor delivered on the volunteers.

Not quite sure how this juvenile and unprofessional conduct of the staff might have contributed to our party's losses over the past few elections, but now is not the time to reward such behavior by pretending it doesn't exist. If certain NCDP employees want to consider proper supervision and oversight to be bullying - they are free to look for jobs elsewhere. As an officer of the Party, I want staffers to be professional and not embarrass the NCDP!

• Naming himself Executive Director of the NC Democratic Party

There is nothing in the NCDP Plan of Organization to prevent him from naming himself the ED. Other NCDP Chairs have been Executive Directors in the past - including David Price.

Since the ED works at the pleasure of the NCDP Chair (according to the NCDP Plan of Organization), all Randy Voller had to do was hold a State Executive Council meeting to ask them for 

What it sounds like Frank is ticked off about is that to name himself interim ED, there had to be a vacancy for the position of ED.  Which gets into the next subject:

• Improper firing and hiring practices

This goes back to the issue of oversight and supervision of NCDP staff. There hasn't been enough of it. And when NCDP Chair Randy Voller tells a staffer to do something - whether to produce a document, send out a letter, or come in and work on an event - they need to do it and stop bitching and moaning about it. Randy was elected to reform the Party and cut the unprofessional frat-house nonsense. If NCDP staffers don't like it - they are free to leave and go elsewhere.   And if they won''t do what Randy tells them to do - he needs to fire them.  They should also not be thinking that they can use or steal NCDP resources for their own personal use or for their consultant friends.

• Misuse of Party funds including hiring un-needed political consultants and using the NC Democratic Party Credit Card for a personal trip to Las Vegas.

Frank Eaton appears to be upset because he was one of three consultants who turned in a proposal to Randy for the NCDP to hire him as a consultant for $15K fee (and expenses estimated between $3-5K).   Randy ran it by the other elected State Party officers, and they shot it down because they were in the process of hiring an ED.  Why spend this money which would make up a good chunck of the new ED's salary when they could let the ED access the situation and come up with a strategic plan?

I guess Randy is not misusing Party funds if he hires Frank, but is misusing them if other consultants are hired?

And Randy Voller did not use an NC Democratic Party credit card for a personal trip to Las Vegas. Randy did to go Vegas to see about getting fundraising opportunties set up in other states. President Obama had a fundraiser in Law Vegas in October 2012. Is Frank saying that what's good for Obama is not good for the NCDP

What's wrong with Gene Messick?

What in the hell is wrong with "Crazy" Gene Messick?

He seems to be under the mistaken impression that he's an NC Democrat, and that he decides who is or is not on the NCDP State Executive Committee.

Witness this pitiful exchange between the Wake Dems's "Party Princess" Joanne Casey and "Crazy" Gene Messick in his Casey: Re: [NCDP-on-Trial] 187: Cal, it's time to withdraw:

On May 23, 2010, at 9:41 PM, Casey, Joanne wrote:

> Please remove me from your email database.
>
> Thank you.

To which "Crazy" Gene responded:

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: NC Democrats
To: "Casey, Joanne"
Cc: US Rep David Price ; Jack #Nichols: Wake Chair ; NCDP Chair David ^Young ; Elaine Marshall ; Cunningham for Senate ; Kenneth .Lewis ; Governor Bev Perdue ; Senator Kay Hagan ; DNC Chair Tim Kaine
Sent: Sun, May 23, 2010 10:24:54 PM
Subject: Casey: Re: [NCDP-on-Trial] 187: Cal, it's time to withdraw.


Dear Joanne, Wake Co Democratic Party
State Executive Committee Member

Thanks for your Email.
We appreciate hearing from our readers!

Your exodus from any further interest in the SEC has been noted and shall be published for your convenience.

We're so sorry to see you go, but please rest assured that you are welcomed back anytime you decide you care about the future of Democrats in North Carolina.

Our Network provides the only reliable view of what's really happening inside the NC Democratic Party.

We'll still be here, cleaning up the wreckage Progressives have caused, helping create a Democratic Party folks can trust and believe in again.

Cordially,
NC Democrats Network

Helping make NC a better place, one Email at a time!

No Gene - she's not withdrawing from the NCDP or the SEC - she's merely withdrawing from your e-mail list. What drugs are you taking (or not taking) that has you confusing asking to be taken off your list from being taken off the NCDP SEC? Or somehow thinking that you have any say in what goes on in the NC Democratic Party?

And for your information, it's not the progressives who are ruining the party - it's a combination of the Blue Dogs and OFA (" Organizing For America") that are wrecking the party and turning off the base.

OFA used to be called "Obama For America", and is now a "special project" of the Democratic National Committee. It's really trying to become a permanent field operation to push the President's agenda instead of the party platform. I am sure that after this November's election, OFA won't give a damn about working with the Democratic Party, since they will once again turn into a group with only one objective: re-electing Barack Obama. I am sure they could care less about the 435 Democrats running for office in the House, and the 33 or so Dems running for office in the Senate.

You are a poor pathetic man - and you probably got that way because, at some point in time, your darkroom wasn't ventilated properly. As an RIT grad (and the scholarly texts on photography are written by RIT profs/grads, not by grads of the "Crazy" Gene Messick School of Photography), I do have some expertise in darkroom ventilation.....

....BTW, are you still banned from the Virginia Tech campus that you live across the street from? Me - I can pretty much go anywhere I want.