Agenda Request for Sept. 4 LNC Meeting
Laura Ebke
The purpose of the agenda item is to consider the following motion (to be perfected at the meeting):
"That Caryn Ann Harlos is hereby suspended as the Secretary of the Libertarian National Committee."
A Bill of Particulars can be found here.
Please note that within the document, there are links to four appendices files (A, B, B-Videos, and C) that provide documentation in support of the motion. I encourage LNC members and those who question this action to review the documentation carefully.
The move to suspend a duly elected officer or board member should never be taken lightly, great consideration has been given to the wisdom of this course of action, and it should not be considered precedential for future boards who may find themselves in simple disagreement with one another. The ability to talk through issues maturely is critical to effective functioning on boards.
We believe, however, that heading into the 2022 election cycle, and our convention, that it is critical that the LNC regain its ability to function effectively as an organization that can discuss and debate issues openly. It is possible for boards to effectively ignore a single non-officer member who becomes detrimental to the functioning of the board; it is far more difficult to ignore an officer of the board.
Madame Chair, my recommendation is that time allocated to the discussion of this agenda item be split, 30 minutes each, for each side of the question. It is my intention, however, NOT to have a formal presentation on this issue, but rather to let the documentation stand for itself. I (we) will be happy to entertain questions from the LNC, but if there are none (or few), we will yield our time and allow Ms. Harlos to respond as she sees fit prior to a vote.
I do not intend to (and will not) make any further public comments on this topic prior to our meeting on Saturday the 4th, either on the public list or on social media.
Laura Ebke
LNC At-Large
Ken Moellman
Caryn Ann Harlos
Caryn Ann Harlos
Joshua Smith
Caryn Ann Harlos
Caryn Ann Harlos
Point of Order 1. The proposed motion is out of order on the ground that it purports to include evidence. Such evidence and claims may be presented privately to the LNC, and in notice to the accused. RONR at 62:2 to consider requires this to be discussed in executive session.
Point of Order 2. The ruling of the chair of June 22, 2021, based on earlier precedent, requires five days’ notice per charge is required. This motion includes at least four claimed offenses.1 Therefore, 20 days’ notice is required.
1 These are claimed to be:
Violation of Section 5.01 Subsection I (Social Media Policy Page 68)
Violation of Section 2.01 Subsection 2 (Conflict of Interest Page 23)
Violation of Section 2.01 Subsection 5 (Harassment and Offensive Behavior Prohibition Page 25)
A general charge that the secretary demonstrates “unfitness for office.”
I will note that I cannot possibly prepare an adequate defense in this short of time. The original motion to suspend was back in June and I find it uncredible that it was just decided to keep pursuing so it seems like it is possible that a last-minute ambush was conducted. If I am forced to provide a defense in such a short time, I am going to have not start the new job I have on Monday which will seriously hurt me financially. Just giving facts here. These continued attempts to frankly ruin all my work of multiple years have already had a lot of negative impact, I would ask that ruining me financially right now not be added to that last. That would be great. I know that is nothing to do with points of order but has to do with basic fairness and justice.
Caryn Ann Harlos
Whitney Bilyeu
Whitney Bilyeu
LP | Chair
LP.org