Stick a fork in 'em. They're done.

Sierra Club NYC: Stick a fork in 'em. They're done.

As the nation's largest environmental grassroots group - in theory - Sierra Club should have an especially robust presence in NYC, the nation's largest city.  As discussed previously on this blog, other large cities have vibrant and dynamic Sierra Club groups, which can support SC national programs.

For decades, the SC NYC Group was controlled by a clique of longtime members who maintained a tight grip on their official roles, but through flagrant incompetence drove the Group into the ground, maintaining its form as an elaborate parasitical charade while doing very little.  
 
I tried turning the Group around when I was chair, during 2008 - 10.  The old guard ran a campaign based on fraud and libel, defeating me and my slate of newcomers, detailed ad nauseum on this blog. The evidence was sent to the SC National Board, which could have removed the leaders of the old guard.  Instead, they misguidedly opted for lenience, leaving the old guard in charge for many years.  

In 2016, the old guard tried to incite a rebellion of other Sierra Club state chapters against the National.  Finally National woke up and threw three of the old guard's leaders out.  With the SC NYC Executive Committee down to a skeleton crew, would its new leader - picked by the old guard - try to rebuild the SC brand in NYC - or continue the charade while doing little or nothing?

An ExCom election is coming up this winter.  A visit to the SC NYC website reveals that the Group reasonably promotes the programs of other organizations, as it has has no programs of its own, besides a series of presentations not related to Group programs or organizing initiatives.   I asked the SC NYC ExCom, copying NY State Chapter leaders, a number of reasonable questions about its plans moving forward. They are recopied below.

The current chair (see her direct quote below) replied that the Group does keep minutes, which could demonstrate what the ExCom or the Group is actually doing.  Really? Several times over recent years I was told that Jim Lane, the former secretary of the NYC Group had the minutes but they were never accessible due to his computer problems.  Since Lane, the leader of the old guard, was expelled from the Club, it will be deeply surprising if any of the minutes that were allegedly kept ever materialize.  Or if they did, what light they would shed on Group activities. I asked the Group to post the minutes on its website, if they actually have them.  Don't hold your breath.

Why should anyone care? If you're a Sierra Club member or donor in NYC, the cut of your dues going to National activities are more likely to be competently spent than the portion than whatever fraction subsidizes the dysfunctional NYC Group. 

Unless there is a determined effort to rebuild the NYC Group, it is a liability for SC National and the NY State Chapter.  I suggested unplugging it. 

The NYC Group ExCom supposedly found candidates to fill its vacancies at its election this winter.  Maybe in 2017 those new members will come in and actually do something useful. SC members have a right to meet the candidates, hand-picked by representatives of the old guard, and learn directly what plans any of them might have.  Again, I'm not holding my breath. 

My aim is to encourage open discussion.  Contact NYC Group, NY State Chapter, and National leaders.  Voice your concerns. 

If you're not satisfied with their answers, consider directing your financial support to other groups.

= = = = = = =

Dan Miner <beyondoilnyc@gmail.com>

Allison, thanks for your reply.

While I occasionally get emails from National, I have not received any emails from the NYC Group.

I'm glad to hear that the ExCom keeps minutes. At some Excom meetings over the last few years, I and other ExCom members asked about minutes and were told they were not accessible. 

I'm glad to hear that you plan to put more content on the Group's website.  When can you recover and post all recent ExCom minutes on the site?

Group, Chapter and National leaders all have an interest in supporting the rebuilding of the NYC Group. I encourage all of you to discuss the questions I raised in my September and October emails below - which have so far not been addressed.

If this Group was in a thinly populated rural area, its lack of activity and transparency might be of low priority for the national Sierra Club.  However, since the NYC Group has the capacity to work collaboratively with the Chapter and National to promote Club programs in the largest city in the country, upgrading NYC Group activities is a matter of particular concern.
I look forward to hearing more about Group plans.  The website says that the next meeting of the ExCom is on Nov. 10. Is that correct, and will it take place at the office location of One Penn Plaza, Suite 6285 in Manhattan? [No one ever responded, which makes me wonder if the actual ExCom meetings take place at undisclosed times and locations. ] Thanks in advance for confirming this.

Dan

= = = = = =

	Oct 14 (4 days ago)
to Allison, blaneweber, hungryhiker, eadie2act4water, Thelma, Gary, alan, Antuan, Irene, Thomas, lisa.dicaprio, Carl, Erin, Don, kulicksw, hcohen5608, financial, legaladvisor, shlawr2, Kathryn,

Allison Tupper

No, the NYC Group is not defunct.  The nominations will be announced in the City Sierran to be mailed this fall and were announced to our active members.  We’re working on getting more current info on the web site.  We promote national and chapter activities by email, whether they are on the local group web site or not.  All ExCom members attend meetings regularly.  Yes, we keep minutes.

From: Dan Miner [mailto:beyondoilnyc@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 5:56 PM
To: Tupper Allison <AllisonTupper@verizon.net>; blaneweber@aol.com; hungryhiker@aol.com; eadie2act4water@aol.com; Thelma Fellows <thelmafellows@gmail.com>; Gary Nickerson <gary@gwntec.com>; alan jay gerson <alanjgerson@gmail.com>; Antuan Cannon <antuan@envirolution1.com>; Irene Van Slyke <irene.vanslyke@verizon.net>
Cc: Thomas Wysmuller <tom@colderside.com>; lisa.dicaprio@nyu.edu; Carl Arnold <carlarnold@mac.com>; Erin Riddle <riddleriddle@gmail.com>; dhughes171@gmail.com; kulicksw@lemoyne.edu; hcohen5608@earthlink.net; financial@newyork.sierraclub.org; legaladvisor@newyork.sierraclub.org; shlawr2@aol.com; Kathryn Bartholomew <ecogreenwolf@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Requesting update on SC NYC ExCom candidates - and Group activities

	Oct 12 (6 days ago)
to me, blaneweber, hungryhiker, eadie2act4water, Thelma, Gary, alan, Antuan, Irene, Thomas, lisa.dicaprio, Carl, Erin, dhughes171, kulicksw, hcohen5608, financial, legaladvisor, shlawr2, Kathryn

= = = = = = = =

Dan Miner <beyondoilnyc@gmail.com>

Alison,

In mid-September I asked you and the ExCom for an update on the NYC Group's activities.  I didn't receive a reply.  My questions - recopied below - are still pertinent for me and the many other Sierra Club members in NYC who you represent.

Fortunately, some updates are still being made to the Group's website.  Soon after my Sept. 14 email, the information about the Group's ExCom election and the request for candidates originally put up in July was removed.  However, the home page still has a link for the Spring program on the right side of the page.

I am glad to see the October 6 event from National's Beyond Coal Campaign listed.  I found out about this event a few weeks back from an activist friend and asked why the NYC Group was not promoting it.  This is especially important as the NYC Group still seems to have no current activities of its own, asides from hosting presentations at the Seafarer's House. At the very least it should be promoting National and Chapter activities accessible to members in NYC.

In September I asked a number of specific questions about the current and planned activities of the NYC Group. Since it appears that the Group has become even less functional than it was before, I encourage ExCom members to do some soul searching and brief Chapter and National leaders. 
Do Group and Chapter leaders have any plans to resuscitate the moribund NYC Group? Did Club leaders find any capable members willing to run for the ExCom, and to take charge of this important and extremely challenging project?
I suggest that if neither the Group nor the Chapter has a credible plan for rebuilding the NYC Group, the pretense should be mercifully ended.  The Group should be declared dead, and either dissolved or disbanded, or whatever is its equivalent within Club procedures. Any funds marked for the NYC Group should be redirected to the Chapter or National campaigns active in NYC. 

Perhaps this request will stimulate useful discussion, and more importantly, action.  I would appreciate any reply.

Dan

	Oct 12 (6 days ago)
to Erin, dhughes171, kulicksw, hcohen5608, financial, legaladvisor, shlawr2, Kathryn, Tupper, blaneweber, hungryhiker, eadie2act4water, Thelma, Gary, alan, Antuan, Irene, Thomas, lisa.dicaprio, Carl

= = = = = = = = =

Dan Miner <beyondoilnyc@gmail.com>

Allison,

The Group web site still contains the request for ExCom candidates that was posted back in July.  According to it, the nominating committee was to have finalized its decision at the end of August. I have a number of questions that I think are relevant to the Group as a whole. I hope your answers will stimulate discussion among the ExCom and concerned members.

• When is the Nominating Committee planning to announce its approved candidates on the website?
  
• If the committee plans to keep their identity secret until the printed newsletter containing the ballots is sent out, how does that serve the interest of Group members?
  
• Are approved candidates expected to actively carry out work on behalf of the Group before the election, and if not, why not?
  
• The homepage states the election will fill four seats with two-year terms and the unexpired year of any vacancies. As of this month, exactly how many seats is that?
  
• Did the Nominating Committee receive a number of candidate applications equal or greater to the current number of vacant seats?
  
• If the Committee approved a number of candidates equal to the number of vacant seats, it would create the appearance that the election will be a procedural formality and that Group members have no choice in electing ExCom members, who are in practice selected by the Nominating Committee.
  
• I believe the Group by-laws have a provision that ExCom members who miss a certain number of meetings should be removed.  How do you plan to address ExCom members in name only who don't attend meetings or actually do work on behalf of the Group?
  
• Does the ExCom keep minutes of its meetings, containing a record of its decisions and attendees? If not, why not?
  
• If ExCom meeting minutes do exist, I request that they be uploaded to the website.

The home page has outdated information on upcoming events - citing the Group's spring event series. There is no information on the website about the fall event series which was recently mailed out to members via postcard. Who is now responsible for maintaining the website?

The home page contains links to a Dakota pipeline solidarity event and the calendar of Lower East Side Ecology Center events. However, the Group's Issues and Actions page is empty.  Does the Group have any activities or is it working on any issues? 

Perhaps the Group's empty Issues and Actions page is a more accurate reflection of the Group's activity than the Contacts and Committees page, which alleges that the Group has over 15 committees. For many years the Group has maintained the facade of committees that exist in name only with no apparent activity.  I would encourage the ExCom to either post its actual activities on the site or remove the misleading and deceptive committees-in-name-only.

Former ExCom members used to have a solid voting bloc on the ExCom in support of maintaining the many non-existent committees.  Now that they are gone, you can choose to follow in their patterns out of habit, and maintain the denial - or rebuild what has long been a defunct Group.

I don't think the NYC Group can be rebuilt without first acknowledging - at least internally - that it has been defunct for many years.  What do you think about this?

What do you, current ExCom members, and approved ExCom candidates plan to do in order to reactivate the NYC Group?

For the record, I volunteered to assist in this effort by applying as a candidate for the ExCom.  The Nominating Committee turned down my application.

Again, I hope this stimulates useful discussion.  I look forward to your reply.

Dan

	Sep 14
to Tupper, Irene, Antuan, hungryhiker, Thelma, eadie2act4water, alan, Gary, blaneweber, Thomas, lisa.dicaprio, Carl

 

Sierra Club National Board Finally Removes Leader of NYC Group's Old Guard

Congratulations to the Sierra Club National Board for finally expelling Jim Lane, the Machiavellian mastermind of the NYC Group's old guard.  With its voting bloc on the Group's executive committee finally broken, the corroded and dysfunctional  NYC Group can be revived, if new activists can be convinced to step in.

First, a brief review of the latest dispute in the decades-long conflict between the NYC Group and the National Board. Few will care about it, but it is important context.  Then we'll turn to the consequences of this long conflict for the Sierra Club in New York City and State. 

Sierra Club, the largest grassroots environmental group in the US, is very hierarchical and is run by strict rules, which are occasionally enforced. There are ten regional SC groups in NY State.  Each group sends representatives to the executive committee of the state chapter. 
 
(New York State's Sierra Club chapter is called the Atlantic Chapter, because of an old tradition.  I think it would be sensible to rename it the New York State Chapter, but I bet that doesn't ever come up in discussion. )

Until recently, the number of representatives each local SC group can have on its state SC chapter varied with the number of Sierra Club members within its jurisdiction.  Because of NYC's massive population compared to the rest of the state, the NYC Group was always able to stack the Chapter executive committee with its members and allies.  Lane didn't have to be Group or Chapter chair, as long as he was secretary and rules compliance officer of each.

The National Board recently changed the rules governing all state chapters, giving all groups in a state chapter the same number of representatives to its executive committee, removing the ability of large city groups to dominate their state chapter.  At least two other states beside NY were affected.  Lane, Young, Buxbaum and Baer attempted to goad the other states to resist the National rule.  National finally took action, suspending the membership of Jim Lane and Don Young for five years each, and removing Diane Buxbaum from leadership positions for three years.  Somehow Ken Baer avoided their fate.

This was the latest official dispute in a decades long conflict between the National Board and the NYC Group old guard. Lane's removal may end the control that he and his allies have had over the group.  

The conflict between the National Board, whose membership has changed over time, and the SC NYC old guard, has gone on for decades. Similarly, in 2000, the New York Times reported that conflict between the NY City group and the NY State group had been going on for at least 20 years.

I can only guess at all the disagreements, which would certainly fill a book, although not one that anyone would care to read, full of the official disputes with the legal consequences that might or might not have come about. 

I believe the real reasons behind the conflict are quite simple.  Many years ago, a small clique of NYC Sierra Club members, led by attorney Jim Lane and his front man Ken Baer, decided that they wanted to be Sierra Club officers for life.  They took control of the very powerful and useful Sierra Club brand in NYC and used it as their personal property to the profound detriment of the Sierra Club and the environmental movement in NYC.  It was easy to accomplish.

• Self-employed lawyer Jim Lane has sued Sierra Club National before.  They were afraid of him and the costs and hassle of getting sued.  National tried to avoid dealing with the Group as much as possible.

• Lane was surrounded by a tight group of longtime cronies, who would all support each other closely in meetings and votes.  Besides his front man Ken Baer, past chair of the Atlantic Chapter and the NYC Group, and Diane Buxbaum, there was also Edgar and Olive Freud, Annie Wilson, Margaret Young, and Frank Eadie.  Olive Freud, Wilson and Young each had their memberships revoked by National some years ago.  (The sheer number of leaders who have been removed from the NYC Group is remarkable, of course.)

• The old guard members would always get re-elected to the Group Executive Committee.  Why? Although there are between 10 - 15,000 Sierra Club members in NYC, only a few hundred paid any attention to the nearly invisible and barely active NYC Group.  The old guard had the personal contact information for about 200 longtime members, and was almost always able to get this group to vote for the old guard slate as a bloc. 
• If new activists came to meetings they would tend to leave quickly, dismayed by the NYC ExCom's dysfunctional and ineffective process.
• The old guard members enjoyed the benefit of naming themselves and their friends heads of do-nothing or non-existant committees, or were in other ways free of the obligation to be productive. There are others whose names and activist projects have been co-opted and added to the NYC Group committee list, but don't really have anything to do with the group. There's one lady who likes organizing events, so they let her do that.  There hasn't been a newsletter for years.  The Group's issues and actions page is empty.

I tried to change this when I was chair of the NYC Group during 2008 - 2010.  As I documented elsewhere on this blog, I recruited young talented environmentalists to the group and convinced some to run for the ExCom.  The old guard, led by Lane and Baer, used fraud and libel and clever manipulation of election rules to beat my slate of ExCom candidates in 2010.  
 
Report to SC National Board on Fraud and Libel in NYC 2010 ExCom Elections.  

I sent National an extremely thorough report (see above) with irrefutable evidence of fraud and libel, both serious violations of SC rules, which would have enabled the National Board to remove Lane and Baer from leadership positions.  Instead they dismissed my complaint and handed out pardons to everyone involved. Because of this cowardly and misguided leniency, the old guard remained in control since then.

Recently, more sensible leadership took over the Board, and when the current episode took place, the Board took serious action.  While I am sure that Lane will appeal his expulsion in court, or try to, I am sure that National has lawyered up and is fully prepared.
 
Some Sierra Club leaders have asked me to take down this blog. 

One interesting theory proposed to me is that this blog is a violation of the Club rule that members shouldn't speak negatively of each other in public.  Therefore, remaining old guard members will point to me getting away with something as an excuse for their own continued misbehavior.  I don't agree at all.

I believe that both the old guard and the National Board have much cause to repent.  I have no interest in stuffing this unpleasant history into the memory hole to avoid embarrassing and inconveniencing Club leaders.  The purpose of making this public is to help Club leaders to remember what has happened here, and work hard to fix it.

Just as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning brought the disturbing actions of the US government into public awareness, I have done the same with the old guard's inept, petty oligarchy and Sierra Club National's misguided tolerance of it.  

It's now up to Chapter leaders to finally continue the work that National has belatedly started, by working to attract new volunteers and rebuild a functional NYC Group.

For the last 20 years, the old guard have succeeded in keeping the Sierra Club brand in NYC as their personal property, destroying the Club's appeal to other New Yorkers.  National was aware of this and let it happen.

If New Yorkers want to take part in environmental activism they have many options.  They don't have to get involved in Sierra Club, and they haven't.

For proof that New Yorkers other than the old guard have chosen to avoid the SC NYC Group, there is no better evidence than the SC NYC Group's own website with its long list of inactive committees, and absence of any documented actions. 

There were many National Board members whose complacency over the years enabled the NYC Group to have its way.  

Kudos and congratulations to the National Board members who finally had some guts and took a stand!

There's a lot of damage to be repaired. National Sierra Club and Chapter leaders have to recruit competent activists who know Sierra Club ways, and are willing to operate within the NYC Group.  If those new activists can resist the manipulations and bad habits of the remaining old guard members and collaborators, it's possible they can gradually develop a rejuvenated, healthy NYC Group. 

I wish National and Chapter leaders the best of luck in this effort.  If not, the expelled old guard members will continue lurking in the background and guiding their remaining cronies, so little will change.

Lane and Buxbaum won't be there to back up Baer for several years, so the voting bloc is gone. Hopefully the current group chair Allison Tupper will take advantage of this to declare her independence of Ken Baer and recruit some new people.  Best of luck to her.

The years of dirty tricks finally caught up to Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos, and now, to Jim Lane.  Please join me in visualizing Jim in an orange prison jumpsuit, and the Sierra Club free of his malignant influence.

 

More of the same in 2016

The NYC ExCom installed newcomer Allison Tupper as their new chair.  It's still being run by Ken Baer and Jim Lane, and their handful of followers. 

Cronyism continues. At the February 2016 ExCom meeting, I witnessed Lisa DiCaprio and Frank Eadie both ask to be named as energy committee chair.  DiCaprio, an NYU professor, recapped her extensive advocacy and testimony on many energy policy issues.  Old guard crony Eadie was inarticulate, had clearly done virtually nothing, had the audacity to read a list of names he had trouble pronouncing and claimed them to be his committee.  Past Chapter Chair Carl Arnold, struggling to be diplomatic, said that Eadie's claim that environmental impact statements of wind projects had to meet the approval of the Group and Chapter was not correct.  Tupper bowed to the implied demand of the old guard and named each of them chair of a committee - DiCaprio of energy legislation, and Eadie, of energy, miscellaneous, whatever.

Factionalism continues.  In 2015 I proposed to setting up climate change response forums in NYC neighborhoods to be co-sponsored by the SC NYC Group, NYC Environmental Justice Alliance and elected officials. (Note that I have actually set up events like this, such as the June 2015 resilience festival in the Rockaways). After I refused to take down this blog, the ExCom refused the offer.

Since I am now working for Sustainable South Bronx, the Bronx subcontractor for NYSERDA (the NYS energy agency), I offered SC NYC the opportunity to co-sponsor any forums I would be able to set up.  In the ExCom meeting, they said they would have to review which local elected official who would cosponsor, in case they did not meet the approval of the NYC Group.  After I sent them a letter spelling that out, Allison came up with a new objection.  Economic development groups and waterfront groups who SSBX had partnered with - who I had never mentioned and had not planned to invite - might take positions not meeting with SC NYC Group approval - so they would have to pass.   Surely the group has set a new level for creative gymnastics to avoid working with me. 


The National Board is reviewing the latest controversy involving Baer, Lane and their posse - inciting the Tennessee and Pennsylvania Chapters to rebel against National rule changes on the number of delegates Groups can send to Chapters. I would like to remind the Board and other Sierra Club members that the current controversy is not an isolated incident but a pattern of flagrant disregard of Sierra Club rules by a rogue faction that the National Board has chose to ignore for many years.

The Board may wish to review my 2010 report documenting beyond a shadow of a doubt that Baer and Lane stole the NYC ExCom elections of 2009 and 2010 through fraud and libel. 

Instead of removing Baer and Lane from Club leadership positions immediately, as was its right, the Board disregarded the complaint and issued wrist slaps to everyone.  Nothing changed, and here we are again years later.  When will the Board finally remove the cancerous tumor of the NYC old guard?