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. )
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.
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.
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.
