In the December 2009 ExCom election, Sierra Club members in NYC voted many new members onto the ExCom, voting out several long-serving members, including attorney Jim Lane - the Secretary of Sierra Club's New York City Group - and of the Club's New York State Chapter. Because of delays at the printer, there were less than 30 days between the mailing of the ballots and the day of their counting, as required by Sierra Club National bylaws. Neither Lane, Baer, or any other member of the ExCom suggested delaying the day of the ballot counting for a week, which would have put the election squarely within compliance of National regulations.
I believe but cannot prove that Lane knew of the technical violation with the election, but kept silent so if he or his faction lost, he could raise it to force National to rerun the election.In the August 2010 ExCom election, Ken Baer and Jim Lane, with the support of their faction, falsely claimed that I was wrongfully responsible for holding the December ballot newsletter at the printer because I was stalling until the candidates I recruited submitted their candidate statements. The accusation that my wrongful conduct was to blame for the delay was repeated in three locations.
To prove that this charge is false, I submit below a copy of an email I sent to the Nominations Committee chair Antuan Cannon on December 1, 2009, with the attachment that contained all the candidate statements. I sent a copy of this email to Greg Casini of Sierra Club National, and his response that he received it. Anyone who wants a copy of this email can have it as well.
Antuan Cannon, as the chair of the nominations committee, was responsible for confirming all ExCom candidates. On Tuesday, December 1, I sent him an email with a draft committee report I wrote for him to edit and send out under his signature, along with an attachment that contained all the candidate statements, which I had compiled, except for that of Margaret Young, whose candidacy the committee had voted to deny. The key point is that this email proves I had all the candidate statements and was distributing them internally as early as December 1 - contrary to the Lane-Baer campaign allegations. (Incidentally, after the August election, Antuan Cannon was named Vice Chair of the NYC Group.)
See the image below of my email to Greg Casini of Sierra Club National on August 24, in which I forwarded the Dec. 1 email and the attached candidate statements - and Greg's confirmation that he received the email.
This fraudulent, libelous charge against me was not incidental - but was the very core of the Lane-Baer faction's campaign.
- The candidate statement submitted in the name of Ashley Cole, which consisted entirely of personal attacks on me. Cole is the spouse of Margaret Hayes Young, a member of the ExCom whose Sierra Club membership was terminated because of a separate dispute with Sierra Club National. Jim Lane argued for Cole's right to use the venue of the ballot statement for his defamatory assault on me as expression of free speech, even though Cole admitted in the statement that he was uninterested in serving on the ExCom. (After the summer 2010 election, in n a stunning display of hypocrisy, the ExCom passed a resolution preventing non-candidates from submitting candidate statements.)
- Ken Baer's postcard mailing.
- The website for Lane, Baer and their slate of candidates, http://www.nycactivists.org/. See for yourself. If the site is removed, screen capture images follow below. Click on them for a larger version.
Election Fraud Carries the Day
The Lane-Baer slate knowingly and falsely accused me of wrongful conduct. They knowingly and falsely claimed that Sierra Club National's decision to rerun the December 2009 ExCom election stemmed from this wrongful conduct on my part.
Only 350 or so of the 10,000+ Sierra Club members in NYC bothered to vote in either election. In December, the reform candidates I promoted won a controlling majority of the ExCom. The campaign was based on positive, pragmatic organizing efforts that were already taking place.
In August 2010, the reform candidates I promoted all lost. The decisive factor was the intensely negative campaign run by the Lane-Baer slate - based on the slanders presented here.
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