Contra Costa Gop Misconduct

In reading Ted's letter and responses, I get the impression some people believe this is an attempt at causing further upheaval in the CCRP. I don't personally agree with everyone's opinions, nor do I share the need for rhetoric or bias. I do however believe a member of this committee who has taken the time to write such a vast letter, and supporting information should be given the chance to explain themselves. I always say that a man should stand on his feet or swing from the rope. I would like to summarize a few points made, and add my own. I want to be brief (which won't happen) but I hope I can gain your understanding. I will at least make section titles, summaries and notes. - Endorsement of a single candidate. - David Harmer said he filed with the FEC and was the only Republican candidate who did so in CD-10. If that is true, it would have only been for a short amount of time because I personally know 2 other candidates who made their candidacy known to the CCRP in April and May. - Tom D.B. has used his influence as both the Vice Chair of the CAgop and past executive member of the CCRP to endorse David Harmer - CCRP volunteers and resources have been used to push a single candidate - Those same resources have at a minimum inadvertently pushed out at least 2 other candidates from gaining proper exposure - Other candidates may have been affected as well, but there is no direct link I personally know of - The CCRP executive director is the paid staff of the Harmer campaign - David Harmer has personally said he thought the CCRP executive director Michael C. was no longer in that position as ED. - At which point does our paid position of ED become a conflict of interest with a single candidate and the CCRP? - In providing conflict of interest and overt support for a single candidate it sends a wrong message to current and future candidates - Donations are based on the comfort level with the party getting the money, we need to ooze with comfort and strength - Bylaws do state rules of engagement for endorsements and support NOTES: What happened in April, May and June which led to a stealth campaign of David Harmer? I had no knowledge of his campaign, no knowledge of the other candidates, nor knowledge of contacts to the CCRP leadership for CD-10 candidates until recently. I personally contacted David Peterson in May because I have spoken with him at previous CCRP meetings. I learned of Chris Bunch at the July 4th TEA party. I then learned of Gary Clift through the Sonoma County committee in July. When did we start phone banking for donations, and candidate sharing (July 6th was my first email)? I requested a CD-10 forum through our ED on 7/7 and 7/10. I have been coordinating with Sonoma County, Alameda County and other interested

parties to gain interest in candidate forums, but perhaps too late. I have been advocating all our candidates get a voice, and support from the CCRP through the website and communications. We have vast information resources on this committee, we have a website, we have a mailing list, lets use them. We all have lives and are busy, I am no exception. I don't spend my days pining over e-mail from CCRP members and executive staff to respond immediately upon receipt. It takes me some time to digest, schedule and respond to inquiries. I do however like to know what is going on, get cc:ed on important happenings and "stay in the loop" on important CCRP events and business. I read vast amounts of e-mail more fluently than I do at responding to them. I have never seen such communications from the CCRP executive staff, committees, and members. I either get flame mail, notices of upcoming social events, events sponsored by Political Vanguard, or long letters of complaints and communications. With the exception of responses to said communications, where are the organizational e-mail, delegated responsibility or communications from our executive staff? I feel like we show up at the CCRP meetings and many people have just spent 1 1/2 hours at a social event and are ready to go home. There are several people who simply want everyone to agree on the executive committees actions for such and such actions, vote, and go home. I didn't join this committee, nor did I run for said seat to be on a social event calendar. I want to be a part of local Republican politics, find and vet proper candidates for office, raise money for the party, and use that money to attract people to our party and vote Republicans into office. This is a central tenant of our bylaws. A central committee is supposed to be a body of diverse people and personalities and political experience to bring leadership to our county. The executive committee is supposed to guide the committee, find applicable avenues to discuss and delegate to the appropriate committees. Our CCRP meetings should be a collection of quick committee summaries, task completions and what positive (or negative) things happened since our last meeting. Negative items should be handled appropriately, delegated to the vice chairs, or investigated as required. Positive items should be logged as success and used for the future. I understand there may be multiple Republican events in the Bay Area and Contra Cost County during any given month. We may have direct CCRP involvement or even committees who plan and setup events in Contra Costa County. This is great, but we should also make sure that the attendance at these events is structured in such a way where quorum is not a required item. Quorum in the CCRP should only be required at CCRP committee meetings for planning and voting. Social events should include enough

members to make sure the events are a success and then have a detailed event report sent out to the membership. Rotating members for the multiple events throughout the year should be standard practice so that we can actually hold multiple events a month if needed and not burn out our membership. Events should be self-funded and bring revenue to our party. CD-10 NOTES: I went to the Sonoma County Republican central committee meeting to both listen to David Harmer and to understand how they run meetings. They had their meeting at a county court house, had a brief agenda, took updates from members on happenings that month, presented findings for CD-10, presented strategy for various topics, and talked about phone banking for CD-10. I thought it went well. I especially appreciated the chairmans specific instructions that each candidate would have a bucket at the phone banking days, and every volunteer who showed up would have an opportunity to show support for that candidate during their sit-down session. Candidates could then bring their crew by to volunteer, raise money, and raise awareness of both the Republican party and the candidates. Coordination efforts seemed to be handled by several members who all contributed some items and time to make the events happen. I didn't see much of an executive committee action which required voting, because all members were given the chance to contribute to the planning. I could only assume prior e-mail and communications were used, because most of what happened was mainly status updates. I wish I would have thought of these things back in April. I wish I could have arranged for candidate forums throughout April, May and June. I wish I was forward-thinking enough to contact all the candidates and make sure they had what they needed from the CCRP to have an effective campaign. I wish I could have posted this information to our website, meetup and facebook prior to July. The first Republican forum for CD-10 is planned for July 30th, 10 days AFTER final filings were due for CD-10 candidates. July 30th is also right around the time mail-in ballots are sent out. I wish I could have had the time to personally track all this information and know when to plan these events. Isn't THIS the reason for the committee? We all need to participate in planning, intelligence gathering, and the critical path forward. Where was the CAgop throughout all this? We have the vice chair in our county, that should be enough pull. Personal note: I listened to all the candidates and like what I hear. I just want everyone else in the multi-county CD-10 to hear the same things I have and get behind someone. The first election is about vetting our candidates and getting the campaigns off the ground, but the open special election is something that requires substantial effort.

- District 2 positions being filled - Failure to contact all members and key Republicans in the district to hold district replacements. - This behavior has happened before in District 3 - Stealth elections and clique phone trees are not open and honest forms of membership action - Bylaws in this section state the exact procedures for filling vacancies, no deviation is allowed even with 3/4 vote - Lapsed membership of Tom Del Beccaro - Membership is about attendance at planning meetings - TDB attendance has been null - Membership is about participation in planning and CCRP committees, and actions - Bylaws call out specific excusable events, of which nobody can arbitrarily change - Financial Audit - Gene Kreps started to make a motion at the last meeting - We need to finish our last meeting up, and agree on a path forward for an independent audit - Do we have money or not? - Who gave us the money, for what and what are we doing about it? - The bylaws once again spell out the need for an independent audit

In summary, I am not sure if I am in a "choice" committee or not, but I am in the technical committee, which I asked for. I have planned a lot, talked to several other members about a path forward, talked with the ED about how things are run, but that still isn't enough. Action is required of our sub-committees. Each committee has a chair, except for the technology committee. What action has been taken since January? I don't even think the list was published of the sub-committees until April. Has our bylaws committee convened? What about our PR committee? We had our 2008 event schedule on our website until I mentioned it in July 2009. Many parts of our website are horribly out of date. We don't have a newsletter any more. Lets bolster each other's volunteerism, but it can be in various capacities. We need to all come together for the goal of moving our Republican agenda along, but we need to create action items and accountability. Hold me accountable for my actions and promises and I will do the same for you. This is a 2 year term, so lets make the best of it, make it count and make a Contra Costa Republican Party people take notice at.

thank you, sean. 510-409-9908 cell [email protected]