Changes to Section 7929

7929 The Green Party state Coordinating Committee shall have power to recognize the authority to certify, as provided by Green Party bylaws and pending confirmation by the General Assembly, county council members in the following counties:

(a) Counties in which the voters have not elected three or more members of a no county council candidates qualified for the ballot in the preceding direct primary election;

 (b) Counties in which all members of the county council have become disqualified from holding office.

County council members pursuant to this section shall meet the qualifications otherwise required for county council members. County council members confirmed under this section shall be reported by the state Coordinating Committee to the applicable county elections officials. County council members confirmed under this section shall have all the powers and privileges otherwise afforded to county councils.

Rationale:

The addition of GA confirmation is not a documented change. Research shows this addition first appeared in the draft for the Dec. 05 General Assembly. But there is no record of this being submitted to or discussed by the elections code committee or the ERWG. No one in the ERWG is now claiming ownership of this addition.

This code section needs to stay consistent with the existing procedures in Article 4 of our bylaws, specifically 4-1.22 (Dec 05 version). Therefore, subsection (a) was changed to reflect the requirements in the bylaws. Other editorial changes were made to be consistent with bylaws language.

Further Details:

Subject: Undocumented Code Change

Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2006 19:36:55 -0700

From: Jim Stauffer <jims@greens.org>

To: gpca-ERWG <gpca-erwg@cagreens.org>

The GPCA elections code sections were adopted at the June '06 plenary. After

the plenary I noticed a clause in section 7929 that did not look familiar.

It says:

"The Green Party state Coordinating Committee shall have power to recognize,

as provided by Green Party bylaws and pending confirmation by the General

Assembly, county council members in the following counties: [counties that

have no council for various reasons]"

[http://cagreens.org/erwg/ec/code_02-06.html]

The addition of GA confirmation is new. It does not exist in any of the

drafts I checked: Dec 02, Dec 03, Mar 04. (was section 7840 and 7920 at

various times) The Mar 04 (June plenary) draft says:

7920. The Green Party state coordinating committee shall have power to

appoint interim county council members in the following counties:

7945. If no members of county council have been elected in a county at the

preceding direct primary election or, if for any reason all the members of a

county council are removed from office or cease to be registered as

affiliated as members of the Green Party, then an interim county council

with full powers may be appointed as provided in the bylaws of the Green

Party of California.

[http://cagreens.org/erwg/ec/sac-04-plenary-packet.html]

This wording is consistent with current bylaws, 4-1.22.

The new clause appears for the first time in the Oct. 05 draft that was

submitted to the Dec. 05 plenary.

[http://cagreens.org/erwg/ec/code_10-05.html]

There were several people working on, or had access to, the draft around the

time of going from the 04 draft to the 05 draft. To keep things organized, I

created a change tracking document starting in Feb 05. These wording changes

are not recorded in that document.

[http://cagreens.org/erwg/ec/changes05.html]

Looking through all notes and meeting minutes, the only recorded discussion

of that section was:

1. Jonathan's email of 28 Oct 2005. There he asks of 7922 the definition of

"confirmation by the General Assembly." [jonathan.txt]

2. The Mar 04 draft notes contains a statement about me wanting to compare

then-7920 to the bylaws. Language at that time did not include the GA

confirmation. [March 04 GPCAEC Part2.txt]

There is no other record of why or when that section was changed.

------------------------------------------------

If anyone can claim authorship of this clause, please speak up.

Since the addition of GA confirmation is not required by our current bylaws

4-1.22; since EC Div 7, Part 6 will replace Article 4 of our bylaws and,

therefore, should be consistent with them; since this change was never

discussed; since some of us see such a change as an unnecessary obstacle to

county organizing; I suggest we revert back to the '04 draft wording.

In discussing this with Warner, I suggested putting it on the consent

calendar of the next GA, and he suggested it qualifies as an editorial

correction not needing GA approval. I can go for that, but we should  report

it to the counties since we promised them status reports as this project

progresses.

Any concerns or comments?

---

Subject: Re: [gpca-erwg] Undocumented Code Change

Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:58:10 -0700

From: Jim Stauffer <jims@greens.org>

Reply-To: GP of Cal Electoral Reform WG <gpca-erwg@cagreens.org>

To: GP of Cal Electoral Reform WG <gpca-erwg@cagreens.org>

On the elections code change issue that we discussed last week...

Having received no more comments on the issue (appended below) regarding GA

confirmation of the CC certifying county councils, I'm assuming everyone is OK

with making the change in my last message.

BTW - I erroneously referred to this as section 7922. That should have been 7929.

HOWEVER--- I've found one more change that needs to be made to this section in order to keep it congruent with existing bylaws.

7929 with the changes incorporated now reads (this time quoted in its entirety):

7929 The Green Party state Coordinating Committee has the authority to certify, as provided by Green Party bylaws, county council members in the following counties:

(a) Counties in which the voters have not elected three or more members of a county council in the preceding direct primary election;

(b) Counties in which all members of a county council have become disqualified from holding office.

County council members pursuant to this section shall meet the qualifications otherwise required for county council members. County council members confirmed under this section shall be reported to the applicable county elections officials. County council members confirmed under this section shall have all the powers and privileges otherwise afforded to county councils.

----------------

But the bylaws say in 4-1.22:

"In counties where the Green Party is newly organized, or in counties which

have been organized, but in which no County Council candidates qualified for the primary ballot, County Council members may be approved in the following manner:"

So 7929 (a) says the CC can appoint in a county that did not elect at least 3 councilors, while the bylaws say the county would have to have failed to elect any councilors before the CC can appoint.

The bylaws make more sense because a single councilor can fill all vacancies. Plus, county bylaws are required to have a process for filling council vacancies (3-2.2 d)) so a democratic process is, ostensibly, in place.

I propose we change 7929 (a) to read:

(a) Counties in which no County Council candidates qualified for the ballot in the preceding direct primary election;

Any clarifications or concerns?

--

Jim