Grievance

According to this portion of the bylaws, it says "Upon missing the required number of Board Meetings for removal, the Council Presiding Officer shall notify the Board Member of the absences and place on the agenda the removal of the Board Member. "

The violation occurred because I was never notified of the absences and that the issue was being placed on the agenda. As our board has previously removed board members in the past, the process we were instructed to undergo by DONE was to send a letter to the board member that was being removed, and that was agendized on one single monthly meeting.  I have attached one old agenda that will show how this was undertaken in the past (last agenda item on the attachment). Depending on the response, removal would then be agendized at the following monthly meeting. So, we're looking at a 2 month process, with proof in writing (on two agendas, and on a letter sent to the board member and which would be shared with the full Council). I have contacted a board member who was previously removed and she can back up that she was indeed notified in advance. She is a Witness on this grievance, and any other current board member who sat through one of the other board removals should also remember of this process, and it’s verifiable by looking at previous agendas. The agenda for the meeting did not even indicate the reason for removal. These are all things we were instructed to do by the City Attorney’s office in the past, which did not occur this time. 

In my instance, the Executive Committee appears to have rushed to have an Executive Committee meeting, and made an agenda that they sent out as a “Special Meeting” agenda, well under the 72 hours they are meant to post the agenda by law. They did this knowing that I would be unable to attend in person that day. This ensured that I had a limited window of opportunity for me to learn about their attempts to remove me. Further, as I notified current Treasurer Michael Coleman that I was not notified and that it would be a potential violation a few hours before they voted, they proceeded with the vote anyway. DONE employee, Betty Wong, says that our acting President told her that I was indeed notified, but that is false. I am happy to provide phone and email records to show I was never contacted, by anyone on the Council or DONE, especially not like how the process was done in the past, and that Betty was lied to, or, perhaps worse, that Betty is lying about having checked with Judy about the process. There is an email chain between myself and DONE that makes it clear that since I was not contacted/notified, that someone is lying. I am happy to provide all email and phone history to show I was not contacted, and the precedent for the removal process is easily provable if you just go back to our past agendas, ask anyone on the board, or ask people who were removed from our board in the past, one of whom is a witness. I’m happy to share all email chains between myself and DONE that show that what likely happened is that the Board violated the bylaws and DONE simply missed it. I also believe that the City Attorney’s office was not contacted for advice throughout the removal process, as is also stated in our bylaws. And if the office was contacted, then it’s clear that the board did not follow the advice, as I’m sure that policy hasn’t recently changed. 

A bit of research should prove this all correct, and perhaps the easiest remedy would be for DONE to tell the board that they’ll have to re-do the process, in the correct manner as our bylaws state, and that the vote was not in compliance. But, given the weight of the reason for this grievance – forced removal of a board member and publicly elected official, followed by blatant lying to DONE, the agency charged with overseeing the publicly elected officials – is cause for larger intervention than just having the Board re-do the process. 

I have requested departmental policy, which I’m sure the board also violated, but I am yet to receive it. And this all sheds light on a larger conversation that should likely happen about policies to ensure fair and equitable elections and removal of board members, because if it was this easy for my Neighborhood Council to break some rules to kick someone off, then how do we possibly hold other electeds accountable?

Our acting President, Judy Harris, lied to DONE about the process she undertook to have me removed. This is provable. I was not notified like our bylaws instruct and past DONE precedent has set. Further, I notified the current Treasurer, Michael Coleman, about the bylaws violation on the day of the vote just a few hours prior, and they still decided to move forward with the vote which makes all of the Executive Committee culpable, but given Judy’s blatant disregard for the bylaws and in her lie to DONE, she has committed an egregious process to have someone removed from the board without notice, without any stated, reason, and without an opportunity to defend myself.  I have grown increasingly ostracized over the last year, from the Board deciding to change the date of the full Council meetings to a date that conflicts with work (against my protests), and without any committee’s meeting (Judy also Chairs the Outreach Committee) regularly like our bylaws also state, they stripped me of any opportunity I have to be an active member of the Council. The only Committee that meets is the Executive Committee, but Judy and the Executive Committee insist on having their meetings during the day, knowing it doesn't work for many people's schedules, including my own. And it took a board member filing a grievance just to make Executive Committee meetings happen, and I do not foresee any changes happening without sustained involvement from DONE, or new Executive Committee members. I am eager to work with DONE on a remedy and on a policy to ensure that we have a fair system in place that upholds our democratic and due processes.