March 2023 Meeting Minutes

  

Minutes

Libertarian Party of Florida

 Executive Committee Meeting

Sunday, March 19, 2023

7:30 PM/Eastern    6:30 PM/Central

https://zoom.us/j/98465468002?pwd=ZmliZXBZdi9EcWlQcW5hWnl4dlZKUT09 

Meeting ID: 984 6546 8002

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Meeting ID: 984 6546 8002

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THIS CALL WAS RECORDED

 

 

Began Recording

Announced Recording

 

1. Mr. Nekhaila called the meeting to order at 7:34 PM EDT.

 

2. Roll Call and Introduction of Guests

 

1	Steven Nekhaila, Chair	Present
2	Josh Hlavka, Vice Chair	Present
3	Edward Appler, Secretary	Present
4	Richard Perez, Treasurer	Present
5	Suzanne Gilmore, At Large 1	Present
6	Hector Roos, At Large 2	Present
7	John Thompson, At Large 3	Present
8	Robert Vinson, Region 1	Present
9	Patrick Leistner,  Region 2	Present
10	Vacant, Region 3	N/A
11	Matt Johnson, Region 4	Present
12	Rachel Danner, Region 5	Present
13	Vacant, Region 6	N/A
14	Krystina Baxter, Region 7	Present
15	Edin Veladzic, Region 8	Absent
16	Brian Fleming, Region 9	Present
17	Adam Whitworth, Region 10	Present
18	Michael Rufo, Region 11	Absent (Excused)
19	John Paff, Region 12	Present
20	James Pinkosky, Region 13	Present
21	Tony Sellers, Region 14	Present

 

Invited Guests:

Dave Benner, LNC Region 2 Representative

Martin Cowen, LNC Region 2 Alternate

 

3. Determination of Quorum (a majority of its seated members per LPF Constitution, Art. III, Sect. 5C, as amended 2021-03-21).  10 with 19 of 21 EC positions filled. 17 present at roll call; quorum determined.

 

4. Public Comment (< 10 Minutes)

Mr. Nekhaila noted that the Youth Leadership Caucus is looking for help in organizing a chapter or caucus affiliate.  If anyone is interested in this, contact Mr. Nekhaila.   Tim Crosby inquired about Convention credentialing.  Mr. Sellers and Mr. Appler responded.  Currently, 46 of 47 requested delegates have been credentialed; 6 persons registered as non-delegate attendees, of whom 3 are eligible to be delegates.  Mr. Appler will contact these 3 individuals to determine whether they wish to be delegates.

 

5. Approval of Agenda

Mr. Hlavka moved to approve; Ms. Gilmore seconded.  Mr. Hlavka moved to amend the agenda to strike Items 8, 9, and 10 (Reports).  Mr. Johnson seconded.  Motion was approved.  Amended agenda was approved.

 

6. Approval of LPF EC Meeting Minutes – February 19, 2023

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uFwqT4UpLwxWNd-A33xdviKdAmCRvmuCxciQrGZALV4/edit?usp=sharing 

Mr. Hlavka moved to approve; Mr. Johnson seconded.  Motion to approve the minutes passed.

 

7. LNC Report: Dave Benner/Martin Cowen

Mr. Cowen presented the LNC report.

 

8. Committee Reports (< 5 Minutes Each)

• Rules – Greg Peele
• Affiliate Support – Krystina Baxter
• Audit – Suzanne Gilmore
• Candidates – Hector Roos
• Communications – Matt Johnson
• Convention – Brian Fleming
• Fundraising – Mitchell Wiecek
• Legislative Action – Vacant
• Membership – Ricardo Mejias
• Platform – Vacant
• Events – Vacant

 

9. Officer Reports and Comments (< 2 Minutes Each)

• Treasurer Report: Richard Perez
• Secretary Report: Edward Appler
• Vice-Chair Report: Josh Hlavka
• Chair Report: Steven Nekhaila

 

10. Directors At Large and Region Reports (< 2 Minutes Each)

• Suzanne Gilmore, At Large 1
• Hector Roos, At Large 2
• John Thompson, At Large 3
• Robert Vinson, Region 1
• Patrick Leistner, Region 2
• Vacant, Region 3
• Matt Johnson, Region 4
• Rachel Danner, Region 5
• Vacant, Region 6
• Krystina Baxter, Region 7
• Edin Veladzic, Region 8
• Brian Fleming, Region 9
• Adam Whitworth, Region 10
• Michael Rufo, Region 11
• John Paff, Region 12
• James Pinkosky, Region 13
• Tony Sellers, Region 14

 

11. Unfinished Business

None

 

12. New Business

• Election of Region 3 Representative

No nominations were submitted.

• Election of Region 6 Representative

No nominations were submitted.

• Motion No. 802

Title: Motion to Distribute $100.00 to the Bay County Affiliate of the Libertarian Party of Florida in Accordance with the Operation First Step Incentive Program for the Services of Anna Marie Morris on the City of Parker Infrastructure Committee

Mover: Patrick Leistner

Motion: I move to distribute $100.00 to the Bay County Affiliate of the Libertarian Party of Florida in accordance with the Operation First Step Incentive Program for the services of Anna Marie Morris on the City of Parker Infrastructure Committee.  About the Infrastructure Committee | City of Parker, Florida

 

Disposition: Mr. Hlavka seconded.  Chair ruled this motion out of order due to Ms. Morris not being registered as Libertarian, as noted by Mr. Sellers.  Ms. Morris is currently registered as a Republican.  

Mr. Leistner withdrew his motion, and will contact Ms. Morris to ask her to re-register as Libertarian.

• Motion No. 803

Title: Motion to Renew Agility PR, Allocating no More Than $2,500 for the Annual Subscription

Mover: Steven Nekhaila

Motion: I move to renew Agility PR, allocating no more than $2,500 for the annual subscription. The actual amount will be slightly less.

 

Disposition: At 7:49 PM, Mr. Nekhaila passed the gavel to Mr. Hlavka due to being the mover of this motion.  Mr. Johnson seconded the motion.  Ms. Baxter moved to amend the motion to add a clause that we pass this provided we have an established procedure (user guide) disseminated on how to use Agility PR.  Mr. Pinkosky seconded.  Amendment failed by voice vote.  Roll call vote on the main motion resulted in 15 ayes (Nekhaila, Appler, Perez, Gilmore, Roos, Thompson, Leistner, Johnson, Danner, Baxter, Fleming, Whitworth, Paff, Pinkosky, and Sellers); 0 nays; and 2 abstains (Hlavka and Vinson).  Main motion passed.

• Motion No. 804

Title: Motion to Discuss the Adoption of the Joint Membership Program with the Libertarian National Committee

Mover: Steven Nekhaila

Motion: I move to discuss the adoption of the Joint Membership Program with the Libertarian National Committee.  Invited guest: Andy Buchkovich

 

Disposition: Mr. Thompson seconded.  Mr. Roos moved to suspend the rules to hear the motion to accept the adoption of  the Joint Membership Program.  Mr. Thompson seconded.  Motion to suspend the rules failed.  Motion failed.

 

Mr. Hlavka passed the gavel back to Mr. Nekhaila at 8:55 PM.

• Motion No. 805

Title: Motion to Amend Standing Rules to Provide New Member Privilege Allowing Automatic Satisfaction of Party Affiliation Requirement for Candidate Qualification

Mover: Hector Roos (On Behalf of the Candidates Committee)

Motion: I move to amend LPF Standing Rules, Article I “Membership” by adding a new Section 5 as follows:

Section 5. LPF members who wish to run for partisan office automatically satisfy all party affiliation requirements in section 99.021(1)(b), Florida Statutes.

 

Rationale:

On August 22, 2022, the Florida State Court of Appeals issued an opinion putting Rebekah Jones on the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. House, First District after the lower court had ruled against her. In Jones v Schiller, 1D22-2465, the court announced “Our decision today holds only that the party affiliation requirements in section 99.021(1)(b) cannot be the basis for disqualification of a duly qualified candidate.” This decision bars the enforcement that previously required partisan candidates to swear on a historically, party-provided loyalty oath that they are members of the political party for 365 days before the beginning of the qualifying period. The political parties are no longer responsible for providing the oath form to their prospective candidates; instead, candidates had to obtain the form from the qualifying officers (i.e., from the Department or Supervisor of Elections). Ch. 77-175, § 6, at 926, Laws of Fla. With these changes, the statute began to resemble its current form. Previously and this is illustrative, the law simply required a voter to not be registered with a different political party for 365 days meaning that non-voters, no party voters and recent movers were not be affected.

 

Historically, this law has been used to deny political opposition ballot access. This law reflects the desire of the legislature to dictate who can be a candidate for the Libertarian Party of Florida (LPF) or any political party reducing the pool of available LPF candidates to a tiny fraction of a pool of potential candidates of less than 40,000 voters out of up to 14 million voters or 0.003% of the voting population with a threat of lawsuit for removal from the ballot under this law. This law was a major barrier for LPF ballot access.

 

This law used to be referred to as the “Charlie Crist rule” since it was famously used to threaten then Republican Governor Charlie Crist from jumping to the Democrat Party and running as a Democrat for 

US Senate (he instead ran as an independent earned the endorsement of then-President Barrack Obama and split the vote allowing then Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio to win election to the 

US Senate).  This law had never been opposed by the LPF or taken the distance in court by any partisan candidate until Jones.

 

By adopting this language in our Standing Rules, it would become our policy to hold that any member of the LPF automatically satisfies the 365 day requirement since the LPF does not enforce this seasoning requirement to gain ballot access for our own candidates who are members of the LPF. Under this state law and LPF rules, a registered Libertarian who recently moved here would be barred from running for office until they’ve been a member of the party for 365 days or risk the threat of perjury by stating they have been a registered member of the LPF for 365 days.

 

Legally speaking, there is no risk to the LPF to adopting this amendment because the actions are taken by individual candidates and not the party. The court did suggest that people who sign the candidate oath but not meeting their 365 day requirement could be held liable for criminal and financial consequences to lying under oath. See, e.g., § 837.012, Fla. Stat. (criminalizing false statements made under oath); § 775.082(4)(a), Fla. Stat. (authorizing a criminal sentence of a “definite term of imprisonment not exceeding 1 year”); § 775.083(1)(d), Fla. Stat. (authorizing imposition of a fine up to $1,000). The Legislature can create additional liabilities beyond the scope of this analysis.

 

However, it is clear that political parties are allowed to object to this rule under the basis that political parties can always add to their membership criteria beyond the minimum provided for by state statute.

This motion has been reviewed by Rules Chair Greg Peele and found to not be in conflict with the LPF Constitution, Bylaws or Standing Rules.

 

Disposition: Ms. Gilmore moved to amend to insert the word “public” between partisan and office in the Section 5 wording.  Mr. Sellers seconded.  Amendment passed.  Amended motion passed.

 

13. Notice

The next Executive Committee meeting will be the Annual Business Meeting in Kissimmee, FL from 

April 22 – 23, 2023.

 

14. Announcements (<10 Minutes)

Mr. Appler presented a Reaffiliation update, and discussed finalizing the ABM Agenda.

 

15. Adjourn

Mr. Hlavka moved to adjourn; Mr. Johnson seconded.  Motion to adjourn passed and the meeting adjourned at 9:07 PM EDT.