LETTER OF JANUARY 5, 2007 TO THE CIVIC ASSOCIATION BOARD APPENDING PROPOSAL SENT TO DONALD WEISS AND MARY KOT ON DECEMBER 7, 2006

 

From: Peter Jesson [mailto:jpjesson@comcast.net]
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 7:14 AM
To: Weiss, Donald; jjeganmn@aol.com; katekg@comcast.net; valerie.hoxter@verizon.net; keithklaver@aol.com; pfkoch@earthlink.net; marcaltman99@yahoo.com; Mary Kot; margaretmoses@comcast.net; gary@garyscheivert.com; leavarney@aol.com
Cc: janemoses@chcinc.com; swortek@gmail.com
Subject: FW: Proposal

 

To:      Civic Association Board Members

From: J. Peter Jesson

 

I met with Donald Weiss, who was representing a group of the Board Members, early in December. I presented a number of proposals, including the resignation of some members, which Donald found unacceptable. Towards the end of the meeting Donald made the following suggestions:

 

  • Expand the board to 15 (this would include all those on the ballot at the Annual Meeting)
  • Have an Ex Officio member from each party for a total of 17.
  • He suggested Phil Wenrich and me as the Ex Officio members.

 

In my email follow-up to these ideas (appended below) our only suggested change was to have Mary as the Republican Ex Officio member and Phil on the Board proper (for the reasons described).

 

Obviously, any changes of this kind would have to be ratified by the membership (expansion of the Board to 15 members, addition of 2 ex officio members, and voting in of the 17 names).  This could be done quickly on a single Yes – No vote-by-mail while the full revision of the By-Laws could take place at a more leisurely pace.

 

Peter

 

 

J. Peter Jesson

From: Peter Jesson [mailto:jpjesson@comcast.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 10:08 AM
To: 'Donaldjweissesq@aol.com'
Cc: 'Mary Kot'
Subject: Proposal

 

Donald,

 

I am outlining a proposal below that is basically the one suggested by you with one modification.

 

I have got complete agreement from the Democrats involved in this situation; I also ran it by Phil Wenrich, whom I have been dialoguing with since the breakfast meeting with you and Marc – he indicates it would satisfy his concerns also.

 

I would be happy to meet with you again if there are additional issues you wish to discuss.  I enjoyed our interaction on Monday and respect the creative way you are handling the current situation.

 

Peter

 

PROPOSAL

 

  • Mary Kot and I put out a joint press release indicating that we have conferred over the issues surrounding the Civic association and have come to a number of conclusions  (jointly agreed to text)
  • Possible draft:

Recognizing that there is public concern about the recent Civic Association election and also that we have a nascent Democratic Party in the Township for the first time, the two Parties have conferred (through Mary Kot and Peter Jesson).

We have jointly reached the following conclusions which we believe will lead to an even more effective organization:

While the Civic Association has served the Township well, with hundreds of hours of service by many dedicated individuals, it is now desirable to expand representation on the Board to better correspond to the spectrum of views across our community.

To that end we propose an expansion of the board to 15

Additionally local party chairpersons would become permanent Ex Officio members (currently Mary Kot, Peter Jesson). [Note: This is better than just a representative of each party since that would open the can of worms about Libertarians, Greens etc. It would also provide the opportunity for an Ad Hoc grouping comprised of the Party Chairs (currently Peter Jesson and Mary Kot) and the Civic Association President.  They could meet informally when one of the three wanted to discuss things with the other two.]

 

[Note added, not present in original letter:

 

Some Republicans have taken exception to the phrase “would open the can of worms about Libertarians, Greens etc.” as being undemocratic.  That is far from being the intention.  We believe that members of all parties should have equal access as elected members of the Board.  The idea of restricting the ex-officio positions to the chairs of organized parties is a common practice in our country.  Obviously if other organized parties are created in Chadds Ford their Chairs would also be entitled to ex-officio positions.]

 

 

The resulting current Committee would be:

 

Marc Altman

Jill Egan

Kathleen Goodier

Keith Klaver

Paul Koch

Jane Moses

Margaret Moses

Gary Schievert

Louise Varney

Susan Worteck

Rob Porter                       

John Newport                  

Gregg Lindner                 

Matt Wrabley

Phil Wenrich

                   

Ex Officio

 

Mary Kot

Peter Jesson                    

 

As far as Phil is concerned:

 

    • I believe he was wrongfully barred from the election.  There is nothing in the By-Laws about a date certain for dues.  On the other hand the By-Laws are quite specific about the need for current resumes, which several people who ran did not submit to the nominating committee.  I am not trying to push this latter point; I was prepared to forget about it at my earlier meeting if the dues issue was dropped. This was the trade off I was hoping to make at our breakfast.
    • He is a now a member in good standing. He also submitted his resume prior to October 15th
    • There are few people who work harder for our Township than Phil – he has demonstrated that he is nonpartisan and he can be a tremendous asset to the Board.

 

Peter

 

 

J. Peter Jesson

 

jpjesson@comcast.net

 

www.chaddsforddemocrats.com

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