He calls for secret list emails labeled ‘staff’ and ‘strategy’ to be revealed to the membership.
Miquel Duque, LNC Region 1 Regional Representative, has given notice that at the August 19-20, 2023 LNC meeting in Washington D.C., he will offer seven motions, in the following order.
Make available to the public LNC list the EPCC Master Policy document (created on 5/23/2023).
Supersede and overturn the EPCC Master Policy document (created on 5/23/2023), replacing them with nothing.
Delete the following Policy Manual Section 2.01.3 and 2.02.8 and all other instances where the EPCC appears, thereby dissolving the EPCC.
2.01.3 — Concerns Regarding Staff — Concerns regarding a staff member’s behavior should be reported to the Employment Policy and Compensation Committee. The EPCC will immediately notify the Executive Director and LNC Chair of the behavior and will gather facts from all parties involved and present them for further review and action. 2.02.8 — Employment Policy and Compensation Committee — The Employment Policy and Compensation Committee (EPCC) shall develop documents, procedures, and guidelines for the effective administration, supervision, and development of staff, including but not limited to job descriptions, compensation ranges, hiring, training, performance reviews, promotion, progressive discipline, and termination. The LNC may supersede any such documents, procedures, and guidelines by adopting a replacement. The EPCC shall also be available to staff to discuss on a confidential basis the working environment or observed violations of the policy manual. Following Counsel’s review of a director-level employment contract or a contract with a contractor for a director-level position, the Chair or the Executive Director shall submit to the EPCC the proposed contract and any related advice from Counsel. No such contract may be signed by the Chair without having first obtained either EPCC approval of the contract at least ten (10) days prior, or an affirmative vote from a majority of the fixed membership of the LNC.
Make available to the public LNC list all confidential email threads categorized under topics of “staff” and “strategy” from this term of the LNC thus far and for the remainder of the term. Confidential threads categorized as “legal” are to remain confidential.
Terminate the work contract of Austin Padgett (the recently-hired contractor who is the LNC Chair’s domestic partner).
A vote of no confidence in the LNC Chair, Angela McArdle.
A vote of no confidence in the LNC.
Ryan – copying portions of a couple of the replies to Duque’s proposal on the LNC email list:
Mark Tuniewicz wrote “Regarding the EPCC (Employee Policy & Compensation Committee)….I’ll just say that with a much larger LP in the 90’s and 2000’s, with much more revenue than what we have now, more complex ops and double/triple the staff levels we currently have, a “personnel” committee was viewed as unnecessary in the past, allowing those functions to reside with the executive director with limited exceptions. In the recent past, Chair McCardle communicated that she’d hired a new outside HR firm to assist the Ex Dir with these duties, and I thought we were headed in the right direction. In general during this term, in my personal opinion (and meaning no offense to friends/colleagues serving on that Committee), on balance the EPCC has done more harm than good in terms of interference with the relationship between the Chair and the Staff, including the Executive Director. For those reasons, as stated to some of you at our last meeting 3 months ago, we ought to seriously consider its dissolution.”
And later in the same email “Regarding Mr. Padgett’s (Chair’s domestic partner) work for the LNC as a contractor, while I’m sure the EPCC blessed this, having family members work for you is the worst kind of nepotism. I’ve met Mr. Padgett and he seems like a very nice guy, but he should not be working for the LNC.”
To which Steven Nekhaila replied “#1, the EPCC does not “bless” contractor hires, they are not in our purview and are not something we are authorized to work on, we are specifically in the realm of employee matters. #2, we are not being replaced by an HR firm and our work is much more broad than that. The EPCC has not interfered in any way with staff, we have done our jobs diligently and have shown our work to the LNC time and time again.”
To which Mark Tuniewicz replied “As you know, it’s hard for me to fully answer you while maintaining appropriate employee confidentiality. But I can say this:
“As I’ve expressed in the past, to the extent the EPCC continues to exist…say, to help in policy development, job descriptions, etc….I believe those offerings should be voluntary, rather than mandatory. A constructive consultation with the ED, rather than any mandate coming from the EPCC. By the same token, I feel the EPCC’s “role” as a receiver of employee complaints interferes with the chair’s defined role as our manager of the ED, and tends to undermine those relationships (between ED and staff, and between ED and the chair).
“I hope that helps explain my position. And thanks for mentioning that EPCC is not involved in approving contractors. One less thing to worry about.”
Duque was excluded from this evening’s ExComm meeting, at which he would have been a part of the audience, not a voting member.
At more length (also a new article):
Mr. Nekhaila moved to take the Executive Committee into executive session, with the LNC’s attorney invited to attend as a participant. Furthermore, all LNC members were invited to attend, except Regional Representative Miguel Duque was to be excluded. (I later heard the LNC’s parliamentarian confirm that was allowable.) The topics of discussion in the executive session were staff and legal matters, and Ms. Harlos’s motion:
The appointment of an investigatory committee regarding preferral of charges for allegations of violations of confidentiality by an LNC member to meet immediately prior to the Saturday portion of the LNC Meeting in DC and report back to the LNC as the first item of business.
Mr. Duque attempted to raise as a point of order that Ms. McArdle is implicated in whatever it is, and therefore should not chair the Executive Committee meeting. Ms. Harlos raised a consequent point of order, namely that only ExComm members were entitled to raise points of order during ExComm meetings. The Chair sustained Ms. Harlos’s objection.
With unanimous consent, they then went into Executive Session.
I then asked Mr. Duque if he had been told that he would be excluded.
He indicated that he preferred not to answer questions about the exclusion at this time.
What’s the issue with the Employment Policy and Compensation Committee?