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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	1049
Proposal	Accreditation Rules, Amend Provide Rules for Adversarial Disciplinary Hearings
Presenter	Georgia
Floor Manager	Kristin Combs
Phase	Closed
Discussion	04/05/2021 - 04/25/2021
Voting	04/26/2021 - 05/02/2021
Result	Failed
Presens Quorum	32 0.6666
Consens Quorum	49 A Majority of Yes and No Votes

Background

The Rules and Procedures of the Green Party of the United States, in
Article I., related to Accreditation, Section V., related to
‘Procedures for Revocation of Accreditation’, at paragraph 2., provide
that “The NC should formulate rules for conducting such hearings,”
related to “a grievance lodged against an accredited state (party)”.

The Accreditation Committee has recently found itself subjected to
multiple filings seeking to revoke the accreditation of member state
parties, yet no rules have yet been formulated by the National
Committee to protect the procedural due process of respondent parties.

To protect the member state parties and identity caucuses from abuse
under these rules intended to protect the integrity of the party, it is
necessary to provide for the procedural due process protections
necessary to protect the member parties and caucuses of the party from
arbitrary actions which might otherwise serve to demoralize party
volunteers, distract them from the vital tasks of party building and
ultimately result in the splintering of the national party.

This represents a substitute to GNC #1049, the subject of debate before
the National Committee since April 5 th , 2021 and is intended to
address concerns raised in that discussion for the legalistic language
used in the formulation of those proposed rules. It assumes as a
framework, rules discussed by the Accreditation Committee but not
submitted for ratification by the National Committee, and addresses a
wide number of the limitations of those rules which were addressed by
an earlier version of this proposal.

Proposal

The Accreditation Committee Policies & Procedures are amended in
Section 10., related to the 'Complaint Process', by adding a new
paragraph C., to read as follows:

C. Rules for the conduct of a disciplinary hearing on a complaint
seeking the revocation or suspension of accreditation
or the censure of a member state party or identity caucus

Any hearing, conducted pursuant to the Rules and Procedures of the
Green Party of the United States, Article I., 'Accreditation', Section
V., 'Procedures for Revocation of Accreditation', paragraph 2., is
recognized as an adversarial process and shall be conducted under the
following rules intended to provide procedural due process to the
responding state party or identity caucus.

1. Individuals or organizations with standing to present evidence to the
committee

a) The parties to the complaint shall have standing to offer arguments
at the hearing. These parties shall include the Caucus, State Party, or
individuals filing the complaint, identified in line 1 of the official
complaint form and the party or caucus named as a respondent in the
complaint, listed in line 4 of the official complaint form.

b) If the Dispute Resolution Committee has been engaged in the matter
they may provide information that can be entered into the official
record.

c) The co-chairs shall inform anyone without standing who submitted
statements or documents to the Accreditation Committee that they do not
have standing to put information before the committee.

2. Evidentiary Hearing for Complaints Seeking Revocation of
Accreditation

a) Each party to the dispute with standing may provide in person (or
virtual conference platform) or written testimony, to call witnesses
and submit documents in support of their position, as they wish.

b) The co-chairs shall preside over the hearing in a fair and neutral
manner and shall recuse themselves if that is not possible. The
cochairs shall exercise in a reasonable, impartial and even-handed
fashion, their discretion to limit questions which are irrelevant to
the allegations in the complaint and to the defenses raised by the
responding party.

c) At the conclusion of the hearing, first the complainant, then the
responding party shall have the opportunity to provide oral closing
remarks summarizing their position. In addition, each party shall be
afforded an opportunity to offer a final written arument within one
week of the conclusion of the hearing.

d) Parties to the complaint have the right to cross examine witnesses.

e) Parties to the complaint each have a right to counsel or an advocate
of their choosing to represent them or assist them at the hearing.

f) A recording shall be made of the proceeding which shall be made
available to each party within forty-eight hours of the hearing and to
any member of an accredited state Green Party upon request.

3. Timeline

a) The cochairs of the committee shall provide at least 30 days notice
of the hearing to each party.

b) A written statement of factual findings shall be published within 30
days of the conclusion of the hearing.

c) Once a written statement of factual findings has been published, the
committee may entertain proposals with or without recommendations, to
dismiss or refer the complaint for National Committee consideration,

d) Such proposals shall have an an opportunity for consensus seeking up
to 7 days and if necessary, may be the subject of a vote open for 72
hours.

4)Report and recommendation

a) The report shall reference and link only to written and oral
evidence offered during the hearing.

b) The findings of the hearing shall rely solely on evidence available
in the record. Such evidence may include the complaint, any written
documents responding to the complaint, any testimony offered during the
hearing and any documents submitted during the hearing by either party;
except that the findings may not rely on any written or oral testimony
not subject to cross examination.

Resources

Any hearing conducted pursuant to these rules would be presided over by
the co-chairs of the Accreditation Committee. Party funds would be
required to provide a face-to-face or teleconference venue for the
public hearing and a recording of the proceedings.

References

https://gpus.org/rules-procedures/#01
https://gpus.org/committees/accreditation/accreditation-committee-policies-procedures/
https://gpus.org/convention-rules/#04-07
See particularly Sections 4-7
through 4-13

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