Petition to Restore Green Values to the Green Party of Colorado (GPCO)

May 31, 2017

Updated:  July 3, 2017, 1:50 PM

The Colorado Green Party has been hijacked by individuals who condone violence and have violated many of the Ten Key Values that are the heart of the Green Party.  See the Outline of Violations for a summary of the Grievance filed with the Green Party of the US (GPUS).  Help Restore Green Values to the Green Party of Colorado.

Please sign as a co-signer of the petition

The petition is in support of an Appeal to the GPUS National Committee and to the GPUS Steering Committee for Intervention in the Conduct of the GPCO Steering Committee

The Appeal (Petition) to the GPUS (Green Party of the US) asks for an investigation into the violations of Colorado Green Party (GPCO) bylaws and rules and procedures, of the Green Party 10 key values, and of common decency by Andrea Merida, Dave Bell, and Jason Justice.  The requested investigation is currently in progress.

The full appeal “case” and evidence can be downloaded at Appeal Submitted to the GPUS

By:  The Caucus to Restore Green Values to the Green Party of Colorado and other concerned Green Party of Colorado (GPCO) members.

Please forward to other Colorado Green Party members you know who might be interested in signing.

Update after the Initial Complaint:

In addition and subsequent to the evidence in the complaint, Andrea Merida has selectively applied procedures to suspend chapters in the Green Party of Colorado (GPCO) to prevent them from being able to vote at the (2017) annual meeting and prior to the annual meeting or to participate on the council section of the forum.  The GPCO annual meeting was scheduled in violation of State bylaws that require the council to consider and set the date.  The council had been discussing the next annual meeting to be held in Grand Junction, and Andrea simply announced it would be in Denver completely ignoring the ongoing discussion and the GPCO bylaws.  Andrea ignored and deleted protest posts.  Contrary to the duties of the forum facilitator (bylaw 3.1.1), Andrea has not provided access to status reports of voting by council members to the respective chapter co-chairs and chairs, but instead has kept them to herself and used them only as ammunition to remove individuals and chapters who disagree with her on some issues.  Andrea has also moved the forum to a private server under her control and without any of the safeguards built into the forum by the website committee that set up the forum.  No notice of the pending move was given, and any suggested move should have been referred to the council for a decision.  Therefore the forum move is not legitimate.  The website committee has not provided any of its required reports, so it is unknown if it had a hand in the move.  The original forum (http://gpco.fullydefiant.com/forum/index.php) is the only legitimate forum.  Statements to the contrary are not true.

Initial Complaint Summary:

Andrea quietly took excessive control of the GPCO in 2016 and 2017 including almost all aspects of the Party functions, including:

GPCO Co-chair;

Stepped in for Larry Dunn as GPCO delegate the GPUS National Committee without due process, vote, or notification to the GPCO membership;

On the GPUS Steering Committee;

On the GPUS Accreditation Committee (will NOT be on the sub-committee hearing this complaint);

The State website is on her server;

The state website is under her control;

Is the primary forum administrator (now on the illegitimate relocated forum);

Self-appointed as forum moderator (in itself a violation of the required independence), not following requirements to consider other candidates (and other candidates did volunteer);

Self-appointed as forum facilitator (in itself a violation of the required independence), not following requirements to consider other candidates (and other candidates did volunteer);

Uses forum admin access to exercise forum control beyond facilitator functions, such as editing and removing posts or portion of posts with which she disagrees;

Appointed Sean Friend as Treasurer without soliciting volunteers from the general membership;

Acts as sole forum moderator using admin access;

Is the GPCO Facebook Administrator;

Is the GPCO Twitter Administrator.

Throughout 2016 and 2017, Andrea Merida, David Bell, Jason Justice have, collectively and individually, violated key values and have largely succeeded in consolidating control of the Green Party of Colorado in their hands rather than in the grassroots chapters of the state. Their control of the state party forum suppresses meaningful dissent and prevents efforts to conduct party business according to the bylaws and guidelines. We have objected repeatedly, but Andrea Merida uses unorthodox interpretations of state bylaws and procedures to derail our complaints. Redress through the state process is therefore impossible.

Andrea has violated:

Key Values regarding Feminism and Gender Equity, Respect for Diversity, Personal and Global Responsibility, Grassroots Democracy, Social Justice and Equal Opportunity, Decentralization, Non-Violence, Ecological Wisdom, and Future Focus and Sustainability.

Colorado Bylaws 3.1.1.2, 3.1.1.3, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3, 5.9

Colorado Procedures and Guidelines 3.5.3, 3.5.4, 3.7.

Other standard practices and goals: calculation of quorum, honesty, fair play, ethics, rule of law, no abuse of power, building the party.

Outline of Violations

Following is a list of the initial violations as outlined in the petition to the GPUS:

The grievance against Andrea Merida and two co-conspirators, filed with the Green Party of the US (GPUS) on June 14, 2017 by the Caucus to Restore Green Values (CRGV), contains 15 complaints of actions as Co-chair of the Green Party of Colorado; namely, Andrea has:

  1. approved of a conspiracy to rig the election of officers including Ms. Merida at the upcoming GPCO state meeting, consisting of an elaborate scheme to pack the GPCO annual meeting with temporary Greens combined with a change in bylaws to require 90 day pre-registration with only 2 weeks for others to recruit candidates or new members; in violation of social values honesty, fair play
  2. advocated violence as a method of dealing with opposing viewpoints; in violation of KV non-violence
  3. appointed herself to fill every GPCO position that has recently fallen vacant while ignoring volunteers for those positions; in violation of KV decentralization which calls for restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system controlled by and mostly benefiting the powerful few; in violation of KV grassroots democracy which call on us to improve public participation in every aspect of government and expand the process of participatory democracy; in violation of Colorado Procedures and Guidelines 3.7
  4. removed her co-chair under questionable circumstances using false pretenses; in violation of Green Party of Colorado Bylaw 5.9
  5. violated state bylaws, state council procedures, and guidelines; in violation of social values ethics, rule of law
  6. delayed, edited, and obstructed proposals that were contrary to her wishes; in violation of KV grassroots democracy which calls on us to improve public participation in every aspect of government and expand the process of participatory democracy; in violation of KV decentralization which calls for restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system controlled by and mostly benefiting the powerful few; in violation of Colorado Procedures and Guideline 3.5.3; in violation of social values fair play, no abuse of power
  7. antagonized Green candidates running for state and federal offices; in violation of the political goal of building the party
  8. contributed to a deep schism within the GPCO; in violation of the political goal of building the party
  9. failed to support and actively rejected and opposed admission of supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders who were moving or attempting to move to the Green Party; in violation of KV personal and global responsibility which calls for us to join with people and organizations around the world to foster peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet; in violation of KV grassroots democracy which calls for us to improve public participation in every aspect of government and expand the process of participatory democracy
  10. made irresponsible, unsupportable accusations of sexism, racism, and white supremacy within the GPCO; in violation of KV feminism and gender equity which calls for cooperative ways of interacting; in violation of KV respect for diversity which calls for development of respectful relationships
  11. made unorthodox interpretations of rules to suppress dissent and to benefit her own agenda; in violation of social values honesty, fair play, no abuse of power
  12. ghostwritten proposals that were later presented as grassroots proposals made by local chapters; in violation of KV decentralization which says decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at the individual and local level
  13. posted comments suggesting that people of color and the working class are the only true believers in progressive politics; in violation of KV social justice and equal opportunity which call on us to consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, any discrimination by race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age
  14. elevated values of social justice and feminism above other party values in the bylaws of two local chapters and twisted them into “anti-racism” and “anti-white (male) supremacy”; in violation of KV feminism and gender equity which says “We recognize that the processes for determining our decisions and actions are just as important as achieving the outcomes we want.”
  15. dismissed the March for Science on Earth Day 2017 as not worth the trouble of participating; in violation of KVs ecological wisdom; personal and global responsibility; future focus and sustainability; what does the “Green” in Green Party stand for if not for ecology and environmentalism?
  16. financial irresponsibility, was added after the 2017 general election when campaign filings for BANUELOS 4 EDUCATION showed that Andrea profited over $5000 as the campaign manager, while leaving the campaign almost $4000 in debt