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Problems with the 2003 LAB Director election started with the nominating committee. The chairman, Richard Killingsworth, is an appointed (unelected) director who represents outside interests (health and fitness) rather than cycling. Killingsworth was determined to have his friend S. Mark Terman on the board. Terman was nominated supposedly to represent LAB cyclists of Region 4 (IL, IN, MI, OH). However, Terman is only an occasional recreational cyclist. He has no record of supporting the interests of cyclists in his region. Instead, Terman, like Killingsworth, represents the fitness industry. He is also a fund raiser. As far as we can tell, like Killingsworth, he has no interest in protecting the rights of cyclists.
Because nominee Terman seemed unlikely to improve the board’s dismal record of supporting cyclists’ rights, Fred Oswald collected petitions to get on the ballot. Fred is an active board member of the Ohio Bicycle Federation who has written many articles on cycling education, advocacy and traffic law reform. Fred has lead the OBF effort to reform Ohio bicycle traffic laws and has surveyed and rated local bicycle traffic ordinances for 60 NE Ohio communities. He also developed Model Laws to improve the ordinances.
Fred organized a committee for a similar project to rate bicycle traffic laws in all 50 states. However, the faction that controls LAB would not support this effort to reform cycling laws. This was another reason that Fred ran for the board.
Jon Orcutt was nominated for the Region 1 seat (NY and New England). Reform candidate John Allen collected petition signatures to qualify for the ballot to run against Orcutt. Although Allen has a much stronger record, Orcutt has reasonable cycling credentials and he was the incumbent.
Amanda Jones was nominated for Region 6 (West Coast). Her nomination
and election were not controversial except that she was the only candidate, thus
members in her region had no choice.
The election procedures were extraordinarily lax. The League seems to place a very low value on the wishes of the members. The ballot was buried in the Almanac with no mention of it on the cover. Thus, many members were unaware of the election. There was no control of the ballots — no identifying number, mailing label, etc. Members were allowed to submit a photocopy of the ballot page. Member signatures were not required, only names. The only measure to deter vote fraud was the space on the ballot for the membership number and the instruction to “complete the ballot”.
Another security lapse was the instruction to return ballots to League headquarters, rather than to impartial election tellers. This is especially troubling because LAB president Chris Kegel has been blatantly partisan about the election (see below). There is no possibility that the League staff, who were collecting ballots, were unaware of the desires of the board president.
Note: Although we have no evidence of ballot tampering,
considering the sloppy procedures and the actions of the board president,
tampering was very possible. It would be easy for one or more staffers to
“lose” a few ballots for the reform candidates so strongly opposed by Kegel or
to “manufacture” ballots for a board candidate. In addition, staff may
have provided intelligence about the vote count useful to supporters of the
endorsed candidate.
The suspicions above might have been merely hypothetical but for several improprieties committed by a faction of the board, particularly in the Region 4 election. These vary in importance from minor to scandalous.
John Allen and Fred Oswald tried to fight this blatant attempt to steal the
board election. We warned board president Kegel that his heavy-handed
tactics are unethical and possibly illegal. This scandal puts the very
reputation of LAB at risk. We believe that those who particated in this
unethical activity are unfit to be directors of the League.
For about an hour, they encouraged us to tell of our concerns. They urged “respect” and “working within the system”. Elissa said that she cares about what John and Fred can bring to the table. She wants us to feel that we can bring up issues in the regular course of business and “affect outcomes”. But we were told that we need to understand that there is a process, and that we must make a commitment to work according to “the rules”.
The problem with this process for listening to LAB members is that it has been completely ignored in the past. Good people like John Schubert and Bill Hoffman tried to get the board to correct serious problems in training League Cycling Instructors. They were stonewalled. When they tried to publicize their concerns, they were sacked for “lack of respect” and disloyalty.
It is obvious that the process means that the board will act only if and when Chris wants to act. But otherwise nothing will be done. A “respectful” board member is expected to keep quiet and let Chris have his way. Respect is not a two-way street at LAB.
We are suspicious that Chris and Elissa were “nice” to us that night only because they know we have a strong complaint about the election and they want to stifle criticism. The white gloves will be replaced by brass knuckles after the election is over.
When we discussed the election scandal, Chris would admit only rather nebulously that it could have been done better and that they would learn from experience. But he insisted on maintaining the unfair advantage gained by unethical means. He refused to call a new election. We told him we will not accept a stolen election. He then threatened to “fight hard”.
The announced election results for Region 4 were: Terman 379, Oswald 165. We have asked repeatedly to inspect the ballots and ballot envelopes to check for evidence of fraud and to see if ballots from people who said they voted for Oswald are missing. We were stonewalled. We have no way to determine whether the vote was fraudulent. Our demands to see the ballots were ignored.
Fortunately, there was no interference in Region 1 and John Allen was elected. Strangely, Jon Orcutt did not campaign for reelection.
Please join a group of LAB reformers determined to return the organization to its members. This means restoring democracy to elections, respecting long-serving members, promoting and educating society about the best cycling practices and standing up for the rights of cyclists.
We need to replace most of the members of the Board in order to return LAB to its members. We need your help to do this. Please get on our mailing list so we can tell you when new information is posted or when news breaks.
Please send the following information by email to
fredoswald_AT_yahoo.com.
Name, address, phone, email, your local cycling club(s),
Your level of interest, any special skills or other info., how many LAB members you can reach
We plan to frequently update the LAB Reform web site with new information and
new articles to keep our supporters informed. These will also include
links for informative articles about cycling — things that should be in the LAB
magazine. If you provide your email address we can tell you when new
information is posted or when news breaks.
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