Can you please post the names, emails, and phone numbers of these people at the Library (and relevant politicians that were involved)? It is time we all called them directly and let them know what we think.

I am tired of these people deciding what is “right”.

Look at Obama:
1. Didn’t do anything for human rights in Iran
2. Gitmo prison still open
3. Troops will remain in Afghanistan much, much longer
4. Spent money like a drunken sailor — and to save the bonuses and jobs of rich bankers
5. He bowed down to the Saudis (read the article about how Obama doesn’t drink coffee but had his first cup with the Saudis)

So tell me….is this what the Library staff is defending?

I don’t get it.

Please circulate names and numbers. We also need to personally address these people in the Library.

We should have a TEAR YOUR LIBRARY CARD tea party!

The special meeting was canceled by Ms. Hofacket. Although we have held meetings at the library in the past (no problems then), we normally hold our regular monthly meetings in San Leandro at our Headquarters.

In her letter, Ms. Hofacket writes, “This decision (disallowing the meeting) is specifically applicable to the July 6, 2009 meeting.”

I’m assuming that her violation of the library policy will only be a one time action. Needless to say, she hasn’t made us feel very welcome at the Fremont Main Library after all of this. Going from yes to no, no to yes, and back again because of second hand baseless accusations about the meeting not being open to the public, suggests that the staff is not very professional, or at the very least not very reasonable.

Being the Acting Chairman, I speak for the Party. If I’m the one who completed the application with the library, shouldn’t the fact that I say the meeting is open to the public be enough? What about the public notice on the official ACRP website that says the meeting is open to the public? I guess somebody, anybody can just call in at any time and say, “their meeting is not open to the public!” and good ‘ol Jean Hofacket will just take their word for it and cancel the meeting… forget letting the facts get in the way.

Very disappointing I have to say!

During the meeting, the group discussed grass roots activities inside of Fremont making reference to the importance of the voters in the city, and even said that they would schedule future meetings in the larger conference room to make room for more attendees from the public since the January meeting was nearly beyond capacity.

I think that it would be safe to say that the meeting was open to the public based on the track record.

Maybe someone should have offered Hofacket & Hagerty a front row seat at the meeting. Then it would have been really “special”.

Fremont Main Library = Doesn’t like Republicans

Jean Hofacket = should be fired

This is the type of scum within the GOP that has no principle at all, and has all but ruined the party.

As Acting Chairman of the Alameda County Republican Central Committee, I called a special meeting for the election of our new Chairman to take place at the Fremont Main Library on July 6th. As required by our committee bylaws, seven days notice needs to be provided to all Members of the committee informing them of the date, time, place and reason for the special meeting. I sent out notification on Monday June 29th through the regular mail, e-mail and over the telephone to all Members of the committee.

In Alameda County, we have a divided Republican Central Committee. Some may view this as a bad thing but, I tend to disagree as I believe that some divisions are needed and may benefit the Party as it attempts to rebuild!

On one side we have the George Bush type of Republicans. These would be (for the most part) the “War on Terror” supporters that were willing to toss fiscal conservatism to the side in an effort to purchase a little so-called temporary security with the undeclared military police actions, and nation building activities in the Middle East. Most of these Republicans think of themselves as conservatives, totally disregarding the fact that there is nothing “conservative” about war, declared or undeclared. These Republicans are the type that support exclusive Party fundraisers, held at mansions in the hills where only the well to do can afford to attend and get some face time with the latest Republican candidate running for “public” office. These Republicans are the type to support holding closed door meetings for their private little social club while at the same time claiming to “Build Our Republican Party.” These are the establishment Republicans that file lawsuits against badly needed volunteers to maintain the status quo of their do-nothing organization.

The other side, is the younger, more energetic side that wants to help return the Republican Party to its conservative roots. These are the real limited government conservatives, most of which were all former Ron Paul supporters that were unhappy about the direction of the GOP under the Bush administration. I myself am a part of this side of the committee. I, like all of my friends on the committee are new to politics, this being the first time any of us have decided to put our names on the ballot and run for office. During our short time on the committee, we have seen that politics is indeed a dirty game to play, even at the minor league level. We have learned the hard way how to play hard ball with these people. We won a majority on the 30-Member committee, took a majority on the Executive Committee, fought a lawsuit and won (now were fighting the appeal), installed a presence in the CRP delegation, learned to quorum bust, passed a committee resolution in support of auditing the Federal Reserve, and even got Democrat Congressman Pete Stark to sign on as a co-sponsor of that legislation.

I have personally scheduled and held meetings at the Fremont Main Library in the past, and I’m fully aware that meetings there must be open to the public. Furthermore, as I explained to the library staff, I would never attempt to hold a meeting at a tax-payer funded public venue that would not be open to the public. I would consider doing so to be a slap in the face to every single tax-payer throughout Alameda County! It would also be important to note that the first thing that I personally did as a newly elected Vice Chairman of the ACRP was to install a “Public Comment Period” on every Central Committee meeting agenda. Certain incumbent Members on the committee that seem to struggle with what it means to “support & defend the U.S. Constitution” tried to discourage me in my attempt to make the ACRP more open and inclusive to the members of the public. Some even irresponsibly suggested that our meetings are not open to the public and pointed out how, in the past, “do-nothing-but-file-lawsuits” former Chairman Paul Cummings would call attendees “out of order” because their comments were not related to agenda topics. I reject this type of elitist attitude and decided to embrace the freedom of speech, regardless if what is said is supportive or negative of the GOP or Republican in general.

On Tuesday June 30th, Fremont Main Library Manager Sally Pine phoned to inform me that another Member of the committee had suggested that the special meeting scheduled for July 6th was not in accordance with our committee bylaws, which was completely inaccurate of course. This establishment Member was not supportive of the special meeting (for whatever reason) and was willing to do whatever was necessary to get the special meeting canceled. Ms. Pine said that the Member also suggested that our committee meetings are not open to the public, which again is completely false and deliberately misleading as far as I’m concerned. I assured Ms. Pine that the meeting was indeed open to the public and in accordance with our committee bylaws and even pointed her in the direction of the ACRP official website where it specifically says, “This Special Meeting of the Alameda County Republican Central Committee will be open to the public and may be video, or audio tape recorded.” (which is considered a public notice) I also pointed out the section of our bylaws that relates to calling the special meeting (Article 7, Sec 2, (a.)) showing that the meeting was in compliance with our committee bylaws, which should have been of no real concern to the Fremont Main Library. Ms. Pine said that my meeting was still canceled!

About an hour later, Ms. Pine phoned again to inform me that a mistake had been made and the special meeting had the green light now. I thanked Ms. Pine for her due diligence regarding the issue and was happy to set the record straight regarding the openess of the special meeting.

Shortly after, I received a another call from Ms. Pine who informed me that the meeting was again canceled because Supervisor Scott Haggerty told the library to cancel the meeting. She said that when a County Supervisor says to do something, they do it! I questioned this rationale and asked to speak with someone in charge. Ms. Pine gave me Ms. Hofacket’s contact information. I left a message with Ms. Hofacket’s secretary who told me that Ms. Hofacket was at the County Board of Supervisor’s meeting in Oakland at that time.

Then, about an hour after that, County Librarian Ms. Jean Hofacket phoned to inform me that she was canceling the special meeting and it had nothing to do with Haggerty’s call. She said that there had been conflicting information coming into her office about the meeting that suggested it was not open to the public. I assured her that it was and said that we have public comment periods during every meeting, which are even recorded in the meeting minutes. I informed her that members from the public would be welcomed to comment and even engage in the discussion during the meeting if they chose to do so. I pointed out the fact that I would be Chairing the special meeting and would not hesitate to call on those who wished to be recognized. Ms. Hofacket said that she needed to get back with me the next day with the final word.

She conveniently called while I was in class to inform me that she has decided to disallow our meeting at the library. Later, in her letter, she avoids citing anything directly related to the Library “Rules and Regulations For Use of Facilities” and instead writes, “Given the various issues and differences in information… I have decided to disallow your request for use of the meeting room on July 6, 2009.”

I phoned Supervisor Haggerty’s office and spoke with his Chief of Staff, who denied Mr. Haggerty’s personal involvement in the matter, however, Chief of Staff Chris Gray did admit that he himself did, in fact, call the Fremont Main Library to (supposedly) ask about the Library’s policy for booking meeting rooms. Nonetheless, after Haggerty’s office made the call, the fact of the matter that the special meeting was indeed open to the public did not get in the way of Ms. Hofacket canceling the meeting.

Haggerty’s office’s involvement has contributed to my decision not to support the Supervisor in future elections. After all, a Republican that believes that REAL ID is only a federal issue, and feels that it doesn’t concern the states has a poor understanding of the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and reflects his allegiance to the business as usual gang of Republican Party that has all but abandoned states rights’ in favor of an over-stepping big federal government. I won’t even get into his support of the fire place bans.

Because of Ms. Hofacket’s decision to disallow the special meeting, I have informed the committee that the special meeting has been canceled.

In post #9, Fremont Lifer says,

“Does Walter seriously think that not being able to get a room at the library is going to “inhibit (the GOP) from growing the party”? Wow.”

-Yes I do Fremont Lifer. Our Assembly District Caucus Committees enable the Party to focus on specific regions in the county. Holding meetings in a variety of areas allows us to reach out to voters in different cities. Excluding Fremont from our efforts doesn’t help us grow the Party because we must have a presence to be effective.

Fremont Lifer also says, “And Walter, give my best to Mark and Sarah. Perhaps you or NBW an provide us with the link to your e-mail account as well?”

walter@alamedagop.org

Finally Fremont Lifer says, “On a more serious note, however, I do believe that the rules about who can use public buildings must be applied fairly and equally…And I say this in full recognition of the fact that no Republican would ever make the same argument if it was the Dems who couldn’t get a room…”

-Thank you for the support Lifer, coming from you it does mean something to me. And rest assured that I would also speak up for another individual, Party or organization that was being discriminated upon.

Don’t hesitate to use the email contact listed above as I would enjoy hearing from you… Republican, Democrat or third Party. And feel free to join us at our regularly scheduled monthly meetings on every third Tuesday of each month. Meetings are open to the public!

In Liberty Always,
Walter Stanley III
Acting Chairman ACRP

I think the division is between the social conservatives and the fiscal conservatives, who don’t really have much in common, aside from not being Democrats.