11 Feb
2019
11 Feb
'19
6:24 p.m.
The following is a statement collectively written by Omni's Finance Working
Group:
Dear delegates,
It has come to our attention that Oakland Public Education Fund,
<https://www.oaklandedfund.org> GCEA's fiscal sponsor, terminated their
sponsorship agreement on 11/2/18 for breach of contract. We spoke to Ryan
Terada from their accounting department who told us that OPEF sent several
emails to Almaz to inform her that she was not meeting her obligations
under the agreement, but she did not respond. It was noted in her file that
she went into the OPEF office on 11/2 and when she was informed that her
sponsorship was cancelled, she became very upset and stormed out. Ryan
didn't tell us why she was in the office, but we believe it was to deposit
the check for $1000 that GCEA received but was unable to cash (because GCEA
doesn't have its own bank account), nor transfer to Omni.
We also noticed that GCEA is fraudulently claiming on their website
<http://www.globalcommunicationservices.org/about-us/> to be a 501c3
organization, where a fake tax ID number is provided. The number
(81-3599363) does not appear in the IRS database.
We also asked Ryan about the GCEA lease and were told that OPEF doesn't
authorize their sponsored organizations to sign leases. Our lease is with
"GCEA, a fiscally sponsored project of OPEF". Even though Laura skimmed
the GCEA/OPEF contract and noted to Almaz that she had to run the lease by
OPEF, she never did.
According to Jesse Palmer, our lawyer, since Almaz was not an authorized
signer for OPEF, the GCEA lease is void. This means that GCEA is not
legally a tenant. Since a group must be a tenant or fiscally sponsored
project of Omni Commons to be a member collective, GCEA is not a member
collective. Jesse advised us to send a 3-day eviction notice to both OPEF
and GCEA. He also noted that beyond being a breach of an agreement, not
paying rent owed is simply divisive in collective projects. What tends to
happen is if one party stops paying, then other parties stop and the
structure falls apart.
In light of this new information, we suggest that the latest proposal
submitted by Almaz, Julio, Katrina, and Yar, be modified to focus on what
agreements could be made between GCEA and OC to permit GCEA to become a
member collective, as well as examining our policies and practices to
improve accountability and create a space where more black people and
people of color feel welcome.
- Finance Working Group
--
Jenny
Help open a professional kitchen at the Omni Commons in Oakland!
https://omnicommons.org/kitchen
`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
"Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories."
-Laurie Anderson
"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
-Hannah Arendt
"To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
-Stéphane Mallarmé
"Anything done for the first time unleashes a demon."
--Dave Sim, "Cerebus the Aardvark"
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 6:20 PM David Keenan <dkeenan44(a)gmail.com> wrote:
If I can, I would be willing to participate in
mediation - I have no
details about it. I hope it is an outside entity (NVC, Seeds, etc). If
someone has information, please pass it on?
This may not have been intended, but I find myself resistant to the
implication that its just one or two people that have been treated poorly.
It's more than just two people for sure. From what I've seen this a broad
and ongoing problem, not a one-off kind of problem. As with virtually all
past behavior akin to this, most people on the receiving end simply leave
and dont come back.
In my opinion, dialogue/accountability about what exactly is going to
change, as well as transparency and true understanding around what the real
needs at stake are, really needs to come first? As in, before anything else
like forgiving debts or unilaterally locking up space can meaningfully be
agreed to. Otherwise, it's not clear to me at least how such a solution as
proposed would prevent the same problems from re-occurring at a systemic
level in any way, which to my mind is more important for the collective
health of omni and the community at large, that omni is in theory trying to
be in solidarity with, than being able to lock this or that room, or
forgive this or that debt.
If real dialogue and real accountability dont come first, omni could
conversely send a message of non-accountability, i.e. if the goal is simply
a quid pro quo with no learning, no healing, and therefore no tangible
reason for a rational person to believe anything will change for the
better, which I would normally say is probably not what anyone wants.. but
in this case, perhaps all bets are off idk. For some, the real goal may be
for actually nothing to change, and for everything to stay the same as it
is, because I also get that vibe.
Part of me wonders if the only reason people are talking about having to
get creative here is perhaps due to our collective inability to live up to
our boring old anodyne existing values and policies which I feel like we
are not really doing in this case. Idk.
David
On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 4:45 PM Julio Rios <julio.rios(a)gmail.com> wrote:
+1 on everything Yar just summarized, especially
this, because I believe
we can be more creative than we seem to give ourselves credit for.
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>>
I believe we should forgive their
debt, allow them to lock the
room, and also hold her accountable for how she's treated Robb and
Jenny (in particular). All these things can be true at the same time.
<<
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