Awhile back we posted that the President/lobbyist of ABATE of Florida had resigned.
Link posted
On April 1st, 8:15 am, I submitted my "Intent to resign" to the Vice-President with a brief explanation. At 9:25 am, the Vice-President resigned. At 10:00 am, the President resigned. Kind of makes you wonder what was so bad to cause a domino effect.
Next up You can read the Vice Presidents
resignation here
Now as those who have either been reading our posts or following the garbage put out by the President of ABATE of Florida you know that much of the blame for legislative failures last year were placed on some Tallahassee Bikers that decided to have their own voice as evidenced here:
Sunday, March 29th - 9:45 pm - email from the President to the entire State Board
"I am home right now but will be leaving tuesday morning back to Ohio. Call Danny Fish for anything abate and call Mike Price and (other person) if it has to do with lobbying as they are now the lobbyist. Also.... (he continued into personal attacks on ABATE members).
Now we have a problem... I tried to call the lobbyist but only got voicemail and was getting no return calls. I contacted the Vice President who informed me that he was also leaving messages with no response. We discussed the content of the email message and discussed the situation with the upcoming Senate Committee hearing on Wednesday, April 1st. The decision was made for me to attend the committee hearing and plan for things to be resolved soon. All I needed to do was the same as the House hearing... support the bill, get a match, get a vote, then target the next committee for needed changes.
Tuesday, March 31st - 1:15 pm
I arrived in Senator Garcia's office to discuss the next day's agenda and introduction of the amendment. As I arrived, the lobbyist was sitting in the office foyer area talking on his phone. Upon completing his conversation, he abruptly got up and started to leave the room with no acknowledgement. I spoke out, "Hi Doc, how are you doing?". His reply was crude and rude to say the very least as he walked down the hall without ever turning around...
From me to the lobbyist - 1:22 pm, text message
"I understood you were headed to Ohio, what am I supposed to do please"
Reply from the lobbyist
".... I am representing myself you two are abate's lobbyist that's what you and the (expletive) wanted"
Reply back from me
"Sorry, but I have no clue what .....(personal reference) has to do with any of this, if you are doing ABATE business, I need to leave. I am not the lobbyist."
Additional reply from me to the lobbyist
"Since you are here, I will head back home"
Which means that much of the information being put out to the public and for that matter ABATE's general membership and we must assume the legislators involved was not necessarily correct.
And we are being very kind when we say "Not necessarily correct," because we would prefer the word, lies.
Was there an "Official" Emergency Meeting on April 1st, 2009? This we will print in it's entirety as it is
printed here:
Yes... at least as far as we knew at the time.
Because the Vice President and President both resigned that morning, I sent a copy of my "Intent to Resign" to Bob Alexander the acting President so that he would have an understanding of the actions prompting the resignations. I beleive he discussed this letter with the other executive board member and a decision was made to call an emerency meeting that evening.
There were two meetings actually, one April 1st and the second on April 3rd.
The meetings was recorded, brought to order, role called with everyone in attendence except the President, Vice President, and one exception in the second meeting.
Much was discussed concerning the past and present actions of the President. A motion (after several changes) was made to offer the President a "delayed" acceptance of his resignation so that he could finish the legislative session. A vote was taken and passed with the idea that the legislative session would be covered and further changes could be made at that time. Looking back, it was unfortunate that little or possibly no discussion about the Vice President came into play, it focused heavily on the President and Lobbyist positions.
No one realized that these meetings were not following the proper protocol and could therefore become null and void. And I beleive that to also be true of the President as evidenced by an email he sent referencing the deal offered by the Board. However, the information in the meeting was damaging, so I'm sure that some quick research was done to discover a way out of releasing any recordings or minutes.
However, the fact that this meeting could never be construed as official as held at that time, it could have easily been held again for the purpose of making it official. If the President was really sincere about his resignation, a procedural change could have been made, and a proper meeting could have been called. This has been verified by a couple of corporate lawyers.
Think about it... if two executive Board members die in an airplane crash, does the corporation just die with them? Of course not. There are equally avenues to take care of resignations as well.
So why did this procedural change not take place? Probably because it was determined that the remaining board did not have the authority to accept or deny the resignations as well. After all... how many times has the President resigned over the years...? with no acceptance...? Do you really think he expected this one to stick?
As discribed to me by a board member a few days later... a decision was made (by whom I have no knowledge) to allow the President to remain in position until the end of his term - June 30th, 2010.
Since I was never called for any further board meetings, I have no idea who made this decision.
Due to space we have not printed everything as it can be found here
http://www.floridabiker.com/resignation.html in it's entirety including the following:
While there is "supposed" to be significant change in leadership on July 1st, 2010 - this will not happen unless the membership makes the choice to press this change. Over the next few months, decisions will have to be made about the future direction of the organization.
Much information has been suppressed over the past year, and I've discovered that this is, and has been, the "norm" for the corporation for some time. Ever wonder why people disappear and never heard from again...? Everyone wonders, but the questions are not asked, the answers are not given, and threats are made to suppress.
Now recently we heard from a local chapter member that the local Chapter was going to raise the issue of having "Doc" removed from office at the next state meeting. We will wait to see if that occurs. It is hard to know what the local chapter is up to since they no longer put out a newsletter as per the by-laws (last I read them), despite the fact they sold ads and collected money for such a newsletter (this information we got from one of our own advertisers and have made no attempt to validate it).
Reading the site it would appear that more is yet to come. Regardless Those who have followed this site and
Bruce and rc's Biker Forum would know that ABATE of Floridas President/lobbyist appears to have been milking ABATE of Florida to his own benefit for years. We have caught much flack from others for our postings. Threats have even been tossed around.
What is amazing is how many members have been aware of the information we have printed yet sat idly by allowing it to happen? Violations of by-laws, denial of members rights, attempted suppression of individual rights, lies, lack of reporting to the state, questions regarding where the money goes
and on and on and...............
Mike "Radar Price" writes:
ABATE has a lot to offer to the motorcycling community with the right attitude in place. I sincerely hope that ABATE will survive the needed changes and that significant growth will occur. At this time, there is a great divide developing among motorcyclist, and I believe that the failure of ABATE to reorganize will effect its future.
It would appear the last couple of years motorcyclist have been a favorite target of legislators and 'Other Vehicle Operators" alike. It has also become OBVIOUS that the organization formed to protect the rights of Bikers has become corrupt to the point of impotence. Can ABATE of Florida rise like a phoenix from the ashes and tight itself? Not until they learn to learn, open their ears and rediscover respect!
For more of our Posts on ABATE of FLorida:
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?oe=utf8&ie=utf8&safe=active&source=uds&start=28&hl=en&q=ABATE++of+FLorida+blogurl%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.bigbendbikersforfreedom.com%2F
or
http://tiny.cc/cvI2W
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The Vietnam/Legacy Vets MC M Chapter and the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter #96 are spearheading an effort to bring at least 6 (more if the community will support it) soldiers home for the holidays.
Shawn Ridley
