Green Treasurer's Action Splits Party Leadership

By Oliver Lukacs

March 24 -- County Green Party leaders are split over Treasurer Bob Morris' decision last month to file without their consent civil and criminal complaints against Councilman Michael Feinstein for his alleged misappropriation of $10,000 in party funds.

If authorities fail to act, Morris said at a meeting of the party's county council in Pomona Sunday, he would consider filing a lawsuit against Feinstein to recover the $30,000 the councilman allegedly raised and used without the party's consent.

At the meeting, Morris was replaced as treasurer by Donna Warren, a CPA and the party's 2002 candidate for Lt. Governor. The county council also voted to direct the bylaws committee to bar filings made by individuals without the group's consent.

Feinstein, who did not attend the meeting, told The Lookout last month that he has filed the proper paperwork in accordance with state fundraising laws and that the controversy is the result of a "misunderstanding" being used by "a handful of people" who are engaged in a political power-struggle.

County Council member Denise Munro Robb said Feinsein had contacted her before the meeting to say that due to the criminal charges leveled against him he would not attend the meeting because it would not be "appropriate."

Despite Feinstein's assurances that he has taken proper action, some party officials, including Morris, said they are fed up with the unresolved controversy that has been plaguing the local Green party for nearly two years.

Last month, Morris filed a civil complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Committee and a criminal complaint with the Santa Monica Police Department without first notifying the group.

"I didn't notify the council, but I believed I had a legally mandated responsibility (to file) told to me by the FPPC (and) that I did not need the permission" of the county council, Morris said Sunday. "And also, it's our money, that's the whole deal. That's one of the main reasons I filed."

But some of the 15 members who attended the meeting in the living room of a Pomona house said Morris's action -- which Morris said could lead to Feinstein's indictment for embezzlement or fraud or "nothing" -- contradicted the Party's shared governance model built on core Green values.

"I still don't understand why there's this crazy sense of emergency that required you to act so quickly," said County Councilman Coby Skye. "You could have waited until this meeting for us to discuss it. We work in consensus. We work as a group. We don't do things unilaterally."

Morris -- who said he had privately consulted six lawyers before acting -- contended that it was core Green values that prompted his actions.

"We're supposed to believe in government openness and transparency," said Morris, who is also the co-coordinator and co-secretary of the fledgling local group, which represents the largest concentration of registered Greens in the nation.

Morris said he expects the FPPC and the SMPD will investigate the alleged misappropriation of a $10,000 check donated to the Green Party of Los Angeles County (GPLAC) that Feinstein deposited into a private bank account whose records he has failed to open to the county council despite repeated requests.

Morris said he was told that police had forwarded the case to the District Attorneys office. (It is standard procedure for police to refer to the DA any case involving any official in their City.)

The DA's office did not return a request from The Lookout for comment.

Feinstein has said that the account was used for Green Party purposes and that he used the money to pay rent, utilities and other necessary expenses at the party's local Pico Boulevard office, which served as the county party headquarters when the fundraising took place.

(The county party has since disassociated itself from the storefront office at 2809 Pico Boulevard, leaving unpaid six months of rent on a lease it signed for all of calendar year 2002.)

Feinstein has also said that he was first authorized by the state party to raise funds to open and support the office as early as 1999. The issue about the account being private, Feinstein said, was a "misnomer."

The account, he said, was opened at a local credit union because it was the same bank and the same type of account the county party had there since 1989.

Both accounts, as well as the checks associated with them, had the Green Party name on them but were opened with private social security numbers because such credit unions by law don't allow private business accounts. Feinstein has noted that he has his own account.

One of the two accounts was opened by the former county party treasurer, who left the party. The other was opened under Feinstein's name. After the controversy, the county opened a separate account, which currently holds $300.

Morris hopes the government agencies will pry Feinstein's financial books open with a court order and will finally determine what, if any, laws the councilman may have broken.

"Basically it was not a question of if there was a violation, but what it would be," Morris said government officials told him.

"If Mike (Feinstein) spent the money on non-Green party stuff that would either be fraud or embezzlement," said Morris. "Even if all the money was spent on Green party stuff, that would still be a misappropriation of funds, and at the $10,000 level that's probably a felony."

County Councilman Ken Peters warned of jumping to conclusions. "It's all speculation," he said. "No conclusions have been made. I think we should keep that in mind."

The lawsuit, Morris said, could be an option if the FPPC did not act after 120 days. Morris added that for a "$30,000 lawsuit, a lawyer would be interested," because he or she would "get $10,000," presumably pro bono.

(Some members worried that because Feinstein was at the time a member of the GPLAC, the group might also be liable for breaking FPPC fundraising laws.)

Some county council members also took issue with Morris' suggestion of filing a lawsuit against Feinstein for as much as $30,000 -- the total amount Feinstein voluntarily told the party he had raised when he gave a fundraising report to the county council in 2001.

Tom Bolema, the county party's media coordinator, said after the meeting that a lawsuit was not "appropriate."

"We don't even know what the possible consequences of this will be," Bolema said. He added that Feinstein did not act with criminal intent, and that "ultimately it's sloppy bookkeeping, it's hippie bookkeeping," which doesn't warrant a legal course of action.

County Council member Gabrielle Weeks said after the meeting that the lawsuit threatened to perpetuate an ongoing "civil war" within the Green party over the issue, without the guarantee of actually getting any money.

Weeks, however, noted that a lawsuit could potentially settle a two-year-old issue that has "cost the party a lot" by placing it under a dark cloud that has led to the resignation of dozens of members and driven away new members and potential donors.

"Until the favoritism and cronyism stops, we're never going to move forward, but do we drag this to a law suit? That's a really dramatic thing," Weeks said. "Is it productive? We get some money out of it, [but then] we got a civil war.

"We've had a civil war for so long on so many different levels within the Green Party there are people saying, 'Hey we got nothing to lose and we will get some money out of it,'" Weeks said. But, she added, "Will we be able to get money out of it?"