Behind The Scenes, What Is Really Happening With The Oakland County Republican Party Part 3

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless taketh his name in vain - Exodus 20:7 King James Version

One of my biggest pet peeves are those that interject the Lord and his Son Jesus Christ to pursue their own agenda.  Such as what is happening here in Oakland County with the Oakland County Republican Party (OCRP) Executive Committee over a resolution regarding Civil Asset Forfeiture.   

All on the committee that I have spoken to are in favor of a resolution condemning the practice.  However some appear to be using this resolution for political gamesmanship.  They appear to be trying to prove that current elected leadership is against the measure as well.

Here is what has transpired so far in a nutshell:

A resolution was  brought forth by Regina and Bob Brimm committee members from Lathrup Village and received by the OCRP executive committee which was then sent to the issues subcommittee for review.  The issues committee concluded that the resolution received as it was did not properly reflect the OCRP Committee as whole.  The intent of the resolution wasn't bad but how it was worded was.  So the resolution was rewritten taking out some of the anger while keeping the intent of the resolution intact.  This resolution was ready for a vote

The Brimms and their followers which include Shane Trejo and Matt Maddock, who ran against current OCRP Chair Theresa Mungioli, were not happy with the changes and pulled the resolution out and decided they would rewrite it themselves.  At this point removing the resolution started the whole process over again according to OCRP By-Laws.  

At the May OCRP Executive Meeting, the Brimms and their followers thought they could ram this resolution through with their changes.  Since the resolution wasn't properly sent to the issues committee it wasn't on the Agenda for the night’s meeting.   A disruption occurred as those that wanted the resolution to be voted upon decided not to accept the agenda for the night’s meeting.   A vote then ensued with tellers.  The final vote was 27 in favor of the agenda and 26 against.  I personally was there as a proxy and I voted in favor of the agenda as is.

The Brimms and their followers lead by Matt Maddock attempted a protest and recount which was denied as the vote was accurate.

Even if the agenda was thrown out and a new one submitted, the Brimm's Civil Asset Forfeiture Resolution would have been shot down as 27-26 as 27 members knew the by-laws.

Over the last few days OCRP Executive Member Shane Trejo has posted incorrect information about the events on numerous Facebook Groups hoping to win popular support and to try to shame those leading the OCRP leadership.  Therefore it is time to set the record straight.

Since it was the way the original resolution was written that prevented it from being voted on without changes from the OCRP Issues Subcommittee I asked numerous times for a copy of the original resolution as written.  After asking numerous times on threads in the Michigan Republican Delegate, Birmingham Bloomfield Republican's Group and SOAR South Oakland area Republicans Facebook groups I finally received a copy from Matt Maddock in the Birmingham Group.

Matt Maddock Caution! This resolution contains language that may not be acceptable to some who may be easily offended by our constitutional rights. Please read at your own risk.

RESOLUTION

RESOLUTION TO THE OAKLAND COUNTY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REGARDING ASSET FORFEITURE AS “IN REM” (AGAINST THE PROPERTY) ACTIONS IN THE STATE OF MICHIGAN

WHEREAS: The Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights states that “No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." and

WHEREAS: The Michigan Constitution states in Article 1, Section 17, “No person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law. “ and Article 10, Section 2, states, " Private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation..” and

WHEREAS: “In Rem” Civil Asset Forfeiture is a clear attempt to circumvent the Constitution of the United States and the Fifth Amendment guaranteed to every American citizen and

WHEREAS: No law shall be passed that is contrary to the Federal and Michigan State Constitutions and no persons should have their rights abridged or be deprived of due process of law

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED:

• That the Oakland County Republican Party Executive Committee takes a clear stand against Asset Forfeiture laws, which are a direct violation of the Fifth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, and Article I, Section 17 and Article X, Section 2 of the Michigan State Constitution.

• That the Oakland County Republican Party Executive Committee urges Republican lawmakers to revoke “In Rem” Asset Forfeiture Laws in the State of Michigan and to fully restore the natural and constitutional rights of every resident and visitor (as well as to obey the Constitutional restrictions against governmental infringement of said rights), whose own persons and private property are entitled to be treated as innocent until proven guilty.

• That no personal property can be taken from the property owner until that person is charged with a crime and proven guilty in a court of law and direct nexus of the property to criminal activity, has also been proven, beyond a reasonable doubt.

• That any personal property being held from an individual, who has not been charged with and convicted of a crime, be returned to him or her without delay.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

That the ORCP Secretary is directed to post a copy of this resolution on the OCRP website. The writer of this resolution may, at their own expense, distribute this resolution to elected officials.

Now reading this version it doesn't sound bad at all in fact it should be passable with verification that the cited laws are correct and perhaps some changes to the bottom of the resolution where is directs the OCRP Secretary to post a copy of this resolution to the OCRP website.  This portion would need to be negotiated as 1)The Secretary is not a webmaster 2) Costs would be involved to hire a webmaster  and 3) Who pays the webmaster for the upgrade?

But as any good reporter does, they further investigate and try to see if the information they were given matches with additional sources and unfortunately the resolution supplied by Mr. Maddock was not the original resolution submitted by the Brimm's.  Below is a copy of the original resolution:

One can clearly see that the resolution that Mr. Maddock provided has been greatly cleaned up and streamlined compared to the original submitted by the Brimms. 

The original version was very wordy and it asked that this resolution be sent to numerous legislative officials from Oakland County up to Lansing,and in addition to all the officers of the MIGOP, all officers of the 14 GOP U.S. House congressional Committees and the officers of the other 82 County Republican Parties.    This request also failed for consistency as it said all Oakland County Board of Commissioners.  Well that would include the Democrat commissioners as well. There was no request to send this to any other democrat official outside of Oakland County.  This may or many not have been the attempt of the Brimms and their followers, but it could have been taken by the Democrats to show a vote of no confidence is our Republican Sheriff, giving the Democrats fire power in the next election whether our current Sheriff runs or a new opponent runs.

Also not once did it describe a time frame or method on how delivery of this resolution could be done --E-mail or U.S. Postal Service.  If U.S, Postal we then are discussing cost in postage.  In addition how easy would it be for the OCRP Secretary to do this task?  The Secretary is a non-paid volunteer, which it appears that some do not understand.  This task would be better suited for a paid staffer at OCRP to process.  But again the board would need to agree on funds to make this happen.  

As one can see this is why the OCRP Issues Committee reviews all resolutions and makes recommendations if they have merit.  The OCRP Issues Committee did agree this resolution had merit but rewrote it to make it passable in the Committee at large.

What is most frustrating to see is how the opposing side is using scripture on Facebook to declare those in the issues committee and in the OCRP leadership, who are trying to do the right thing and get this resolution passed, are having scripture versus thrown at them calling them liars.  That is why I opened with the scripture verse from Exodus 20:7.  

As radio great Paul Harvey used to say, "And now you know the rest of the story."