This year has been a weird tapestry of non-sense perpetrated by the Just Us Brothers.
We are halfway thru 2015; two fronts still haunt their departure from CRA. First is the membership records and the other is the money.
Membership Records
After several email threads and lawyer letters, former Membership Secretary, George Park, finally sent a paper copy of a list to his replacement, Carl Brickey. The file was printed on security paper so it could not be scanned. Later three zipped files with the same information were sent to Brickey. The records that Park sent were heavily edited and frankly worthless.
Here are some examples of their dubious nature:
• Park claimed that his beloved Placer County Republican Assembly had four members. This list is a far cry from the 105 members he and his brother had been claiming earlier this year. He lost 101 members from his own club?
• Sacramento RA was showing 54 members on Park’s list even though they had reported something closer to 20 prior to the convention. All the bogus Igor Birman members were still on Park’s list for SRA. He should know which ones were inactive since he was the one that added them in the first place.
• Several active chapters were missing in their entirety. Most of these seemed to be in one of two categories. Either they were groups like Yuba-Sutter that were assumed would follow the Parks into CIR or groups that George didn’t like so he just unilaterally purged them from the CRA rolls.
No chapter bylaws, territorial maps, or historic data were given to Brickey. Park claimed this data loss was due to computer troubles in March. I guess this is why Park then deleted all the records stored online in April and then closed the Hightail account. Park also had originals of these documents—mostly in paper form. Termites maybe?
Don’t forget that a month after this supposed loss of records that George was able to provide his brother with membership lists, membership applications, and of course cancelled checks just so Aaron could publish the information on the Internet.
Misappropriated Money
Then there is the money that they have misappropriated. Just in the first six months of 2015, the Park Brothers have (by my count) taken over $34,000 from CRA and its chapters. The bulk of this is from the Placer Republican Assembly. In addition there is the CRA Business Round Table, CRA Convention and Placer RA PAC. They also had access to the funds of the Statewide CRA under John Briscoe for about two years. The seed money for their new organization—CIR—could very well have come from CRA funds. Fruit of the poisoned tree anyone?
As more information has come to light, we are slowly learning of some unreported Park campaign activities that may be of interest the FPPC.
Many want to light-up the Just Us Brothers like Roman Candles but Tom Hudson has been reluctant to do so. In the end, I think to protect the CRA that Hudson will have to bless some sort of legal action.
Other outside parties may jump into the litigation arena in their own good time. The Just Us Brothers present such a target rich environment that somebody will go after them eventually. They have calculated that the cost/benefit ratio of their malfeasance is not enough to pursue. They have risked much; including their insurance broker license.
There are times when men should “mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” but to make such a pledge when you have no honor is pathologically stupid.
These guys are way over the cliff and those of us with signs reading, “GRAVITY” are just being laughed at…for now.