IN HAEC VERBA Secretive ACUS Cites "Tradition" of Secret Council Meetings --- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Would Call it "Revolting"

ACUS Chairman PAUL VERKUIL



Dear Bill and Paul:

As Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said, "it is revolting to have no other reason for a rule of law than that it was laid down during the reign of Henry IV." ACUS' interpretation is wrong.

SIncerely,

Ed Slavin


-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Richardson
To: easlavin@aol.com
Sent: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 5:39 pm
Subject: RE: ACUS Council Meeting Monday, August 30th Must be Opened to Public Under FACA


Mr. Slavin,



Since the enactment of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) in 1972, ACUS has consistently interpreted FACA to apply to the ACUS Assembly and its committees, but not to the ACUS Council. Thus, in determining that Monday’s meeting of the Council will not be open to the public, ACUS is following its long-established practice. The agency’s recently refiled FACA charter confirms that “All meetings of the [ACUS] Assembly and [its] subcommittees will be open to the public and announced in accordance with FACA.”



From: easlavin@aol.com [mailto:easlavin@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2010 11:55 AM
To: Bill Richardson; Paul R. Verkuil
Cc: csunstein@omb.eop.gov; sunshine@floridafaf.org; jim@floridafaf.org; cpr-hold@dsli.com; judgelitt@att.net; jlitt01@cfl.rr.com; mattwald@nytimes.com; EASlavin@aol.com
Subject: ACUS Council Meeting Monday, August 30th Must be Opened to Public Under FACA



Dear Bill and Paul:
In paragraph 13 of your August 26, 2010 letter, the newly-reviving Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) asserts its Council is exempt from FACA open meeting requirements. I respectfully disagree. In pertinent part, 5 U.S.C. 595(b) states:
The Council has the power to

(1) determine the time and place of plenary sessions of the Conference and the agenda for the sessions. The Council shall call at least one plenary session each year;

(2) propose bylaws and regulations, including rules of procedure and committee organization, for adoption by the Assembly;

(3) make recommendations to the Conference or its committees on a subject germane to the purpose of the Conference;

(4) receive and consider reports and recommendations of committees of the Conference and send them to members of the Conference with the views and recommendations of the Council;
(5) designate a member of the Council to preside at meetings of the Council in the absence or incapacity of the Chairman and Vice Chairman;

(6) designate such additional officers of the Conference as it considers desirable;

(7) approve or revise the budgetary proposals of the Chairman; and

(8) exercise such other powers as may be delegated to it by the Assembly.


Based on the plain meaning of the statute, I reckon that FACA applies. Thus, Monday morning's proposed secret meeting of the Council of a FACA-chartered committee is a violation of the public's Right to Know. The meeting must be open to the public. All Council meetings must be open to the public in the future.

By copy of this letter, I am reporting ACUS' planned Monday morning FACA violation to Professor Cass Sunstein and his staff at OIRA and I am requesting that OIRA instruct Chairman Verkuil on the importance of Sunshine in our government.

Upon reflection and review of the statute, I am certain that you and Chairman Verkuil agree today that the meeting on August 30, 2010 must be open to the public.

If, however, you still opine that the Administrative Conference of the United States meeting Monday should be run outside of the Sunshine, please:
(a) Cite by close of business today any legal opinions from DOJ, GSA, GAO or otherwise.
(b) State whether President Obama and Professor Cass Sunstein and his staff at OIRA are aware that the meeting on August 30, 2010 will be in secret.

For the record, I request to attend by "conference call." I believe at least one person in the Washington, D.C. area will want to attend, so please make arrangements to welcome visitors to ACUS' first meeting since 1995.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Ed
Ed Slavin
904-829-3877



-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Richardson
To: easlavin@aol.com
Sent: Thu, Aug 26, 2010 4:10 pm
Subject: ACUS response to your July 29 e-mail





Mr. Slavin:







Enclosed on behalf of ACUS is a response to your request. Because of the size



of the enclosures, I have broken them up into four e-mail packages that I will



be sending shortly one by one. (Organize them in reverse order: 4, 3, 2, 1.)







Let me know if you have difficulty accessing the materials.







Bill Richardson

Florida Times-Union: Commemoration isn't a celebration' of Ax Handle Saturday -- Some people remember, while others try to forget.

Posted: August 27, 2010 - 12:23am

By Bridget Murphy

They were the people in charge of saving history.

But when it came to a day when armed whites spilled the blood of unarmed black youths, some made a case for letting that August 1960 racial riot that became known as Ax Handle Saturday fade into the past.

Read about some the key players of that day here

The debate happened about a decade ago, when Jacksonville Historical Society board members were considering putting a marker in Hemming Plaza to commemorate that pivotal point in the city's civil rights battle.

There were two board members who objected. One was white. One was black.

"These were people who were proponents of the civil rights movement and their reaction was 'We just want it to go away,' " said Emily Lisska, the society's executive director. "... I almost hate telling this story, but it's a true story."

In the end, Lisska said both board members were pleased when the memorial went up in 2002. Today marks the event's 50th anniversary. The timing has sparked some who participated in lunch counter sit-ins that precipitated the violence, and others who studied that history, to reflect on how well Jacksonville has remembered the day.

---

"It can be talked about now, I think," said Marjorie Meeks Brown. "... You don't personalize it now. ... In the years immediately following it, it was very painful to talk about because many of the issues we were fighting for were still an issue."

The Jacksonville native and retired postmaster general in Atlanta was the 16-year-old secretary of the NAACP's Youth Council at that time. She was part of the sit-in at the W.T. Grant store downtown that day. She remembers sprinting for her life when white men with ax handles and baseball bats unleashed a fury of hate.

"We went in all directions. I had been athletic, but I remember that run," she said.

After the day, Brown talked about it freely with friends and family. But she said there wasn't widespread dialogue.

"I don't think the black community wanted to forget, but the black community did not control the media. We didn't read about things as we were experiencing them."

There was coverage of the riot in the Jacksonville mainstream press, but looking back now, bias seems apparent. An article that ran the next day in The Florida Times-Union's local section emphasized authorities' efforts to clamp down on disturbances after the clash. It said the trouble started "as mobs of Negroes and whites began attacking each other in the vicinity of Hemming Park," after the groups lined Hogan Street and "began baiting each other."

---

Fast-forward to 2010.

Earlier this month, the City Council passed a resolution recognizing Ax Handle Saturday. It urges citizens "to reflect on the vital, historic contributions of those who fought in the struggle to promote freedom and equal rights for all Americans."

Rodney Hurst sees the anniversary as a chance to remind people of the intolerance of the 1960s. He led the NAACP Youth Council a half-century ago and wrote a book with his personal account of the sit-in demonstrations and riot on Aug. 27, 1960.

"I think many people don't want to remember things that are embarrassing. ... We need to use it as a teaching moment," Hurst said. "... Commemoration isn't a celebration. It talks about young people, both black and white, who did things they did not have to do."

Hurst said a souvenir book that goes with a series of commemorative events this week includes a letter from Mayor John Peyton. However, he believes the city could have taken a more proactive role commemorating the day's history over the decades.

But his former Youth Council cohort, Alton Yates, said he's not sure the city would have been the right group to call more attention to the day's history. Yates is an Air Force veteran and retired city official who was part of the sit-ins and suffered a head injury in the brouhaha.

He agrees that young people who put their lives on the line to call attention to equality issues should have received recognition earlier.

"I think a lot of people would like to forget that things like that happened in Jacksonville," Yates said. "... Remembering it happened is good in the sense that hopefully it will prevent it from ever, ever happening again."

---

Historian James Crooks believes many Jacksonville residents don't know a lot about their city's past. That includes a day when members of the NAACP Youth Council, many of them teenagers, stood up for a principal and shed blood in the process.

Crooks said other people would rather not remember.

"Sadly," said the University of North Florida professor emeritus, "there are many Americans who just want to have history be patriotic."

Civil rights activist and author Stetson Kennedy said he was part of the group that sat-in at Woolworth's before fleeing from the white men who were wielding weapons. When the young victims went on the run, Kennedy, now 93, said he was the slowest in the bunch. But his white skin color confused attackers.

"The mob thought I was leading the pack. I said 'I'll just drop back and mingle.' "

Kennedy, who wrote a book about infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan, says it seems Jacksonville always has brought up the rear in race relations when compared to other cities. He believes that makes commemorating an event like Ax Handle Saturday important.

"I think anything and everything that takes notice of how very bad things were is for the good," Kennedy said.

But more vital, the activist said, is continuing to fight discrimination as Jacksonville shapes its future.

"Open any door of any office or public agency," Kennedy said. "There's still work to be done."

Times-Union writer Deirdre Conner contributed to this report.

bridget.murphy@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4161

ADMINISTRATIVE CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED STATES HOLDING ILLEGAL SECRET COUNCIL MEETING ON AUGUST 30, 2010

ACUS Chairman PAUL VERKUIL



In 1995, Congress abolished the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), cutting off funding for fifteen years. ACUS was supposed to give objectie advice on administrative law and procedure. But since Reagan, it became an embarrassment, full of right-wing nutcases like PHYLLIS SCHLAFFLY, who knew nothing about administrative law (but got a free trip to Washington, D.C. twice annually). ACUS became informally known as the "Heritage Foundation metastasized" because it was not transparent, open or accountable, over-representing lawyers for Big Business and Big Government, and under-representing the rest of us.

Now that ACUS has been re-established, it's going back to its bad old ways of doing business -- the Council meeting on Monday, August 30, 2010 is scheduled to be a secret one. I have objected and requested that the meeting be canceled.

See below:

Re: ACUS Council Meeting Monday, August 30th Must be Cancelled or FACA Will Be Violated

Dear Paul and Richard:

The ACUS website does not announce Monday's Council meeting. This violates FACA. So does ACUS' stated intention to hold a meeting in secret.

Therefore, please cancel the ACUS Council meeting set for Monday, August 30th and reschedule it with proper Sunshine notice under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

Under the circumstances, starting the revived ACUS with an illegal meeting is no way to win friends or show that ACUS has learned from its many mistakes, 1981-1995..

Thank you.
Sincerely,
Ed Slavin



-----Original Message-----
From: easlavin@aol.com
To: BRichardson@acus.gov; pverkuil@acus.gov
Cc: csunstein@omb.eop.gov; sunshine@floridafaf.org; jim@floridafaf.org; cpr-hold@dsli.com; judgelitt@att.net; jlitt01@cfl.rr.com; mattwald@nytimes.com; EASlavin@aol.com
Sent: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 11:55 am
Subject: ACUS Council Meeting Monday, August 30th Must be Opened to Public Under FACA

Dear Bill and Paul:
In paragraph 13 of your August 26, 2010 letter, the newly-reviving Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) asserts its Council is exempt from FACA open meeting requirements. I respectfully disagree. In pertinent part, 5 U.S.C. 595(b) states:
The Council has the power to
(1) determine the time and place of plenary sessions of the Conference and the agenda for the sessions. The Council shall call at least one plenary session each year;
(2) propose bylaws and regulations, including rules of procedure and committee organization, for adoption by the Assembly;
(3) make recommendations to the Conference or its committees on a subject germane to the purpose of the Conference;
(4) receive and consider reports and recommendations of committees of the Conference and send them to members of the Conference with the views and recommendations of the Council;
(5) designate a member of the Council to preside at meetings of the Council in the absence or incapacity of the Chairman and Vice Chairman;
(6) designate such additional officers of the Conference as it considers desirable;
(7) approve or revise the budgetary proposals of the Chairman; and
(8) exercise such other powers as may be delegated to it by the Assembly.

Based on the plain meaning of the statute, I reckon that FACA applies. Thus, Monday morning's proposed secret meeting of the Council of a FACA-chartered committee is a violation of the public's Right to Know. The meeting must be open to the public. All Council meetings must be open to the public in the future.

By copy of this letter, I am reporting ACUS' planned Monday morning FACA violation to Professor Cass Sunstein and his staff at OIRA and I am requesting that OIRA instruct Chairman Verkuil on the importance of Sunshine in our government.

Upon reflection and review of the statute, I am certain that you and Chairman Verkuil agree today that the meeting on August 30, 2010 must be open to the public.

If, however, you still opine that the Administrative Conference of the United States meeting Monday should be run outside of the Sunshine, please:
(a) Cite by close of business today any legal opinions from DOJ, GSA, GAO or otherwise.
(b) State whether President Obama and Professor Cass Sunstein and his staff at OIRA are aware that the meeting on August 30, 2010 will be in secret.

For the record, I request to attend by "conference call." I believe at least one person in the Washington, D.C. area will want to attend, so please make arrangements to welcome visitors to ACUS' first meeting since 1995.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Ed
Ed Slavin
904-829-3877

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Richardson
To: easlavin@aol.com
Sent: Thu, Aug 26, 2010 4:10 pm
Subject: ACUS response to your July 29 e-mail

To Dan Gelber: "Earn this"

Our Democratic Party in Florida just nominated Dan Gelber, who I now support for AG.

The election illustrates how Old Guard Democratic Party leaders (and unions and Gay groups) lack effective leadership, how newspapers lack sophistication, lack depth, lack investigative reporting and lack perceptive editorial-writers and how the Republicans and our state's largest corporate law firm (AKERMAN SENTERFITT) have excessive power and influence in our State of Florida, to the point of chilling First Amendment protected activity in criticizing AKERMAN SENTERFITT and BP.

As Robert Kennedy said it best, "it is not enough to allow dissent, we must demand it, for there is much to dissent from."

To State Senator Dave Aronberg, thank you for running a great race and standing up to power. Please write a book, like JFK did (Why England Slept and Profiles in Courage).

To State Senator Dan Gelber, two words (from Tom Hanks' character to the Matt Damon character in the Steven Spielberg film, "Saving Private Ryan"):
"Earn this."

Please keep your promises. Be independent. Never look back at AKERMAN SENTERFITT or let you work there cloud your vision as AG, because you're going to win against the formidable GOP forces of authoritarianism and greed on November 2, 2010.

Cheers,

Ed Slavin