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Stop the Creeping Moral Corruption Within the Sierra ClubAn open letter from Dick Lamm, Frank Morris and David Pimentel There is a deep and spreading corruption in the Sierra Club, which must be addressed. For the club's sake, not ours. It has the potential to do the club great harm unless corrected and thereby set back the environmental movement in America just when it is most needed. The very reputation and effectiveness of the Sierra Club is at stake. Let us state our case: I. We have just discovered there have been anonymous donations to the Sierra Club Foundation of staggering amounts of money. The IRS forms show $47,898,118.40 in anonymous donations were given to the Sierra Club Foundation in the year 2000, and $53,593,640.00 in 2001. The Board of the Sierra Club, to the intense discomfort of some of the directors, has been told to tell no one and to ask no questions. Most of the directors of the Sierra Club have no knowledge of who is giving this money or for what purposes, even though this money now represents a large part of the budget of the Sierra Club. What obligations went with these donations, what restrictions on policy, if any, what promises direct or implied are not only unknown to the membership but also unknown to the Board. The Board is approving confusing budgets which contain millions of dollars that the fiduciaries of the Club do not know the source of, nor the legitimacy of. This is an irresponsible and reckless policy, which risks the good reputation of the Sierra Club. II. This may explain why a clique of Sierra Club leaders is trying to ruin our reputations. There may be reasons to vote against us, but instead of campaigning on the issues, the power clique who runs the Board has chosen to stain and defame our characters. They charge that we are racists, and/or backed by racists who we have never heard of and have no connection with, and reject. If that isn't enough, they then charge that we are part of a right-wing plot to take over the Sierra Club, again citing organizations and people who we have no connection with and reject. We are progressive liberals, with excellent civil-rights credentials. One of us was the Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Despite the fact that their false claims don't pass the snicker test; they repeat them over and over. III. The clique using these McCarthy type insinuations and lies, have broken the rules of the club and the California Corporate Code to defeat us at all costs. When we filed suit to attempt to even the playing field, they filed a so called anti-SLAPP suit, which threatened to bury us with attorney's fees if we lost. The last thing this clique wants is a fair election. IV. The rules were again broken, when the names of some our endorsers where leaked from confidential ballot statements, and phone calls made by staff of the club asking them to withdraw their endorsements. This was successful with both Tim Wirth and Stuart Udall who then withdrew their endorsements. This abuse of process didn't seem to cause a single qualm. V. We cannot understand how people of honor and integrity could say and do some of the things that have been done in this election. One of the hottest seats in Hell is always reserved for people who defame falsely other people's characters, knowing such claims are false. It goes without saying that this was extremely painful to us, but it also made no sense to us, until we discovered that the club might well have something of Enron proportions to cover up and which they don't want to see exposed. A small group of people now control a large amount of money, without adequate controls or accounting. That is dangerous for the club and for the environmental movement. Vote for us, or against us, but please clean up the creeping corruption of the club we all love.
Richard D. Lamm
www.DickLamm.org
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