It's been a while since I said anything about the DST situation, since I've been pursing the dispute resolution procedure, which requires confidentiality. However, now that I've exhausted that avenue, I feel the domain should be aware of what's happening.
Because I was concerned about Alex's refusal to explain his actions, I requested mediation as directed by the Membership Handbook. Alex refused to participate.
I proceeded up the next step, to a request for a Formal Hearing, directed to Charles Bailey as Alex T's supervisor. Because Mr. Bailey was involved with Alex T's actions, and also because he stated to me that he didn't believe my position was justified prior to receiving an e-mail stating my position, I felt there was a clear conflict of interest and asked that someone suitable and unbiased be chosen to oversee the matter.
Mr. Bailey has chosen to disregard the Membership Handbook and has refused my request for a formal hearing. Indeed, he continues to claim that my request involves Alex firing Jason, even though I have repeatedly explained that our domain's concerns about Alex's failure to justify his actions is a separate matter.
While the request for a hearing I sent was officially from me (the Camarilla has no real policy for a mass complaint), I was attempting to represent the many members of our domain who are concerned by this. Therefore, since I am now allowed to make it public, I am including the entire request (minus the copies of a few private e-mails I received from Alex) below.
Henry Towsner
US2003112558
Dear Mr. Bailey,
The following constitutes a request for a formal hearing regarding the actions of Alex T, Master Storyteller.
Before proceeding to the details of the matter, I note that you have been extensively involved with Alex's actions already, and that your previous e-mail to me suggested that you have already reached a conclusion, despite having never asked for or seen the details of my position. I therefore request that, in keeping with the Camarilla's policy on conflicts of interest, you appoint a suitable person to preside over the hearing in your stead.
I have the following four concerns regarding Alex's performance as MST:
All details and e-mails referenced are available at http://www.math.cmu.edu/~hpt/DST/ or are included at the end of this message.
Before discussing the specific complaints, I feel it would be helpful to comment on the scope of this complaint. The Membership Handbook directs members of the Camarilla to seek conflict resolution not merely when rules have been violated (as in third and fourth items in this request), but also when actions of an officer represent sufficiently poor judgment that it may be necessary for their superior to overturn the actions, and possibly take further actions. The first two (and in my view, more serious items) are both of this second type.
This particular case represents the latter type of situation quite clearly. While the offenses were within the nominal discretion of the office, clear and unmistakable abuses of the MST's authority, but they represent the exact situation that a supervising officer should be most worried about. They have harmed the reputation of the office among members of the Camarilla, by creating an appearance of corruption that causes members to suspect not only the actions in question, but any action stemming from that officer.
1) Alex refused to provide adequate information regarding drastic emergency actions he took as MST
On May 4th, Alex removed Jason Patton as Domain Storyteller of the Steel Shadows domain. He did so without a disciplinary action, with no investigation of any kind, and did not permit Jason to continue serving until a replacement had been selected.
While these actions are within the purview of the Master Storyteller's office, they are quite extreme. It goes without saying that an unelected officer should use the power to fire elected officials with great care. Doing so without waiting for a replacement to be elected is even more extreme. Disturbingly, nothing Alex has ever cited as explaining this decision even resembles a time-sensitive issue, let alone an emergency serious enough to warrant such drastic action.
Despite repeated requests by me and several other members of the Steel Shadows domain, Alex refused to offer more than a single cursory statement (addressed below). He also refused to reveal any of the evidence justifying his claims, even after Jason and his assistant, Michael Strauss, both released all relevant claims to privacy and confidentiality.
Emergency powers, such as the ones exercised in this case, represent a danger to any non-totalitarian organization. While they may be necessary in sufficiently extreme situations, by their nature, they invite abuse in less extreme ones.
It is therefore particularly important that officers who use them make it clear what was unsuitable about more traditional and cautious methods--methods which were designed to respect the rights of the membership and the stability of the organization.
If the organization does not have a strong precedent demanding that such powers be used carefully, and subjected to as much scrutiny as possible, then people will believe that the powers can be abused.
It is essential to remember the importance of perception in matters like this. Even if the particular power used was carefully overseen by a superior officer, the perception of the membership that the power is being abused is what damages the organization, by undermining trust in the office and by inviting a belief that future abuse, perhaps by a later and less honest officer, is "okay" because "previous officers did it."
In this case, there is no justification for Alex's secrecy--the matter is not specifically confidential, and the individuals affected have publicly asked that this information be made public. By failing to make information public, Alex has caused many members of the Steel Shadows domain to question the ethics of the MST's office and the ST chain, and to believe that officers were fired simply for disagreeing with him. Because he has refused to take action to correct this perception, he has seriously damaged the perception of the global level of the hierarchy in this domain. This is precisely the sort of situation which calls for a superior officer to step in and correct an unjustified decision, both for the good of the domain, and to protect himself from an appearance of being complicit in corruption.
For this misjudgment, I ask only that all documents relevant to that decision be released, in appropriately redacted form, to the members of the Steel Shadows domain.
2) When asked to provide information, Alex produced a highly misleading and deceptive statement on the matter
The explanation Alex provided managed to avoid mentioning the actual main charge against Jason (failure to discipline an ADST), and instead implied that he had disobeyed orders from a superior officer and made confidential information public. Later investigation (which Alex utterly failed to cooperate with) revealed that it was actually Jason's assistant who was accused of doing such things.
Some might claim that Jason was responsible for Strauss' actions since he was Strauss' superior officer, and it is therefore "as if" Jason did them. But, despite occasional misreadings, the Membership Handbook makes no such requirement; according to the Membership Handbook, Jason remains responsible for seeing that his duties are done, and that his powers are used properly. Nowhere is it stated that he is responsible for every private e-mail sent by his subordinate, even if he had no way to see it, even if he takes appropriate action afterwards. Furthermore, the fact remains that no one could read Alex's e-mail as other than alleging that Jason, personally, had committed such acts.
The matter of slandering a Camarilla member is for that member to pursue, but the matter of attempting to deceive the Steel Shadows domain is at issue here. Clearly, when officers explain their actions, it is expected that they will do so in a truthful manner. If the Camarilla fails to discipline officers who lie to the membership, it will be increasingly difficult for the organization to hold the trust of Camarilla members.
For this, I suggest that the MST apologize to the Steel Shadows domain, or, if he refuses, be removed from office.
3) Alex falsely claimed that Camarilla policy barred him from providing information on the matter
Alex asserted, through Jon Herrmann (RST of the EC Region) that Camarilla policy barred him from providing information. This is simply false. Supposedly, the policy being cited was the "punish in private" policy, but not only is this an unwritten and informal policy, and therefore non-binding, but it has never applied in cases like this, where the individual has waived that right.
Indeed, it represents the height of hypocrisy for an officer to publicly, and falsely, accuse someone of violating Camarilla rules, and then, when that member denies the accusations, insist that the evidence can't be released to protected the privacy of the victim of the accusation.
For this, I suggest that the MST apologize to the Steel Shadows domain, or, if he refuses, be removed from office.
4) He refused to participate in mediation as directed by the Membership Handbook
For this, I suggest that the MST apologizes.
The following people besides myself could be considered to be involved:
Alex T. (camstoryteller@white-wolf.com)
Jason Patton (tinuviel@mistergone.com)
Rachael Weldon (rweldon@andrew.cmu.edu)
Given Alex's position as MST, I will withdraw from all sanctioned Camarilla games until this matter has been resolved.
Henry Towsner
US2003112558
E-mails regarding mediation:
Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 21:20:06 -0400
Dear Alex,
Looking over the content of the website, I saw that I had included two comments you placed in the database which had not previously been made public. Both have been removed; I apologize for the mistake. Of course, I and many members of the domain would appreciate permission to see all the relevant documents. Your reticence to see even non-confidential material made public has certainly encouraged the perception that your actions may not be legitimate.
All other content on the website was either already public, or was published with the explicit permission of the sender.
While I have a number of specific responses to your comments, I will respect your request that I contact a coordinator. I therefore wish to invoke mediation, as laid out in the Membership Handbook. Given that we are both members of the EC Region, I suggest that our RC serve as mediator for this issue.
Henry Towsner
US2003112558
[E-mail from Alex removed for public version]
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 19:03:31 -0400
Dear Alex,
I, and other members of my domain, have repeatedly asked you to explain your drastic decision to fire our DST. Your sole response to our requests suffers from serious factual problems, and you have since failed to cooperate with our attempts to understand it.
The Membership Handbook directs members who have a dispute with an officer to first attempt open discussion, and then request mediation. Since you have explicitly stated that you do not wish to discuss the matter without a more formal procedure, I believe this is the appropriate next step.
Henry Towsner
US2003112558
[E-mail from Alex removed for public version]