Under Increased Scrutiny for Closed & Suspect Election Practices, Democratic Central Committee Replaces and Edits Approved Minutes from Past Meetings.
Today, the Arundel Patriot discovered the Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee falsified three sets of their Meeting Minutes yesterday. Their documents were falsified shortly after the Arundel Patriot article on the Committee’s Bylaws violations was published at 4:13 PM EST.
By 4:52 PM all three versions of the Meeting Minutes discussed in our article had been modified. In the case of the January 2020 meeting minutes, an entirely new document was uploaded to replace the original, and the original document is now missing.
Wording of motions was changed to alter meaning. Rules were added out of thin air. Motions were specifically changed to suspend Rules, rather than the Bylaws, as was in the original minutes.
It is wholly unethical and a violation of Parliamentary Law procedures to edit approved Meeting Minutes. The only lawful method to edit Meeting Minutes is during a Committee meeting where changes are proposed. Proposed changes to Meeting Minutes must be accepted by a Motion, Seconded and voted upon by the Committee.
Stacy Korbelak (D30), the Secretary at this time, is solely responsible for the recording, drafting and preservation of Committee meeting minutes, according to the Committee Bylaws, Article VI. Section 3.1
Secretary Korbelak was contacted for comment, and we are awaiting her response.
We also reached out to the Maryland Democratic Central Committee and we are awaiting a call back with a comment.
We maintained copies of the Committee’s Meeting Minutes used in our initial investigation. We also have copies of the newly falsified Meeting Minutes that were altered April 22 by the Committee. See Appendix B for screenshots showing the Google drive documents. Two were edited April 22, after the Arundel Patriot exposé, and one is a fully new document uploaded yesterday as well.
This article is part of an ongoing investigation of the AACDCC nominating process by Arundel Patriot journalists.
Author Carmen Skarlupka is Navy Veteran and she is certified by the Maryland Attorney General in the Open Meetings Act.
Questions? Please see our Facebook post.
Appendix A: Falsifications in three documents archived on the Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee Google Drive.
Appendix B: Google Drive screenshots showing alteration and edit times on April 22 of AACDCC Meeting Minutes.
