Banana Republic General Assemblies Followed by Banana Republic Elections

Before our last elections, the chairman of the election committee notified Gus Colessides and Jim Sifantonakis that they were ineligible. The election committee is assigned to set up and oversee the election process, not rule or inform nominees as to their eligibility status. The proistamenoi need to take this task upon themselves and not delegate it inappropriately, passing the buck, hoping to avoid doing their own dirty work. Unfortunately, too many parties are willing to accommodate the behavior.

Jim Sifantonakis and Gus Colessides were and are in fact eligible and qualified candidates. They were arbitrarily and unjustly barred – based upon accusations that are unfounded. Adding to the farce, Jim was first told "no" by Father Matthew, then "yes" by Father Michael. Then "no" again by Father Matthew. Gus was first accused of being a blog moderator by Fr. Matthew (which he is NOT), then accused of not attending by Fr. Michael (which he does, and how would Fr. Michael KNOW, since Gus attends Holy Trinity?), then was told by Fr. Matthew that he could not run because HIS WIFE is a moderator.

Both these men were deemed ineligible according an arbitrary and capricious standard that has never been required of ANY other nominees. As such, the recent election should be declared null and void and new elections with ALL names on the ballot should be held.

Additionally, the Board of Elections, the Parish Council and our proistamenoi failed to comply with the 2007 requirements as outlined in Article VIII, section 7 (“Administrative Guidelines for Parish Council Elections”, revised September 2007), in denying Jim Kastanis, another qualified and eligible candidate the opportunity to become a candidate. It was explained to Mr. Kastanis that in his case “the old rules applied”.

It is interesting that “new rules” apply to Gus Colessides and to Jim Sifantonakis, but Jim Kastanis was told that he would not be allowed to run under the “old rules”.

Some consistency and fairness in the matter might be nice; those virtues are usually the first to go under banana republic governance.