NEW ROCHELLE, NY — For the past several years, Westchester County Veterans Services Director Ron Tocci has sought to involve American Legion Post 8 in his Armory lawsuit against the City of New Rochelle, et al.
When Post 8 was originally added as a plaintiff to the lawsuit without approval then-Commander Thomas O’Keefe ordered Tocci to remove Post 8 from the lawsuit. Tocci complied then orchestrated the removal of O’Keefe as Commander and the filing of a criminal complaint against O’Keefe and a former tax preparer alleging various financial crimes. Tocci saw to it that a pliant Commander, Peter Poulos, replaced O’Keefe.
On June 8, Dennis Starr, a name plaintiff in the Armory lawsuit was put forward by Tocci as a new Commander (Poulos is relocating from the area). He was challenged by Gary Flynn.
Much to the consternation of Tocci & Co., Flynn won the election 13-12.
According to American Legion records seen by Talk of the Sound, Post 8 listed 69 members as of March 30, 2021: 9 New Members, 10 Paid in Full (Lifetime) Members, 11 Online Renewal Members, 39 Traditional Renewal Members. Only 25 of 69 listed members voted on June 8.
In what is a surprise to no one familiar with how Tocci & Co. operate, there is now an effort underway to toss out the results of the June 8 election and hold a second election on June 24, presumably with an outcome more to Tocci & Co.’s liking.
An American Legion Adjutant is responsible for running officer elections.
Post 8 Adjutant Casi Purcell of Rye, NY sent out an email this morning to some American Legion Members
It has been brought to the attention of the post that there were a few major issues with our previous election. Proper procedures and observations of the By-Laws were overlooked in some areas and it was enough to warrant a challenge by some of the Membership along with one of the Candidates.
There was a collective collapse of guaranteeing a fair and correct election for the Commander position. With that being said, the election results are null and void. We will be having another election on June 24th.
With that being said, only paid members are allowed to vote in this coming election. We had about 6-7 members who signed in to the June 8th meeting, that voted, and were not eligible due to not being paid up to date.
Please have your Membership ID cards ready to vote on JUNE 24th.
If you need assistance with your Membership, Pay your dues and ID card, please email me directly OR log onto your Mylegion.org
In other words, Purcell is saying she did not manage the election properly so she proposes to manage another election.
We reached out to Adjutant Purcell:
Ms. Purcell,
I saw your email today regarding holding a new Post 8 election. I have several on-the-record questions for you. My intention is to publish an article based on the information below. I would like to include your side of the story and hope you will respond.
The American Legion Post 8 receives funding from taxpayers. As a result there is a public interest in issues of financial malfeasance (as reported to the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office by Commander Poulos) and the leadership of Post 8 which has responsibility for being stewards of public funds.
It is my understanding you are the Adjutant of Post 8 and have been for months. Therefore, you were the person responsible for running the June 8 election for Post 8 Commander, a special election necessitated by the resignation of Peter Poulos.
In an email sent today you announced “the election results (6/8) are null and void” and you scheduled “another election on June 24th”.
You say (1) “only paid members are allowed to vote in this coming election”; (2) “We had about 6-7 members who signed in to the June 8th meeting, that voted, and were not eligible due to not being paid up to date.”
I have read the recommended by-laws on the legion.org web site and the Post 8 by-laws.
I see nothing in the legion.org recommended by-laws or the Post 8 by-laws that say a word about “only paid members are allowed to vote”. Can you provide a citation for this claim?
For the same reason, on what basis do you say “6-7 members…were not eligible due to not being paid up to date.”? And why is the actual figure indeterminate? Surely you know exactly how many members voted but were not paid-in-full so why not six or seven specifically?
I see nothing in the legion.org recommended by-laws or the Post 8 by-laws that say an election that has taken place in the past can be declared “null and void”, or that any particular officer or committee can make such a declaration. Can you provide a citation for your authority (or any other officer’s authority) to declare a past election “null and void”?
By my understanding, Mr. Flynn became the Commander on June 8. Am I to understand Mr. Flynn has authorized you to declare his victory on June 8 to be null and void?
What is the tradition at Post 8? Is every by-law followed to the letter? Was there a nominating process? Were ballots sent out in advance? How can a candidate meet the 15 day notice requirements in the by-laws with a 9 day window until the election? My understanding is that there were plenty of failures to follow the by-laws on elections but you do not cite them. Why not? Why not simply void the ballots of ineligible voters?
I am told that a disproportionate number of African-American veterans voted for Mr. Flynn which creates the impression that the effect of your actions are to disenfranchise black voters. Can you address that?
I do not see any basis for voiding an election because people who should not have done so cast a vote. If people were given a ballot (by you I believe) candidates had every opportunity to make challenges.
I might expect to see in the legion.org recommended by-laws or the Post 8 by-laws a process for challenges to voters before, during or in the canvassing process. I see none.
What is being proposed by you, after ballots have been canvassed and the tally announced, is not something that I see in the legion.org recommended by-laws or the Post 8 by-laws. There was an election on June 8. If a candidate (or other member) wanted to challenge voters or ballots they could have and should have done so on June 8.
The only challenge even alluded to (in the legion.org recommended by-laws not the Post 8 by-laws) is a challenge to the tallying of the votes. There is no mechanism I can see for voiding an election and holding an entirely new election and, worse, doing so with a different group of voters.
Your announcement today includes an offer to provide assistance with Membership, Dues Payment and/or ID Cards. My understanding is that a Member can pay their dues directly to the Post so why was corrective action not taken on June 8? The Post 8 by-laws say if a member is in arrears they can be reinstated by making payment and then a vote of the Post so even what you propose today is not in keeping with the Post 8 by-laws.
Maybe you can explain why I am wrong to conclude that as no one challenged on June 8 any person who voted on June 8 and no one has claimed the votes cast on June 8 were inaccurately canvassed or tallied, there is no lawful basis to challenge either the voters or the ballots or the count.
We did not receive a reply from Adjutant Purcell to repeated emails.
Do yourself homework or else you look REALLLLL stupid.
https://www.legion.org/documents/legion/pdf/constitution-bylaws.pdf
It is public knowledge (all you have to do is Google) to find the By-laws. National Constitution and By-laws Uniform Codes of Procedure for the Revocation, Created by Act of Congress Washington, DC on
September 16, 1919. Look on Page 6, Article 4, Section 4 states,
“Section 4. No person, who has been expelled by a Post, shall be admitted to membership in another Post without the consent of the expelling Post, except that where such consent has been asked for and denied by such Post, he may then appeal to the Executive Committee of the Department of the expelling Post for permission to be admitted to membership in another Post, and shall be ineligible for membership until such permission is granted.”
Come on keyboard warrior, do your your homework.
https://www.legion.org/documents/legion/pdf/constitution-bylaws.pdf
I am familiar with what you cite. It is irrelevant to this matter.
Gary Flynn, the adjutant, was to ensure all members of the post were actual members. This wasn’t done. Casi, the sgt of arms, noticed this, called them out and now they are angry bc the one who cheated was getting their way! Both are white who are running, where’s race card being played?
If you read the by laws, anyone unpaid should have been suspended, never should’ve had the opportunity to vote. Looks like it should’ve landed on the previous committee for not keeping up on this, but attack the one trying to ensure the votes done properly. Someone’s a sore loser, now trying to smear peoples names with a tantrum. If I were them I’d sue for slander. What evidence was there for stating racism? Or is that the easy way out these days? Your not up to date on payments, SUSPENSION, no voting! Sounds about right, right? What an embarrassment and a waste of time reading this article!
Amanda,
I read the by-laws. Have you?
As the article states, found nothing in the by-laws on eligibility to vote for officers or anything about eligibility to vote based on paying membership dues.
I asked the adjutant multiple times to provide a citation from the Post 8 by-laws. She declined to respond.
I will ask you to do the same. Do not just claim there is something in the by-laws, take a photo and post it here.
If you cannot produce a page from the by-laws to support what you say perhaps readers might conclude that there is no such by-law.
Does it really matter? This Legion Post sounds like a joke that is wrapping itself in the American Flag and pretending it speak for veterans.
So, what you’re saying in this article is that if someone who has let their membership expire via non payment of their annual dues, should be allowed to vote in a post election? Also, who was the previous Adjutant? If the election is voided, then the current Adjutant, Ms. Purcell, wasn’t responsible for the process leading up to the votes being cast and counted. Was there an election committee formed prior to the process to ensure proper protocol was followed for nominations, ballots, and election results? Were there Legionnaires, not running or opposed in the election, present to verify ID and current membership as well as counting the ballots? Regarding mail in ballots? If there were any sent out, were they properly requested in writing prior to the election date?
These are questions you need to be asking the former Post Officers and their Executive Committee.
It sounds to me like you’re choosing to bash someone who is trying to ensure the results were reached properly, per the guidelines set by the American Legion.
Anyone who starts off with “So, what your saying…” has already lost credibility. I do not need you or anyone else to tell me what I am saying as I wrote the article.
Apparently, you did not bother to read the article as you failed to note that I reached out to Adjutant Purcell twice in the last two days without a reply.
I wrote: “I have several on-the-record questions for you. My intention is to publish an article based on the information below. I would like to include your side of the story and hope you will respond.”
Or…
“It is my understanding you are the Adjutant of Post 8 and have been for months. Therefore, you were the person responsible for running the June 8 election for Post 8 Commander, a special election necessitated by the resignation of Peter Poulos.”
It is my understanding that Ms. Purcell IS responsible for the 6/8 election. Did you miss that too?
You do raise a number of valid points about process. I raised the same questions and got not response.
I could find nothing in the Post 8 by-laws that says only members who are paid in full on election day can vote or that an election can be declared null and void once the results have been read.
I suggest you try reading what I wrote. Then you will know what I said. And maybe you can cite the relevant section of the by-laws which I asked about.
Maybe the reason that the Flynn guy won was because everyone is tired of this Tocci guy and his bull$&*%. How is he still the Westchester County Veterans dude since he is such a liability.