Petrelis Files

The Audit Results on EQCA, No on 8

Has it really been two full months since Geoff Kors was running his mouth off about an independent audit of the No on 8 committee?

It sure has and I'm wondering when we're going to get around to getting the results of the analysis of what went wrong with the Kors-led campaign that stripped away gay marriage. Here's what Kors told Japhy Grant over at Queerty.com at the beginning of January:

Kors: Well, I know it's going to happen. We're finding people who have run similar campaigns, but it's important that we choose people who were not involved in the campaign at all. I know that there are those who disagree with me, but I believe the results of the analysis should be reported to the community. I think it's important that we do that and that there's nothing about how we lost that could, you know, be used against us in future campaigns. Again, I know there are those who disagree with me on this.

That promised No on 8 audit was to be totally separate from a second analysis that would only focus on Equality California. You should recall what Seth Hemmelgarn at the Bay Area Reporter had to say at the beginning of the year on this second audit:

[Kors] said EQCA has retained Woodward and McDowell to do an assessment.

Ted Green with Woodward and McDowell said that the company would be doing a report for EQCA that looks at EQCA's role in the No on Prop 8 campaign.

"That's a very separate and different animal from an overall analysis of the campaign," Green said.

Two accounts about the two audits from early January. What has happened since then? Karen Ocamb from Los Angeles wrote at the end of January, after the EQCA leadership summit, that a pillar of the community would carrying out one of the audits:

And I noted that Michael Fleming of the David Bohnett Foundation was conducting an independent audit (with UCLA) of the campaign.

It's been more than a month since we learned of Fleming's audit and I've not heard another word about it. Did the audit? Anyone seen the results? Still on-going? Okay, when will it conclude and what about the separate audit of just EQCA's role in the Prop 8 campaign?

If anyone would care to offer me an explanation as to why CA gays are not demanding answers about the two audits, and the release of both, if they've actually been executed, I'm all ears.

Of course, if EQCA adhered to democratic and transparent principles, and held regular public meetings, I'd ask its leaders directly whatever happened to the audits, but, as we all know, EQCA is an elite close-door organization accountable only to its board.