LULAC Constitution Requirements to Serve as a National Officer do not Establish Requirements to Run for national office The Editor:

As the Editor was re-reading the lawsuit that LULAC filed against Domingo Garcia, he ran into an oddity in that the objective of the lawsuit was to have the court hearing the case to issue a declaratory judgment that "...Domingo Garcia is not eligible to serve as National President of LULAC for the reasons so stated." Domingo Garcia is not National President of LULAC. he would have to first win for the rules to apply. The LULAC Constitution is very clear when its prohibitions or qualification to be a National officer apply, when the person has been elected or has been appointed. (See the section of the Constitution at the bottom of this read). The LULAC Constitution needs to be amended to establish that the qualifications for serving as an officer, when an election is the vehicle to attain the position, also apply for persons running for office. The only qualification that makes mention of running for office is the prohibition that states that no person who derives employment income from LULAC or an affiliate agency of LULAC needs to have a one year absence of said income before the person may run for and serve in a LULAC officer position, elected or appointed. It appears that National LULAC got ahead of itself by asking the court to enjoin Domingo Garcia from serving in office. Its prohibition request to the court is that he not be permitted to

serve. The court will make a logical assessment of the facts and throw the request out and very likely award damages to Domingo Garcia for the National LULAC Board trying to cast bad light on the character of Domingo Garcia. The Presiding Officer of the LULAC Convention in Las Vegas will have no authority to bar Domingo Garcia from running for office. Such a prospective action, as in the LULAC lawsuit here, should be restrained by a restraining order, which Domingo Garcia has already gotten from the court and which should be continued in order to maintain the status quo. If Domingo Garcia wins the election for the national office that he seeks and his slate of officers also win their elections, a member of the National LULAC Board could propose a motion after the elections are certified that Domingo Garcia should be disqualified to serve in office. This decision should be made by the Executive Board, which would at that time consist of Domingo Garcia and his slate of officers. This would leave Margaret Moran, Oscar Moran, Luis Vera and Manuel Escobar to consider bringing the issue to a court, after the election, not before. What is really stupid about the LULAC lawsuit is that the National LULAC Board was duped into filing a lawsuit against Domingo Garcia in the first place. Imagine George Bush (43) having the federal government filing a lawsuit trying to bar Barack Obama from running for office, or the President of any country doing the same to keep a candidate from running from office. This happens in dictatorships, not in democracies or in democratic based organizations.

Whoever voted on the National LULAC Board to sue Domingo Garcia should be expelled from LULAC for two years. Margaret Moran, Luis Vera and Manuel Escobar should be expelled from LULAC for life. LULAC should stick to the principles of democracy and should punish the Board members who have tried to take the organization down a road of a dictatorship. LULAC is not Cuba, nor is it Russia. Section 4Qualifications: All National Officers, whether elected or appointed, must: a. Be twenty-one years of age or older and must have been an Active Member of a Local or Young Adult Council in good standing for at least three consecutive years at the time of his or her election or appointment; b. Have held an administrative office for one year at the Local, District or State level within three years of his or her appointment. In the case of the Legal Advisor, the person must possess a law degree and be a practicing attorney in good standing; c. Be of good moral character and possess some demonstrated administrative ability necessary for the discharge of the duties pertaining to the office; d. Not have served in the same office, whether intermittently or consecutively, for more than four years; e. Have the approval and endorsement of his or her Local Council.

f. Not hold an elective or appointive political office at the time of his or her election or appointment or at any time during their tenure of LULAC Office. School Board or those positions where no wage compensation or enumeration is received shall not be deemed a political office. g. Members deriving employment wages from any organization owned by or that bears the LULAC name are ineligible to run for or hold a LULAC office, elective or appointive. A complete year must elapse from the last employment date before they are eligible to run for a LULAC office.