UPDATE: King County Democrats chair Bailey Stober just sent out an email saying that after talking “with many of you, my family and my friends,” he would make “an announcement pertinent to our organization” at a March 27 meeting of the group’s executive board. Last night, the organization agreed to hold a meeting on that date to consider the financial misconduct allegations against Stober. I have a message out to Stober asking him if he plans to resign his position, as more than a half-dozen legislative district Democratic groups, more than 200 local Democrats, and a majority of his executive board have asked him to do.

Last night, the King County Democrats’ executive board voted for a resolution calling on the group’s chair, Bailey Stober, to resign. The vote was a turning point in the debate over whether Stober should remain at the helm of the organization after allegations that he bullied and sexually harassed his lone employee, former executive director Natalia Koss Vallejo, before firing her, along with separate claims of financial misconduct stemming from thousands of dollars in over-budget and apparently unauthorized expenditures. (More on those financial allegations, including a report from treasurer Nancy Podscwhit outlining the excess spending and unauthorized spending in detail, here and here.)

Heading into last night’s meeting, Stober’s detractors worried that he planned to introduce “evidence” against Koss Vallejo, his alleged victim, that could embarrass other Democrats and change the subject from the substantive allegations against Stober. (The evidence apparently included screen shots in which Koss Vallejo engaged in or played along with fat-shaming remarks about female Party members). They also expressed concern that Stober would try to confine any discussion of allegations against him to a closed executive session, as he did at the group’s meeting last month, when the King County Democrats also voted to expand the investigation into Stober’s behavior to include an investigation to find out who was “leaking” information about the investigation to the press.

Stober didn’t do that. Instead, he kept the meeting open, which eliminated the need to debate several proposals to prohibit or restrict the use of executive session. Before the meeting, Stober told me he was eliminating executive session in the interest of “transparency,” but it’s also true that an open meeting, livestreamed via the KC PCOMG Facebook page, would give him the chance to read a statement and present the potentially embarrassing evidence in front of the widest possible audience.

In the end, though, Stober was not allowed to make a statement or present evidence; the temporary chairman, Pierce County Democrats chair Tim Farrell, ruled his requests to do so out of order. Still—and despite stepping aside as chairman for the meeting—Stober managed to dominate the meeting, proposing procedural motion after procedural motion in an effort, some of his detractors claimed, to run out the clock. (Unlike last month’s meeting, which ran well past 11pm, last night’s meeting had to end promptly at 9:45—thanks to a motion from Stober, which did pass, establishing a hard stop at that time). Most of those motions failed, but so did an effort to move the most controversial item on the agenda, the resolution calling on Stober to resign, higher in the agenda.

Stober insisted throughout the meeting that he has had no chance to look at the allegations against him, which strains credulity. (Both an initial report taking each allegation in turn and the detailed financial report have been widely circulated, and there has been extensive media coverage, here and in other outlets, about the details of the allegations). “I would have no problem resigning …  if there were any sort of a due process or an investigation,” Stober said. “To date, I have not been given a copy of the report by the vice chairs even outlining the accusations against me.” (The three vice chairs of the group, two of whom have since resigned, produced a report last month that concluded most of the financial and workplace misconduct allegations against Stober were founded.)

Stober also he attempted to expand the group investigating claims of workplace misconduct to include not just an employment law and labor expert, but two people appointed by the board itself—the same board that was unable to find volunteers to serve on a proposed five-member investigating panel, which would have included two members chosen by Stober himself.

In the end, the board voted to accept Podschwit’s report as the final report on the financial allegations, appointed labor negotiator Afton Larson to review the workplace misconduct allegations, and called on Stober to resign. The next steps will be another board meeting on March 27 to consider the financial misconduct allegations and a potential “trial” in two weeks. Since the group has never conducted a trial, the rules for doing so are unclear; however, the board rejected Stober’s attempt to appoint two apparent allies—King County Committeeman Jon Culver, who participated in some of the offensive text exchanges that are at the center of the harassment allegation, and King County Committeewoman Jami Smith, who spoke up for Stober last night—to come up with the rules for such a trial.

Finally, if Stober is still chair and if enough members sign a petition to call a meeting, the precinct committee officers will meet during or before the King County Democrats’ convention, on April 22, and vote on whether to remove Stober from office. (Stober made an effort to remain chair over that meeting, but was voted down). An affirmative vote—which requires the presence of 20 percent of all PCOs in the county and two-thirds support from those present and voting—would be final.

I have contacted Stober seeking comment on last night’s vote and asking to see the evidence he was unable to present last night, and will update this post if I hear from him.