citynouns

Author, groovy thinker, artist, generalist, web3 enthusiast, traveler, co-founder of City Nouns.

## 🟥 P1 Cohort Response to Exit Negotiations

Hey everyone,

We need to be perfectly clear about our position on the exit proposal given the direction these discussions have taken. @zamees , we have been patient, and are beginning to tire of the heel dragging. 1 post to the community server every 3 days does little to show you are prioritizing our cohorts desire to exit in good faith.

Product Designer - Project Manager - Event & Media Production - Denver, CO

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## P2 ✅ Concessions We Have Already Made

Let's be honest about the major concessions we have **already** made in good faith:

* We **agreed to send tokens to the Grants Wallet** instead of burning them, even though that choice fundamentally **undermines our original goal** of preventing governance centralization.
* We **agreed to return the citynouns.eth ENS** at cost (0.1 ETH), despite it representing months of our work in branding and community-building.
* We have **kept these negotiations private**, shielding this conflict from the wider DAO to preserve cohesion and reputations.

We made these concessions to show we're reasonable partners. But let's be absolutely clear: these were not minor or costless compromises. They were big sacrifices intended to move us toward resolution.

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## ⚠️ P3 Our Concerns About Those Concessions

These concessions have *serious* implications:

* **Grants Wallet Transfer:** Risks consolidating power in the hands of those we no longer trust, literally handing over voting weight to the very structure we're exiting in protest of.
* **ENS Transfer at Cost:** Returns a foundational asset with no premium or markup, despite its clear symbolic and strategic value for City Nouns' identity.
* **Keeping it Private:** Allows leadership to present a false front of unity while ignoring the real, unresolved fractures in governance and trust.

We have bent over backwards to demonstrate compromise — but these points are not without real cost or risk.

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## P4 🔎 Bob’s Objections — and Why They’re  Flawed

**1️⃣ The Playbook Payment is “Overpaying” or Lacks Value**

* The Playbook was explicitly commissioned, delivered, and *used* by City Nouns. Bob himself has cited it as valuable in the past. Now that payment is due, it’s suddenly worthless? That is **textbook bad faith**.
* The DAO used it to prepare for launches. It was a deliverable under the Builder Prop. This is not a negotiation — it’s settling a debt.

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## ✅  P5 Our Firm Position Moving Forward

* **Mary’s 0.1 ETH payment will remain in the proposal.** Non-negotiable. This is work completed and used, formally recognized by the DAO.
* **We will not require Mary to complete a W9** as a precondition for payment. We refuse to force any cohort member to share sensitive financial information with someone whose conduct has made them unwilling to trust him.
* **We will not split the proposal into individual invoices.** We negotiated collectively and will exit collectively.
* **We will not sign off on any Grants Safe changes** until the exit is finalized, with clear terms requiring on-chain voting for all distributions.

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## P4 cont

**3️⃣ Suggesting We Drop or Split Payments from the Proposal**

* We negotiated *as a unified cohort* precisely to ensure no one is left behind or singled out.
* Splitting out the Playbook payment would guarantee delay, complexity, and risk of non-payment.
* It's also a tactic to reduce transparency and accountability. We won’t play along.

**4️⃣ Administrative Changes to the Grants Safe**

* Bob is now pushing administrative changes to the Grants Safe **before** this exit is even resolved.
* We will *not* approve any changes until an exit proposal is finalized **and** governance safeguards are in place to ensure *all* grant and founder treasury distributions require **on-chain voting**.
* Given the lack of trust that has led to this exit, demanding we enable even more unilateral control is absurd.

# P4 cont. 

**2️⃣ Tax Complexity and W9 Requirement**

* This is *Bob’s LLC problem*, not ours.
* The .1 ETH payment is *below* the IRS 1099 threshold. There's no legal requirement for a W9 at that amount.
* Even if Bob's accountant wants it, that's an administrative task **he** can resolve *after* paying what is owed.
* **And let’s be clear:** The reason this cohort is exiting is precisely because of Bob’s demonstrated bad faith behavior. We will *not* put Mary in the position of handing over sensitive personal information to someone acting in this manner.