Kings County Democratic Committee (KCDC) Chair and Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte (D-Flatbush, Ditmas Park) might soon put good use to her coming law degree.
That after Brooklyn’s Democratic Party Boss Lady, who is reportedly attending law school, is expected to greenlight a KCDC appeal to this week’s state court decision ordering a redo of their recent biannual meeting due to a quickly made change in their bylaws.
The COVID-inspired amendment that the KCDCC Executive Committee (the borough’s 42 Democratic Assembly District Leaders) approved allowed for only executive committee attendance at this year’s biannual meeting to vote on organizational items and discuss new business. Further, the amendment gave executive committee members proxies of the 2,300 some rank-and-file committee members to vote for them.
The amendment was passed on Sept. 29 with the reasoning that to hold a virtual meeting or anything that needed some kind of internet technology would disenfranchise committee members of limited economic means and/or without access to the internet.
But the passage quickly drew the ire of dissenting district leaders including Kristina Naplatarski, Emile Bazile, Jessica Pierce, Josh Skaller, Julio Pena III, Maritza Davila, Samuel Nemir Olivares, Shaquana Boykin, Walter Mosley and Robert Carroll, who fired off a letter to the KCDC leadership saying they could not go along with the rule change.
“The proposed rule changes sets a dangerous precedent by eliminating County Committee members’ ability to play a direct role in crucial party business by mandating that County Committee members’ proxies be automatically given to District Leaders, therefore disenfranchising their voices,” the dissenting DL’s wrote.
The letter also offered to help with a plan to hold a virtual meeting so that all County Committee members would be able to attend.
Undeterred, the KCDC Executive Committee held the meeting just two days after the amendment was brought up and passed, in which among other items, Bichotte was re-elected to a two-year term as chair.
According to a KCDC press release statement posted in KCP after that meeting, “A 2,300-person virtual meeting would have compromised the integrity of the voting process and left out some elderly members, persons with disabilities and minority community members facing challenges with internet access in the digital divide.
“Therefore, a proxy voting process was established and voted on. Through the vote, a consensus was reached among the overwhelming majority of district leaders, that they should act as the voice of county committee members and cast votes on their behalf for the purpose of the annual organizational meeting occurring during the Covid-19 public health crisis.”
But following the meeting, the New Kings Democrats (NKD) political club facilitated a legal response in which a dozen county committee members filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court noting that both Queens and Bronx Counties successfully held virtual meetings for full membership, and alleged the KCDC violated political party statutes in both passing the amendment and holding the meeting.
State Supreme Court Judge Edgar G. Walker ruled for the plaintiffs and ordered a new biannual virtual meeting within 45 days.
“The KCDC should take the judge’s decision and think it’s the right decision. They should have held [a virtual] meeting this year, especially when we are facing such a consequential election. It would have presented an opportunity to get Democrats mobilized,” said Naplatarski.
“Moving forward, the KCDC needs to focus all resources and time to set up the best meeting possible,” she added.
A spokesperson for the KCDC refused to comment.
