Running Out Of Time: Kings County Committee Agenda Angst

GREENPOINT — Members of the Kings County Democratic Committee voted to endorse Jumaane Williams Tuesday night, during what some are calling a crowded agenda to stifle what would have otherwise been an hour-long open session for Q&A and New Business.

After an hour and forty-minute forum for the public advocate candidates, a twenty-minute caucus and then a verbal vote which lasted another twenty minutes, committee heads set aside some time for an open session—about 12 minutes—just before adjourning the meeting.

This after club leaders were told, by Executive Committee Chair Frank Seddio, they’d have an hour-long open discussion in this and future meetings going forward, according to New Kings Democrats President Bandon West.

NKD members predicted the stall tactic more than two weeks ago.

The political club penned an open letter on Jan 26, expressing concerns that Seddio had not yet distributed an agenda for the Feb. 12 meeting, therefore raising doubt the membership body would have time for a “meaningful forum for participation” and “New Business”.

Meanwhile, at least one candidate running for the public advocate’s race, Jared Rich, said he received an invitation to the forum on Jan. 27. Just one day after NKD posted the open letter.

Seddio did not respond to questions before post time. We’ll update if he does.

“We can count some wins last night — our persistence that the Party allow for at least some time for an open discussion yielded some updates on standing committees, rules changes, and the Party’s finances,” said Jessica Thurston, Director of Communications of NKD.

Thurston went on to say that Party leadership went out of their way to limit the engagement of their members.

County Committee members vote on judicial and special election nominations and ultimately the executive chair and committee, which dating back to Tammany Hall, has been known to wield great power in some of the most crucial county-wide political decisions.

The evening’s hold-up resulted in a landslide victory for Councilman Williams. The Brooklynite beat out his closest opponent, Rafael Espinal, by 490 votes to win the County endorsement.

This is everything that happened within the 12-minute open session. County Committee Chair, Joe Bova, answered all Q&A questions:

Q: [What is] County Committee’s financial status?
A: We have about $20,000 in the bank.
[What wasn’t said: There’s $158,938.87 outstanding tagged as loans, according to Board of Elections. There was a copy of the report on the front table of the venue.]

Q: Is there an update on the Rules Committee?
A: The rules committee is ongoing. The executive committee did approve the wording on the proxies that had been recommended — basically saying that when you give a proxy to somebody unless you show up they’re going to vote the proxy unless they see fit unless you have specific instructions.

Q: Can notice of the meetings be given in further in advance?
A: Well, we give them as best we can.
[What wasn’t said: The agenda was distributed at the meeting but was not listed on the KCDC website. Seddio and West had a casual conversation on Feb. 3rd about the public advocate’s forum event and again the Monday before the event.]

Q: What can County Committee member do to encourage District leaders to form assembly district committees?
A: I would guess speak to the county district leaders in the effective districts. Every district is a little different, some are meatier than others. It’s really within the purview of each assembly as to how many and how often their assembly district committees will meet.

Q: When will standing committees be formed?
A: Standing committees are in place. Some of them are obsolete and we’re looking for the relevance of some of them.

In addition to the brief Q&A, Ernest Skinner asked Seddio for a follow-up on his request to oust Simcha Felder as a member of the Party.

In front of the audience, Seddio said the issue would be addressed at the next meeting. Later, Seddio told Bklyner he doesn’t see it happening.

“It goes against our diversity of opinion of all people who want to be apart of the Party,” he said. “There are some people who are more conservative than others and some are more liberal than others. For that matter, the Democratic Socialists shouldn’t be apart of the Democratic Party, they’re not doing the agenda of the Democratic Party, they’re doing there’s. So what makes them any different, in terms of our picture of this, than a man who votes in a more conservative way? He’s on one side and they’re on the other and then most of us are in that big middle.”

“In my mind, the Party welcomes everyone with every opinion. We don’t have to agree with each other, we don’t have to like each other’s opinion.”

The next meeting will be held in Eastern Brooklyn. There is no set date as of the time of this post.