NYC Public Advocate Special Election

With election of Tish James as the New York State Attorney General, a vacancy was created in the New York City Public Advocate office. If you haven't heard yet, there is a special election next Tuesday, Feb 26th. Get out and vote!  There is no primary. It's an open race where each candidate runs on their own party line. To have been included on the ballot, the candidates only needed to collect 3,600 signatures and file some paperwork. 17 individuals did this correctly, though, one has since dropped her bid. Because it is not a regularly scheduled election date, and even worse, not a primary race, turnout will likely be low. That means the race is wide open. Get out and make your voice heard!

Nine of the ten candidates (taken far back and zoomed in)

So what is the Public Advocate role? Great question. The position was created in 1993 and has limited power. The Public Advocate can raise legislation for consideration in City Council, but cannot vote. The primary responsibility of the Public Advocate is to be an ombudsman, or watchdog, for the city. Check out this Wikipedia post for more.

The second Kings County Democratic Committee meeting of this cycle took place on February 12th and dedicated nearly all of its time to a nominating convention. Not all members agreed with this decision. New Kings Democrats have been pushing for actual party business to be addressed, such as proposed rule changes and reports from subcommittees. This second meeting has only existed for a few years and historically has been used as a platform to discuss community issues. On the surface, not such a bad thing. But with only two meetings a year, there is never time to address party business in a meeting. I'll explore this in another blog post.

Some fellow committee members felt it wasn't proper for the party to be endorsing a candidate in this way. Others were upset because the county chair, Frank Seddio, had already voiced his endorsement (and that of the party) of Jumaane Williams. I heard through other committee members that the reason for this nominating convention was to legitimize Seddio's endorsement. But with about 300 proxy votes in Seddio's pocket, it mathematically doesn't really matter.

Malynda, fellow AD52/ED32 committee member, stoped in to meet Sonia before we headed out to the meeting.

All that being said, it was a great opportunity for me to hear the candidates in person. Each were given five minutes to pitch themselves and another five minutes for questions. Of the 16 candidates, ten showed up. I cannot speak to the other six, but I'm happy to say that I think any of the ten I heard speak are capable of the job. So the question becomes, who do I think will do the most? Whose priorities will I agree most with? To read about the candidates, check out this amNY article. Also, here are the first and the second debates.

I don't want to attempt to summarize or speak for each candidate I heard. I will simply report on key talk points they were able to squeeze in that stood out for me.

In order of speaking:

Dawn Smalls
Litigator, experience on the Hillary Clinton campaign. The point she touched on that I liked the most was trying to address the city's affordable housing crisis. She wants to use math to analyze it. Rather than using the standard 30% of AMI rule, she wants to pick this issue apart to find a sustainable solution. Also, I like that she's a black woman. Given the fact that she is a qualified individual, I'm going to go ahead and make that statement. History shows that the fights and victories of black women tend to be fights worth fighting and victories we all benefit from.

Rafael Espinal
City Councilmember for District 37 (Brooklyn).  His claim to fame is making dancing legal again in New York City. When asked what he would do for the immigrant population in NYC, he quickly stated he would legalize e-bikes. Without specifics, I already support this kind of action. Delivery work is a go-to job for immigrants in our city. I find it ridiculous that the same people who order food on Seamless criticize the method in which their food is delivered. Maybe we should collectively find a solution.

Benjamin Yee
Teacher of civics, activist. Yee's top priority is to educate the population in civics. I strongly agree with this. He seeks transform the population so that they are empowered to be engaged, know their rights, and know what power they have. What the saying? Give a hungry person a fish and you feed him for a day, teach them to fish and you feed them for life. He has realistic goals for the role, acknowledging its limits.

Jared Rich
This guy is clearly not a politician, in a good way. Rich calls himself the people's lawyer. His website come up on page two of Google searches and his "About" page url is jaredrich.nyc/who-is-this-guy. Rich has realistic goals and ripped the current zoning laws. His experience litigating in NYC, specifically handling many tenant and real estate cases, gives him insight on how to stop (or at least slow) gentrification and big chain stores from moving into our neighborhoods. A suggestion I liked- why not control the number of big chain storefronts in a neighborhood like we control the number of bars?

Ron Kim
NYS Assemblymember for District 40 (Queens). Kim stressed economic justice, stating he would fight for needed resources. He declared he will not take developer money and that his number one issue to tackle would be ending cash bail.

Michael Blake
NYS Assemblyman for District 79 (Bronx), worked for Obama campaign. Blake hit all the big points (MTA, Housing, schools, criminal justice, racism, etc) in a very polished speech. He had a refrain which I liked a lot. Invest in the front end so that you do not have to deal with issues on the back end. Invest in communities and schools so that you do not have to worry about how many kids get to go to the charter. Help the person in need (invest) rather than wait until they get locked up (spend).

Nomiki Konst
Investigative Reporter, activist, worked on the Clinton Senate campaign and Obama Campaign as well as being a Bernie Sanders surrogate. She stated it was her reporting that exposed the IDC and suggested investigative reporting is exactly the skill a public advocate needs. The role being defined as an ombudsman, or watchdog, for the city, she says she is the only candidate who has experience as one. She stressed following the money, which if you've ever watched The Wire, brings me back to the wise words of Lester Freamon.

David Eisenbach
Private citizen, activist. Eisenbach ran for Public Advocate in the recent Democratic primary, losing to Tish James. He touted the number of votes he received in that run and the work he's done to create the Small Business Jobs Survival Act introduced to the City Council last fall. He railed on the mayor and stressed his pro small business / anti developer stance.

Daniel O'Donnell
NYS Assembymember for District 69 (Manhattan), lawyer, self proclaimed loud mouth. O'Donnell has an impressive resume of activism and legislation. He had a hand in lowering the speed limits and getting the new trans civil protection law passed. Being the chair of the ethics committee, he was responsible for taking down the former chair of the KCDC, Vito Lopez. He stresses his independence from political parties. He's a gay man who lived through the 1980s. In his responses he was able to empathize with multiple sides of an issue while being direct and pragmatic about solutions. 

Jumaane Williams
City Councilmember for District 45 (Brooklyn), former Lt. Governor candidate. Williams says he's been an advocate for the city for the last ten years. Having passed 53 of his bills into law, being an activist in Brooklyn, he has the track record to support his claim. Williams hit all the hot points with his polished speech, addressing the Public Advocate office as the role he is already played as a city council member. His responses to questions, like O'Donnell, demonstrated the ability to empathize with multiple sides of issues while being direct about what he was for and against. Being endorsed by both NKD and KCDC Chair Frank Seddio, he demonstrates this. 

Did not speak: A. Manny Alicandro, Anthony Herbert, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Ydanis Rodriguez, Helal Sheikh, Eric Ulrich

I'm voting for Jumaane Williams. I was excited by Benjamin Yee's proposed civics program. I liked Nomiki Konst investigative logic. I'd love to see Jared Rich implement is community zoning ideas. Michael Blake's invest in the front end strategy makes sense to me. And Daniel O'Donnell was impressive overall. Having to decide, I'm going with Williams, who has the proven track record, has a loud voice, listens to his constituents, understands the office, and I believe will hit the ground running.

Do a bit of research. Talk to your friends. Listen to your neighbors. Make a decision. And get out and vote!

Kings County Democratic Committee

Back in June I collected forty one signatures to get my name on the ballot for Democratic County Committee Representative for Assembly District 52 / Electoral District 32. I did this as part of the Rep Your Block campaign, organized by the New Kings Democrats (NKD) folks, with the intent of making change within the most local level of the Democratic Party. I knocked on doors with Malynda Rascoe, who was also running to rep our district (four blocks), and stood outside buildings with my wife Amanda, who was there to support me (and democracy!). To no surprise, we ran unchallenged (which meant our names were not on the ballot) and along with two others we became County Committee Representatives by default.

Yes, four representatives, two male and two female, for a single electoral district. Multiplied over all of Brooklyn the County Committee should have about 5,000 members. In reality, only half of those seats are filled. Of those couple thousand or so, only a few dozen show up to meetings to participate and vote. But in recent history, when votes are counted, a few hundred are tallied by proxy, signed over to Frank Seddio, the current chair of the Executive Committee. Essentially, Seddio holds enough votes to make unilateral decisions. The mechanics of the meeting, debate if there is any, the tallying of votes in the room, are all just a show.

Malynda and I waiting on the NKD shuttle bus to take us from the Brighton Beach Subway to Kingsborough College, where the County Committee meeting was being held.

With much effort, the Rep Your Block campaign was hoping this year would be different. Our first meeting of the two year term took place on September 27th. On the agenda was the election of the committee officers. A reform coalition including NKD and other like minded clubs organized a slate of candidates to challenge Seddio's slate.

The meeting started two hours late. Blame was pinned on the New Kings Democrats by the old white guy at the podium for turning in their proxies late. I'd tell you his name if he bothered to introduce himself, but he along with all the other old white folks on stage did not. Perhaps they were not used to so many new people at the meetings. Maybe they weren't really interested in incorporating us into the party.


The meeting was contentious to say the least. Reform voices constantly interrupted the chair looking for explanations or to enact changes to the committee right then and there. Procedure prevented that from happening. Per the established rules, changes to the rules need to be raised in advance of the meeting. The chair recognized many voices on the floor, following Robert's rules, which are commonly used in legislative bodies, but that most people don't know. The chair used these rules and procedures as a shield for the established power. We were scolded for not knowing them, often those objecting were told they were out of order.

 

"What are the rules?"

Much happened and yet nothing happened. Rather than drag you through the muck of the details, I'll focus on the Executive Committee vote and the questionable math imposed on us.

Told by the chair (or another officer), 541 members were present who could vote and 752 proxy votes were tallied (so that's 1,293 total votes). Of those proxies, NKD held 130 and Frank Seddio held 550 (that leaves 72 unknown proxies).

Proxy form from Seddio suggesting I sign my vote over to him.

A sketchy proxy request made to appear to be from our District Leaders, but still signing over votes to Seddio.

The vote for the committee officer slates was carried out, with the chair declaring 50 votes in the room went to Seddio. That plus the proxies he held were 600 and the facilitator declared that a majority and no need to further tally votes so the meeting carried on with Seddio's slate the victors.

Throughout the auditorium individuals started crunching numbers. We saw Brandon West, president of NKD, speak to Committee officers at the back of the stage (he later confirmed they were discussing the vote count). I reviewed some video I took and broke out my calculator, verifying what we remembered. The math wasn't right. 647 was the needed count for a majority.

 First vote counts

Much later, as the chair was trying to close the meeting, individuals attempted to challenge the vote count. One after the other were shot down based on procedure and rules. NKD member Matt Stern, following Robert's Rules, called for a point of information, sited the rule he was evoking, and requested a recount. He too was rebuked. Only a member who voted for the winning slate could call for a recount, the chair exclaimed. Then one stood up, declared they voted for Seddio and demanded the recount. Cheers and applause filled the room as the committee officers filled with disdain.But the recount commenced.

Repeatedly throughout the evening the chair reminded us that only members could vote and that those who gave their proxy to someone else but still were in attendance could not vote. It was comical how he scolded no one in particular for this, especially since those proxies were never even counted.

Present votes for Seddio were tallied and added to the proxies which he held and again he won. Somehow, his proxy count was now over 700.

It was done. Any further challenges were quickly overruled and the meeting was adjourned. Malynda and I departed around midnight back to our AD/ED in Boerum Hill.

This contentious battle I've described above was within the Brooklyn Democratic Party. The night kicked off with speeches from Democratic candidates Tish James and Andrew Gounardes which we were all happy to support. I expect we collectively have many other similar views. So where do we diverge? What I see and experience is an entrenched established power that is serving itself, holding onto power to continue doing just that. These are the people that are supposed to represent me and they simply do not.

 

Rule change proposal to limit proxy power of Chair of the Executive Committee (currently Frank Seddio)

The current proxy vote rule, which allows the Chair of the Executive Committee to send a card in the mail to every committee member requesting their proxy vote then allows him to consolidates votes and continue making decisions unilaterally. Additionally in recent history, the meeting date and location has been inconvenient to most. Rather than encouraging attendance, it seems the established officers prefer less members attend. This is not government by the people. To change this rule, allowing proxies to only go to others within the same AD would help decentralize power. No one man could collect enough to trump all other votes.

NKD President Brandon West speaks

The existing officers boasted of their decades of experience, which is truly impressive, but they seemed to miss the fact that a newer younger generation of Democrats wants to be heard and their turn at the steering wheel. The positive work many of the existing officers have done for the community and Democrats in their history is undeniable. But nepotism and corruption can thrive in these types of environments. The lack of diversity and evolution in the party allows them alone to dictate what causes are worthy and what solutions are best.  Unless you think as the establishment does and allow them to stay in power, they have no interest in integrating you or your ideas.

Kings County Democrats web site is here. Read NKD's take on the meeting: proxies here and the count here.