Independent Neighborhood Democrats Executive Board Members and Officers to be Expelled from Club!
According to the Constitution of Brooklyn's supposedly reform club the Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND), several members, Executive Board members and Offiers should be expelled from the club.
May 4th is the endorsement vote for the NY-11 Congressional primary. Yesterday I received a letter signed by the following individuals asking IND members to join them in support of David Yassky in this race:
Debra Scotto, identified as being on the Executive Board
Joe Ringston, identified as Treasurer
Marisa Ringston, identified as Member
Tom McMahon, identified as Member
Eleanor Cunningham, identified as Recording Secretary
Bob Zuckerman, identified as being on the Executive board
Ira Cure, identified as past President
and Stephen DiBrienza, with no noted identification with the club
The letter is addressed to "Dear Fellow IND meber." According to the Constitution of IND, these individuals, by using their affiliation with IND in written material connected with a campaign that has not received the endorsement of the general membership, are violating IND bylaws.
To quote the IND Constitution:
Article IX Political Action
(1) No member of IND shall use the name of IND in any way which may indicate support by the club of any candidate, without prior authorization by the Executive Board in writing, or by the general membership.
(2) Violation of Section 1 of the Article shall be cause for immediate suspension of the rights and privileges of such member by a majority vote of the Executive Board at a meeting of such Board at which the member in question shall have been invited and shall also automatically constitute grounds for expulsion under the procedures provided herein.
(3) Any member of the Executive Board who desires to work for or publicly endorse a candidate opposing IND's endorsed candidate shall be given the opportunity to suspend his or her membership on the Executive Board for the duration of that campaign. If a member of the Executive Board does not exercise this option and found to have violated this provision, he or she shall be deemed to have resigned his/her position on the Executive Board.
(4) No officer of IND shall use his or her office as a vehicle to aid the campaign of an opposition candidate, nor may any suggestion of affiliation with IND be used in oral or written material in connection with a campaign that has not received the endorsement of the general membership.
In the context of recent events, this letter, prior to an actual endorsement vote, seems to further reduce the IND endorsement process to the level of mere farce.
After the election of a President who is on the staff of a politician, after the disenfranchisement of nearly 100 new members for the stated purpose (so indicated at the April 20th meeting) of protecting favorite candidates, after the distribution of an anti-Eric Adams handout at the endorsement meeting for that race, this letter is just one more indication of a club whose integrity really is not what I had been led to believe. Will the Executive Board act to expel these members? I doubt it! Rather I suspect they will defend the action as protecting their favored candidate from then invasion of outsiders into the club. Once again I am horrified by the true nature of IND.
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2006 Elections | Candidate | Corruption | Elections | Government | Politics | Scandals | Brooklyn
With all due respect...
Submitted by mole333 on 28 April 2006 - 9:19pm.
IND has shown every indication these days of NOT being up front, of doing things behind closed doors and of being un-democratic. So do not claim that they are being all pure and pefect, Anon. Coward.
See my comments below in response to people who are discussing this with me up front and not anonymously and condescendingly. My comments to them apply to your comment as well.
Enough already
Submitted by Mark Shames (not verified) on 28 April 2006 - 5:52pm.
What makes you think that your powers of interpretation exceed those of former Councilman DiBrienza, esteemed labor lawyer Ira Cure, and former Council to the City Council Tom McMahon?
I am aware of your new missive because the IND president forwarded me an e-mail from the leader of DDDB (if I am not mistaken - an Owen's supporter) which seeks the expulsion of the signatories.
Isn't it premature to be discounting IND's endorsement when your preferred candidate retains significant support in the club including that of a number of members of the executive board?
Past practice supports the interpretation of the signatories of the letter that members may inform fellow members of their preferences prior to endorsement. But I forget myself, you would not be familiar with past practice.
See my note below
Submitted by mole333 on 28 April 2006 - 8:47pm.
I am aware of the club's interpretation. And I welcome your commenting here. But as I note below, I find the club's interpretations of its own rules seems to be awfully flexible when they want to protect their own candidates and the power of the exec board, but was AMAZINGLY strict and to the precise letter of the by laws when it came to viewing the rights of newcomers, non-favored candidates and percieved threats to their own power.
I am not a brand new comer to the club, as some know full well. And I want to make clear that I had fully predicted that the club would endorse candidates I did not favor. I was fine with that. I saw it as presenting a dillema for myself, but saw it as legit. But the past few months have seen several actions by the club that collectively seem unacceptable even if some of them alone would not have bothered me. In the end I am left with a definite distrust of IND and it's actions whereas before I was always an advocate of the club. And, as Yassky himself has told me, although I favor Chris Owens, I am overall fair towards David Yassky in my writings. To me this is NOT ABOUT DAVID AND CHRIS. It is about a club I trusted and then felt betrayed by and now find every action they take tactless at best or corrupt at worst.
You cannot pull morally dubious actions the way IND has recently done (as I outline here and elsewhere) then be surprised when every move you make is scrutinized and mistrusted. You have lost my trust and the trust of many others. You will not win it back easily.
NOTE
Submitted by mole333 on 28 April 2006 - 7:38pm.
I should note that a sympathetic IND Exec Board member interprets the critical clauses of the IND Constitution differently than I do and says that the actions of those who used their IND affiliation to support a candidate not yet endorsed is okay and normal procedure.
But I see it differently. I was taught at the April 20th IND meeting that they follow the letter, not the spirit, of their Constitution. I see the letter of their by laws forbidding such actions and I will stick to that as avidly as they stuck to their literal intrepretation of the letter of the law to disenfranchise people.
Second, I still find that their rules sure seem to apply when it suits their candidates but not when it suits other candidates. Packing is fine according to their rules but they acted against it. I find their selective use of their own Constitution part of what disturbs me about their current practices.
There appears to be some sort
Submitted by Nicolo Macchiavelli (not verified) on 29 April 2006 - 12:19am.
There appears to be some sort of standard of democratic purity that must be maintained at all times and that power never enters into the equation. Not for nothing but neither packing a room or "interpreting" by-laws are by themselves per se dictatorial activities.
I'm just concerned that Yasky needs this club so much to sort of triangulate the anti-war crowd against his erstwhile base among the Orthodox crew in Crown Heights. This club is sort of unique in its blend of yuppies, legal professionals and real estate hustlers. Also there is a progressive anti-war somewhat Jewish constituency here, blended with the key historic Brooklyn Arab turf on Atlantic Ave.
Vote pro-crusade here and you may have trouble buying pistachios on Atlantic Ave.
Shames, i sent Mole333's post
Submitted by Goldstein (not verified) on 29 April 2006 - 12:08pm.
Shames, i sent Mole333's post to Karen Johnson. thats all, I wasn't calling for any expulsion but I thought the IND president might want to be aware of what was being said on the internet about the club she presides over.
as someone who voted to disenfranchise 80 or so new members, I'm not so sure why you feel you can sling mud at me for simply informing the club president of Mole's post.
You people are retarded rejec
Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on 2 May 2006 - 2:29am.
You people are retarded rejects. GET A LIFE!!!!
Um, this IS Democracy
No offense, but members of clubs do lobby other members of clubs to endorse candidates - it's called democracy, and it happens in every single Democratic club in the city. Usually competing slates of officers, board members and club members do this for rival candidates, at least if democracy is alive and well in their club. Without campaigns asking club members for support, and identifying who is backing them in clubs, things are likely to get done behind closed doors.