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5/22/16 Executive Board Meeting Recap

This past Sunday, May 22, the County Executive Board met to endorse candidates in the primary election for Civil Court Judge and approve the Party Call.

Civil Court Endorsements
Josh Hanshaft Esq. and Emily Morales-Minerva Esq. have received the endorsement of the NY County Party for the Countywide Civil Court vacancies.

They will run in the upcoming primary with the support of the Democratic Clubs and county organization which will help them petition and turn out voters for their win.

Should they win the primary, they will then proceed to the general election as the Democratic candidate.

The Party Call
The “Party Call” lists all of the available Judicial Delegate, Judicial Delegate Alternate and State Committee positions.These party positions will be elected during the Primary in September.

Judicial Delegates are proportional to the Democratic voter turnout (how many ppl vote for the Dem) in the last Gubernatorial election by district.

State Committee is two per Assembly District (Male and Female).

Meeting Live Tweets

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Minutes: February 7th County Committee Nomination for Special Election of Assembly Member

For a brief video of how this process works, check out Secretary Yee’s “The Election You Never Heard Of“.

I. Meeting called to order by Jeanine Johnson at 3:05PM

II. Temporary Officer Appointments

  • Credentials chair Cathleen McCadden

  • Chief Teller Domenico Minerva

III. Credentials Chair Report

  • Quorum of 30% present

  • Vacancies

    • ED 13: 2 vacancies

    • ED 14: 1 vacancy

    • ED 15: 1 vacancy

    • ED 37: 2 vacancies

    • ED 38: 1 vacancy due to member not living in District

    • ED 43: 1 vacancy

    • ED 61: 1 vacancy due to member not living in District

    • ED 62: 1 vacancy due to member not living in District

    • ED 67: 1 vacancy

  • Jennie Low moves to approve the report

    • Seconded by Pedro cardi

  • Report approved

IV. Election of Permanent Officers

  • Chair

    • Paul Newell nominated Jeanine Johnson for Chair

    • Justin Yu seconds

    • Jeanine Johnson is elected by voice vote

  • Secretary

    • Karen Blatt nominates Ben Yee secretary

    • Alice Cancel seconds

    • Ben Yee is elected by voice vote

V. Adoption of Rules

  • Domenico Minerva moves to adopt the rules

  • Chung Seto seconds

  • Rules adopted by voice vote

VI. Appointment of Committee to Fill Vacancies

  • Jenifer Rajkumar moves to appoint Domenico Minerva, Jeanine Johnson and Keith Wright

  • Rosie Mendez seconds

  • The appointments are approved by voice vote

— A point of order Point of Order is raised regarding county committee vacancy filling by Samuel Chiera —

  • There was a district Divisional meeting to fill vacancies before the meeting. However, the names were not submitted before 72 hour deadline.

  • An objection was filed by Samuel Chiera

VII. Nomination of Democratic Candidate for the 4/16 Special Election for the Vacant Assembly Seat in the 65th District

  • Speeches – speech order is alphabetical and was determined and agreed to prior to the meeting.

    • Alice Cancel – District Leader

    • Gigi Lee – Community Board 3 Chair

    • Paul Newell – District Leader

    • Yuh-Line Niou- withdrew candidacy

    • Jenifer Rajkumar – District Leader

  • Voting

    • If no candidate receives a majority voting on the first ballot, voting will continue in subsequent ballots. Candidate must receive at least 20% of the vote to pass to the next round of balloting.

VIII. Recess for Counting of the Vote

  • Speeches by representatives from the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns

    • Clinton represented by Melissa Sklarz

    • Sanders represented by Arthur Schwartz

IX. Results

  • Alice Cancel wins in the nomination with 5,870 weighted votes

  • Paul Newell garners 1770.5 weighted votes

  • Jenifer Rajkumar garners 634.6 weighted votes

  • Yuh-Line Niou garners 93 weighted votes

X. Adjournment

  • Alice Cancel addresses and thanks attendees; moves to adjourn

  • Rosie Mendez seconds

  • meeting adjourns at 5:30PM

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February 4th Judicial Committee Minutes

Chair: Curtis Arluck

Co Chair: Louise Dankberg

Membership: Each Assembly District may be represented by one of its District Leaders.

The Judicial Committee chooses organizations which designates members to a screening panel for judicial candidates. Organizations designate panelists, and panelists review judicial candidates, without party input.

I: Panel Administrator Search

  • Candidates

    • Past administrators have been contacted and the committee is awaiting responses. A new Administrator interview date/time will need to be set due to the delay.

    • Committee members are welcome to submit candidates for Administrator.

    • A three year layover is required for Administrators and panelists. They may not serve back to back sessions.

  • Resolution

    • A past Administrator was contacted mid-meeting and accepted the invitation to serve as Administrator again.

    • Since this candidate has served in the past, and most committee members are familiar with him, the Judicial Committee voted for an expedited interview process which would not require a meeting of the whole committee (though everyone is invited)

    • If approved name of the Administrator will be revealed in the official public notice for Judge Applicants in the Law Journal and on ManhattanDems.org

    • The interview was tentatively scheduled for 2/10

II: Organization Outreach

  • Organizations which have agreed to designate a panelist

    • Asian Americans for Equality

    • Korean American Lawyers Assoc

    • LGBT Bar

    • Neighborhood Defenders of Harlem

    • NY State Defenders Assoc.

  • Organizations which have declined to designate a panelist

    • Columbia University Law School

  • All other organizations are pending a response

  • Requirement Review

    • At least 20 organizations should be represented

    • Organizations must be:

      • Non-profit

      • Sufficient affiliation with the County (Manhattan) (Usually satisfied by a local chapter)

      • Sufficient affiliation with the ideals of the Democratic Party

III: New Organization Applications

  • National Hispanic Bar Assoc.

    • Deputy VP Albert Barrueco, Attorney at Pepper Hamilton, addressed the committee

    • Organization wants to be considered for an invite to nominate a panelist

    • Local Chapter President is counsel to NYC Bar

    • Thousands of members nationally

    • Over one hundred members in the NYC area

  • Hispanic Bar invited by acclamation

IV: Organizational Designees

  • Alan Flacks submits Designee from Association of the Bar of City of New York (City Bar Assoc.)

  • Names of organization designees are not released prior to the convening of the panel to prevent lobbying by judicial applicants

V: Old Business (last week)

    • Committee voted to extend invitation to Nigerian Bar Assoc – but question: Does Nigerian bar have NY presence

      • Verified intent to invite Nigerian Lawyers Association not Nigerian Bar Association

      • Nigerian Lawyers Association found to have sufficient affiliation and invite extended by acclamation

    • Committee voted down extending invitation to National Bar Association (National African American bar)

      • The National Bar is represented in the NY region by Joseph Drayton

      • National Bar resubmitted by and voted up for extending an invitation by acclamation

VI: District vacancies in Judicial District 4, 6, 7

      • Judicial Screening Panels

        • District Leaders in the 6th, 7th and 9th are holding their own panels and soliciting groups for designees independently

          • The 9th is an incumbent judge and is non-competitive

        • The 4th is incorporating its screening panel with the County Independent Judicial Screening Panel

        • Judicial Applicants may go before multiple panels and all panels will use same application

VII: Current Timeline (subject to change)

    • 2/17 Law Journal and online Notice for Judicial applicants

    • 2/25 Designees appointed

    • 2/25 Applications begin being accepted

      • A unified application for all panels is suggested and agreed to

    • 3/9 Panel Convenes

    • 5/5 Panel reports out
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Minutes #3! Campaign Finance Presentation

County Committee Executive Board Meeting 11/12/15

Location: RWDSU Union Headquarters; 370 Seventh Avenue at West 31st Street

I. Call To Order

II. County Leader Wright’s update

  1. Thank you for re-election to County Leader position at the last meeting
  2. MTA recently made a statement saying 2nd Ave line construction of 125th St stop would be on hold due to lack of funds
  3. Uptown East side electeds met with Tom Prendergast the afternoon of Thursday, 11/12/15
  4. On Saturday, 11/14 the Manhattan County Party is holding a Democratic Debate Watch Party in tandem with the Hillary Clinton campaign at:
  5. Stitch Bar and Lounge; 247 w 37th St.

III. Secretary Yee’s update

View full size.

IV. Presentation by Risa Sugarman, Chief Enforcement Counsel for NY State Board of Elections

For updates on the presentation, check out the tweets from @ManhattanDems below:


V. Adjournment

Have questions? Email us at manhattandems@gmail.com.

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Minutes #2! Nominations for Civil Court Judge

**CORRECTION**
The original version of this post stated that there are no primaries in Judge elections so each party must internally decide who will run on their ticket as The Nominee. This is incorrect.

For Civil Court Judges there are primaries. In this case the primary winner, Tanya Kennedy was nominated by the New York County Democratic Party Judicial Convention to run as the Democrat for Supreme Court Judge. As a result, a special screening panel and vote by the the County Executive Board was convened to fill the vacancy this created on the ballot for a Democratic Civil Court nominee.

County Committee Executive Board Meeting (Special Session) 10/8/15

Location: Seafarers & International House Chapel, 123 E 15th St, New York, NY 10003

I. 6:39PM; Meeting is called order and quorum is established

II. Nominations for Civil Court Judge are opened
In the coming weeks and months we will be posting about the powers and role of the county committee. As a quick intro to Judges, one of the most important responsibilities of all party’s in New York is to nominate judges. Civil Court judges are elected and undergo a primary, but if the primary winner should drop out of the race, the County Committee must convene a special Screening Panel which suggests at least three qualified candidates for each vacancy. The County Executive Board is then tasked with selecting the replacement.

In this case the primary winner, Tanya Kennedy was nominated by the New York County Democratic Party Judicial Convention to run as the Democrat for Supreme Court Judge. As a result, a special screening panel and vote by the the County Executive Board was convened to fill the vacancy this created on the ballot for a Democratic Civil Court nominee.

A. Richard Tsai nominated to be Democratic Nominee for Civil Court Judge
Nominated by District Leader Justin Yu
Second by District Leader Sandro Sherrod

This is Richard Tsai’s third time passing the screening panel.

Richard Tsai declines the nomination and endorses Ta Tanisha James.

B. Sabrina Kraus nominated to be Democratic Nominee for Civil Court Judge
Nominated by District Leader Cory Evans
Second by District Leader Joan Pallo

This is Sabrina Kraus’ sixth time passing the screening panel. She is currently a Housing Court Judge.

Sabrina Kraus declines the nomination.

C. Ta Tanisha James to be Democratic Nominee for Civil Court Judge
Nominated by District Leader Sylvia DiPeatro
Second by Assemblyman and County Leader Keith Wright

Ta Tanisha James accepts the nomination

III. Nominations are closed.

IV. With no other nominees, Ta Tanisha James is elected Democratic Nominee for Civil Court Judge by acclamation.

V. County Party Executive Director Cathleen McCadden is wished a very happy birthday. Everyone sings.

VI. 7:05 Meeting is adjourned

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Minutes #1! Election of Executive Board Leadership

County Committee Executive Board Meeting 9/30/15

Location: Sylvia’s Also, 318 Lenox Ave, New York, NY
There was a buffet at Sylvia’s. That alone should be incentive to get involved in local politics.

I. Election of the County Executive Board Leadership
The County Committee Executive Board is comprised of District Leaders, elected directly by Democratic Primary Voters, and the County Committee Chair and Secretary, elected by the the New York County Committee.

The below positions should not be confused with the County Committee Leadership

A. Election of County Leader
Louise Dankberg nominates Keith Wright, Seconded by Alesia
No other nominations, Keith Wright is elected by acclamation.

B. Election of Executive Board Chair
Sandro nominates Louise Dankberg
No other nominations, Louise Dankberg is elected by acclamation

C. Election of Executive Board Vice Chair
Charles Buckwald nominates Tiffany Townsend
No other nominations, Tiffany Townsend is elected by acclamation

II. Adjournment

Have questions? Email us at manhattandems@gmail.com.