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Relying on a right granted to members by a bylaw of the Bergen County Democratic Committee, 73 members petitioned Chairman Joseph Ferriero June 11, compelling him to call a special convention on June 27. The petition proposes ten resolutions designed to make future BCDC conventions more democratic in nature.
Robert Gulack of Fair Lawn, first elected to the County Committee last June, spearheaded the petition drive, aided by County Committeewoman Carol Hoernlein of Tenafly and committee members in some ten other towns.
"The ten resolutions in the petition focus on the sort of basic democratic rights that have been routinely trampled upon in recent years," Gulack said in a formal statement. "It is the intent of these resolutions to place on the record the sense of the Bergen County Democratic Committee that, in the future, they wish their conventions to be run in a fair, open and democratic manner."
Gulack continued, "The call for this special convention marks the fourth and most important step in the last year to re-establish basic democratic rights for the Bergen County Democratic Party."
The first step was taken on June 13, 2006, when Gulack ran as a last-minute protest candidate against Chairman Ferriero, and won about 11% of the convention's vote. The election took place less than a week after Gulack was elected to the Committee.
The second step was taken on January 31, 2007, when Chairman Ferriero failed to get the two-thirds vote required to amend the County Committee bylaws to abolish the right of local nominations for the State Senate and Assembly.
The third step was taken in the months leading up to the June 5, 2007 Democratic primary, when Chairman Ferriero was forced to concede re-nominations to Senator Weinberg and her Assembly colleagues.
"Now, for the first time," Gulack said, "the attempt will be made to seek a simple majority vote setting forth the proper basic rules for calling and running a convention of the Democratic Party in Bergen County.
"These resolutions will not be offered as permanent amendments to the bylaws," he continued. "In the view of those supporting these resolutions, it should not be necessary to include in the bylaws such obvious common-sense rights as the right of candidates to speak before their candidacies are voted on. If these resolutions are passed, it will prove that a majority of the Committee desires fundamental fairness at conventions. If, in the face of such resolutions, the Chairman will not respect the wishes of the majority, then amendments to the bylaws will have to be considered."
Article IX, Section 3 of the bylaws permits 5% of the members of the Committee to call a special convention. "Since there are now 1,328 members, the requirement for a convention call is 67," Gulack pointed out.
The rights listed in the petition and call for the convention include:
The right of candidates to address County Committee conventions before the convention is asked to vote on those candidates.
The right to check that County Committee ballot boxes are empty prior to voting.
The right to have representatives from all sides present when County Committee votes are counted.
The right of County Committee members to put their folded ballots in the ballot boxes without being asked to show them to anyone.
The right of County Committee members to vote up or down on individual proposed amendments to their By-laws, instead of being forced to vote up or down on a package of unrelated proposed By-law changes.
The right to have prompt and objective fact-finding when forged documents mysteriously appear purporting to be resignations signed by members of the County Committee.
(For more information, contact Robert Gulack at (201) 794-9322.)
Here is the full text of the proposed resolutions:
RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Bergen County Democratic Committee that, if the Chairman calls a convention on only seven days' notice, the call should contain a clear explanation by the Chairman as to why the business of the Convention must be conducted on such an expedited basis.
RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Bergen County Democratic Committee that proposed amendments to its By-laws that deal with different topics should be voted upon separately, giving the Committee's members the opportunity to vote yes or no on each such amendment.
RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Bergen County Democratic Committee that ballots submitted to the Committee to be used in voting should contain a specific statement of the topic or topics being voted upon.
RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Bergen County Democratic Committee that, following the conclusion of any nomination process by the Committee meeting in convention, each candidate duly nominated should be offered a minimum of five minutes to speak to the convention prior to the convention taking a vote on the various candidates that have been duly nominated.
RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Bergen County Democratic Committee that, prior to a vote on any resolution before the Committee meeting in convention, proponents of that resolution, speaking as a group, should be offered a total of fifteen minutes to speak in favor of the resolution, and opponents of that resolution, speaking as a group, should be offered a total of fifteen minutes to speak in opposition to the resolution.
RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Bergen County Democratic Committee that, prior to a vote by the Committee meeting in convention, representatives from all sides should be allowed to check that the ballot boxes are empty prior to voting, and should be allowed to be present when the votes are counted.
RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Bergen County Democratic Committee that, during the taking of a secret ballot by the Committee meeting in convention, no member of the Committee, whether or not that member is a County employee, shall be asked to reveal the contents of her or his marked ballot prior to placing that marked ballot in the ballot box.
RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Bergen County Democratic Committee that, when a meeting of the Bergen County Executive Committee is called, all members of that Executive Committee, without exception, shall be provided with the same information as to the date and time that such Executive Committee meeting shall commence; and no business of the Executive Committee shall take place prior to that date and time.
RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Bergen County Democratic Committee that, should any document appear purporting to be a resignation from the Bergen County Democratic Committee, and should the member of the Committee whose signature purportedly appears upon that document state that he or she did not sign that document, a fact-finding process should be promptly convened by a fact-finder agreed upon by the Chairman and the member whose signature is at issue, in order to ascertain under what circumstances the disputed document was created. Following the conclusion of such fact-finding process, the fact-finder should make a report to the Committee as to any relevant findings.
RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Bergen County Democratic Committee that copies of the November 30, 2006 Bergen County Democratic Committee financial report, which the Bergen County Democratic Committee Treasurer was required to prepare under Article III, Section 5(E) of our By-laws, should promptly be distributed to all members of the Bergen County Democratic Committee.
The initial response from the Bergen County Democratic Committee indicated that they would probably not contest the fact that the convention had been properly called.
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