Friday, February 15, 2019

The history of the Brooklyn Surrogarte Court Corruption


Feinberg Disbarred, Rosenthal Suspended

N.Y. LAW JOURNAL, By Daniel Wise, December 05, 2008

Former Brooklyn Surrogate Michael H. Feinberg, who was removed from the bench three years ago, was disbarred yesterday by the Appellate Division, Third Department.
In two disciplinary proceedings factually linked to Mr. Feinberg's, the Third Department also suspended Louis R. Rosenthal, the former counsel to the Brooklyn public administrator, for two years, and censured Stephen H. Chepiga, the chief clerk of the Surrogate's Court in Brooklyn since 1998.
Mr. Feinberg was disbarred upon the strength of the Court of Appeals decision in 2005 removing him from the bench for awarding Mr. Rosenthal $8.6 million in fees without requiring affidavits detailing the services he provided as required by law (Matter of Feinberg, D-69-08).
The Third Department found that Mr. Rosenthal had charged and collected "excessive fees" without following proper procedures (Matter of Rosenthal, D-68-08). In recommending Mr. Feinberg's removal, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct had found that Mr. Rosenthal consistently billed 2 percent more for his work than permitted, resulting in more than $2 million in excessive fees (Matter of Chepiga, D-70-08).
The Third Department decision appear on page 7 of the print edition of today's Law Journal.
Fabian G. Palomino, who represented both Mr. Feinberg and Mr. Rosenthal, did not return a request for comment. Mr. Rosenthal also did not return a request for comment, and Mr. Feinberg could not be located.
Mr. Chepiga's lawyer, Peter V. Coffey of Englert, Coffey, McHugh & Fantuzzi in Schenectady, said, "If you talk to anyone in the court system they will tell you that Mr. Chepiga is diligent, hardworking and a man of great integrity and truthfulness.
"He has unhesitatingly been retained in his position" as chief clerk, Mr. Coffey added.
All three decisions were issued per curiam by the same panel: Justices Thomas E. Mercure, Edward O. Spain, Robert S. Rose, Anthony T. Kane and Leslie E. Stein.
"The taint of favoritism is strong" in the relationship between Mr. Feinberg and Mr. Rosenthal, the Court of Appeals found in its removal opinion, Matter of Feinberg, 5 NY3d 206. The Court described Mr. Rosenthal as "a close personal friend and political supporter" of Mr. Feinberg whom the former surrogate appointed as counsel to the public administrator without considering any other candidates.
The counsel to the public administrator is responsible for handling Surrogate Court proceedings relating to people who died without wills and do not have close relatives to handle their affairs.
In disbarring Mr. Feinberg, who was Brooklyn's surrogate for eight years, the panel noted that an attorney may be charged with professional misconduct for the same acts for which he was disciplined as a judge.
Disbarment is necessary, the panel concluded, "to protect the public and preserve the reputation of the bar."
The principal Court of Appeals finding relied on by the Third Department that Mr. Feinberg had failed to familiarize himself with a 1993 amendment to the Surrogate Court's Procedure Act (SCPA), which requires the counsel to the public administrator to support his fee requests with affidavits detailing the services rendered, the time spent, and the method or basis upon which the compensation is computed.
Over five years and 475 proceedings, both the Court of Appeals and the Third Department had found that Mr. Feinberg had remained unaware of the 1993 amendment to SPCA §1108. That amendment had been enacted, the Third Department panel noted, after an investigation by the attorney general and comptroller had found abuses in the award of fees to public administrators' counsel.
The Court of Appeals had described Mr. Feinberg's "consistent disregard for fundamental statutory requirements of office" as demonstrating "an unacceptable incompetence in the law."
Counsel Suspended
With regard to Mr. Rosenthal, the Third Department found that he had collected "excessive fees" for his work by "regularly" requesting fees that reflected the same percentage amount of the total value of the estate he was handling.
In the conduct commissions ruling recommending Mr. Feinberg's removal, it had found that Mr. Rosenthal routinely requested fees pegged at 8 percent of the value of an estate.
The commission noted that surrogates in the city's other boroughs generally pegged compensation for counsel to the public administrator at 6 percent of the value of an estate.
In addition, the commission relied on agreement between the attorney general and Mr. Feinberg's predecessor, Surrogate Bernard Bloom, to limit compensation to 6 percent. The agreement was initially worked out in 1988 and renewed in 1994 (NYLJ, Feb. 15, 2005).
The Third Department also found that rather than submitting the required affidavits of service, Mr. Rosenthal had submitted his fee requests on Post-It notes affixed to formal decrees.
The practice did not change, the panel noted, until the Daily News in May 2002 published an exposé of Mr. Rosenthal's fees and the way they had been approved by the surrogate.
Even then, the panel wrote, Mr. Feinberg re-approved all of Mr. Rosenthal's fees after he retroactively submitted the required affidavits of service.
Clerk Censured
In censuring Mr. Chepiga, the Third Department found that, though he was aware of the agreement limiting fee awards in Brooklyn to 6 percent, he was "actively involved" in the process of approving awards set at 8 percent of estate value.
The panel described Mr. Chepiga's statement that he was unaware of the 1993 amendments requiring the filing of affidavits to support fee requests as being "somewhat disconcertin[g]."
But in deciding that a censure was the appropriate sanction, the panel cited his "unblemished disciplinary record" and letters attesting to his integrity submitted to the court by Kings County surrogates. Mr. Chepiga's lawyer, Mr. Coffey, identified the authors of the two letters as Surrogate Margarita López Torres and Justice Albert Tomei, a former interim surrogate who was appointed to fill in after Mr. Feinberg was removed.
Though jurisdiction over disciplinary matters normally lies in the department where an attorney has his principal business office, the Second Department issued an order transferring the three cases to the Third Department, said the court's clerk, Michael Novak.

Former employee at Kings County public administrator’s office indicted for stealing $78,000 from 8 dead people





Park Slope Man Spends $78K Of Dead People's Cash, DA Says

Fitzroy Thompson stole money from estates he managed to book cruises, buy cars and pay rent on his Park Slope pads, prosecutors said.



Surrogate justice: The machine beats the voters in Brooklyn - NY Daily ...


Sep 13, 2018 - Surrogate judges oversee the estates of the dead and can offer rich rewards ... At next week's judicial nominating convention, Seddio's machine ...


Borough Dems chief involved in 'illegal' fund-raiser for judicial ...


https://www.nydailynews.com/.../borough-democrats-chief-involved-illegal-fund-raise...

Aug 7, 2017 - A Brooklyn spokesman for several judicial candidates told the Daily News ... Seddio, who had a short stint as a surrogate's court judge and ...

 

Judging Brooklyn's judges - New York Post


Feb 10, 2010 - His spouse, Surrogate's Court Judge Margarita López Torres, was at the ... “The punch line is after Seddio resigned, a new battle between the ...

Judicial selection under a new Brooklyn boss

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/.../judicial-selection-under-a-new-brooklyn-bo...

Sep 5, 2012 - Frank Seddio is an attorney who served just four months as a surrogate court judge before stepping down amid an ethics investigation in 2007.

Judge Jacobson Who Was Dumped By Boss Seddeo Files A 5 Million Dollar Law Suit

Tabloid Spread Prompts Libel Suit by NYC Judge - Courthouse News

Aug 29, 2016 - Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Laura Jacobson's Aug. ...
Jacobson says real reason she is being blackballed from another 14-year term is because she refused to let “political or social pressures … impact her decisionmaking.”
     “Such judicial independence did not sit well with the Kings County Democratic political machine,” the complaint states.
     Jacobson quotes a subcommittee investigator as calling her “probably the smartest judge on the bench,” but the anonymous committee members who talked to the Post painted an insulting picture of the jurist. 
The suit claims Jacobson, who has 25 years of experience on the bench and is seeking re-election for a 14-year term, is being punished for rulings against lawyers affiliated with the Brooklyn Dems.  It also alleges that the screening board has been stacked by Frank Seddio, the chairman of the Kings County Democratic County Committee, even though it is meant to be independent. 
166. Retaliatory, Vindictive and Malicious Deprivation of Judge Jacobson’s Right to “Equal Protection of Law” and “Due Process”!

In retribution for Judge Jacobson’s proper exercise of judicial discretion and independence which was inconsistent with the desires of Mr. Carone who is defendant Seddio’s counsel and was Seddio’s law partner, defendants Edelman and Decker abused their positions on the Edelman Committee and defendant Seddio abused his position as County Chair of the Kings County Democratic County Committee and aided, abetted and conspired with members of the Executive Committee of defendant Kings County Democratic County Committee, members of the Edelman Committee, defendant
Ajaiyeoba, defendants John and Jane Does and others not named as defendants, including Mr.
Carone, in an effort to deprive Judge Jacobson of “equal protection of the law” and “due
process,” in an effort to maliciously and vindictively inflict maximum personal and
professional harm to Judge Jacobson.

Battle of the Grifters | The Indypendent


Jun 28, 2018 - Meanwhile, one of Norman's surrogate court judges, Michael ... According to veteran Brooklyn political consultant Gary Tilzer, who has ...
You've visited this page 3 times.

‘Sorry’ estate robber off to jail (NYP 2018)

How insiders snatch millions from estates in the scandal-scarred ...

https://nypost.com/.../how-insiders-snatch-millions-from-estates-in-the-scandal-scarred...

Jul 29, 2012 - The hefty legal tab was rubber-stamped by Surrogate's Court judges in ... His successor, Frank Seddio, stepped down in 2007 amid a probe by ...

 


The Surrogate Court is A Political Toll Booth Exacting Tribute From Widows and Orphans - Robert Kennedy, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia 

Brooklyn City bookkeeper in 600G ‘scam’(NYP) A bookkeeper stole more than $600,000 in taxpayer money by creating a phony check from the Brooklyn municipal office that handles the estates of people who die without wills or next of kin, court papers allege.

Queens  A Court, Not Votes, Sustains a Political Machine in Queens (NYT, 11/28/11) *Were Have All the Journalist Gone After Newfield (True News, 7/14/11)) Not since the death or old school investigative report Jack Newfield in 2004 has any reporter in New York covered how the corrupt Queens Democratic Machine use the courts as there personal bank.

Bronx  Bronx Surrogate Judge, Facing Discipline (NYT)  Judge Holzman, the Bronx surrogate since 1988, is in the midst of a disciplinary hearing in which he is charged with allowing his staff to run amok and to take fees that were excessive and unearned from estates that it was handling. Judge Holzman could lose his job as a result of the hearing. 

Staten Island Expose Corrupt Courts: Cover-Up Continues in Surrogate's Court 

Brooklyn Lawyer makes millions with no details on fees - New York Daily News *  Is ex-Surrogate Judge Michael Feinberg of New York a degenerate crook?

Surrogate's Court And Why It Should Go (True News)

More About Corruption in the Surrogate Court

Corrupt Surrogate Court Groundhog Day

In the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia called Surrogate's Court "the most expensive undertaking establishment in the world." He believed it was control of the Surrogate's Court of New York County, more than any other factor, that kept the Tammany Hall political machine alive through the lean years when he deprived it of city jobs and President Franklin Roosevelt denied it federal jobs.



Not, We the People, WE THE MACHINE 

Who are the judge makers? They're people like Jeffrey Feldman, executive director of the Brooklyn Democratic organization and husband of an elected judge. Feldman once boasted, "We haven't lost a judicial seat in over 100 years." He didn't mean "we, the people." He meant "we, the clubhouse." That says it all." - Daily News, Editorial, December 2, 2001 



Surrogate's Court And Why It Should Go - Gotham Gazette


Last week, Brooklyn Surrogate's Court Judge Michael Feinberg was removed from the bench because he committed misconduct ... July 04, 2005 | by Gary Tilzer ...

Muddy fight for Surrogate | Brooklyn Paper



Sep 15, 2007 - A race between two sitting judges for a spot on the Surrogate Court — the ... in New Jersey,” said Gary Tilzer, Johnson's campaign manager.
Sep 20, 2007 - Diana A. Johnson, a State Supreme Court justice, won the nomination with 60 percent of the vote. ... “When I was growing up in Brooklyn, a surrogate race was ... Gary Tilzer, Justice Johnson's campaign manager, put it more ...

Democrats Clash in Brooklyn as Surrogate Judge Race Heats Up ...


Sep 15, 2007 - The New York City Surrogate Court was once known informally as the ... Gary Tilzer, Justice Johnson's campaign manager, said that it was ...
________________________________________________________________-



How Court Ordered Guardians Rip Off Judge Philips and the Slave Theater and Got Away With it

Tug of War Over a Civil Rights Legacy(NYT) The Slave Theater in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, once a hub of civil rights activity, is mired in a bitter battle over ownership rights. Clarence Hardy, the self-proclaimed chief of the Slave Theater in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, said Judge John L. Phillips Jr., the former owner of the neighborhood landmark, wanted him to occupy the theater. * Slave Theater could be sold to pay judge’s ‘debts’ (Brooklyn Paper) * JUDGE JOHN L. PHILLIPS - JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN SERVED * Guardians of Retired Judge Accused of Lax Accounting and Improprieties(NYT) 

 

Corrupt Surrogate Court
Another Conviction from the Corrupt Surrogate Court

Stealing From the Dead Court
‘Sorry’ estate robber off to jail(NYP) A crooked Brooklyn bookkeeper convicted of stealing $2.6 million from the estates of people who died without wills expressed remorse Thursday for his crime before a judge sentenced him to 6 to 18 years in prison. A crooked Brooklyn bookkeeper convicted of stealing $2.6 million from the estates of people who died without wills expressed remorse Thursday for his crime before a judge sentenced him to six to 18 years in prison. Crooked bookkeeper Richard Paul * Manhattan DA Statement

 


In Brooklyn, A Contest for Civil Court Judge | City Limits



Sep 7, 2017 - The Supreme and Family Court Building in Brooklyn. ... been assembled on an alternative slate by journalist and political operative Gary Tilzer.

Aug 14, 2008 - To clean up corrupt Surrogate Courts, wake up and vote ... from Seth Rubenstein, a Brooklyn trust and estate lawyer with deep ... Tingling also snagged Gary Tilzer, a longtime gadfly and reformer, as a campaign strategist.

'Insurgent' Campaigns Aim to Shake Up Brooklyn Judicial Races ...



Aug 10, 2017 - Gary Tilzer, angry that the Brooklyn Democratic Party's handpicked ... is an influential attorney and former surrogate court judge who was forced ...
Aug 7, 2017 - Gary Tilzer, a rep for five of the 11 candidates vying for six Brooklyn civil court ... Seddio, who had a short stint as a surrogate's court judge and ...



Machine 

Feldman Returns to Vito's 2008 Judicial Convention

 

Brooklyn District Attorney says the Supreme Court Election System Corrupts

 

We Are Above the Law 

Against the law for the party to spend money on a primary 

 

More Corruption in the Brooklyn Surrogate Court Public Administration Office

Estates official resigns after office mishandles $2.2M inassets(NYP)The official who oversees estates of people who die without wills in Brooklyn — and whose office was cited for sloppy work by the city comptroller last year — has resigned, The Post has learned. Kings County Public Administrator Bruce Stein stepped down earlier this month, in part because of questions about his ability to perform the job, a source said. Stein’s office was slammed by former Comptroller John Liu in 2013 for mishandling more than $2.2 million in assets, including misplacing a fur coat and allowing $50,000 in cash to sit unclaimed in a safe deposit box for five years. The money was claimed only after auditors pointed it out. The auditors found shoddy work in more than half of the 50 cases that were examined. Stein was appointed to the role in January 2009, and was earning more than $123,000. He did not respond to a request for comment.

 

 

The DN says ruling on Bx Surrogate Judge sends a "horrid" message: "Short of taking a bribe in a paper bag, anything goes."
Bronx Surrogate Judge Lee Holzman keeps his job despite breaking the rules(NYDN Ed) State Commission on Judicial Conduct goes way too easy on a rotten judge.  In one of the worst rulings in its history, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decreed that a judge may stay on the bench despite giving a pass to a lawyer friend who’d grabbed hundreds of thousand of dollars in excessive fees from the estates of the dead. When Holzman’s counsel, Michael Lippman, got caught taking far larger amounts than he was entitled to, Holzman kept him on the job. That way, Lippman was supposed to earn more fees so he could repay the filched funds.Despite citing all these facts, the panel painted Holzman, incredibly, as a misguided soul who clumsily set out to make whole the estates damaged by Lippman. Thus, he will leave his judgeship under his own power, setting a precedent that casual malfeasance will be tolerated.

 





Surrogate Judge Michael Fienberg Ousted Voters Excluded


Joan of Arc

Bill to Alter Court Is Assailed in Brooklyn

 






Sunday, February 10, 2019

How to Run for Democratic Party's County Committee and District Leader

The Leader of the Manhattan Democratic Party is A Lobbyists
A Lobbyist Is Now Running Manhattan's Democratic Party | Village Voice

Keith Wright might have to give up job at lobbying firm - New York Post

Wright works for the lawyer-lobbying firm Davidoff, Hutcher and Citron and is listed on its website as “director of the firm's government relations group” in the New York office focusing on “city and state” issues “as part of a seasoned team of lobbyists.” Former assemblyman Keith Wright joins Davidoff Hutcher & CitronList of Wright's Firm Lobbying Clients 

enter Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP * Wright works for the lawyer-lobbying firm Davidoff, Hutcher& Citron and is listed on its website as “director of the firm's government relations group” in the New York office focusing on “city and state” issues “as part of a seasoned team of lobbyists.” A Lobbyist Is Now Running Manhattan's Democratic Party | Village Voice

Both Joe Crowley Brother and the Manhattan Democratic Boss Wright Work for the Lobbyists Firm Davidoff Hutchen and Citron


Last Year Crowley Who Lost to Ocasio-Cortez is Still Party Boss of Queens
How People Close to Joe Crowley Have Gotten Rich While the Queens Boss Has Risen in Congress (NYDN)  Sean Crowley serves as a partner at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, a powerhouse law firm with offices in Albany, New York City, and Washington, D.C., that advertises its ability to connect clients with congressional leadership. Over the last decade, clients with interests before Congress have retained Sean Crowley through his lobbying firm, paying more than $4.5 million to influence and monitor government policies, according to a review of contracts by The Intercept.Crowley’s Loss Heralds an ‘End of an Era’: Last of the Party Bosses  *  Ocasio-Cortez backers call on Crowley to resign as party boss * Ghosts in the Queens machine: Rep. Joe Crowley's profiteering political partners

 
The City's Election System Has Been Taken Over by Special Interests Lobbyists and Their Clients
NYC's government and elections are now controlled by big money and powerful interests, developers, lobbyists-consultants and party bosses.  Newspaper no long cover politics.    Problems including homelessness, lack of affordable housing closings of small businesses and broken subways have been proliferating for years with solutions. Pay to play corruption is everywhere.  Yet it is almost impossible to defeat a Manhattan incumbent elected official.   Voters have no clue on how district leaders used to organize their community to protect their communities by pressuring elected officials to fix problems like homelessness.  Community involvement is the only way to shift power back to the people.  Low Voting Caused by NY’s NY's Election Law has Given New Power to Political Party Machines, and has Empowered A New Political Bosses the New Un-elected Campaign Consultant Lobbyists into A New Pay to Play Tammany Hall Tammany Hall Still Runs NYC's Political Parties in 2019 * Shadow lobbyists Corruption Were At the Center At the Both the Skelos and Silver Convictions



Occupy the Manhattan Democratic Party in 2019


Many Local Activists and People Involved in Their Local Community Groups Do Not Understand How the Effectiveness of Their Causes Will Benefit If Their Add Their Voice Inside the Democratic Party to the Issues They Care About. 

Who Should Run for County Committee?
Groups Working for Issues in NYC Should Not Do It As Outsiders in the Democratic Party 
-Affordable Housing and Tenant Activists Must Run for County Committee to fight developers influence on elected officials
-Groups fighting against up zoning of their neighborhoods
-People Working for Better Schools Should Also Be Running for County Committee
-Groups fighting for Seniors Should Have their Members Run for County Committee
-Mom and Pop Store Owners Fighting for against rent increase That Drive Them Out of Business
-Groups Seeking to improve the Subways Should Have their Members Run for County Committee
-Neighborhood Associations, Community Board and Precinct Council Members  Seeking to Improve Their Community Quality of Life
Groups for the Environment and better Health Care should run for country committee
Run for Your County Committee! - Veterans Alliance




How the County Committee Works



The NY Democratic Party is governed by county committees of citizens who are registered Democrats, from the State Assembly level down to the block you live on.   The largest national parties (Democrats and Republicans) are mandated by the NY State to have a committee of party members in each of New York's 62 counties. In NYC, there are separate County Committees for each party in Kings, Queens, Bronx, New York, and Richmond Counties.  
County Committee Members Are Elected by Voters In Each of the City's Elections Districts (EDs). There are Almost 10,000 EDs in NYC




Every two years, Democrats in each Assembly District elect district leaders.  Manhattan Assembly District are broken up into parts.  Some have 2 part others have up to 5 parts.  Each part has a male and Female Elected Leader





Today's District Leaders Choose the Party Boss
Who Serves District Leaders Needs, Not the Communities 

OLD TIMES DISTRICT LEADERS  benefited their followers in many ways. They got their constituents work, brought their community together at picnics and on steamboat excursions, and, even cared for them when they were sick.  The old time district leaders were ready to help their voters in trouble with the representatives of the law. These district leaders thus had a very strong influence over a large class, the members of which were ordinarily decent, hard working people, who worked in various trades, but never got far ahead.  The people who at times fell into want, and who sometimes were kinsfolk of semi-criminal type. These voters were apt to regard saloons as their club-houses.  Often, the saloons were the headquarters of local political organizations and were the true social centers of neighborhood life.
Old time Tammany Halls' Boss De Sapio lobbied for affordable housing, protecting neighborhoods from developers and for lower subway fairs.  Political Boss De Sapio kept his power by delivering votes to politicians.  District Leaders in the Tammany Hall era needed to not only deliver government services and jobs to voters in their districts.  They also needed to protect their neighborhoods to keep their deliverable votes high, from the developers who were trying to raise rents and displace residents.  Today's Gentrification displacement and low voting in local elections created a campaign consultant lobbyists shadow govt that has taken power out of the local community by controlling who gets elected.  A cabal of developers, government contractors and unions elect local candidates who then run the government to benefit the groups that helped elect them.


District Leaders Today

The District Leaders of today give out poll worker jobs on election day to supporters who collect petitions signatures, putting their district leader and his or her political and judicial candidates on the ballot.  Today's district leaders do not advocate for community needs to Democratic elected officials, fail to organize the local get-out-the-vote operation, and do not represent the neighborhood on the county party executive committee like the old time district leaders did.  The District Leaders of today neglect basic, grassroots community-building activities and instead focus on getting their favored candidates elected to office, elect judges and increasing their political power to run for higher office. Today very few district leaders face primary and many have been in office for decades.    No, Seriously: What’s a District Leader

 


The Reason Why You're Voting for a Male and a Female District Leader

The New York State primary is on Thursday, September 13th. And you may see candidates running for some lesser-known positions on your ballot, like Male or Female District Leader.
A quick primer: District leaders are unpaid party officials, elected by voters who are registered with their party to oversee the county committee in their assembly district. They aren't legislators, so they don't handle laws. They're mostly in place to run the party's activity in their district.
So why the distinct Male and Female District Leader roles? The reason can be traced back to Eleanor Roosevelt and the League of Women Voters.
Sarah Steiner, an attorney who practices election law, says the two roles were created in 1920, at around the same time as women's suffrage. Eleanor Roosevelt, a vocal advocate for women's rights, had just joined the League of Women Voters. Her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was running for Vice President (this was before he served as governor of New York). Eleanor Roosevelt believed that women had a crucial role to play in understanding and leading their localities. Steiner says it was largely thanks to Eleanor Roosevelt and the League that this District Leadership role was created for women to gain an entry-level position in political party leadership. "It was her idea, and their idea, that politics ought to be more opened up to women, and that giving women the vote would help the reform of the entire political process," Steiner told WNYC. What if two women want to become district leaders in the same assembly district? Well, there's only room for one. Steiner says she doesn't see that as a limitation of the rule. If anything, it's a good problem to have. "To have an entry level position, a position of some power in the party, of some influence in the party, is a very important thing," Steiner said. "Otherwise we might still be baking cookies instead of making policy." https://www.wnyc.org/story/reason-why-youre-voting-male-and-female-district-leader/





The Manhattan Democrat Party is Controlled by A Lobbyists and Elected Officials, Not the Boroughs Neighbors and Issues Activists 

Our Un-Democratic County Committee
The political bosses ensure that a vast number of the seats on the county committee are left unfilled, undermining our goal of broad participation in the county decision-making. These political bosses usurp the power of the county committee by using proxies of county committee members they elect to control what the county committee does.  Instead of representing the needs of Brooklyn residents, the county committee operates as a private country club by representing the interests of political bosses.







County Committee Members are Elected by Election Districts 


The County Committee
Each election district (or ED) is made up of one to a small number of city blocks.  Each ED has two (2) to four (4) seats in the general membership of the county committee; so when all the seats are filled.











6 EASY STEPS TO RUNNING                        FOR COUNTY COMMITTEE

Occupy the Brooklyn Democratic Party 2018
 Step 1: Identify your Assembly District (AD) and your Election District (ED)
(This can easily be done by looking up your address on the NYC Doitt Map or on the BOE’s website) Step 2: Figure out if there is a vacancy. You can reach out to the Board of Elections or your local Democratic County Office. If there is not, you can run in any ED that falls within your AD.  Step 3: Calculate how many signatures you need. You will need 5% of the registered democrats in your chosen ED, which usually amounts to 5-60 signatures.
Here are some quick links where you can find the number of registered Democrats in your AD/ED for Manhattan.  Step 4: Create your County Committee Petition under your chosen party. You can begin collecting signatures from voters within your party only during petitioning season. Getting signatures outside of that window is illegal.
Petitioning starts on Febuary and ends on ???. Go with a friend. Meet your neighbors. It’ll be fun!
Step 5: Submit those signatures you collected. You will need to create a cover sheet & bind your pages before submitting.  You can submit by going to dropping them off to the NYS Board of Elections Office. You can do that between July 9 and July 12. Step 6: If you were running unopposed, congratulations! You are now a county committee person!
If not and you are running against someone, Step 6 means going back to those neighbors and getting them to vote for you in the Primary

 





  • Help Create the Democratic Party Platform (currently not being used at all):
    • Spearhead Ethics Reforms in Both City Hall and Albany
    • Fight Developers and Up-Zoning Changes
    • Fight for Mom and Pop Businesses 
    • Push for Better Schools and Health Care 
    • Fight Air Pollution and Traffic Safety/Congestion
    • Neighborhood Planning and Zoning
    • Education and Police Oversight
    • Reduce Sanitation and Parking Tickets
    • Fight for Low Income Reduced Subway Fairs
  • Organize local neighborhoods
  • Select Judicial Candidates
  • Select the Democratic Party's Nominee in Special Elections 
    • This one is particularly important, since one (1) in three (3) current New York state legislators were chosen in a special election
    • This is incredibly important considering that one-third of state Assembly members were first sent to Albany through a special election, according to a 2017 report by Citizens Union. In the state senate, 19 percent of lawmakers were initially elected this way.  



  • Up until recently? Show up once every two years and hand the  power over to the party boss.  













You Need Petitions to Run for County Committee and District Leader

Petitions Start Febuary and Run Through July 12th 2018 


How to Run for County Committee  
you will only need 3 to 25 signatures from the ED!
5% of the registered Democratic Party Voters in That ED

You could be on the Bronx Democratic County Committee and not even know it


How to Run for District Leader / State Committee 
1 male and 1 female from each of the Assembly Districts need only
5% of the registered Party Democratic Voters in that district 

To Find out What You Are In Find Your AD and ED 
This table shows which Assembly District Part your Election District is in. You can find your AD/ED using your address.
This Table Will Tell You What District You are in 




Maps of the Assembly Districts 
Look Up What Election and Assembly District You Live in 






The Political Bosses Who Run the Board of Election Removed Thousands of Bernie Sanders Voters and Got Away With It
Join Fix NYC to make the Democratic Party and other political parties more inclusive and accessible to the voters.  Get your neighbors to represent your block in the democratic party.  Fix NYC wants you to run and win a seat in your local Democratic County Committee.  Fix NYC plan is to give the County Committee members more power by automatically making them  members of their Local Community Boards, replacing appointed members.  If you are a member of the Working Families Party or any other political party or not a member of a party, we want you to collect 25 signatures from registered voters to qualify to become a member of the community board.  Our goal is to make community boards into Town Halls, where you and your neighbors can reconnect to your local community needs and city wide issues. A.G. Schneiderman Settles BOE Case Without Major Board Reforms

What Happened at County Committee? Looking at the Data, Part II: The Count Kings County Democratic Committee – Time To Engage With Your Members! OPINION


 

 


“The whole system of elections in New York State is rigged,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “Special Elections just exacerbate the existing problems because no one knows it’s happening.” The whole system of choosing a party nominee and getting on the ballot in a Special Election is so complex and inexplicable that even trying to explain it might kill off some of our readers (which we don't want to do; if you want a detailed explanation, you'll have to click here.). Under Albany rules, special elections are rigged. Party bosses pick their nominees who cost to victory in our one party state.

Squadron Departure Spotlights Importance of County Committee

Special delivery:Time to consign undemocratic boss-driven special elections to history (NYDN Ed) Let these be the last two contests conducted under New York’s grossly undemocratic special election law. That statute cuts out the usual party primaries, thereby empowering Democratic and Republican bosses to put whatever loyal soldiers they choose on the ballot. Voters get no real choice about who represents them — especially in places where one party dominates, as Democrats do in most of New York City


The District Leaders and Boss Make Up the Executive Committee of the County Committee That Pick Judges
Who Chooses Supreme Court Judges 
Judicial Delegates Pick Supreme Court Judges From A Convention Held Right After the Democratic Primary.
Who Really Picks New York's Judges? | Brennan Center for Justice

To become a Judicial Delegate you will only need 500 Signatures from your Assembly District!  The county committee, district leaders and judicial delegates can appear on the same petition
A Convention Made Up of Winning Judicial Delegates (about a 100 delegates) Meets Once After the Primary to Nominate Supreme Court Judges



The Political Bosses Who Run the Board of Election Removed Thousands of Bernie Sanders Voters and Got Away With It
Join Fix NYC to make the Democratic Party and other political parties more inclusive and accessible to the voters.  Get your neighbors to represent your block in the democratic party.  Fix NYC wants you to run and win a seat in your local Democratic County Committee.  Fix NYC plan is to give the County Committee members more power by automatically making them  members of their Local Community Boards, replacing appointed members.  If you are a member of the Working Families Party or any other political party or not a member of a party, we want you to collect 25 signatures from registered voters to qualify to become a member of the community board.  Our goal is to make community boards into Town Halls, where you and your neighbors can reconnect to your local community needs and city wide issues. A.G. Schneiderman Settles BOE Case Without Major Board Reforms