GENERAL MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, March 27, 2019, 7-9:30pm

 

Nikil opened the meeting at 7:00pm.

Committee people were asked to very briefly review Minutes from the previous meeting (7/27/2019). A motion was made and seconded to approve them and they were approved at 7:02pm. He provided a brief report on the meeting of the Democratic City Committee to review judicial candidates that had taken place two days prior, noting that – as was tradition – he had accompanied judicial candidates who reside within our Ward at their introduction (he had earlier clarified to the Chairman that fulfilling this role did not imply endorsement of these candidates by the 2nd Ward).

Nikil then reviewed the meeting agenda which consisted of entirely of discussion and voting on our primary endorsements for City Commissioner, City Council (At-Large and Districts 1 and 2), Mayor, and Sheriff. Siverna Brookings and Kerry Milch were appointed Tellers for this process (Colleen Puckett was later asked to provide a third count to help with rapid verification of the vote in the case of discrepancies between the official counts). Nikil explained that for each office, he would ask for nominations. Committee people offering nominations and any other committee person who wished to speak in support of or against the nominated candidate would be given a minute to do so. Once all nominations had been made, discussion would commence. Nikil would moderate the discussion and Amy Donnella was asked to serve as Parliamentarian to help facilitate.

According to our Bylaws, a majority of committee people present or voting by proxy were required to vote for a candidate in order for the candidate to be endorsed. There were 42 committee people present at the meeting and 7 proxy votes submitted in advance for a total of 49 voting members. Thus, for most offices, the threshold for endorsement was 25 votes (for Council District 1 the threshold was 22 votes and for Council District 2, the threshold was 4 votes). Per our Bylaws, if more candidates received the required number of votes for endorsement than were allowed for endorsement in multi-seat races, the candidates receiving the highest number of votes would receive the endorsement.

CITY COMMISSIONERS

The following candidates were nominated: Luigi Borda, Kahlil Williams, Moira Bohannon, and Jen Devor. After approximately 10 minutes of discussion, a vote was held by paper ballot. Two candidates surpassed the required vote threshold – Kahlil Williams (39 votes) and Jen Devor (37 votes) – and were endorsed by the 2nd Ward.

CITY COUNCIL AT-LARGE

The following candidates were nominated: Helen Gym, Isaiah Thomas, Sherrie Cohen, Justin DiBerardinis, Beth Finn, Ethelind Baylor, Erika Almiron, Eryn Santimoore, and Catherine Gilmore Richardson. After approximately 30 minutes of discussion, a vote was held by paper ballot. Five candidates surpassed the required vote threshold – Helen Gym (44 votes), Erika Almiron (36 votes), Isaiah Thomas (32 votes), Justin DiBerardinis (30 votes) and Ethelind Baylor (30 votes) – and were endorsed by the 2nd Ward.

MAYOR

Jim Kenney was the sole candidate nominated for this position. A motion was made to conduct a voice vote on whether to endorse Jim Kenney. The motion passed and the vote proceeded with near-unanimous support shown for Jim Kenney, who was thus endorsed by the 2nd Ward..

SHERIFF

The following candidates were nominated: Rochelle Bilal, Malika Rahman, and Jewell Williams. After 5-10 minutes of discussion, a voice vote was held. Rochelle Bilal received 32 votes and was endorsed by the 2nd Ward.

CITY COUNCIL – 1ST DISTRICT (VOTED ON BY PARTIAL COMMITTEE)

A motion was made to conduct a voice vote on whether to endorse Mark Squilla. The motion passed and the vote proceeded with near-unanimous support shown for Mark Squilla, who was thus endorsed.

CITY COUNCIL – 2ND DISTRICT (VOTED ON BY PARTIAL COMMITTEE)

Kenyatta Johnson was nominated. After several minutes of discussion, a voice vote was held. Kenyatta received 6 votes and was endorsed by the 2nd Ward.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:30pm.

** Notes on voting results: All voting results in these Minutes include votes by proxy. There were 42 committee people present at the vote  and 7 proxy votes submitted in advance for a total of 49 votes. Complete voting results are included on the final page of these Minutes.