The Kings County Democratic Party’s 42-member executive committee voted Tuesday night in a closed meeting at the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in Mill Basin. Every one of Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn’s proposed amendments passed “by narrow margins,” according to reporting by City & State and NY1. Individual counts have not been released. The changes expand the party’s voting body from 42 members to more than 68, before this fall’s chair election.

The reform coalition backing Sunset Park District Leader Julio Peña III for county chair said it would refile suit in Kings County Supreme Court Wednesday morning to challenge the vote, City & State reported.

For East New York, Brownsville, and Canarsie readers, the practical stakes are the same today as they were Monday. The Kings County Democratic Party’s endorsement shapes the field of judges elected to the Brooklyn courts that hear our neighborhoods’ deed-theft, foreclosure, housing, and family cases. What Tuesday’s vote changed is who gets to make that endorsement. It also decides, in the near term, whether the fall chair election proceeds under the old 42-member body the reform coalition won a majority of, or the new 68-plus-member body it does not.

What passed

The 10-amendment package the executive committee approved includes, according to reporting by amNY and ECIKS and the party’s own notice to members:

In an interview last week on NY1’s Inside City Hall, Bichotte Hermelyn described the expansion as an effort “to create a perception of inclusiveness” by giving voting rights to county committee members and Assembly District representatives who currently sit on the executive committee without a vote.

The vote inside the room

The meeting was a closed executive session. No full roll call has been made public. The reform group New Kings Democrats said Tuesday that all eight district leaders who lost their seats in June’s primary voted in favor of Bichotte Hermelyn’s amendments, according to City & State. Those outgoing district leaders are among the “lame-duck” members whose voting authority the reformers’ lawsuit challenged as a matter of state Election Law.

Individual counts, and where East New York’s Assembly Member Nikki Lucas came down, had not been reported as of publication. Lucas is the sitting female district leader for AD 60 and one of the 42 executive-committee members eligible to vote Tuesday. The East New York Times has renewed a request for comment from her office.

The court fight, restarted

On Monday morning, Peña, incoming AD 43 district leader Akel Williams, and two other reform-aligned party members, Jillian Cara Goger and Johnny Sagan, filed suit in Kings County Supreme Court. They sought an emergency temporary restraining order to block Tuesday’s vote. Their attorney, Mark Hanna, argued that the current executive committee lacks the authority to adopt substantive rule changes between the June primary and the newly elected County Committee’s fall organizational meeting. The filing also challenges the voting eligibility of several members expected to participate Tuesday who, plaintiffs argue, lost their State Committee races in June or did not seek reelection.

The first judge assigned to the case, Justice Kenneth P. Sherman, recused himself. He wrote that he “may be seeking re-nomination in the next election cycle” and that his rulings could be affected by, or affect, the party leadership at issue, amNY reported. The case was reassigned to Justice Jill Epstein. She denied the temporary restraining order Monday afternoon as premature and noted that the plaintiffs could return to court after Tuesday’s meeting.

That is what the coalition now says it will do. City & State reported Tuesday night that reformers aligned with Peña “vowed to re-file a suit to block the changes in court Wednesday morning, arguing the manner the rules were changed was illegal.” The plaintiffs’ filing lists 11 party members whose voting eligibility they say ended in June. Those members include State Sen. Roxanne Persaud, the outgoing AD 54 district leaders Arleny Alvarado-McCalla and Heriberto Mateo, State Sen. Mercedes Narcisse, the AD 56 pair Kenesha Traynham-Cooper and Henry Butler, and Anthony Beckford, Michelle Tege, Doug Schneider, Lydia Bella Green, and Michael Boomer, according to amNY.

Two live legal questions remain, unchanged by Tuesday’s vote. First, whether the outgoing 42-member committee had authority under state Election Law to make substantive rules changes in the post-primary window. Second, whether specific members who cast votes Tuesday still held State Committee status when they did so.

What East Brooklyn’s leaders said before the vote

Council Member Sandy Nurse won the female district-leader seat in the 54th Assembly District in June. Her 37th Council District covers Cypress Hills, City Line, Brownsville, and Bushwick. She is one of the 22 incoming Brooklyn Can’t Wait district leaders. Under the rules in effect Tuesday night, her seat did not take effect until the fall organizational meeting, so she was not among the 42 members eligible to vote.

In a phone interview with the East New York Times before the meeting, Nurse called the proposed amendments “a very blatant power grab by the current chair to retain power.”

“She saw that many Brooklyn voters voted for reform-oriented district leaders,” Nurse said. “Twenty-two of us won our election committed to transforming the Brooklyn Democratic Party, and what she is doing is essentially trying to undermine, negate, and circumvent the will of Brooklyn voters who voted for us. It’s undemocratic.”

Nurse said the party’s dysfunction has practical consequences for the neighborhoods this paper covers.

“District leaders, they pick judges. We nominate, and endorse, and help judges win. And judges do everything from criminal work to civil work to who’s fighting deed theft and who’s supporting workers in family court in all of their cases. These are important decisions, and right now they’re being made in ways that are not really transparent.”

She said the county party has not communicated the stakes to East Brooklyn residents. “The party doesn’t try to educate East New Yorkers or people in Brooklyn about how important it is to have good judges in these roles and why that would impact your life.”

Asked whether her coalition still stood behind Peña for chair, Nurse said the 22 reform district leaders remained committed. “Our coalition of 22 district leaders, we all signed a pledge as part of joining this coalition. Julio is the one that we have voted amongst ourselves to put forward as the candidate for chair. And we’re standing behind him.”

Peña answered questions from an East New York Times reporter at Monday’s Borough Hall rally. Asked why no elected officials representing East New York, Brownsville, or Canarsie were on the podium, he said Nurse was part of the coalition but had a scheduling conflict. Other East Brooklyn officials in the coalition, he said, were also unable to attend. “It is the end of the summer. School’s about to start, and this is the time when most people go on vacation,” Peña said. “So it’s an unfortunate time to call the meeting.”

Assembly Member Latrice Walker, whose 55th Assembly District covers Brownsville, chairs the New York State Assembly’s Election Law Committee. In a written statement to the East New York Times before the vote, Walker declined to take a public position on the amendments.

“I understand the concerns that have been raised regarding the timing, process and potential impact of these proposed changes, and I appreciate the importance of ensuring that our political institutions operate in a manner that is transparent, democratic, and consistent with applicable law,” Walker said. “At the same time, in my capacity as Chair of the New York State Assembly’s Election Law Committee, it’s important that I maintain my independence and impartiality on matters that may ultimately involve provisions of New York State Election Law.”

Walker added that as chair she does not want to “prejudge those questions or take a public position that could compromise, or create the appearance of compromising, my ability to evaluate them fairly should they come before the Committee.”

State Sen. Roxanne Persaud’s office, reached before the vote, declined to comment.

What’s next

The chair election is not on Tuesday’s ledger. Under party rules, the organizational meeting at which the next county chair is elected must be held between September 17 and October 6. Bichotte Hermelyn has not scheduled it.

If the reformers’ second court filing this morning succeeds where their first did not, the fall chair election could still take place under the pre-Tuesday, 42-member structure that gives the Brooklyn Can’t Wait coalition its 22-vote majority. If it fails, the vote will be decided by the newly enlarged executive committee. That body includes Bichotte Hermelyn’s appointees and, at the executive-committee level for now, at least the same eight outgoing district leaders that New Kings Democrats said voted with her Tuesday night.

For readers in East New York, Brownsville, and Canarsie, that means the borough-wide question this fall is not only who leads the Kings County Democratic Party. It is also what rules that vote proceeds under, and which court is willing to say so.

The East New York Times has renewed its request for comment on Tuesday’s vote from Council Member Chris Banks, Assembly Member Nikki Lucas, Assembly Member Erik Dilan, and State Sen. Julia Salazar. Council Member Sandy Nurse spoke to the paper by phone before the vote. Assembly Member Latrice Walker provided a written statement declining to take a public position, citing her role as Election Law Committee chair. State Sen. Roxanne Persaud’s office declined to comment. This story will be updated as responses come in.

The East New York Times’ full pre-vote explainer on the rules package, the lawsuit, and what the fight decides is available here.