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Proposed Bylaws

Proposed Bylaws

Dear Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Central Committee Members.

The Constitution and Bylaws Committee has completed its work on proposed amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws. The Committee voted unanimously to submit the proposed amendments to the Central Committee for the vote to enact.

The proposed amendment includes a substantial rework of the organization of topics and text to reduce ambiguities, improve ease of reading and allow advancements in the use of electronic media for party communications. We are providing you with two versions of the proposed changes.

  • One version shows the track changes from the current Constitution and Bylaws. This version can be confusing because it shows language stricken even if it has only been moved to a different section for organizational purposes. (For example, the current Article 4 addressing Amendments is moved to Section 1.8 and the Party Unity provisions currently in Article I, Section 5, are moved to Section 7.1.) However, we thought that it was important that you have this for your review.
  • The second version is “clean”, that is, incorporating all the changes and showing the document as it will appear on the Party’s website, should it be adopted.

There are two substantive changes:

  1. Rules of conduct and procedures for their enforcement including establishment of a sanctions committee. See Sections 7.2 and 7.3. This section incorporates existing rules for party loyalty. See Section 7.1.
  2. Procedures allowing the position of Party Chair to be a paid employment. These provisions include procedures for determining whether the Party Chair shall be paid and a special provision for payment of the current Party Chair. The Party Chair was not present for the part of the committee meetings where this provision was discussed. The Committee received a report about the Party’s present finances showing ability to pay the current Chair the proposed salary. See Sections 2.2, 4.6, and 6.2.

There are other minor changes, some of which are as follows:

Deletions

  1. Delay between when an Executive or Central Committee member is appointed and when they can vote. See current Constitution and Bylaws Article II, Section 6.c; Article III, Section 13.f. (While approving these provisions initially, the ODP subsequently advised that they were unenforceable.)
  2. Party Cabinet. See current Constitution and Bylaws Article III, Section 12. (This provision was rarely, if ever, implemented.)

Additions

  1. Permissive removal of a Leader. See Section 5.9.
  2. Audit Committee See Section 6.4
  3. Chartered Clubs Committee. See Section 6.5.

Modifications

  1. Composition of the Sanctions Committee. See Section 6.3.
  2. Clarification that only in a partisan primary, upon certification by the Board of Elections, does the Democrat with the highest number of votes automatically become the Party’s endorsed candidate. See Section 3.2.6.
  3. Vice-chairs have been substituted (see current Constitution and Bylaws Article III, Section 7) with directors appointed by the Chair (see Section 4.1). (The purpose is to give the Chair more flexibility in administering the Party’s operations.)

Please review at least the “clean” version in its entirety; there are other changes for you to review, but we believe we have highlighted above the key ones.

I want to commend the Leaders who served on the Bylaws Committee: Paula Kampf (Ward 3), Richard Starr (Ward 5), Valarie J. McCall (Ward 6), Brian Kazy (Ward 16), Karolyn Isenhart (Lakewood); Catherine Covarrubias (Lyndhurst); Steve Holecko (Middleburg Heights) Thomas Mastroianni (Parma), Rep. Phil Robinson (Solon). The Committee also received advice and assistance from the officers, (David Brock, Juanita Brent, Nakeshia Nickerson and Rudy Stralka) and these attorneys: Sandy McNair, Linda Striefsky and Jeff Crossman.

If you have any question or comments, you may call me, Bob Belovich at 440-503-8770 or send an email to rsb@belovichlaw.com.

/s/ Bob Belovich,

Brecksville City Leader and Chair, Constitution and Bylaws Committee