To our fellow Democratic PCOs, officers, and supporters:
Thank you for a great electoral year! King County is among the largest counties in the United States, and we are deep blue.
The King County Democrats are reorganizing on Saturday, December 1, and we hope to see you there. Your vote is important in setting our party’s priorities for the next two years.
We are presenting a proposed update to the King County Democratic Party’s bylaws. Over the years, the Bylaws have been updated in a piecemeal manner, resulting in a document that conflicts with itself and with the State Bylaws. These changes have been increasingly made internally, by the Executive Board, rather than approved by the grassroots PCOs. In order to position ourselves for a strong 2020, our Bylaws and our organization need to be modernized for an expanding and diversifying King County.
In the past year, we were embroiled in a conflict resulting in a trial and removal of the Chair. This process exposed problems with our bylaws, which gave the Chair power over complaints against him, set an impossible burden for removal for cause, and made the process far more challenging and confusing than it should have been. We cannot afford to have similar distractions as we move forward, with so many important local races ahead in 2019 and 2020. Our organization should have clear, fair, easily understood bylaws that can be easily handed down from one leadership cohort to the next.
King County is unique in the state: It contains all or part of 17 Legislative Districts. By comparison, Pierce and Snohomish Counties, the next most populous, each cover all or part of only seven Legislative Districts. Because there are so many and such diverse LDs in King County, we believe that the majority of local decisions and local action belongs in those LDs. We envision a County Party whose main role is to assist and support the LDs, not to dictate to them.
It is our belief in these three key principles -- modernization, clear accountability, and LD-centric leadership -- that drive our proposed changes to the bylaws. These updated bylaws feature changes in a few key areas:
Number of members. An Executive Board body of nearly 60 members (47 LD-level plus 9 KCDCC officers) is unnecessarily large and unwieldy. Moving from 3 representatives per LD to 2 will maintain geographic representation and will improve gender representation (each LD will send 2 members of different genders).
Number of meetings. Focusing the scope of KCD’s activities will also reduce the need for monthly Executive Board meetings and deepen ongoing engagement with the PCOs. Under these bylaws, PCOs have the right to vote on KCDCC’s endorsements and would meet at least twice a year to do so. We would like to move to 4 Executive Board meetings and 4 PCO meetings per year, reducing total KCD meetings from 12 to 8.
Scope of endorsements. KCD currently issues redundant endorsements for LD-level and federal races. We propose focusing KCD on direct endorsements only in county-level races, including judicial races, and municipal races where the district spans multiple LDs. In statewide, federal, and LD-centric races, we will defer to the legislative district or other relevant endorsement bodies.
Elevation of Code of Conduct into Bylaws. Our experience this past year highlighted the need to ensure that the core mechanisms of the Code of Conduct are within the Bylaws to allow for clarity and confidence when addressing complaints.
Updates to Budget and Finance Committee. Given the size of King County, there have been widely varying amounts raised and spent by KCD by year. We have also seen problems with our financial solvency and opaque candidate contributions. In June, KCD settled with the Attorney General for a substantial fine related to PDC reporting violations; we are now on a payment plan with the state. In order to support the financial health and sustainability of the organization, we propose additional guidelines and safeguards on the budgeting and expenditure process.
Named roles for Vice Chairs and Committee Changes. Our organization has evolved, but its structure has not. Naming the roles and duties of the Vice Chairs encourages people to run, and PCOs to vote, based on their skills and experience executing these core functions of the party.
All of King County’s Congressional representatives are now Democrats, and every Legislative District wholly contained in King County is entirely represented by Democrats. Well done to everyone who helped to flip the seats in the 8th CD, as well as the 5th, 47th and 30th LDs this year!
In 2019, we can do the same with municipal races, strengthening our communities and building the bench for 2020 and beyond. These Bylaws changes will strengthen our party and focus our organization to do just that.
If you would like to submit feedback or suggested changes, please do so using the form at this link: https://goo.gl/forms/IfJdnay9pfdpAC7h1. Thank you for your engagement in our democracy and our party.
In solidarity.
