Executive Board Amendment Process (Roger Crew)

Author

Roger Crew

Precinct

M-I 41-0789

Summary/Argument

This allows the Executive Board to amend the bylaws by 2/3 vote of its representative members. The effective date of the amendment is delayed for 30 days so that PCOs have a chance to respond if they so choose. The vote is null and void if sufficiently many PCOs register objections in that time.

This provides a method of amending the bylaws without incurring the time and expense of a PCO meeting. The nullification provision exists to limit the Executive Board to acting only on matters that are essentially bug-fixes unlikely to be of interest to PCOs generally, or where there is already known to be sufficiently broad consensus on the need for a particular change that objections are unlikely.

To be sure, the best setting for the threshold of PCO signatures needed to nullify is admittedly a matter of guesswork. If it is too high, it gets correspondingly more difficult to exercise oversight. Too low and this provision will simply not be used/usable (i.e., if disgruntled minority factions can throw sand in the gears).

The 7.5% threshold (~75 PCOs based on current numbers) derives from the draft’s PCO meeting quorum requirement of 10%, the number of signatures received being assumed to be representative of the number of people across the county who would vote NO if they could attend a meeting. Note that the threshold should be at least 5% since any proposal NOT having that number of NO voters is guaranteed to pass if a meeting is held, 10% quorum attained, and there are no abstentions, the meeting then being a waste of time since the outcome is known in advance. And if only 2/3 of voters can attend meetings — a quite generous assumption given that our reorgs typically have attendance rates around 1/4-1/3 of the PCO population — and assuming this equally handicaps YES and NO voters, then the guarantee holds with the threshold at 7.5%.

Text of Change

Existing text of Section 11.2 Bylaw Amendments becomes (sub)Section 11.2.1 “By the PCOs”

Then add new (sub)Section 11.2.2 “By the Executive Board” with the following content

These Bylaws may be amended at an Executive Board meeting
by a 2/3 vote of Legislative District and King County Young Democrats
representatives and seated alternates,
provided that previous notice of the proposed amendment is given in writing,
and provided that, upon a successful vote,
the PCOs shall be notified,
the amendment shall not take effect until 30 days after notification,
and shall not take effect at all
if petitions to nullify the vote have been received within 30 days
and been signed by at least 7.5% of all PCOs in King County,
including PCOs from at least 4 legislative districts.