The Collingswood Democratic Committee Opposes Problematic Bylaw Changes Proposed by Camden County Democratic Committee Chairman Jim Beach

On Friday, February 26, 2021 Jim Beach, Chair of the Camden County Democratic Committee (CCDC) announced half a dozen tangentially related proposed changes to the CCDC bylaws. According to Chairman Beach, these proposed revisions were recommended by a special appointed committee. The Collingswood Democratic Committee calls for an open discussion of these proposed changes. While the Collingswood Democratic Committee appreciates some of the proposed changes, others are deeply concerning.

The first of the proposed bylaw changes is focused on inclusion of gender non-binary County Committee members. On February 13, 2020, the Collingswood Democratic Committee submitted a proposed bylaw change to Chairman Beach, recommending that the Camden County Democratic Committee remove language that mandates that committee representation be defined by gender, with an equal number of male and female committee members required in each municipality. The Collingswood Democratic Committee believes language focused on gender identity creates barrier to County Committee membership for gender variant and nonbinary Democrats. “We have long advocated for this change as County Committee members, dating back to a proposal we first submitted to Chairman Beach for consideration in February 2020. We thank Chairman Beach for hearing our concerns,” said Brian Dilks-Brotman, Vice Chair of the Collingswood Democratic Committee. “We believe this is a much needed reform that would move the County Committee a big step closer to full and fair representation of all Democrats.”

The Collingswood Democratic Committee finds the third of the six proposed bylaw changes to be  particularly problematic as it offers former Democratic officials voting privileges despite not being elected members of the County Committee. This seems to create the potential for a lifetime membership, with voting rights equal to those committee members that local Democrats have chosen as their delegate to the County Committee. This, particularly in light of the lack of a codified standard of ethical behavior, leaves no room for accountability. “This undermines the value of committee elections. Voters decide who they want to represent them. We need to uphold the results of elections. Honorary, non-voting status is acceptable but not this,” said Kate Delany, Chair of the Collingswood Democratic Committee and President of South Jersey Progresive Democrats.

Finally, while the pandemic has certainly demonstrated the need for provisions that allow in-person meetings to be postponed due to health and safety risks, remote meetings are a safe alternative.  For instance, the meeting on which these changes will be discussed and adopted will be held remotely. The Collingwood Democratic Committee asks that postponement and rescheduling for the biannual reorganization meeting be reserved for public health emergencies that make even remote meetings unsafe. The Collingswood Democratic Committee advocates for more precise language in noting when the biannual reorganization meeting can be postponed and what counts as “circumstances jeopardize the health, safety and/or welfare of the County Committee members.”

The Collingswood Democratic Committee looks forward to a robust discussion on how our committee can best reflect Democratic values. “We hope this will open the door to additional reforms necessary to make our party more democratic,” said Katie Ingersoll, Secretary of the Collingswood Democratic Committee and Vice President of South Jersey Progressive Democrats.  “For example, we are interested in reforming the ballot to eliminate the “party line” which unfairly favors incumbents and hurts reform candidates in primary elections. We also want to see the CCDC adopt a code of ethics for committee members. We applaud the interest in exploring change but we want to make sure those changes are both democratic in nature and decided upon democratically.”