Election Committee Minutes

MINUTES OF MEA NOMINATION MEETING. August 5, 2024. Virtual Meeting

Management Employees Association Executive Director, Alice Wong, opened the Zoom meeting at 6pm, and turned the meeting over to the Election Committee Chair, Patrick Toner.

Mr. Toner introduced himself and the other members of the Election Committee, Ms. Theresa Yuan and Mr. Carlos Obando. He stated they were appointed by the Executive Board of the MEA at a meeting on May 21, 2024.

Mr. Toner then stated:

  1. the meeting was to obtain nominations for the offices of President, Executive Vice President, Treasurer and Recording Secretary, as well as, nominations for up to four (4) Directors-at-Large.
  2. according to the By-Laws of the MEA, to be eligible for elected office, active members should be in good standing for at least one year. A retiree should be in good standing for at least 2 years before leaving City service and, of course, in good standing as a retiree. He said that nominations can be made by any member, including him/herself, and nominees need not be seconded.
  3. nominees must accept the nomination in writing and sign an acknowledgement of the Ethics Code, and be aware that serving as an officer is on a volunteer basis; there is no compensation.
  4. for tonight’s procedure he will state each position – one at a time – for which a member can be nominated. Then he will open the floor for any nominees. He asked that members use the Raise Hand feature, or raise their hand on their screen, and Ms. Wong will unmute their mike so they can state a nomination.  He will request that this nominee accept or reject his/her nomination, if he/she is in attendance. If not in attendance, he/she must affirm the nomination within 24 hours, sending it in an email to INFO@NYCMEA.ORG. Then he will ask for further nominations for that position, repeating this same process.
  5. if only one candidate is nominated for that position, he will close the nominations for that position, and cast his vote for the only nominee to elect him/her to that position. Then he will move on to the next position. He stated that if more than one candidate is nominated, the Election Committee will record those candidates for submittal to an independent entity who will prepare ballots for the membership’s vote.
  6. this practice will continue thru all the positions, except for the Directors-At-Large which will accept nominations from 2 to 4 positions at one time.
  7. in the event only one nominee is nominated for each position and only 4 nominees for Director at Large, and he had casted his one vote for each to elect them, then the Election Process will have been concluded. Any no balloting would be necessary.
  8. further explained that if there is a second nominee for any position, or for Directors-At-Large – more than 4 nominees, then we will proceed with the ballot portion of the election process.
  9. each nominee must sign an Acknowledgement of the Ethics Code by August 9th, and the verification of each nominee’s Good Standing must be made by August 12th.
  10. if we go to the balloting process, nominees may not use City Agency internet addresses, nor any City equipment for electioneering. Additionally, campaign materials of the nominee must be submitted for Election Committee approval by August 23rd, in electronic format, like a word document.
  11. materials are reviewed by the Election Committee for factual mistakes, misrepresentations, etc., pursuant to the Election Code by-laws, but that nominees may appeal Election Committee decisions concerning editing of the election materials.
  12. ballots and campaign materials are made available to members on Sept 11th by the American Arbitration Association (AAA), our independent entity conducting the balloting process. And that the AAA must have received completed ballots from members by close of business October 2nd. The count of the ballots are to be reported to the MEA on October 3rd. If there’s any need for a run-off, that is, no nominee received more than 40% of the vote, except for Directors at Large who shall be elected based on plurality, that will commence by October 11th, and conclude by October 25th.
  13. the Election Committee will announce the results on October 29th.

Mr. Toner then stated: Now let’s conduct the Nomination Process.

He stated, for President, he opens the floor for any nomination.

  • Mr. Sam Borkow nominated Darrel Sims.  
  • Mr. Darrel Sims accepted the nomination.
  • Mr. Toner asked if there were any further nominations, but there were none. He stated, there being no further nominations for President, he closes the nominations and casts one vote for Darrel Sims – He is our President elect.

He stated, for Executive Vice President, he opens the floor for any nomination.

  • Mr. Darrel Sims nominated Keyala Crawford.
  • After initially declining, Ms. Crawford then accepted the nomination.
  • Mr. Toner asked if there were any further nominations, but there were none. He stated, there being no further nominations for Executive Vice President, he closes the nominations and casts one vote for Keyala Crawford – she is our Executive Vice President elect.

He stated, for Treasurer, he opens the floor for any nomination.

  • Mr. Sam Borkow nominated Peter Kontogiannis. 
  • Mr. Peter Kontogiannis accepted the nomination. 
  • Mr. Toner asked if there were any further nominations, but there were none. He stated, there being no further nominations for Treasurer, he closes the nominations and casts one vote for Peter Kontogiannis – He is our Treasurer elect.

He stated, for Recording Secretary, he opens the floor for any nomination.

  • There were no nominations from the membership.
  • Mr. Toner then stated that there being no nominations for Recording Secretary, he closed the nominations and reports that the position of Recording Secretary is vacant until such time the Executive Committee appoints a Recording Secretary in that position temporarily until the next election.

Mr. Toner then stated, for Director-at-Large he opens the floor for any nominations, where 2 to 4 can be accepted without balloting.

  • Mr. Darrel Sims nominated James Durrah. 
  • Mr. James Durrah accepted.
  • Mr. Darrel Sims nominated Sam Borkow. 
  • Mr. Sam Borkow accepted.
  • Mr. Toner stated that there being no further nominees for Director-at-Large, he casts one vote for James Durrah and one vote for Sam Borkow to elect each as a Director-at-Large.

Mr. Toner then reminded each nominee that they must submit the acknowledgement of the Ethics code by this Friday, August 9th.

Mr. Toner then stated that there being no further business of the Election Committee, he concluded this Nomination Meeting, and turned the Zoom Meeting back to our Executive Director – Ms. Alice Wong.

Ms. Wong thanked the committee members and attendees. The meeting was adjourned.

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