District Council 37 union delegates reject proposal for direct election of Council officers

Top officers of DC 37 will continue to be elected through proportional representation by Council delegates, who are in turn elected by the membership.

Delegates of District Council 37, the city's largest public employee union, tonight voted down a proposed amendment calling for direct membership election of the Council's top officers. This is the second time in five years that the issue has been raised and rejected. The voting took place by a roll-call vote at the Oct. 25 meeting of the Council's delegate assembly.

Delegates representing 66,877 members (or 56% percent of those who voted) voted to reject the proposal, while delegates representing 51,671 members (or 44%) voted in favor. A 2/3 majority (or 79,032) would have been required for the measure to pass. With the proposal defeated, officers of DC 37 will continue to be elected through proportional representation by Council delegates, who are in turn elected by the membership.

"DC 37 is a democratic union where those representing both sides of this issue had the opportunity to fully and freely express their views," said Executive Director Lillian Roberts. "The DC 37 delegates, who are elected by the membership, then made their decision and I will abide by it."

In January and February 2005, the DC 37 Laws and Rules Committee held two hearings on one-member, one-vote that were open to all eligible union members who wished to participate. At the August Executive Board meeting, the Committee recommended against bringing the proposal to the delegates. They did so in part because a mail ballot would be costly ($400,000+ vs. $45,000 under the present system), and it was also suggested that the process might be vulnerable to corruption from outside sources. A majority of members of the DC 37 Executive Board voted to overrule the committee, thus putting the current proposal before the DC 37 delegates who in turn voted it down.

DC 37 delegates voted down a similar proposed amendment in September 2000 by 68% against and 32% for.

District Council 37 represents 121,000 city employees and 50,000 retirees.