Community Board 11 nominating committee sets June election process, elects chair and co-chair

Community Board 11’s Nominating and Election Committee met virtually on Thursday, May 8, and moved to finalize procedures for the board’s June officer elections while selecting leadership for the nominating committee.

The committee nominated Deborah (Debbie) Kowalik to serve as committee chair and Taylor to serve as co-chair; Dwayne Williams moved to nominate Kowalik and Kowalik seconded her own acceptance, and the motion was recorded as unanimous. Debbie Kowalik nominated Taylor as co-chair; Dwayne Williams seconded that motion and the committee confirmed the co-chair as well.

The committee spent the meeting reviewing the board’s bylaws governing nominations and elections, including eligibility requirements and timing. Committee discussion emphasized these points from the bylaws: nominees must have at least nine months of board membership to be eligible for officer positions; nominations must be presented in April and May; nominees must accept nomination in writing within 10 working days or in person at the April or May meeting; and candidates must provide a written or oral statement to the board at least 72 hours before the election.

A staff member explained operational details for conducting the election electronically. The committee will use Google Forms as the ballot mechanism, with the nominating committee drafting and circulating the ballot to members in advance. The staff member said, “I draft the ballot. I run it by you guys. I'll send you an email,” and described producing a backup ballot and a draft for review, retaining a write-in option and preparing for possible runoffs.

Committee members discussed access concerns for board members who are not comfortable with email or online forms. The staff member said ballots will be distributed only to board members by link and exported to a spreadsheet for tabulation; if duplicate submissions or errors appear, staff will reconcile entries with members. The staff member also said ballots will be given to the district manager for safekeeping “in accordance with the city and state regulations.”

The committee noted that votes on board elections are public and that the nominating committee chair is expected to report to the full board; nominations from the floor will be taken in May and the formal vote will occur in June. Committee members asked staff to remind candidate Veronica to provide the required statement; the transcript records that the group had received a statement from Harry but was waiting on Veronica’s submission.

The committee instructed staff to update the board website with committee leadership and to circulate the draft ballot to committee members for testing before distribution to the full board. The meeting closed after confirming next steps: take nominations from the floor in May, finalize ballots, distribute the online ballot to board members, and tabulate results for the June meeting.