Chaos reigns at Brooklyn Dems organizational meeting

Disorder, delays and dysfunction appeared to have won the day at the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s biannual organizational meeting on Wednesday.

After the meeting concluded, nearly eight hours after its scheduled start time, there was no answer as to whether Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn would keep her position as chair. Party leadership announced that a vote on that question would be held on Sept. 29. Nor was there an answer as to whether the lawsuit introduced by the reformist district leaders seeking to oust Bichotte Hermelyn would succeed in overturning the controversial rules passed by the party’s executive committee last month. Nor an answer on whether an appellate court now considering that lawsuit would simply nullify everything that was decided at Wednesday’s chaotic meeting at City Tech in Downtown Brooklyn. 

The only thing completed without incident, in fact, was lunch. And even the pizza was likely wheeled out to quell frustrations after hundreds of committee members were told to go to the lobby to resolve discrepancies in proxy registrations and issues getting the clickers that would allow them to cast their votes.

Despite the meeting’s 10 a.m. scheduled start time, proceedings didn’t kick off until 1:30 p.m. A mere ten minutes later, attendees pushed party brass into pressing pause so the widespread issues could be addressed – hence the emergence of the pizza. 

“You know when they started this meeting I had black hair,” joked Howard Graubard, one of the lawyers representing reformers, as he emerged from the auditorium, silver hair gleaming under the fluorescents. “And I had hair,” quipped the bald Paul Newell, one of the group’s other lawyers.

The initial agreed upon 20 minute recess stretched into an hour, which stretched into another. By the time the meeting was reconvened, it was 3:30 p.m – just two hours away from when the party leaders said they needed to give up use of the auditorium. 

“The first thing everyone needs to recognize is that we have to be out of here in two hours,” Rob Robinson, the party’s parliamentarian, informed attendees as they took their seats once again. A cacophony of incredulous laughter and groans rose from the crowd at this proclamation. 

That’s when things really went off the rails. Chaos, confusion and frustrations reigned as Robinson, district leader Anthony Beckford and other party leaders pressed through votes to fill vacancies on the county committee and to elect the county committee officers. They did so as a chorus of attendees voiced complaints – about their votes not being registered, names being misspelled on the ballots, proxy voters not being properly logged, not receiving an email notifying them about the organizational meeting and the voting clickers not working. The list went on. 

“No, no, no, no, who’s Akil Williams?” Akel Williams, a reformist district leader called at one point, gesturing at the screen where the ballot misspelled his name as “Akil.” (Posters displayed throughout the auditorium and lobby were also rife with misspellings. Rodneyse “Bichoote” Hermelyn was not spared.) 

The audience steadily grew louder as the number of total votes tallied, which were projected on stage following each vote, changed wildly. 

“The math is not math-ing,” one woman shouted. 

Blocks away in downtown Brooklyn, an appellate court had just finished hearing arguments over the legality of the controversial party rules Bichotte Hermelyn moved to get passed last month. But without any ruling issued, those changes technically remained in effect Wednesday. 

Motions to reconvene the meeting at a later date, presumably after a resolution to the court case, were repeatedly ignored. "Can I make a motion to adjourn?" one attendee asked. "This seems like a fake meeting."

As party leadership pushed forward another vote on those infamous rule changes, tensions escalated further as reformers and their allies argued they weren’t given the proper advance notice about them. 

“You can thank me, but you can also suspend the vote because they are improperly before this committee,” Assembly Member and reform supporter Jo Anne Simon said, fruitlessly making the case for why the rules couldn’t be voted on. The vote on the rules passed.

Eventually, the crowd teetered into outright revolt, chanting “shame, shame, shame, shame.” 

All hell is breaking out at the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s organizational meeting as party brass charge forward filling county committee vacancies despite dozens of audience members voicing concerns about their votes not being counted, numerous misspellings and proxy issues. pic.twitter.com/5qhhauLCuY

— Sahalie Donaldson (@SahalieD) September 23, 2026

Bichotte Hermelyn did not make an appearance during the meeting despite her placard being placed on the table onstage. With tempers blazing as the meeting wound toward a raucous close, one attendee pointed out that fact. 

“Point of information,” they said, forging forward without being recognized by party leadership. “You got two tablecloths there so why is Rodneyse too chickenshit to show up?”

Asked whether there was any hope of reconciling with Bichotte Hermelyn and her allies in party leadership, Julio Peña III, the district leader reformers hoped to replace her with, was uncertain. 

“It’s hard to reconcile with someone who is using the Republican playbook to stay in power,” he told reporters before the meeting began. “That being said, nothing is off the table, but we have to see some real serious commitments to change the way this party is operating for us to engage in any conversation.” 

With reporting from Shenal Tissera.