My resignation letter, Vice-Chair Wake Democratic Party, Sept. 15 2010

I am sure the question will immediately arise, why post this and why now? I am doing so, as I am told that at the most recent meeting of the Board of the Wake Democratic party some of those present asked why I had resigned. They were told by the elected officers (all of whom received this letter prior to my resignation), that "they did not know why." So here goes:

To: Mary Starkey,Acting Chair, Wake Democratic Party
Via Email

Re: Resignation as Raleigh Vice-chair Wake Democratic Party
Resignation Effective September 15, 2010

I am resigning after considering the controversy at every meeting I have attended since accepting a “compromise” election based on the vote in April 2010 at the most recent County Executive Committee Meeting. I am still waiting for Minutes from that meeting over 4 months ago, but my recollection is as follows for any not in attendance or whose memories have “faded:”

1) The first item on the agenda should have been a report from the Credentials Committee. Jack Nichols did not call for a report. John Brooks did. The report was not complete or accurate, as the information available to the persons in charge was not complete or accurate.
2) The rules for the meeting were adopted including the rule providing that each candidate would be allowed to speak to the entire CEC for five minutes and the nominating speech would be two minutes and a seconding speech would be allowed for up to 1 minute.
3) Without a vote to suspend the adopted rules, these rules were ignored, and Jack Nichols said Doris Burke and I, the only candidates, could have a few seconds to speak.
4) Jack’s excuse for this violation of the rules was the lack of time. It is true the meeting was running behind. But because he was 15 minutes late starting the meeting.

I have given the Wake County Board this information previously, and it has chosen to ignore this information, and it is on a course to have another meeting where the Plan of Organization is ignored or violated with impunity. I have spoken to the issues of secrecy and lack of transparency more than once.

It appears from comments made by other members of the elected BOD that they see open discussion and transparency in party actions as somehow incompatible with electing Democrats to office. I do not, or I would not have made that a stated goal when running for office. Quite the contrary, I believe the lack of transparency is a reason so many voters are opting out of identifying with either of the major parties in North Carolina and the surge in Non-affiliated voters status.

Given that I cannot discuss civilly my reasons or my goals for the election in 2010 I am hereby submitting my resignation to become effective September 15th after the County Executive Committee Meeting on September 14th.

Sincerely yours,

Martha C. Brock