Democratic National Committee Rejects Proposal For Financial Review Board
The Democratic National Committee’s powerful Rules and Bylaws Committee rejected a proposal Tuesday to create a democratically elected body charged with reviewing the organization’s finances after every presidential election cycle.
James Zogby, a 26-year DNC member who drafted the proposal, expressed his disappointment with the committee’s decision, arguing that it closes the door on independent oversight of the party’s financial decisions. “Absent the creation of structures to hold people accountable, we have no guarantee that anybody would act different,” said Zogby, who is also executive director of the Arab American Institute. “You can’t be dependent on having a good person, you have to be dependent on having a good structure.”
All of the existing accountability mechanisms are effectively controlled by Perez ― or whoever succeeds him as chair. Two-thirds of the members of the Budget and Finance Committee are appointed by Perez, as are two-thirds of the members of the new ombudsman council ― and, for that matter, the Rules and Bylaws Committee. Zogby envisioned an oversight committee elected by the entire DNC membership, rather than mostly appointed by the DNC chair. The elected membership of that body would have less of a personal stake in assessing the decisions of the DNC chair than a group of people appointed by the chair.
DNC members kept in the dark by the body’s leadership have harbored concerns for years over how the group spends its money. The issue entered the national spotlight in November 2017 when former interim DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile published a tell-all book revealing the extent of the financial mess she’d inherited.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jim-zogby-democratic-national-committee-rejects-financial-review-board_n_5d41e828e4b01d8c9785980d?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaHVmZnBvc3QuY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALdpTMyRAUVhzGJWT1WnDIU1mdbgO8Swjg2PhOXEnIuC9e_PhDvxsFnVJFsfi6I2s1MkYQA10ZbjX-zh_1fxcQI3pWo7h_FGtHSg_8ecxf2uT4gB99reCv8MdjsNT3M3eMNGPwWn3xJMWUL9Fnb7DOWqsb3O-_GUTgRB3dV5l1fN
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