CB9 Chair Re-elected to Third Term

WEB UPDATE

CB9 Chair Re-elected to Third Term
By Tanveer Ali
Spectator Senior Staff Writer


December 16, 2005

Community Board 9 members restlessly awaited the results of its Executive Committee�s election at last night�s full board meeting, not because of the suspense but just because they wanted to go home.

After an unusually long delay in counting 31 votes and several proposals by one CB9 member to start playing cards or sing karaoke to kill the time, the votes were finally tallied and the results were announced for who would serve as CB9 chair for 2006.

Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, who has served as chair for the past two years, was overwhelmingly re-elected by fellow CB9 members, receiving 27 votes to the two votes received by his challenger, George Goodwill.

�There will be more of the same,� Reyes-Montblanc said about the next year. �We still have the 197-a plan. We have Columbia�s 197-c and we have a lot of other issues in the community that we are not going to ignore.�

Reyes-Montblanc has spent much of his tenure supporting the 197-a plan, a CB9-devised framework for development of the community district which differs in many respects from Columbia�s 197-c plan for the proposed Manhattanville campus.

None of the other elected offices for the Executive Committee were contested.

Among the other issues discussed at the meeting were the rezoning process for Manhattanville and the status of the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

�For the Katrina evacuees the issue is really of permanent housing. They have to find permanent housing because FEMA won�t pay the hotel bill [for much longer],� said Nellie Bailey, director of the Harlem Tenants Council.

Tom DeMott, member of Coalition to Preserve Community, asked representatives from the offices of City Councilman Robert Jackson (D-West Harlem) and State Assemblyman Keith Wright (D-Harlem) whether they have sent in their comments on the draft scope prepared by Columbia for its Environmental Impact Statement. Both representatives said their offices have yet to submit official comments. The commenting period will end Jan. 6.

DeMott also said that Columbia has yet to approach community members about a possible community benefits agreement, a legal contract between a developer and community addressing community needs. �Negotiations should be happening at this community board,� he said. �Unless we do it that way, we�re screwed.�

Columbia officials have previously said that the University hopes to start negotiations in January.