Blood on the Community Board Floor

Blood on the Community Board Floor

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's new set of Community Board has been anxiously awaited in Manhattan political circles, and it's out today, with a couple of notable names and a general sense of a change of course. Stringer instituted a new, open, application process, and apparently dropped sitting members who didn't bother participating. He purged quite a bit downtown and, with Councilwoman Inez Dickens, replaced some of the Harlem allies of Virginia Fields and Bill Perkins. Jo Hamilton, whom Virginia removed, is back on Community Board 2.

Other notable new Community Board members: Stringer aide and political consultant Micah Lasher; erstwhile Working Families Party Mayoral Candidate Kevin Finnegan; former City Council chief-of-sfatt Forrest Taylor (a Dickens appointment); and smoothing things over in Harlem, Amsterdam News publisher Elinor Tatum, who will sit on Community Board 3 -- which is not, by the way, anywhere near Harlem, but never mind.

Anyway, you can read the full list here.

April 03 03:27 PM Comments (63) Permalink

NB- On reviewing above Comments found an anonymous posting referring to CB9M to which posted a reply:

http://thepoliticker.observer.com/2006/04/blood-on-the-community-board-floor.html

IN RESPONSE TO:
Community Board 9 has 16 new people, and CB10 has 12 new people. And take a hard look at who was NOT reappointed to CB10 - this is most certainly a housecleaning.

The CB10 meeting on Wednesday may very well erupt into a riot.

Oh - and CB9 has someone who works for Columbia U, and that CB is the area that includes all the Columbia development.

Let the games begin!

Posted by: anonymous April 3, 2006 05:41 PM

JRM's REPLY:
CB9M had 12 vacancies. There were 4 members not reappointed basically due to excessive absences.

The 16 new appointments are welcome, for the first time in several years CB9M has a full 50 member complement on April 1st.

Most new appointees are new names many recent arrivals to the District and fairly unknown to the community.

Boards have Conflict of Interest procedures and policies in place, so I would not be too concerned about anyone's employment or profession.

Although I would probably have re-appoint most if not all of the incumbents and were not consulted on the new appointees, I strongly believe CB9M will be in the strongest position it has been for quite a while.

The Borough President has acted in accordance to his Charter mandated duties, it is now up to the Board Chairs to carry out their own Charter mandated duties and we all shall see what results.

I really resent anonymous postings where people feel free to cast all sort of aspersions without facts or fundaments.
Sincerely,

J. Reyes-Montblanc
Chair Community Board No. 9 Manhattan
Posted by: J. Reyes-Montblanc April 4, 2006 02:11 PM