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June 13, 2007
Boot comes as a shock to this member - CB6’s Al Cabbad says he was never told about getting the axe
Courier-Life Publications
By Gary Buiso
Octogenarian Al Cabbad was the last to know.
Cabbad, a longtime member of Community Board 6, and successful 5th Avenue merchant, had no idea he was booted from Community Board 6—until this newspaper came calling.
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“I wish CB 6 the best of luck,” he said. “I know where I stand. I know how good I am.”“I stand very tall,” he said.
In September, Cabbad, like the majority of the board, voted in favor of several resolutions that expressed reservations with developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project.
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Member Celia Cacace praised Cabbad’s long service to Brooklyn. She called his removal “shameful.”“What they did is terribly wrong,” Cacace said. “Is this becoming a dictatorship?”
A spokesperson for City Councilmember David Yassky is attempting to make sure the blame for the unpopular purge remains on the steps of Borough Hall:
City Councilmembers recommend members to the board but don’t actually appoint them, noted Sam Rockwell, a spokesperson for Yassky. “David and the borough president have a wonderful working relationship, but in the end, the decision to reappoint or not reappoint is the decision of the borough president,” he said.
One Community Boardmember, Joe Porcelli, announced that he will resign in protest:
“The board, in my mind, has become a farce,” he continued. “There is a compact here, based on the illusion that community boards are based on participatory democracy. I always thought this illusion was reality.”
Posted by lumi at June 13, 2007 9:21 AM