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November 22, 2011
Op-Ed: Civic Leader Blasts Community Board Secrecy
Sheepshead Bites
by Ed Jaworski
Shhh. There apparently are secret agents, or maybe participants in a witness protection program, among the members of Brooklyn’s Community Board 15.
Three times I have tried to learn the clandestine backgrounds of all Community Board 15 board members, who supposedly represent all residents of the community.
Neighborhoods they are from, which specific civic groups they represent, and who appointed them: that’s the requested, highly classified information.
...The reluctance to publicly provide fundamental facts about Community Board 15’s members presents the impression that lack of good faith, or secret deals, permeates this basic level of government. This in spite of the fact that board members are considered public officials under state law; and Governor Andrew Cuomo has vowed to restore the previously little-known quality of honest government.
While Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer proposed that the community board appointment processes be de-politicized and involve more outreach, diversity and transparency, that’s not the modus-operandi here. Indeed, examples of non-reappointments of opponents to hot-button projects as the Atlantic Yards, among others, show that politics control Brooklyn’s community board seats.
Posted by eric at November 22, 2011 12:11 PM