Hello again! Here’s a re-cap of October’s CB3 Public Meeting which took place on October 5th. It was a pretty long meeting so I’ll try to be as concise as possible!
Here is the agenda from the meeting.
Remarks from Elected Officials
Al Vann thanked everyone for voting in last month’s primary and thanked everyone for the support. He stressed the importance of voting and voting in all elections-big and small. He also asked for everyone to support him at the public city council hearing on October 19th, where he is presenting a bill that would provide exemptions to seniors and veterans from another bill passed by city council in 2007 that allows the city to place liens on properties that are delinquent in paying their water bills. This exemption Vann is pushing for, will protect these vulnerable populations from losing their homes as a large number of lien sales in the city are as a result of water bill delinquency as opposed to property tax delinquency. This is probably due to the fact that after 3 years of non payment are you considered tax delinquent, but with water bills you are considered delinquent after only one year.
Darlene Mealy and Tish James also spoke later on in the meeting to thank those for voting. Mealy reminded everyone that her district office is open every 2nd Saturday from 10am-12pm if anyone has an issue they would like to bring up or if they would like to become more involved in the 41st district. Assemblywoman Annette Robinson was also there to announce that Governor David Patterson will be in Bed Stuy to meet with the community and clergy on October 21st at 1st AME Zion at 54 Macdonough Street at 6pm.
Representatives from the 81st and 79th precinct also spoke. Commander Steve Mauriello gave a precinct report indicating crime has decreased 17% overall. Double-digit decreases in robbery (15%), felony assault (22%), and shootings (22%) were also recorded between this time last year and now. Deputy Inspector Lyons from the 79th also gave a report indicating they too were experiencing a 17% drop in crime overall, but have seen an increase in shootings between this time last yaear and now. He encouraged more community participation, which he attributes to crime reduction in the precinct.
Public Hearing on Capital and Expense Budget Requests
Every year, all the community boards submit to the city, specific requests and priorities they feel should be funded through the Capital and Expense Budgets of the various agencies throughout the city. The city, through its Office of Management and Budget, then responds in this register, offering determinations indicating whether or not they will recommend these items for funding, or indicate when these items may be funded, as is the case with Capital Budget items.. These items don’t necessarily get funded, as some of the capital expense items described have continuously been pushed into future years’ Capital Budgets. Here’s a quick excerpt outlining the Community Board’s Role in the Budget Process here.
(source: Handbook for Community Board Members)
The CB3 Chair, Henry Butler asked the crowd how many people received a meeting notice in the mail as well as information on submitting budget requests. Less than half of those attending raised their hands.Every month there are sign in sheets requesting names and addresses of those in attendance. Since I’ve been attending the meetings, I have noticed that I have received more mailings from electeds, but nothing from the Community Board itself.As I mentioned in last month’s meeting re-cap, there were documents on our seats for submitting budget requests but they were not mentioned at the meeting specifically as far as asking people to submit them. The chair looked a bit disappointed since people didn’t really come “prepared” but I would have thought they would have prepped people for this at last month’s meeting, which did not happen. They did a brief overview of items that had been funded and put in the budget for this current fiscal year as well as placed in the 5 year capital budget. You can see these items on the CB3 website here.
I can’t say things got much better after that. After a brief explanation between capital (bricks and mortar) and expense (programs, services, and operations) budgets, they presented the list of requested items for the 2011 Fiscal Year budget.
Here is a list of both the expense and capital budget requests CB3 is making this year.
The Tracking Codes on this document indicate the year in which this request was first made. 203 is the borough and district code (Kings-CB3) and the following numbers are the year. As you can see from Capital Budget Request Priorotiy 1, the Sanitation Garage request has been on CB3s list for almost THIRTY years (1980).
After the lists were reviewed, the floor was open for questions and comments. There were a lot of complaints and comments about the priority lists not containing much in the way of youth programs, which many felt were desperately needed to quell some of violence in the community. Unfortunately, frustration gripped the room pretty quickly and Chairperson Butler, who was fielding all questions and comments, got pretty defensive. While not every comment was constructive, someone made a very valid point about more affluent communities taking it upon themselves to fundraise for the things they want instead of waiting for a “handout” from the government. Butler countered that by encouraging people to join a committee that interested them and work towards this. He was pretty defensive and borderline rude at this point in the meeting. I understand the frustration but honestly, that’s part of the job. Its a job every board member agreed to take on for no pay and while I am very appreciative, dealing with comments and complaints, both constructive and not, come with the territory. People love to complain but there were a lot of people at that meeting who wanted to get involved and I think its the board’s function to help try and channel that into something constructive. Its definitely not an easy task when people are upset and complaining.
I did want to speak but at that point in the meeting it was pretty hard to make a comment or suggestion or opinion without it being taken on as an attack so I’ll say it here. While I really admire CB3′s support of affordable housing in the community, I think requesting funding for these projects specifically is a waste of a request. I work in affordable housing development and these projects take time-at least 2 years. Furthermore, there are so many other sources of funding for these projects! My group operates in other boroughs and while we could approach the borough president or local community boards for funding, it would not be for actual construction. Oftentimes developers approach the borough president’s office or the local boards for funding over and above what would be needed to actually build and use that money for betterments such as a playground on the premises or a green roof or some other eco-friendly element. These deals are just far too costly to ask for large sums of money from the community boards-especially when we know they don’t receive much and there are other needs in the community that aren’t as easily funded.
Being that these projects are in the very early stages of development-if they are in these stages at all since the only thing everyone seemed to know is that these properties are currently owned by NYC’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC)-this money wouldn’t be of use to any of the developers for a few years. In the meanwhile, the city might fund another project further down the list but only if CB3 treats it as a higher priority. Renovating the Sumner Armory should really higher up on this list and the funding of these development projects should be at the very bottom until some momentum is gained as far as development goes. Re-purposing this armory for public use could also help to address some of the issues surrounding obesity and youth engagement in the community since it would most likely be made into an athletic facility. Requesting funding for rehabilitating Von King Park’s athletic field and cultural arts center should also be higher up in priority. (Note: the rehabilitation of Pulaski park has already begun, but since it is not complete, CB3 will continue placing it on their request list until all work is done). I believe these requests will be submitted at the end of the month so I suggest you contact the CB3 office if you’d like to give some input!
Due to the lengthy discussion surrounding the budget, all other presentations were tabled until next month and no formal community annoucements were made. However, here are some information annoucements that were made as well as some information on events that I gathered from flyers at the meeting.
1.Weatherization
Randall Rice from the local weatherization office came by to say he has $10 MILLION in weatherization money that needs to be used! A quarter of that has to be spent on small (1-4 family) homes! You can get your boiler replaced, a new roof, new windows, more insulation with weatherization assistance! Please call his office at 718.638.5705 for more information! He also suggested that all homeowners call their gas providers and request that their boilers be cleaned and tuned up before winter hits in order to have them run more efficiently!
2.Homebuyer Seminar Series
There is a Homebuyer Seminar Series being presented by the Bedford Central Community Development Corporation. It is a 16 week session. Learn about all the tools and steps needed to buy a home! Here’s a PDF of the flyer here.
That’s all for now until next month!