CB 12 Budget Hearing - A Formality At Best

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Joy Rich of KARMABrooklyn speaking at the meeting"][/caption]

Those local residents lured to the CB 12 meeting’s half-hour budget discussion on September 14 by the chance to ask for funds for new projects important to them and their neighbors, were surprised to hear District Manager Wolf Sender read from a list of CB 12’s capital request for FY 2011, the budget just approved by the City Council in June.  This list was closed, and the proposals for FY 2012—for which all boards must present their recommendations by late October—were in a packet of information handed to community board members but which the public was not allowed to see.

Among the items listed in CB12’s capital requests for FY 2011—some carried over from its 2006 capital requests—were a new stationhouse for the NYPD66; renovation and redesign of 13th Avenue from 37th to 60th; removal of trolley tracks at McDonald and Church; restrooms for Gravesend Park, funds for water main upkeep, and a laundry list of other items. When members of the audience asked about more parkland and greenspace in Kensington, or in CB 12, or construction of a Kensington recreation center, the answer was first you’d have to find the land to build it on.

What?  No discussion of new requests?   Was the audience misled? Just the night before CB 14 held a public hearing where local residents were encouraged to tell CB 14 its priorities for FY 2012.  According to Jonathan Judge, a CB 14 staff member, it had solicited recommendations from everyone on its mailing list in early July. Then it held a broad-based public hearing September 13.  Next, CB 14’s budget committee will meet in October, review proposals, and put together a draft budget.  At an October hearing, the public will be invited to comment on the draft.  The board then decides its budget priorities.

For a thorough discussion of how community boards work, see Scott Springer’s COMMUNITY BOARD 101 tutorial:  http://www.mbpo.org/free_details.asp?id=168 (for overview of CB budget process and timetable, see pp 33-37, 2010 Handbook for CB Members)