KARMA's Joy Rich writes that there was again "invisible ink" at work Community Board 12, with suggesting important discussions were left out of the official minutes of the October meeting of the Borough Park-based board.
CB12 is often criticized for being untransparent and having little interest in Kensington, including by this blog. But a board member denied the accusations made by KARMA. Karma reported that "Committee Chair Peter Rebenwurzel 'fired' (membership is an unpaid position) four of the members who weren't there, bringing the number needed for a quorum to nine. Mr. Rebenwurzel said he might 'rehire' the four fired members the next day."
We asked Yeruchim Silber, vice-chair of the relevant committee and present at the meeting, about the accusation. He said it was meant as a joke: “Since there was no quorum there was never actually a vote on committee but it was reintroduced before the whole board." The minutes, however, refer to a vote. Silber writes:
The word "voted" was a poor choice of words and really should of said the committee “recommended”, which is different than an actual vote. A vote can only take place when there is a quorum present. ...
The room was quite full with neighborhood residents eager to speak out on the proposed variance. We as a committee felt that it wasn’t fair to these folks to keep them waiting so we began the hearing hoping that enough committee members would eventually show up. A quorum is only needed for the actual vote, not for the testimony. At the same time the staff and committee were calling, texting and emailing absent committee members to get them to come. When the hearing was done, and still no quorum was present, we adjourned the hearing without taking a formal vote, although the members did feel that the application was deserving on the merits. It was this that Chairman Rebenwurzel conveyed as a motion to approve was introduced on the floor.
I think that one of the reasons, committee members do not show up is that they are only informed by snail mail. That will change soon. One of the board members has a web development company, and is volunteering to build the CB 12 web site. It will hopefully be operational sometime after the first of the year. Once that is done, all meetings will be posted, and committee members will receive emails and text messages reminding them to be at all meetings.
Had it been true, executive director of Citizens Union, Dick Dadey told us, such a move would be “Soviet-style politburo politics" and “anti-democratic.”
Lucky for us, it was apparently not true.