During the public session of the Community Board 2 meeting Wednesday night,
longtime board member Ken Diamondstone announced he had been removed from
the board by Borough President Marty Markowitz.
After 14 years on the board, Diamondstone, who’s lived in Boerum
Hill for 32 years, said he was kicked off for publicly criticizing Markowitz.
Diamondstone said he learned of his dismissal during a meeting with Markowitz
in Borough Hall on June 6.
During the CB2 meeting, Diamondstone read a prepared statement describing
his meeting with the borough president.
“He began by asserting from my public statements he could tell I
didn’t like him or his policies,” Diamondstone said. “I
assured him that I thought he was a very humorous and decent man, and
that he was a great cheerleader for Brooklyn, but that his priorities
were very different from mine.”
That’s when, according to Diamondstone, Markowitz asked him to resign.
“Those of you know me can guess how I took that,” he said to
the board, “And I told him in very clear language that I would not
resign. I told him I would stay and express my view of what was best for
this board and Brooklyn.”
Diamondstone later gave more details about the meeting to The Brooklyn
Papers.
“[He told me], basically, if I were an honorable man, I would resign
from the board in protest of his policies, and he would then respect me
for that,” Diamondstone said.
Diamondstone, who was appointed to the board by former Brooklyn Heights
Councilman Ken Fischer, said he was told that, as a board member appointed
by the Borough President, Markowitz had the power to remove him at the
end of his two-year board term.
Half of the board’s members are appointed by the local city councilmembers,
but the borough president has veto power on council nominations.
“I’ve never attacked him in public personally,” said Diamondstone.
Board member Hemalee Pate approached Diamondstone after Wednesday’s
meeting.
“I know we didn’t agree on a lot of things, but you were a valuable
member of the board,” she said.
