Members of Community Board 2 are set for a fight at the board’s monthly
meeting this Wednesday over the issue of board participation in negotiations
for a community benefits agreement with Atlantic Yards developer Bruce
Ratner.
The controversy stems from actions taken by CB2 leadership to quash motions
drafted by two independent committees calling for the board to refrain
from “endorsing, commenting on or participating in” such negotiations
because board members have not been informed of the project details and
did not want to appear to be supporting the project without a thorough
review.
“Those resolutions should be brought before the full board,”
said Dorris Gaines Golomb, who sits on the Land Use committee.
“A lot of time and work and energy went into those considerations,”
she said.
“We expected the resolutions would be brought before the full board.
In effect, if they’re not, they’re just being tossed out. All
our time and efforts will have been tossed out as well.”
The committees were given the task of discussing a bare-bones draft outline
of the benefits agreement, or CBA, after it was disclosed last month —
first in The Brooklyn Papers and then at the last full board meeting —
that CB2 Chairwoman Shirley McCrae and the board’s district manager,
Robert Perris, had for 10 weeks been participating in negotiations with
Forest City Ratner over the agreement. Board members had not been informed
of the chairwoman’s participation in the meetings, which were also
attended by the chairpersons of community boards 6 and 8, until it was
reported in The Papers.
Three CB2 committees deliberated what, if any, recommendations the board
should make with respect to the CBA, a contract between the developer
and the community outlining hiring mandates, among other concerns, with
respect to his plan to build a basketball arena, three towering skyscrapers
and 14 other residential and commercial buildings in Prospect Heights
east of the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.
Two of those committees, the Traffic and Transportation and Land Use committees,
drafted resolutions, on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20, respectively, calling for
the board to pull out of the negotiations until a full accounting of the
development is provided to the board by Ratner, for fear of appearing
to endorse the project on behalf of the community by having participated
in the CBA negotiations.
But in a closed-door executive committee meeting on Oct. 25, those motions
were declared invalid for consideration by the full board. Perris said
the motions were “not board actionable,” because they did not
use the words “recommend” or “request,” which he said
such resolutions generally include.
Despite the attempt by board members to mount an organized review of the
single-page draft outline supplied by Forest City Ratner, McRae made it
clear in statements to the one committee that did provide suggestions,
the Youth, Education and Cultural Affairs committee, that only panels
that complied with discussion of the CBA would have their motions read
at the full board meeting on Nov. 10.
“I’d like to thank [the chair and co-chair] for sticking to
what this committee is supposed to do,” McCrae pointedly remarked
to the youth services leaders, after their Oct. 27 meeting.
The executive committee is comprised of the chairpersons of all the board’s
committees as well as McCrae and two vice chairs and a treasurer of the
committee. Neither the Land Use nor the Traffic and Transportation chair
was present at the Oct. 25 meeting, and the wording of the resolutions
their committees had passed was changed prior to the executive committee
meeting.
“The motions written were not for board actions and therefore will
not appear on the agenda,” said Perris.
That contradicts the beliefs of voting members who backed the statement
in both committees by a combined 17-5 vote.
Kenn Lowy, a board member who helped draft the first resolution, said
he was displeased, but not surprised that the chairwoman effectively tossed
the motions.
“This is really a way for the leadership to try and once again attempt
to not listen to the community,” he said.
Though the board’s bylaws provide for monthly executive committee
meetings to “review and correct board action and committee reports
for conflicts,” one committee member said they occasionally weed
out votes deemed “inappropriate” for presentation to the full
board.
“It’s going to cause a lot of problems for them because I think
when the full board meets, they’re going to be livid. I think it
will backfire on them,” said Lowy.
He said the wording from the traffic committee’s statement had read:
“Until this board and the community are given all of the information
on this proposed project, including public hearings and information on
public money for the project, we should not endorse, comment or participate
on the Community Development Agreement.”
Lowy said the wording was changed by a board co-chair entrusted to deliver
it to the executive committee to read, “This committee will not comment
on …,” making it a committee-specific, rather than board-wide,
resolution.
Nancy Wolf, the chairwoman of the traffic committee, who was absent from
the executive session, said the wording was less important than the sentiment.
“It was the expression of our position,” she said, adding that
she hoped it would advise the board’s authorities.
She optimistically added, “I would be astonished if Rob and Shirley
would continue to go to meetings after what happened.”
But Perris confirmed that both he and McCrae were still attending the
CBA meetings weekly. Several participants in the CBA meetings have said
they expect to have a completed CBA document by Nov. 15.
Irma Kennedy, who sits on both the land use and landmarks committees,
said the damage had pretty much already been done, and referred to a glossy
pamphlet circulated by Forest City Ratner promoting the arena project,
which states that community boards 2, 6, and 8 were among the organizations
“currently represented in the discussions.”
“It sort of infers that the community boards are already behind it,”
she said. “I don’t see how they can back up why it’s not
going to come before the full board.”
