There was no waiting in the wings for these vote tallies; Brooklyn Community Board 4’s annual board election was a quick affair as four people were quickly elected in uncontested races. Over at Hope Gardens Multi-Service Senior Center last week, the Bushwick-area community board met for their monthly meeting and for their first in-person election since the pandemic began.
Desmonde Monroe, who runs a local “compliance consulting firm,” according to a trade magazine, has been elected the group’s new “First Vice Chair.” With term limits coming in 2027-28, Monroe promised those assembled that he would be especially focused on transferring knowledge to others on the board.
“I think me being in this position right now is just a way to kind of shore up and close up everything and make sure I leave the place a little better than when I found it,” said Monroe.
Millie Sandoval, who otherwise also does work for a nonprofit group called Communities Resist, had been elected the board’s new “Second Vice Chair,” a role that allows her to take the place of Monroe or Robert Camacho, a longtime local activist who has been on the board for the last thirty years and was made its chairman some years ago, in running regular meetings, if the pair are absent. Felix Ceballos, a minor Democratic Party functionary, was named the board’s new “recording secretary,” a job that involves keeping minutes. (Unfortunately, the board has not posted these online for the last three years, something that the board’s website blames on “limited staff capacity.” The meetings are, nevertheless, still posted in full on YouTube.) Someone else named Jo-Ena Bennett was also re-elected as the board’s “parliamentarian.”
The election was just one event in the packed meeting. As of the beginning of the month, the neighborhood’s 83rd precinct is being run by David Poggioli, a longtime Bushwick cop, who also made an appearance. According to ProPublica, Poggioli has racked up some 16 allegations of misconduct in his 19 years working for the NYPD, all but one filed by Black men. Per the Civilian Complaint Review Board, five of those had been decreed “substantiated” in some way.
Poggioli didn’t bring them up; instead, he focused on his gratitude to be back in Bushwick and his desire to have an “open-door policy” with the community.
“It’s not just saying ‘do you have questions or concerns’ for the sake of bringing them up,” Poggioli said. “I want if someone raises an issue or concern [to ensure] that there was actually a resolution applied to it.”
Poggioli said that the 83rd would be focusing its efforts on the increase in robberies that Bushwick saw last year.
Via Zoom, Jennifer Gutierrez, the neighborhood’s local city councilwoman, pointed to new legislation she had introduced in the city council’s latest session, including a universal childcare bill from the last term. Per Gutierrez, the bill would offer some form of childcare available for children ages 0-5, regardless of immigration status or income.
She also has proposed a group of four bills called the “Back Home Package,” all focused on victims of fires. Bushwick has seen several fire emergencies in recent years, including a string of fires on Knickerbocker Avenue this past winter. One of the bills, Intro. 751, would order the city to create a fire have that provides resources and information, aimed at tenants and potential fire victims.
“Victims of fires, after FDNY leaves the scene, have no next steps,” said Gutierrez.
“They have no sense of who to call; they oftentimes can’t get a hold of their landlord. So it’s a step-by-step guide to help you navigate how to access your apartment if it’s not demolished to get your personal documents, a list of local food pantries, and community-based services that can help.”
Another bill she plugged, Intro. 749, proposes creating a new Office of Residential Displacement Remediation and setting up an online portal through the city’s Housing Preservation & Development website, so agency officials can communicate about specific properties from start to finish and tenants can stay informed about that.
New York City’s public libraries were also on the minds of the community board, with the city’s multi-borough library system set to lose a well-publicized $58.3 million in funding, which library officials say could possibly lead to reduced hours and programming. Juanita James, a librarian at the Washington Irving Brooklyn Public Library, had stopped by the board meeting to share about investinlibraries.org, a website that includes information on those budget cuts as well as a way for people to write letters to city officials about them.
“I think, as institutions, it’s a shame they’re put in the position they’re put in with budget cuts. But it just shows us we have to fight for the things that really mean something to us,” complained Celestina León, the board’s district manager.
Dustin Sonneborn, yet another member of the community board, closed out the meeting with an update on the “Bushwick Roots” archive project, which he said is still taking submissions. According to the site for the project, this idea involves creating “a comprehensive digital archive” that would “highlight Bushwick’s cultural tale.”
“Our fellow [Alicia Blandon] is mostly done, she’s presenting it to the city of New York this week or next week. We are still taking submissions, anybody who has anything to add please send it to [email protected],” Sonneborn said.
Top photo taken by Rebecca VanderKooi for Bushwick Daily.
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