Change the board game(Page 2 of 3)
Posted 6/6/12
And that’s why he allowed the matter of difference between himself and Mr. Koppell over whether a local business owner, Ms. Khury, or a lawyer, Steve Froot, should be the board’s vice chair, to put his own position in jeopardy. Mr. Durham said he had committed to voting for Ms. Khury before Mr. Koppell made a round of phone calls asking board members to back Mr. Froot and so — in a moment of integrity all too rare in politics — he kept his word and voted his heart. Whatever sincerity Mr. Durham exhibited was offset by the cynicism he was met with: no reason was given for his non-reappointment. None was needed. “It was a political decision, a payback,” he said. This is not the first time in recent years that the community board has shamelessly been used to further political cronyism. The following year, the president of Mr. Cassino’s club, Saul Scheinbach, was not reappointed to CB 8. Mr. Scheinbach said the elected officials were trying to fill the board with their lackeys and that eventually the board would be full of “yes men.” But never has the cronyism involved with Community Board appointees shown through as clearly as last week. It has crystallized with Mr. Durham. Since news broke that he would not be returning to the board, he said he has received heartfelt sympathies (for both him and themselves) from many fellow board members, but also leaders from the Van Cortlandt Village, Kingsbridge and Marble Hill areas he fought hard to represent. “When you hear from the community itself that’s where you know that your time on the board was worthwhile and that they saw the effects of the efforts you put in. And nobody can take that away,” he said.
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I served very briefly on CB8 in about 2006 or so, and I became somewhat friendly with Tom Durham. The guy really did, and does, care about the community and it is indeed a shame he was kicked off.
And although I eventually broke with the Cassino crew, I also saw those guys (Scheinbach and Trebach) as well intentioned fighters for the community. In fact, with my help as a reporter for this newspaper, those guys were singlehandedly responsible for changing the alternate side of the street rules which now allow people to move their cars only two days a week. Not one local politician helped with that issue at all, nor lent any support whatsoever to making those changes. In fact, they tried to poo poo it once they realized that they hadn't been invited to that particular party.
But having said all that, I think a little reality is in order. Quite simply, the CB is an organization that likes to think they have influence, and boy do they love their formal meetings, but I am hard pressed to think of what they actually get done. In reality, they have zero power and influence, and I've been hearing the same ineffective people making the same ineffective arguments and porposals now for 6 years. Even though Durham was a great community leader, he had, though no fault of his own, no power to do anything. The power is locked up with career politicians that will probably live to ripe old ages still holding their seats in government. All this to the detriment of the community. Of course, the whole system itself is broken beyond repair, and anybody who aspires to be part of that disgusting club (elected office) will simply be hacks that will replace the current hacks.
Nice editorial, but let's stop pretending the people have any power whatsover. The sooner we realize that we don't have any power, the sooner we can get on with making the individual changes in our lives to extricate us from this insane political system. Let's stop voting for one, and start ignoring the politicians. They do us no good. Sunday, June 17, 2012|Report this