Longtime Community Board 12 Head Adjoa Gzifa Gets the Boot by Clare Trapasso - NY Daily News

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The controversial head of a southeast Queens community board has been tossed from her post by a local councilman.

Adjoa Gzifa, 64, of Jamaica, speculated that City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) decided to end her 16-year run on Community Board 12 due to disagreements on various board issues.

Comrie declined to comment on why she was booted. "I'm not airing that in the paper," he said.

Gzifa, who served as the chairwoman of the board for three years, made headlines when she refused to support renaming a Jamaica street after slain police officer John Scarangella. The board shot down the renaming, which the Council then overrode.

She was also one of only two board members who voted against renaming a swath of Liverpool St. after Sean Bell, a bridegroom killed in a hail of police bullets.

"It stinks," Gzifa said of not being reappointed to the board. "I believe I served my community well. The fact that [Comrie and I] can't agree to disagree is disturbing to me."

Gzifa was quick to point out that she was reelected as chairwoman by her peers in December.

She found out about Comrie's decision on April 8, she said, a day after Community Board 12 District Manager Yvonne Reddick was involved in a car accident. Reddick is recuperating from non-life threatening injuries at Jamaica Hospital.

Jacqueline Boyce, the interim chair, said Gzifa will be missed.

"I'm saddened by the fact that she was not reassigned to the community board," Boyce said. "She proved to be a good leader and a good organizer."

But Gzifa had her detractors.

Valerie Bell, 55, the mother of Sean Bell, said the board could benefit from more sympathetic leadership.

"I know you can't name a street after everyone who's done something in the community," she said. "But it's time to have a heart for these things."

Board members are volunteers who can influence local projects and city budgets. Half of the Queens members are appointed by Council members, while the others are picked by the Borough President.

Gzifa, who is the director of the Workforce Education Center at LaGuardia Community College, said she doesn't plan to fight Comrie's decision.

"Just because I'm not on the board doesn't mean I'm going to shut up," she said. "I'm going to continue to speak out against everything that's ill in our community."

New and Notes from NYC Council Member Ruben Wills - Council District 38

COUNCIL MEMBERS RUBEN WILLS AND LEROY COMRIE JOIN NON-PROFIT HOUSING ORGANIZATIONS TO ANNOUNCE HOMEOWNER PRESERVATION EVENTS

DISTRICT-WIDE EVENTS WILL HELP RESIDENTS BETTER NEGOTIATE THROUGH MORTGAGE DELINQUENCY

Council Member Ruben Wills and City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie join advocates from the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, CHANGER, Inc., and residents to announce two upcoming homeowner preservation seminars on Saturday, April 16 in the 28th district. Free services and homeowner access will be available on Saturday, April 23 at the 4th Rise Up & Stay Put! Home Rescue Fair at York College. (Photo credit: Office of Council Member Ruben Wills)

Council Member Ruben Wills and City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie, were joined today by Mike Hickey, Executive Director for the Center for New York City Neighborhoods (CNYCN); Yeneika Puran, Executive Director of CHANGER, Inc.; Connect Queens Campaign Coordinator, Rick Echevarria, and residents to announce two upcoming homeowner preservation events in the 28^th district that are designed to assist residents at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure or mortgage delinquency, as well as a homeowner rescue fair at York College to connect homeowners with services and information.

On Saturday, April 16, from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. at New Haven Ministries in Richmond Hill, and again from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at Praise Tabernacle in Jamaica, homeownership preservation events will take place to educate residents about successful strategies and negotiations through mortgage delinquency.

“While the country has shifted its attention to other pressing matters, the neighborhoods that I represent are still struggling with escalating foreclosures, bad mortgage modifications and greedy predatory lenders,” said Wills. “The foreclosure epidemic in Southeast Queens threatens to upset our efforts to improve our quality of life and our chances of owning a piece of the American dream. I am determined to ensure that struggling homeowners in Southeast Queens are educated and no longer vulnerable consumers that continue to lose their wealth as a result of gluttonous lending institutions.”

“I want to encourage Queens homeowners who find themselves in danger of foreclosure to attend the Home Rescue Fair on April 23,” stated New York City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie. “I am proud to join my colleague, Council Member Wills, in continuously raising awareness about this issue. The Southeast Queens community has been disproportionately affected by the foreclosure crisis, due to the increasing number of defaults on subprime mortgages that require homeowners to use a higher ratio of their income. Jamaica, Hollis, St. Albans, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill and Ozone Park- primarily communities of color –are consistently among the top neighborhoods in New York City leading in new foreclosure actions and foreclosure auctions. My office has partnered with organizations like the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, Queens Legal Services and Neighborhood Housing Services of Jamaica to offer free foreclosure counseling in community-wide events and in my district office every Friday afternoon. No one should suffer in silence as they lose their home when there is free assistance available.”

“We recognize Council Member Wills as a local leader who has invested his talent and passion to fight the foreclosure crisis in New York City, especially in Southeast Queens, which remains hard hit by this epidemic,” said Michael Hickey, Executive Director of CNYCN. “Currently, there are 30,000 pending foreclosure actions in New York City and we expect things to worsen in 2011 as general economic conditions remain weak. We are pleased to work with Council Member Wills and other elected officials to offer NYC homeowners access to free services from lenders and housing experts at events like the Rise Up & Stay Put! Home Rescue Fair.”

“South East Queens is a community built around the institutions of church and family,” said Yeneika Puran, Executive Director of CHANGER, INC. “We have organized these homeowner events and designed the CONNECT QUEENS campaign with distraught homeowners in mind. Homeowners who have been wrongfully denied loan modifications, homeowners scammed by fraudulent loan modification consultants, and homeowners who are overwhelmed by the experience.”

Jamaica is considered the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis in New York City. CNYCN and its nonprofit and city agency partners are hosting the 4^th Rise Up & Stay Put! Home Rescue Fair on April 23 at York College in Jamaica, Queens. This fair will provide a platform for homeowners to meet with their lenders and housing experts to seek loan modifications and other financial solutions in order to avoid foreclosure. To date, more than 2,300 homeowners have attended these fairs in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, and 40 percent of the attendees were processed for new HAMP or non-HAMP loan modification applications, while 30 percent of the participants received help on existing applications.

For more information on Center for New York City Neighborhoods, www.cnycn.org

For more information on CHANGER, Inc., www.changernyc.org

For more information on CONNECT QUEENS, please call (718) 596-2010.

Saturday, April 16

1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. New Haven Ministries, Starlite Pavilion

130-05 101^st Ave., Richmond Hill

5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Praise Tabernacle

108-11 Sutphin Blvd., Jamaica

Saturday, April 23

10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Rise-Up & Stay Put! Home Rescue Fair

York College

160-02 Liberty Ave., Jamaica

COMMUNITY MEETING ON SITING OF HOMELESS SHELTERS

Council Member Ruben Wills will join representatives from the Department of Homeless Services, Skyway shelter provider, Basics, and residents at a follow up community meeting to address the growing concerns caused by the lack of proper notification for the conversion of the Skyway shelter in to an adult male-only homeless shelter. It has also come to the attention of the community that more than one convicted sexual predator will now be living at Skyway which is near a public school and park. Basics will discuss the implementation of a new safety plan to further safeguard the community.

Earlier in the day, Council Member Wills will join Council Member Brad Lander, chair of the Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses, at a City Council public hearing, regarding the city's "Criteria for the Location of City Facilities" also known as "Fair Share Criteria."

In 1989, voters across the city adopted a City Charter change that attempted to equally distribute city facilities, like homeless shelters, across all neighborhoods. However, after more than 20 years, Council Member Wills and other elected officials claim that certain communities, particularly those in outer borough, urban neighborhoods, are bearing the brunt of an over-abundance of these facilities, with fewer resources and without proper notification to residents.

COUNCIL MEMBER RUBEN WILLS INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO CODIFY CITY LAW TO PROHIBIT THE SALE OF EXPIRED OVER-THE-COUNTER MEDICATIONS

LEGISLATION IS FIRST FOR WILLS; LAW WILL PROTECT RESIDENTS FROM CROOKED STREET VENDORS

Council Member Ruben Wills plans to introduce his first piece of legislation on Wednesday that will codify the ban on the sale of expired over-the-counter medications.

Currently, New York State law prohibits the sale of expired over-the-counter medications by retailers such as Duane Reade or CVS. However, vendors and other licensees of the city have easily skirted the law by selling expired medications like Theraflu, Tylenol, Nyquil and Robitussin at street fairs and vendors’ markets.

“The sale of expired over-the-counter medications has serious health implications,” said Council Member Wills. “Residents who are purchasing these medications at neighborhood flea markets are unaware that they are ingesting expired medications. The potency of medication decreases over time and using medication after its expiration creates a greater likelihood that a person will take more in order to increase its effectiveness.”

Council Member Wills’ legislation closes this loophole and broadens the law to include “persons” so that there is no distinction between a vendor and a retailer. Passage of this legislation will make the distribution of expired over-the-counter medication by any individual a class B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of no more than $250, a maximum of 3 months of in jail, or both.

In November of 2009, then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced an $875,000 settlement with the national retail pharmacy chain CVS to end its sale of expired products - including over-the-counter drugs, baby formula, milk, and eggs - at stores across New York State.

“This legislation will help prevent the distribution and flow of expired medications,” said Council Member Wills. “It is the responsibility of anyone who is selling over-the-counter medications to put the health and safety of consumers ahead of profits and sales.”

"We Are One" - Queens Solidarity Rally and March - April 4, 2011 04:00pm to 08:00pm

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Dr. King died in Memphis in April 1968. He was killed standing with sanitation workers who were fighting to form a union to bargain for a better life. They were demanding their dream of dignity, respect, and a pathway to the middle class.


In April 2011, that same dream--and those same rights and freedoms--are under attack in Madison and other state capitols. The American middle class is in danger, threatened by a corporate and political assault on the fundamental belief that if you work hard in this country, you deserve a good job with a decent wage, affordable health care and dignity in retirement.


That's why on April 4th in New York, we will rally to show that WE ARE ONE, from Memphis to Madison and beyond. We will remember Dr. King, rally for the rights of all workers, and march for the middle class.


Join Amalgamated Transit Union 1056, SEIU 32BJ, and South East Queens County Young Democrats, and The Jamaica Branch NAACP as we will meet at the Rallying point at 4:30 pm at the bus depot on Merrick Blvd. across from the Queens Public Library;


We will then March To 89th Ave; Go up 89th Ave; To Parsons Blvd.; To Jamaica Ave. to Grace Episcopal Church.


We will enter the church at approximately 6:00 pm.


Grace Episcopal Church, 155-15 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, NY 11432 Rev Darryl F. James


Rev. Darryl F. James and Min. Corey Terry will both preach a word, there will be music as well. This will begin at 6:30 - 8:00/8:30.


Sponsored by: City Councilman Leroy Comrie and a host of South East Queens elected officials.

Sponsored by:
Amalgamated Transit Union
Local 1056

Location:
Jamaica Bus Terminal
Queens, NY
11432

Directions:
89-11 Merrick Blvd btwn 89th and 90th Aves

City Council Members Meet with Richmond Hill Indo-Caribbean Community Leaders

Last week, Council Member James Vacca (D-Bronx), chair of the Committee on Transportation, joined Council Member Ruben Wills, Council Member Leroy Comrie and business leaders from the Indo-Carribbean community and the Lefferts Blvd. neighborhood to discuss recent transportation issues affecting Southeast Queens.

Council Member Vacca joined Council Member Wills and Council Member Comrie in announcing a budget agreement reached between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council that prevents a parking meter rate hike which was set to take effect in all neighborhoods outside of Manhattan’s Central Business Core as early as the week of January 10.

The hike, which would have raised the outer-borough meter rate from .75 cents per hour to $1 per hour, would have represented the second increase in meter rates in only 18 months and struck yet another blow to struggling mom-and-pop commercial districts.

Guest Editorial: Department of Education to Blame for Jamaica HS Closure by Council Member Leroy Comrie - NY Daily News

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I wanted to take the opportunity to voice my concerns about what has clearly been the systematic destruction of Jamaica High School by the New York City Department of Education. I speak not only as an elected official, but as the parent of two public school students and a very proud alumnus of Jamaica High School.

I have many concerns regarding last week's decision by the Panel for Educational Policy in voting to close Jamaica. Before the Department of Education makes a decision to close down schools - many of which have deep and storied roots within the communities they serve - we must ensure that these schools have been given adequate resources to properly educate our children and that the Department of Education is using accurate and correct evaluation measures to determine the need for a school closure.

The Department of Education is manipulating schools to fail so that they can clean out the staff and administration through the back door.

Take Jamaica High for example.

Due to the lack of focus by DOE officials and the oversaturation of at-risk children, Jamaica High has not been allowed to evolve to meet the needs of its students. Over the last four years, it has become the primary intake school for last-minute admissions and could not compete with specialized first-choice schools.

The recently appointed principal, Walter Acham, has started to make progress, but has only been on the job for a little more than two years - nowhere near an acceptable amount of time to make an assessment of a school team's capabilities. I stand by my conviction that the dissolution of Jamaica High is not the change that is needed. Jamaica High has not been given the ability to flourish nor the resources that have been legislatively allocated.

It is my contention that the Department of Education has purposely employed a systematic deconstruction of Jamaica High by co-locating three smaller schools within its premises.

These smaller schools were then given incredible resources, such as laptops and smartboards, as well as priority classroom and office space. The original school sees its resources depleted and student-to-teacher ratios begin to increase. The administration and staff are demoralized while the school is designated as low-performing. Ultimately, the school is phased out and replaced with another small school. One new school was given 90 new computers to start out with. Jamaica High now has 1,200 students and is bursting at the seams with nearly 50 students per class utilizing outdated equipment.

It literally is an outrageous case of separate-and-unequal that is being forced upon the students of Jamaica High.

Three of these schools exist in the 21st century, while the largest exists as though left behind in the 19th century. These 1,200 students represent the wanton neglect on the part of the mayor and the Department of Education. Students, who like so many thousands throughout this city, have been abandoned and left behind in the closed off shadows of their neglected classrooms - the unwitting pawns caught up in this grandstanding game of "Improving Our Schools."

It's a scheme so transparent that even the students at Jamaica High School have realized this and were bright enough to incorporate these issues into an adaptation of the Greek play "Antigone."

The students, in a theatrical performance I attended several weeks ago, brilliantly demonstrated how the DOE has pulled resources from Jamaica High and favored the newer, smaller schools in the hopes that Jamaica would die a slow death.

The children in Jamaica High School recognize that, by sharing a space in this same building where the other students get so much more, they are being classified as second-class citizens.

Jamaica High School is an institution that has a great deal of history in the borough of Queens. At the time of its construction in 1925, it was the largest school site in the entire country. Last year, it was designated as a city landmark. It has an impressive list of alumni including Pulitzer Prize winners, a Nobel Prize winner and myriad elected officials.

Today, the school has an award-winning robotics team and a highly successful women's track team. Jamaica High is still a place where the minds and bodies of young people can be properly trained for success in the future, if given the proper resources.President Obama, in his recent State of the Union address, rightly talked about the education of our children truly being successful when "reform isn't just a top-down mandate but the work of local teachers and principals; school boards and communities." The city Department of Education has been absolutely tone-deaf to such advice.

Leroy Comrie is Deputy Majority Leader of the New York City Council.