Dear Borough President Antonio Reynoso:

In a rare move deviating from standard Brooklyn CB 9 business practices, ULURP Committee Chair Suwen Cheong and Brooklyn CB 9 Board Chair Ethan Norville decided not to reappoint East Flatbush Community Activist Cheryl Bernard to the Brooklyn CB 9 ULURP Committee as a resident member (non community board member).

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Cheryl Bernard is seen in the above photo wearing a green sweater, banished from the committee table for speaking out and sitting far away from her former colleagues.  See here how the (CLICK HERE) ULURP Committee votes with Cheryl reduced to a bystander role , stripped of her right to speak or vote at ULURP Committee.   This disenfranchises East Flatbush and is painful to watch. 

Cheryl Bernard is a 50 year resident of East Flatbush and the founder of the local community group SayNOtoLess which was created in response to NYS's Vital Brooklyn projects.  SayNOtoLess is composed of more than 75 local families, the majority of whom are Black or Jewish.

LISTEN TO RESIDENTS DEMAND GEOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION FOR EAST FLATBUSH

Residents complained about the East Flatbush disenfranchisement at the  CB 9 SEP'26 ULURP COMMITTEE MEETING​ (48:59) and spoke against the removal of CHERYL BERNARD (1:22:25).  This continued at the October meeting -  CB'9 OCT'26 ULURP CMTE MTG (1:14:32).

BOROUGH PRESIDENT MUST SHOW LEADERSHIP IN DEMANDING GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY ON COMMITTEES AND INCLUSION OF COMMUNITY GROUP LEADERS OF DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES​ LIKE EAST FLATBUSH. 

As the Borrough President ("BP") who appoints all the members of community boards you have power and control over the composition of community boards.  ("For each community district created pursuant to chapter sixty-nine there shall be a community board which shall consist of (1) not more than fifty persons appointed by the borough president, at least one-half of whom shall be appointed from nominees of the council members elected from council districts which include any part of the community district, and (2) all such council members as non-voting members.")  NYC Charter Section 2800 (a)

NYC CHARTER LAW and BROOKLYN COMMUNITY BOARD 9 BYLAWS ENCOURAGE INCLUSION OF COMMUNITY GROUPS and DO NOT SUPPORT REMOVAL of COMMUNITY GROUP LEADERS

"Community boards, civic groups and other community groups and neighborhood associations may submit nominations to the borough president and to council members...b.   An appointed member may be removed from a community board for cause, which shall include substantial nonattendance at board or committee meetings over a period of six months, by the borough president or by a majority vote of the community board".  NYC Charter Section 2800 (a)(b)

"Committees shall encourage the participation of non-Board members on committees including representatives of local interested organizations. Non-Board members shall be appointed to a committee by the Board Chairperson and/or the committee Chairperson."   Brooklyn CB 9 Bylaws, Article VIII , 8.7(c) 

"An appointed member may be removed from a committee's rolls by the committee Chairperson, for missing three consecutive meetings of the committee, or failure to attend a majority of committee meetings in a period of any one year, or for other good cause, provided that the Board Chairperson approves such removal.",  Brooklyn CB 9 Bylaws, Article VIII , 8.4  

Local residents from East Flatbush, as well as Brooklyn CB 9, opposed Vital Brooklyn Kingsboro Psych because of the project's lack of street parking and oversaturation of social services.

Standard business practice in CB 9 is to let non-board member community residents stay on the committee unless the ULURP member's attendance was an issue.  In fact,  the ULURP committee has non-community board resident members who have been serving on the ULURP committee for over 10 years- Cheryl was on the ULURP committee for less than two years before she was given the boot and effectively removed, since automatic reappointment to committee of previous years has been the rule, and not the exception.

POLITICAL PAYBACK FOR SPEAKING OUT

At the April'26  ULURP Committee meeting,  Cheryl successfully forced the ULURP committee to pass a motion to request City Council Speaker Julie Menin to investigate whether Vital Brooklyn skipped over the City Council's 30 day right to object to the sale of 681 Clakson Av (Vital Brooklyn Kingsboro) according to NY General Municipal Law 72-h.  The reason the community came out to support Cheryl forcing the motion on Vital Brooklyn was because the ULURP Committee Chair did not respond to requests to put Vital Brooklyn back on the ULURP agenda after it was discovered that the Original Aug 09, 2020 RFP (p. 14 , last par) did in fact require compliance with NYS Gen Mun Law 72-H.

Cheryl Bernard is the voice of East Flatbush and was kicked off the ULURP committee as political payback for speaking out on Vital Brooklyn  Kingsboro Psych and  standing up for East Flatbush.

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CONCLUSION AND REQUEST TO THE BORROUGH PRESIDENT

We, the undersigned, do not represent anything above, and simply request that you, Borough President Antonio Reynoso, use your appointment power to direct Brooklyn Community Board 9 Chair Ethan Neville, to reappoint Cheryl Bernard to the Brooklyn Community Board 9 ULURP Committee as a resident member.

We, the undersigned, do not represent anything above, and simply request that you, Borough President Antonio Reynoso, appoint Cheryl Bernard to Brooklyn Community Board 9 as a COMMUNITY BOARD MEMBER to represent under-represented and under-advocated East Flatbush.