General

CB7 members elect new executive board

January 5, 2012 Heather Chin

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The 2012 presidential election season may begin this month, butfor Brooklyn’s Community Board Seven, the election to watch tookplace in December, 2011, when board members voted for who theywanted to represent their community in the new year.

For CB 7 board members, all volunteers, who live in Sunset Park,Greenwood Heights and Windsor Terrace, the election was a chance tokeep some familiar faces while also welcoming relatively new onesto the fold.

Fred Xuereb, Joan Botti, Leonora Gidlund and Aaron Brashear werere-elected as chairperson, second vice chair, secretary andsergeant-at-arms, respectively. Long-time board member Dan Murphy,who also served as last year’s chair of the Public SafetyCommittee, is taking over as first vice chair from Cesar Zuniga,who will remain an active board member.

June Reich, current chair of the Education Committee, will befilling the position of assistant secretary in place of Sam Sierra,who had sought the first vice chair position against Murphy. Sierrawill remain an active board member and chair of theSanitation/Environment and Transportation Committees.

Community Service Committee Vice Chair Jason Goldberg ranuncontested for the office of treasurer, which had previously beenfilled by Cynthia Gonzalez, who lost the race for sergeant-at-armsto incumbent Brashear.

Finally, in the only position to see an incumbent get unseated, therole of assistant sergeant-at-arms will transition from CharlesO’Donnell, vice chair of Sanitation and Transportation, tolong-time board member Kenny Guan. Guan is the first member ofSunset Park’s Chinese American community to serve as an officer onCB 7’s board.

About 50 percent [of the executive committee] is changing, saidCB7 District Manager Jeremy Laufer, who is one of the board’s fewpaid staffers.

There was no election last year as in 2009, terms were changed fromone-year terms to two-year terms. This was the first election totake place after the change.

In addition to having another monthly meeting to attend, newExecutive Committee members will be responsible for their ownposition duties – such as the secretary taking minutes, thetreasurer reporting on the budget, and the sergeant-at-arms calmingtempers – as well as helping to drive and set the agenda, saidLaufer.

The agenda for 2012 will include everything from working with thecity’s Sanitation Department to implement community-wide schedulechanges for alternate-side street sweeping, to monitoring thevarious stages of construction along the waterfront park and inSunset Park (the park itself), to seeing new jobs take shape withAxis Group and Sims Recycling at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminalunder the Sunset Park Vision Plan, and more.