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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Karl-Henry Cesar, Chair of Brooklyn Community Board 14, opposing merger of CB/BP ULURP review
3:03:11
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137 sec
Karl-Henry Cesar, Chair of Brooklyn Community Board 14, testifies against proposals to merge the Community Board (CB) and Borough President (BP) review stages of ULURP under the BP.
He argues this diminishes the community's voice, could incentivize politicizing CB appointments by BPs seeking support for projects, and wrongly targets the relatively short CB/BP review period as a cause for delays, prioritizing speed over quality community input.
Karl-Henry Cesar
3:03:11
So folks, good evening.
3:03:12
My name is Carl Henry Cesar, and I am the chairperson of Brooklyn Community Board fourteen.
3:03:17
And so I am testifying here today to raise concerns with proposals to merge the community board and borough president review process in EULRP.
3:03:27
The three concerns are number one, said proposal diminishes the community voice and also provides the sense that it could be devalued.
3:03:36
Number two, said a proposal provides an incentive to politicize the appointment of community board members.
3:03:44
And then proposal number three, concern number three is that this proposal is chasing the wrong outcome in EULRP, which is speed at the cost of quality.
3:03:54
So regarding point number one, as you're all aware, EULIP provides sixty days for community boards and then thirty days for the borough president.
3:04:02
The concern is that by merging this, you are giving people who share their concerns with community boards the opinion and the appearance that their voice only matters at the borough level.
3:04:12
It doesn't matter at the individual level.
3:04:14
So that's not good because there's already a lot of concerns at the city level that the city is not listening to their voice.
3:04:21
Concern number two is that per the city charter, borough presidents already appoint community board members.
3:04:27
And so with this proposal of combining the community board and the borough president's ULUIP review, you are raising the specter that borough presidents could have an incentive to appoint people to give them support for EULIP review as opposed to appointing people because it's at the best benefit for the respective community board.
3:04:45
And for number three, the concern is that there's a narrative that the EULIP process takes too long and one of the culprits is because of the community review process.
3:04:56
So given that it can take decades and at least a year and a half, there's a danger that a process that can take at most ninety days and makes up less than 17% of the review is somehow the culprit.
3:05:08
And so these are the concerns that I have with the proposal of merging the community board and the borough president review process within ULURP to just sit under the borough president.
3:05:18
And so I thank you very much for listening, and thank you for taking your time because I know it's cold up there and you guys are freezing, and it's been three and a half hours.
3:05:26
I'm good, but I know you're freezing.
3:05:28
So thank you.