Beep-elect announces transition team
BY BEN BRACHFELD
Borough President-elect
Antonio Reynoso unveiled the
membership of his transition
committee on Dec. 8, which
will work through the end of
the month to ensure the outgoing
councilmember has a
smooth move into Brooklyn’s
top elected offi ce as he takes
the reins from current Beep
and Mayor-elect Eric Adams.
The 40-member committee
includes pols, advocates,
academics, and leaders in
business, culture, labor, and
religion, among others. It features
three co-chairs: former
Borough President Marty
Markowitz, former Central
Brooklyn Councilmember
Una Clarke, and Make The
Road New York Co-Executive
Director Arlenis Morel.
District Leader Kristina
Naplatarski will serve as chair
of the inauguration committee,
which will prepare for Reynoso’s
swearing-in on Jan. 1.
“I’m proud to bring together
this experienced group
of leaders from all walks of life
to ensure that we’re ready on
day one to implement our vision
of a Brooklyn that works
for all of us,” the Beep-to-be
said in a statement. “Our transition
COURIER LIFE, D 32 ECEMBER 17-23, 2021
committee represents
so much of the diversity and
talent of our borough, with
leaders from labor unions, cultural
institutions, and community
organizations, and everyday
Brooklynites.”
The committee is fi lled
with Brooklynites not only
from all walks of life, but also
people who are experts in a variety
of relevant fi elds.
In today’s world, the borough
presidency is a largely
ceremonial position, and lots
of the job consists of boosting
Brooklyn’s profi le and advocating
for its residents from
a high-profi le political perch.
But the beepage does still
have some formal powers, including
issuing non-binding
recommendations in land-use
decisions, appointing community
board members, and introducing
legislation.
The Beep-elect has plenty
of folks on the committee to
help him on land use matters.
There’s Carlo Scissura of the
New York Building Congress,
a trade group for real estate
industry players. There’s affordable
housing developers
as well, including Michael
Rochford of the St. Nicks Alliance,
Scott Short of the Rise-
Boro Community Partnership,
and Michelle Neugebauer of
the Cypress Hills Local Development
Corporation, as well
as affordable housing advocate
Rob Solano of CUFFH.
Reynoso, who has served
as a City Councilmember representing
Williamsburg and
Bushwick along with Ridgewood,
Queens since 2014, won
a crowded primary in June to
become the Democratic nominee
for the borough president’s
race, beating out fellow
Councilmembers Robert Cornegy
and Mathieu Eugene and
Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon,
among several others.
He easily beat Republican
challenger Menachem Raitport
in the November general
election.
On the Council, Reynoso
chaired the Sanitation Committee,
and arguably his most
signifi cant accomplishment
in City Hall was shepherding
the reform of the notoriously
dangerous private trash-hauling
industry. Reynoso also
was one-half of the duo which
passed the Right to Know Act;
his section of the bill requires
police offi cers to inform those
they stop of their right to refuse
a search.
Reynoso has developed a
reputation as a reform-minded
pol: he came into offi ce after
defeating the late, disgraced
former Brooklyn Democratic
boss Vito Lopez in the 2013
primary, which he described
as a blow to the Brooklyn machine.
More recently he joined
other Brooklyn electeds to
denounce incumbent Kings
County Democratic chair Rodneyse
Bichotte Hermelyn, after
her husband, District Leader
Edu Hermelyn, allegedly said
a slur in Spanish to Assemblymember
Maritza Davila.
There’s plenty of things
Reynoso wants to shake up as
well as Beep, as he told Brooklyn
Paper in an interview back
in August. Some of his priorities
in exercising the Borough
Presidency’s powers include
bringing on diverse “new
blood” to community boards,
developing a comprehensive
land use plan for Brooklyn,
pursuing upzonings in
wealthier and whiter neighborhoods,
and getting out of
the “YIMBY, NIMBY doom
loop” that comes with every
rezoning in order to build new
housing in the borough.
On his transition committee,
Reynoso said, “I look forward
to working with them
over the coming weeks to prepare
for a smooth transition,
get input from our communities,
and recruit the best and
brightest for our team at Borough
Hall. With their help,
I’ll be ready to hit the ground
running in January to move
Brooklyn forward.”
Antonio Reynoso. Handout
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