Borough President candidates promise
to increase community board diversity
Six Queens Borough President candidates attend a forum in Forest Hills. Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
BY MAX PARROTT
The six declared candidates
for Queens borough
president may have very
different objectives for the
office, but according to a
recent candidates forum,
they all have one thing in
common: they would deviate
from current Borough President
Melinda Katz.
At the candidate forum
on Saturday, Nov. 23, hosted
by the Queens Coordination
Council and Queens Community
House in Forest Hills,
the six candidates each took
the opportunity to explain
how their vision for the office
would go further than
that of the district attorneyelect.
When asked for one thing
that Borough President Katz
has done that they agree
with, and one thing that
they disagree with, candidates
did not hold back in
their criticism.
One consistent opinion in
almost all the answers was
that Katz did not do enough
to make sure that community
boards are diverse enough
to represent the borough.
The six candidates who
have so far filed to run include
former Councilwoman
Elizabeth Crowley, City
Councilmen Donovan Richards,
Jimmy Van Bramer
and Costa Constantinides,
Assemblywoman Alicia
Hyndman and retired President
of the Latino Officers
Association Anthony Miranda.
T
he candidates are competing
in a special election
to take over the rest of Katz’s
term ending in at the close of
2021.
The role of borough president
involves a number of
advisory functions on land
use and the municipal budget
process in the form of the
disbursement of millions of
dollars per year from the
city’s annual discretionary
capital budget to organizations
and projects in the borough.
It also has an important
role in the appointment of
community board members.
At the beginning of the
year, the office encourages
constituents to apply for
open spots and then advises
each council member in finalizing
all appointments.
These efforts are designed
to create a pool of candidates
that reflect diversity in the
borough.
Richards started by praising
Katz for collaborating
with other elected officials
in order to make sure that
her budget complemented
their projects.
But he said that the borough
president needs to enact
term limits to ensure
there’s more turnover in
community board positions,
and increase diversity.
“I think she could have
looked at those numbers to
make sure that community
boards have public housing
members on them,” said
Richards.
Crowley talked about being
more bold than Katz on
transportation, using the
question as an opportunity
to plug her idea for resuscitating
the QNS line, an
8.5-mile stretch of railway
which connects Jamaica Station
to Court Street Station.
As the only elected official
who endorsed decarceral
district attorney candidate
Tiffany Cabán, Van Bramer
emphasized his antagonistic
relationship to the political
establishment in the Queens
Democratic party.
He said that in community
board appointments and
the allocation of funding in
the borough, decisions need
to be made on conversations
with the community rather
than political favors or relationships.
Miranda claimed that
if the borough president’s
office made an effort to be
more transparent and accountable,
it would help
diversify the community
board appointments.
In addition to agreeing
that the community boards
were not sufficiently diverse,
Constantinides said
that Katz had missed the opportunity
to build a holistic
20-century transportation
system and build satellite
offices in remote neighborhoods
– two pillars of his
campaign platform.
Hyndman used her time
to frame herself as an advocate
of small businesses.
She said that the borough
president needs to play a central
role making sure that
redevelopment of LaGuardia
and JFK includes benefits to
small and minority-womanowned
businesses.
Reach reporter Max Parrott
by e-mail at mparrott@
schnepsmedia.com or by
phone at (718) 260-2507.
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