Emily Gallagher’s tenure on Brooklyn Community Board 1 ended May 31 after the New York state assembly candidate and Greenpoint resident did not apply for re-appointment earlier this year, e&c has learned.
Community boards serve in an advisory role within the municipal government and provide hyperlocal forums for issues including development, environment, and transportation. Board members must apply for re-appointment by their borough presidents; this year’s applications, in Brooklyn, were due on Feb. 14.
Gallagher has been campaigning since September to unseat Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, who has held his seat in Albany since 1973. Voters in New York’s 50th assembly district, which includes Greenpoint, will choose between Lentol and Gallagher during the June 23 Democratic primary.
Though Gallagher did not intend to quit the board — and admitted that her not being re-appointed may have been her own “mistake” — she did not mourn for her CB1 seat in an interview with e&c on Tuesday. Looking back on her tenure, which began in 2017, Gallagher said, “I felt like I was viewed largely as a pest.”
“The community board was a fairly toxic emotional environment. I didn’t think it was that concerned with fixing its problems,” Gallagher said, citing what she viewed as dysfunction, entrenchment, and a political appointment process reminiscent of machine politics.
She emerged as a dissenting voice following the board’s controversial purchase of a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, for $25,994.80, in August 2018. In response to reporting on Monday from THE CITY on a committee-level proposal to cancel the board’s elections this year, Gallagher tweeted, “CB1 is not a healthy democracy. I said it.”
Brooklyn Community Board 1 did not respond to e&c’s request for comment.
Five others joined Gallagher in recently leaving the board. New appointees this year include Teon Brooks, Erin Drinkwater, Abe Leiberwitz, Sante Miceli, and William Vega.
Some board leaders and members have struggled to adopt and adjust to virtual meetings during the pandemic. The aforementioned proposal — a supposed solution to their not being able to vote in person — is certain to be the most contested agenda item when the board meets in full for the first time in four months, on June 24.
Technical frustrations and frequent interruptions during CB1’s executive committee meeting on Tuesday led board chairperson Dealice Fuller to urge members to “bring their patience” to that meeting later this month. Earlier on Tuesday, immediately following the committee’s vote to schedule the June 24 meeting, an unidentified board member had murmured “God help us” into the glitchy, echoey din.
What else is up in Greenpoint?
See How the Pandemic Played Out in North Brooklyn As New York City Reopens (Greenpointers’ Ben Weiss)
City Reveals Revised Plans for Bushwick Inlet Park Motiva Site (Brooklyn Paper’s Kevin Duggan)
Commercial Tenants Desperate for Relief in Greenpoint (City Limits’ Peter Senzamici)
Thus concludes this June 11, 2020 edition of East & Creek, the VERY OCCASIONAL newsletter about Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Read the full archives here.
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See ya around the neighb,
Jon Hanrahan
Author, e&c