Thursday, October 4, 2007

CB5 locks public out of DEP meeting

Western Queens residents will soon get a chance to air their flooding-related grievances before city officials. However, they won’t be able to voice them in-person.

For reasons pertaining to space and efficiency, an Oct. 11th session between leaders of major civics throughout Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village and Ridgewood – areas hit hard by heavy rains this past summer – and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will take place behind closed doors.

According to a representative of DEP, Community Board 5 will be hosting the meeting at an undisclosed location.


City To Civics: Let's Talk About Flooding

With regards to the closed-door policy, those involved in next Thursday’s session wanted to maximize discussion time with DEP, not rehash residents’ gripes.

Wow this is very interesting. First of all, the meeting is hosted by the community board yet is closed to the public. So much for open government.

Further, it is being held exclusively with members of select civic groups, and probably more than 95% of the constituents of CB5 are not members of any civic group, therefore, their concerns and ideas will not be heard.

DEP never came to this area to face the music. How can complaints be "rehashed" if they were never heard in the first place? DEP knows these communities were hit the hardest, mainly because they failed to do routine maintenance, and they are too chicken to be confronted with the havoc their negligence has caused. In addition, Councilman Dennis "Pinky" Gallagher booted the chair of CB5's environmental committee off of the board last year, no one ever took his place and the committee went kaput.

Interesting how this article starts out by saying that the meeting is closed due to space limitations (surely there is no shortage of available large meeting spaces within CB5 and the CB's own public meeting is the night before) and then ends by saying that CB5 and DEP don't want to hear people's flooding complaints. Hey guys, a "gripe" is someone complaining that supermarkets these days only use plastic bags. A foot of sewage in someone's basement is considered a crisis. Sounds like you are attending classes at the Bloomberg College of Public Empathy.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's more than obvious that one of the Bloomberg administration's sock puppets....
in this case the DEP.....
prefer closed doors as opposed to open mouths!

They're AFRAID to face open public criticism
for their lack of adequate response to the major
flooding problems in this area.

They don't, as they've stated, want a "gripe session".
So their answer is that the community board will host a CLOSED ILLEGAL MEETING
which arrogantly violates the
OPEN GOVERNMENT provision
of the sunshine laws.

Open the doors and come and face the music.

What are you afraid of.
The community isn't going to hang you.....
only air some of their complaints.
Limit each person time to one minute to speak
and the process moves along smoothly.

Bumbling, manipulating, cowards!

Jennifer said...

could it be that if they don't hear the specific things that happenend to residents then they won't have to really focus on the the specifics and just propose some lame solution to what they think the problem is. . .

Anonymous said...

The Ledger was able to find fat Joe Cimino? I can only imagine the reporter was staking out Arby's and O'Neils. I thought the Sylvester the Cat sound alike had joined the ranks of Jimmy Hoffa and Judge Crater. One can only hope the reporter had a towel to wipe off the spittle that flys when the useless fat phony speaks.

Anonymous said...

In Queens they will go to extraordinary lengths NOT to discuss anything of controversy (unless, of course, if a Republican (not that jerk Pinky) is involved particularly at the city, state, or federal level.

People will wax poetic about Bush (who is a jerk) and go on page after page on how some national policy will hurt them, but will suddenly fall silent if you mention someone local on the city council (take your pick on more jerks) whose policy is destroying their community and wasting their taxes.

This mania for secrecy is typical of one party states or areas were free wheeling democratic traditions were either never established (3rd world - another reason the tweeded are welcome with open arms by the pols) or have atrophied (like Queens) where the clubhouse has had a stranglehold on all forms of communication for a few generations (that is up to the time of these blogs)

The solution: every time the clubhouse rigs a public event we need someone to display good old fashioned American civil disobedience and hit a big drum in the middle of the room.

he he he he

Anonymous said...

Crapper, is there any reputable paper we can forward this to? I know that the Daily News and the Post are owned by corporate agenda machines, but can we send this to Pete Hamill or someone with a little jounrnalistic street cred to get it some publicity other than the QL?

This seriously needs to be blown up and made into a big deal.

Anonymous said...

I bet CAU is involved in this. They continue to show their hatred toward Queens.

Anonymous said...

They're battening down the hatches at DEP.

They're probably not so concerned about the flooding complaints as they are about the 18 percent water bill increase that's being planned for January. They don't want to be seen in public and have to answer for their complete inability to collect the money that's owed to the city by water and sewer deadbeats.

Anonymous said...

Dennis Gallagher and Jennifer Manley's fingerprints are all over this. The press is already working on this. Wait for the details to hit. Watch them scramble!

Anonymous said...

What were Manley's quaifications for Queens director of CAU?

Anonymous said...

She's a Man-ley... baby.

Anonymous said...

"What were Manley's quaifications for Queens director of CAU?"

She 'writes' (twists) reporting the 'right' way.

Who knew that as we were talking to her for stories she was carefully gauging the neighborhood and building her resume.

Don't ever trust a reporter for the local rags, weekly and daily.

Anonymous said...

Well let's see what Jennifer Manley will do about this. Surely, she wouldn't participate in such an exercise of civic insensitivity and will demand that the meeting be public.

Anonymous said...

Wanna bet Jennifer Manley just comes to the meeting as an observer and sits on the sidelines offering nothing but cliché statements on how the mayor is committed to Queens?

She must be a friend of our "wonderful" indicted rapist, councilman Dennis P. Gallagher. What has that guy done for the neighborhood except use his office as a place to bring women?

Anonymous said...

He also meets with developers there.

Anonymous said...

Department of Environmental Protection officials are a bunch of cowards and so is the Mayor's office.

Anonymous said...

Secret meetings? Those with "Gripes" just shut up!

Who ordered the secrecy? The Commissar himself. How do I know? Read of his total immersion in the day-to-day operations of the "Company he no longer controls" and his perverted demand that all employees submit to his control-freak domination. Two dozen harassment lawsuits that we now know of. Even the Feds are after him for his harassment.

Commissar Bloomberg's message: submit or I crush. And we thought that Spitzer was a control freak (He is, but the competition is hot between Spitzer and the Commissar.)

So some in the community had the audacity to speak up for their beliefs. As long as this speaking up disagreed with the Commissar, he went out of his way to have the full weight of the government roll over on the rights of all citizens to petition the government for redress of grievances.

Even pigshit Gallagher wants to have his day in court to protect his rights. According to the Commissar's rule, the Pink Pig must be destroyed for use of the courts.

Or, does the Commissar get all high and mighty only when taxpayers and citizens protest his abuse of our hard-earned tax dollars?

Your secret meeting's no secret anymore!

Anonymous said...

Gary Giordano is the culprit, I would bet. He treats this community board as his own private club. Everytime my wife and I would call with complaints we would get the regular BS from him and his staff. We learned through experience never waste time going to the community board.

Anonymous said...

When will we get a chance to complain about the flooding that has been going on for years in our community?

I'm thinking of moving out of Middle Village. This is NO way to live. What are we getting for our taxes?

Anonymous said...

THE QUEENS LEDGER: "Western Queens residents will soon get a chance to air their flooding-related grievances before city officials. However, they won’t be able to voice them in-person."

WTF does this mean? This paper is totally messed up. Is there anyone there that can write an article that makes sense?

Anonymous said...

a government for the people, by the people." Humph, what a bunch of malarky.

Anonymous said...

here are a few more predictions from earlier this year:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4013383690175122264&postID=7659830800380458148

Black on pink said...
Is getting a lapdance from a hooker of color still tradition at 78-25 Metro Ave every year when Pinky's birthday rolls around?

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Anonymous said...
Dennis "Pinky" Gallagher lied? That's like breathing to the pink pretender.

BTW, I saw Pinky & Jake hanging with some honeys at the Woodhaven House. Jake's already divorced and Dennis Dingleberry is about to be dethroned.

The other shoe is about to drop.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007