Pro-overdevelopment CB7 cancels member appointed by Donovan Richards

 

Queens Eagle

A Queens community board moved forward with efforts to remove one of its members from its ranks Monday night. 

Queens Community Board 7 voted 42 to 3, with one abstention, to take the next steps to expel board member John Choe, who’s been accused of various acts of misconduct by the board’s executive committee. He’s denied all allegations against him.

It was the first time in the board’s history that expulsion proceedings were initiated. 

Chuck Apelian, the board’s vice chair, began the process by reading the charges against Choe, which range from unauthorized postings to Facebook to violations of the City Charter. 

“This is something that’s been going on for a while,” Apelian said. “Every time we tried to work things out, it didn’t seem to go away.”

After a brief spat between Choe and Eugene Kelty, the board’s chair, the accused board member was given a few minutes to defend himself. 

“This is an embarrassment to the entire community board system,” Choe said. “I think this whole charade is a huge, huge embarrassment to the community board and I object vehemently to this entire process. It's absurd.”

In order to proceed with Choe’s removal, two-thirds of the board had to vote in favor – over 90 percent supported the motion. 

“I think that’s a very loud comment,” Apelian told the Eagle after the vote. “I knew we had overwhelming support but that’s a pretty resounding number – that’s pretty telling.”

Choe received support from both a handful of community board members and several members of the public, who were given an opportunity to speak after the vote had taken place.

“I just see this as an abuse of authority,” said Cody Herrmann, a board member, who added that she thought the charges against Choe were “misconstrued.”

Herrmann voted against the proceedings, as did members Harpreet Singh Wahan and Choe. 

“I do not believe that any of this is fair or justified,” said Laura Shepard, who spoke in support of Choe during the public comment period. “This whole thing is nonsense and shame on all of you who voted for it.”

The board’s executive committee, made up of members Warren Schreiber, Frank Macchio, Lei Zhao, Kelty and Apelian, voted unanimously to take the action against Choe last month. On May 26, Kelty issued Choe with a letter notifying him of the proceedings against him. 

Choe, who’s running for City Council in District 20, said he hadn’t been contacted by the board after receiving the letter. 

“No one has explained to me the process or what my rights are,” Choe told the Eagle prior to Monday’s meeting. “We've tried to contact the borough president’s office and it seems like they're tacitly allowing this to happen, even though there's really no credence to any of these allegations.”

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards has refrained from commenting on the removal proceedings, despite having appointed Choe to the board against the recommendation of City Council member Peter Koo earlier this year. 

“The Queens Borough President’s office will let this process unfold and not interfere,” a spokesperson for Richards told the Eagle earlier this month. 

While the executive committee and Choe have clashed for years, their disagreements came to a head in the lead up to the vote to approve plans to develop the Flushing waterfront in December 2020. Choe, who stood in stark opposition to the plan, called out Apelian for what he alleged to be a conflict of interest. 

Apelian, who also serves as the board’s Land Use Committee chair, worked as a paid consultant for the development group behind the project. Apelian recused himself from the board’s vote on the matter and accused Choe of slander. 

On Monday, Choe repeated his allegations to Apelian in front of the full board. 

“You are not only embarrassing yourself by doing this, you are actually promoting the corruption that’s going on in this community board by taking money from developers,” Choe said. “I cannot be silent on that.” 

 

Meng keeps interesting company

From the NY Post:

Queens congressional candidate Assembly woman Grace Meng used a North Korea sympathizer to help out with her upcoming primary race.

John Choe, who gathered 20 signatures on a Meng petition dated April 2, is notorious for telling a 2006 “Global Struggle for Socialism” conference that Kim Jung-un-led North Korea was “at the front line of the liberation struggles against imperialism.”

Choe left Comptroller John Liu’s campaign in 2009 after his remarks became public, and resigned as a senior aide in the Comptroller’s Office last September — just weeks after The Post reported he’d been hired there.

“Apparently John Choe — who is not a part of our campaign staff — was one of over 100 volunteers who collected 4,300 Democratic signatures. Assemblywoman Meng completely disagrees with Mr. Choe’s politics concerning North Korea,” said Meng campaign spokesman Michael Tobman.

Liu kisses Choe goodbye

From the NY Post:

John Choe, the apologist for communist North Korea, quietly quit his $105,000-a-year job as Liu’s policy director last month -- shortly after The Post reported his equally under-the-radar hiring.

The claim by Liu’s office that The Post story had little to do with Choe’s departure is farfetched, considering how his employment was kept under wraps in the first place.

Choe was previously the comptroller’s chief of staff during Liu’s years on the City Council. After a failed bid to win his own council seat, he worked on Liu’s comptroller campaign until news broke that he’d told a 2006 conference on the “Global Struggle for Socialism” that North Korea was “at the front line of the liberation struggles against imperialism.”

He has since run Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, a propaganda outfit that sends people on trips to the North -- and which South Korea believes is controlled by Pyongyang.

Liu rehires North Korea nut

From the NY Post:

The Korean War is being fought again -- this time, in the city Comptroller’s Office.

Comptroller John Liu has hired back former top aide John Choe, who had resigned amid controversy over his alleged support of North Korea.

Choe, a Korean-American, had been chief-of-staff for Liu when Liu was a City Council member.

Choe quit to run for the council himself in 2009, but continued to work on old boss’ campaign for comptroller. He left the Liu campaign after reports emerged that in 2006, he had told a conference on the “Global Struggle for Socialism” that North Korea “is at the front line of the liberation struggles against imperialism.”

At the time, Liu denied Choe made the comments, saying his aide was the victim of “McCarthyism.”

But Choe admitted to The Post, “I may have said something like that.”

Still, four days after taking over as comptroller in 2010, Liu hired Choe -- who lost his council bid -- for the $105,000-a-year job of director of policy and research.

Council District 20 debate video

From BoroPolitics:

The six Democratic candidates running for the seat — John Choe, Yen Chou, S.J. Jung, Constantine Kavadas, Isaac Sasson and James Wu — duked it out during a forum sponsored by TimesLedger Newspapers, part of the Community Newspaper Group, last Thursday.
Michael Bloomberg for Mayor

An otherwise civil discussion on District 20 issues turned ugly when the candidates were asked about the role of ethnic politics in the race, briefly descending into a screaming match between Kavadas and Sasson, who have each been accused of racism during the campaign.

For more about the elections, visit the Queens Campaigner.

District 20 debate turns into Royal Rumble

From the Queens Campaigner:

It was billed as a debate, but it turned into an airing of dirty laundry.

The six Democratic candidates running for the seat of City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) participated in a candidates’ forum in Flushing Monday night, but what started as a cordial discourse on issues affecting District 20 quickly devolved into a fracas replete with allegations of everything from racism to planted questions.

During the course of the forum, held at Korea Village by Terence Park’s Our Political Coalition, candidates Yen Chou and Isaac Sasson were openly called racists, John Choe was criticized for calling the United States imperialist in a 2006 speech, S.J. Jung was accused of living in another state and Constantine Kavadas erupted against forum panelists whom he accused of asking questions planted by opposing campaigns.

Tomorrow night is round 2 at the Flushing Library! Don't miss it!

Choe runs on anti-American platform

From the NY Post:

The comments of John Choe, one of six candidates trying to succeed Councilman John Liu in Flushing, were reported in the Workers World newspaper.

"Korea is at the front line of the liberation struggles against imperialism," Choe was quoted as telling a conference here in May 2006 on "Preparing for the Rebirth of the Global Struggle for Socialism."

"From the very beginning, when the US intervened and occupied Korea, the Korean people have been resisting and struggling. And I urge all of you here to help us in our dark days trying to win back freedom and independence from the United States and its military."

Choe's position poses something of a problem for Liu and the Queens Democratic Party, which has endorsed him.

Liu, now running for comptroller, insisted Choe, his former chief of staff, was being stigmatized by "McCarthyism."

"There's no way he made those comments, no way," declared Liu, not aware of Choe's admission [that he had].

A challenging time in the 20th Council District

From the Queens Campaigner:

In the race to replace City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), even getting on the ballot is a battle.

With just under two months until the Democratic primary, 46 objections to candidates’ ballot petitions had been filed with the city Elections Board in the race for Liu’s seat — easily the most for any city race in Queens.

According to board records, as of 3 p.m. Monday all six Democrats and the lone Republican registered for the race had at least four challenges filed against them.

Constantine Kavadas received 10 challenges, S.J. Jung and Isaac Sasson each received seven, James Wu received five and John Choe and Yen Chou each received four. Peter Koo, a Republican, received nine challenges.

Candidate's Korea stance becomes campaign issue

From the Queens Tribune blog:

John Choe would rather not talk about North Korea.

“This issue is of very little relevance to District 20,” said Choe, responding to claims made last week by District Leader Julia Harrison, who said her sources were wary of Choe’s alleged connections to North Korea.

Choe did agree to a lengthy interview to dispel the rumors and past allegations that his role in founding a group called Nodutdol somehow branded him unpatriotic or worse. He made no secret of his advocacy for peace on the Korean peninsula and explained his positions on the issues that have gotten North Korea in headlines around the world.

Nodutdol sponsors trips by American Koreans to visit the country and the blog posts they write are overwhelmingly positive, describing the new found pride they feel in their heritage and the warm welcome they received. Nodutdol has been criticized for not presenting the negatives of North Korea, but Choe says that is not the purpose of the group. Instead, the group wants to foster cultural exchange and understanding, traits that Choe considers prerequisites for peace.

Choe said North Korea, like every nation, is entitled to test rockets for civilian purposes. When asked if he believe the rockets recently tested are for satellites or weapons, he said is not aware of any evidence one way or the other.

In regards to human rights violations, Choe criticized the former military government of South Korea, especially their National Security Law, which he said led to the “restricted free speech and freedom of conscience, [and] allowed the authorities to detain, torture and sometimes kill their political opponents whether they were professors, poetry, labor activists.”

“If a similar system is in place in North Korea, I would also oppose it,” said Choe.