The Board, however, would have to ratify her appointment as temporary chair, so it's even too early to start lodging official complaints.
Below is the remarkably detailed nonsense from MTOPP. Note that they claim 20K - 40K people are moving to the neighborhood if we allow residential on Empire from Flatbush to Rogers. Because as we've seen and I've posted about, there's a few thousand people coming to district even without a Planning Study. All Alicia needs to do is step one or two blocks north of her beloved Empire Junkenue to see how much new construction is happening.
I get more disgusted all the time. The woman is actually quite calm and collected when outside these board settings, so it's clearly all an act designed to give her exactly what she wants - status quo next to her house. I refuse to be bullied. The Board should refused to be bullied. We should all be able to move forward without this nonsense. Her opinion is valid if she states it calmly and is real about just how few people stand behind her. If you see her, tell her I said so. Actually, she reads the blog, so don't bother! She called me out by name in her LAST message.
Basically, Alicia is calling out Imperiale out for doing her job up til now as a Board member. What's next...suing someone for voting against her wishes? Or for looking at her sideways?
I guess it's your turn Laura!
Dear Community
Board 9 member
MTOPP is
requesting that due to Conflict of
Interest that Laura E.
Imperiale,
acting chair be removed from her position.
For brevity sake, I will outline the
contents of this email
and provide attachments that contain evidence as well
as the law governing CB9 members in regards to
conflict of interest law.
I can assure you
that conflicts of interest are taken
very seriously
when it comes to
Community Board members and their
conduct.
It is unlawful to intentional use one’s position on the board
for one’s own professional or personal gain.
We believe that Laura has done just
that!
Proof of Laura Conflict of
Interest contained
in this email
Under the
following categories.
Laura’s Company
Tully Construction
Laura’s
Employment History
Laura’s Current
Position
Laura’s Actions as
Vice Chair and acting chair of CB9 Board over the last
year!
As a result of our
findings, we will be doing the following.
1.
Providing the entire
community with this information
and requesting
that they submit a complaint
(anonymously if they chose)
concerning this
serious conflict of
interest.
(find
attached “complaint Conflict Letter)
2.
We will be placing an request for an immediate investigation
with the Department of Investigations,
and the DA’s office of Public Integrity
Division.
3.
We will demanding that Laura Imperiale be removed as temporary chair,
and that any appointments she has made to the ULURP committee
or any other decisions she has made as
temporary chair be null
and void until the investigations being launched are
completed.
4.
We will be putting out an
official statement to the media
and providing them with evidence, of this serious
issue,
to ensure that the
community at large is aware
that one of the largest construction lobbyist in NYC,
with strong political ties is now chair of a
community board,
that is engaging
in a serious struggle over land
use!
Evidence of
Conflict of Interest
Laura’s Company
Tully Construction
Tully Construction
is a multi-million dollar construction
company
that secures City Agency contracts to do all types
of construction,
mainly focusing on
structural modifications
and changes to Urban
Landscapes
Their clients include, MTA, NYC DDC, NYC DEP, NYC DOS, NYC EDC,
NYC
Transit, NYPA, NYS DOT.
Below is a link to the Columbus Circle
project they did for the city in 2005,
in which serious infrastructure was performed both underground and on the street level.
This is the same type of work that would be
needed
if Empire Blvd
would be changed from a Commercial zone, to a residential.
Major work on the sewage, gas lines and other public
lands
would
have to be performed to accommodate
20,000 to 40,000 new
residents on a three block
radius.
This would include both surface and underground
construction;
the addition, relocation and removal of sewage lines,
water mains,
gas lines and steam pipes along
with road
and other surface
details construction
that Tully
Construction performs for public agencies.
Thus Laura's firm will greatly benefit from this
up zoning
if several years from now they are selected to perform
these jobs.
Of
course by that time Laura, would be long gone from the
board.
Laura’s Employment
History
Prior to joining CB9 and before she
went full-time at Tully Construction
she worked
as a consultant for Constantinople & Vallone Consulting LLC
advocating
on
behalf of charter schools, banks,
real estate
developers, landlords, and management
companies.
Laura’s Current
Position
Laurie is the Director of Governmental
Affairs
For Tully
Construction Co. Inc/Tully Environmental Inc.
As the Director
one of her primary jobs is to secure
contracts
with the various governmental agencies by lobbying the
local
Politicians, in particular the City Council and Mayor’s
office.
(see attached “NYC
Lobbyist Search – Laura and 2Laura)
Thus she has a relationship with the local politicians and
We are sure with
further investigation, we will see
that she
Also has a
relationship with City
Planning.
As the climate in
our political environment is for the
up zoning
of
Our community stated by our Councilwoman Laurie
Cumbo
And Borough
President Eric Adams, it doesn’t
take a lot to
assume that Laurie
is pushing on their behalf because
of her
Professional
relationship to the
political structure here in
NYC.
And at the same time securing
future deals for her company.
The following
evidence will attest to her wanting up zoning in this
community
and she in
no way is representing the interests of the
residents.
Laura’s Actions as
Vice Chair of CB9 Board over the last year!
August 4,
2014.
Laura first meeting with the community as Vice-Chair of
CB9
She was seen and
recorded on tape as having pointed her
finger and shouting
To homeowners and
residents in the community, who did
not
want to Empire
Blvd on the rezoning request being given to City
Planning,
“Be Quiet, Be Quiet! I had enough of You
[residents]”.
She also
closed down the meeting, demanding that the community
board
make the
final decision about keeping Empire Blvd on
the study,
instead of it
being worked out at the committee level, where
it was clear
there was
opposition.
September 23,
2014.
Laura voted
"No", not to
rescind the resolution that would have gotten
Community Board 9
up zoned all throughout our community.
This now a part of
common knowledge.
October 24,
2014
Laura was
reported by the media as stating
that City Planning was going ahead with
the study,
indicating that she had inside tract with
City Planning,
after Sept 23,
resolution was suppose to not have been passed!
February 4,
2015
Laura was seen on
video tape clapping when Laurie
Combo
stated she was
going to up zone this community without the
Community board
consent and right after that speech,
Laurie
Combo fell into Laura Imperiale
arms indicating some
type of
familiarity to their relationship and above all
support
for
Lauire Cumbo’s position to up
zone this community,
without
the consent of the
community.
March 10,
2015
Laurie is
currently soliciting members of the
community to be on
The ULURP committee of her choosing, stating her plans to
get things
done
within the next two
months.
(see attached
“Seeking members on ULURP committee)
Finally, you will
find attached a whole list of
documentation
about conflict of
interest laws,
And the
enforcement of these laws.
The courts take seriously the issue of conflicts of interest
and we will be approaching the law enforcement
agencies
to intervene on our
behalf.
However as a board member you too have the obligation
to protect the
community and the board itself from unscrupulous members
and unlawful acts of behavior exhibited by
board members
especially a chairperson of the
board.
Thus we hope that you will act immediately
regarding this
issue and ensure that Laura
Imperiale
Is removed from her temporary position as chair,
until a full investigation is completed,
otherwise it is very possible that CB9 board itself can be held
liable for the actions that its Chair makes,
when presented
with evidence that is not acted
upo
7 comments:
Anyone affiliated in any way with the construction industry, and particularly someone whose firm fulfills city contracts definitely has no role on a community board that makes rezoning decisions. Period. The potential for the appearance, if not the act, of graft is overwhelming.
That said, Empire Boulevard is a vast wasteland and should be flattened.
Right. And as a fundraiser I request money from the City. That should disqualify me? Anyone in the real estate industry? Anyone living in affordable housing? Anyone whose business has contracts with the City? Anyone who has a relative who is an elected official? Anyone who wants to get into one of the affordable apartments?
Laura does not own the company she works for. She has no deals before the City in our district. She's knowledgeable and like any resident has opinions. But her work does not cross any lines of impropriety. She's not even the chair of ULURP. As a chair of the Board she would be required to vote abstention if she had any direct (read: direct) business that would benefit her personally.
But I suppose if you want to stretch, anyone could be disqualified. The way Alicia talks, you'd think this was the Supreme effing Court.
Yikes...what is her endgame here? That she'll chase away willing, competent candidates and the board will say, "You know what? We really need someone willing to blow everything up for their own narrow self-interest, with no regard for reality or other people...let's get Alicia to run this board!"
I totally disagree - to me it's a positive, having someone on the board who has insight into the construction industry and how infrastructure improvements are planned and executed. I don't think there's a conflict of interest at all - there's plenty of infrastructure work to go around in this city regardless of whether any happens in CB9 or not.
Mr CF,
Why do you continue to post AB's rantings and ravings here? If even a handful of our neighbors buy into her angry, race-baiting nonsense it's counterproductive.
She's working against the interests of everyone but herself; we get that. No further evidence required. On TQ@P I think your summations and refutations are plenty.
If she wants to build a "movement," let her do the outreach.
Obviously Diak you don't have to deal with the byproducts of her rantings. Were she just writing this stuff I would happily ignore her, as I would any neighbor with verbose borderline personality disorder.
What you may not understand is that Ms. Boyd disrupts meetings, files lawsuits, and generally succeeds in keeping CB9 from doing its business. All of this, by the way, she accomplishes without ANY help from my silly blog.
I print these when there is an intention to them. In other words, having vanquished the previous chair, she has now set her sights on the (likely) temporary new one.
So I assure you it's all quite consequential. I won't be offended if you ignore it entirely. But if folks are thinking they might agree with the woman in theory and are considering joining her troupe, I'd at least want them to know what they're getting into.
Were it my soapbox, I'd probably handle it differently. But I appreciate your position.
Kudos as well for continuing to fight fair even if the opposition doesn't.
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