Andrea Crawford, chairperson of Community Board 9 (second from left) and the majority of the board voted Tuesday at their regular meeting at the Kew Gardens Community Center to remove one of their members, Rajinder Singh Bawa, due to multiple absences from board meetings in recent months.
Community Board 9 could have at least two vacancies on their 50-member board thanks to the recent resignation of one member and the request for removal of another.
The majority of the board members present at Tuesday’s monthly meeting at Kew Gardens Community Center voted 25-7 to recommend the removal of Rajinder Singh Bawa from the community board.
According to Andrea Crawford, chairperson of Community Board 9, Bawa’s recommendation for removal came on the heels of Bawa missing several board meetings within the last several months.
Each of the 59 community boards in Queens are comprised of at least 50 unpaid members appointed by the Queens Borough President for a two-year term, half of them appointed by the borough president and the other half nominated by local city council members—who usually pick active members of a community.
Crawford explained that as per the guidelines of the community board—which is a voluntary advisory board—when a board member is absent three times, the board sends a warning letter to that member. Upon a fourth absence, the board requires that member to attend the next monthly meeting to avoid further disciplinary action. If a sixth absence occurs, the board can recommend the removal of the absent board member.
Mary Ann Carey, the board’s district manager, said that Bawa has missed at least six meetings since last year.
“This is not something that we do lightly, it’s not something we enjoy doing” Crawford said at the meeting, “but there are responsibilities that, if you take doing the community board, it’s laid out very carefully.”
Bawa was not present at the Tuesday meeting and attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.
Board member H. Singh Duggal, who briefly spoke to The Forum after the meeting, said only that Bawa was a “very busy man.”
During the meeting, Crawford said that while she understood that other things often come up in the lives of board members, the board needed to vacate Bawa’s spot in order to fill it with someone who could make the meetings consistently.
Community board member Evelyn Baron spoke in favor of the move, saying, “When one of us is appointed to the board, it is with the expectation that we would be there to represent the people in our communities.”
The decision on whether or not to remove Bawa will ultimately rest in the hands of Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, who is the only one that can remove or appoint members on the board.
Another vacancy on the board comes with the recent resignation of member Thomas L. Chiofolo, which board member James Coccovillo announced at the meeting.
In other news, the 102nd Precinct announced that crime was down 17 percent for the month of January. Precinct Captain Martin Briffa said there has been a slight uptick in accidents and injuries, which he attributed to the weather.
On questions from board members on whether recent reports of an increase in pretty crimes around the area surrounding Resorts World Casino in Ozone Park had affected the board’s communities, Briffa said that was not the case, and he had kept in touch with officials from the 106th Precinct—which covers the casino area—regarding the spike in petty crime for any new developments.
The board also voted to approve holding the 32nd annual Wonderful Woodhaven Street Festival from noon to 6 p.m. on Oct. 14 at Jamaica Avenue between Woodhaven Boulevard and 80th Street.
By Jean-Paul Salamanca
Jp.salamanca@theforumnewsgroup.com
