Returning from their summer break, the 102 Precinct Community Council held its first meeting of the fall on Tuesday night.
The council’s meeting served as an introduction to its newly elected president, Latchman Budai, who won the seat during its last meeting in June after beating his predecessor Maria Thomson, who is a member of the council for 35 years and served as its president for the past six years.
Budai said that he’s still learning to get acclimated to the new position and will seek advice from Thomson, who he referred to as “a stoic personality in this community.”
During the meeting, Budai asked Thomson to address the audience since it was her first meeting since losing the presidency.
Thomson said that it was an honor to serve on the council as president and to work with community members and officers from the 102nd Precinct.
“It was a pleasure to work with you and work on problems that we may have had in the precinct,” she said.
Budai received several congratulatory comments for becoming president throughout the meeting, as did Thomson for the time she served in that position.
Then, the commanding officer of the 102nd Precinct, Deputy Inspector Armando DeLeon, took the stage to speak to the crowd about happenings in the precinct.
He started off by announcing that Captain Martin Briffa, who was 2nd in-command at the precinct, was transferred to another department within the NYPD and is no longer a part of the 102.
DeLeon said that he is sad to see him leave and commended him for the hard work he’s done.
“Captain Briffa was one of those executives, one of those men, who’s more than just a hard worker, he was committed, he was dedicated and he cared,” the Deputy Inspector said.
He added that he hopes the person that replaces Briffa will have those same qualities for the job that he did.
DeLeon also announced that the summonses they have issued for excessive noise within the precinct over the summer have been effective. He said that the increased issuing of summonses has repelled people in the area from making loud noises and the number of noise complaints started to decrease.
“After endless and endless amounts of warnings to certain locations, then it was time to just go ahead and take action,” he said.
According to DeLeon, the command issued the most summonses for noise this past summer in the 20 years he’s been a part of the NYPD.
He added that this would carry on into the next summer and that they will not tolerate excessive noise in the precinct.
The 102 Precinct Community Council meets on the third Tuesday of every month, except for July and August, at the Richmond Hill Library at 118-14 Hillside Ave. The meetings start at 7:00 p.m.
By Luis Gronda
