Community Board 9 will not hold another vote on retaining Sam Esposito as a member, despite its chairman recently announcing otherwise. File Photo
After the chairman of Community Board 9 said his organization would hold another vote on whether or not to retain member Sam Esposito as part of the group, the board’s executive committee decided there would not be another round of yeas or nays on the matter.
“They removed it from the agenda – it’s over,” said Esposito, whose potential removal had been voted on at the past meeting after a couple board members told CB 9 Chairman Jim Coccovillo that Esposito had sent them an email with anti-Semitic remarks – something which Esposito said was offensive and untrue.
Coccovillo issued a press release about two and a half weeks ago stating the board would hold another vote on Esposito because members had not properly followed CB 9’s bylaws during the procedure. The chairman said in the release that the board would have to weigh in again because there had been no public discussion prior to the vote.
“It should’ve never gone out,” Esposito said of the press release. “[The vote] wasn’t even mentioned at the [executive committee] meeting. When the agenda was printed, that item was deleted.”
Esposito said he believes the original vote – which was 34-10 in favor of the member remaining part of the organization – occurred because Coccovillo wanted him off the board once Esposito supported CB 9 District Manager Mary Ann Carey after some members, including the chairman, had wanted to remove her earlier this year. Coccovillo, meanwhile, said there were concerns over Esposito’s conduct on the board, including being absent from meetings.
Following the board’s vote at its last meeting, CB 9 member Wallace Bock, one of three members who said Esposito had made anti-Semitic remarks, walked out of the meeting and said he was planned to resign.
The remarks to which Bock referred to were statements Esposito made in an email to three Jewish board members after they aired complaints that food served at the board’s June meeting did not include items suitable for individuals with a Kosher diet.
Esposito has said that their complaints riled him because he “spent over $1,000 on food and it wasn’t appreciated.”
After one of the members told board member Rabbi Daniel Pollack that it seemed unfair for those with a Kosher diet to have nothing to eat at the meeting, Esposito said in an email that the members were “acting like little children” who “did not get their way at the playground, calling daddy on the phone complaining.”
Esposito went on to write that, “if that is what being Jewish is all about, I would rather be atheist because I was raised proper with respect and much different than you three.”
The three members then submitted a request to Coccovillo that Esposito be removed from the board, saying that his statements were offensive and anti-Semitic.
Esposito, however, stressed that when he realized there was not food for the three members, he went out of his way to get them Kosher items they would be able to eat.
“You can ask anyone – I have never been anti-Semitic,” Esposito said.
Now that the matter will no longer be taken up by the board, Esposito said he hopes the board can focus on other issues facing the community, including the proposed QueensWay park along a portion of the abandoned Rockaway Rail Line.
“I’m glad it’s over,” he said. “I’m glad that [CB 9 Vice Chairperson Andrea Crawford] became the hero of the executive board to say, ‘Let’s move in a positive direction and let’s bring healing to the board.’ I don’t need any apologies; I just want to move forward.”
By Anna Gustafson
