Often dismissed as advisory groups with no real influence, community boards can actually greatly affect the daily quality of life of all residents and business owners.
Each vote, each action, each instance of advocacy can potentially impact dozens of neighborhoods and thousands of people. Ostensibly, community boards are there to look out for you, to apply checks and balances at the grassroots level.
The power the community boards wield is not lost on observers (certainly not in this space) or neighbors who have sought counsel with them.
But such power comes with great responsibility.
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz recently said that “Sunlight really is the best disinfectant.” Transparency is paramount in any organization, especially community boards.
It is with this understanding of these crucial voluntary groups that represent the public interest, and the importance of open, honest governing, that The Forum examines Queens Community Board 9, specifically the District Manager selection process.
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Allegations from numerous sources, all unwilling to use their names on the record but who vigorously pursued the newspaper to investigate, focused their concerns on the relationship between board member Sam Esposito and one of the candidates vying for the position, acting DM Lisa Gomes.
Our investigation began when sources told the newspaper that Esposito was texting questions and answers of other candidates to Gomes as she waited in an anteroom to be interviewed. It was not immediately understood why Esposito was even in the room, as he was not a member of the search committee.
Esposito flatly denied any truth to the allegations, and without electronic, audio or video evidence, this newspaper has nothing to either prove or refute this allegation.
Esposito’s indictment last year, as one of more than 100 defendants in a Social Security fraud case involving his father, that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars is a well-known fact.
What perhaps is not so well known is that when the Manhattan DA subpoenaed CB 9—for all documents and electronic, audio and video evidence pertaining to Esposito, and all actions and votes he has taken as a board member—back on Sept. 29, 2014, Gomes received the paperwork but failed to notify the Executive Committee and the other board members that the subpoena had arrived. She also did not consult with the Borough President’s legal counsel, who is available to all Queens community boards for consultation at any time.
The Forum has learned that the board’s chair, Ralph Gonzalez, found out the board was subpoenaed when he was reading a casual email from Gomes that did not list the subpoena as a priority. According to Gonzalez, when he asked her if it had been answered, she initially said that it had, but then retracted that statement and said it had been a mistake and that it had not been answered.
Further, in a conversation between Gonzalez and the DA’s office, he asked the DA if there was anything further the board could do to cooperate, and if the DA’s office had received everything they needed from the board. Gonzalez was told that the office had not received anything. It was then that Gonzalez and several members of the Executive Board made arrangements to comply with the requests from the DA and put together an answer to the subpoena that was returned to the DA in the early part of October.
Additionally, there have been a string of emails sent by Esposito lobbying the board to fight against some political corruption theory to further the candidacy of one candidate over all other, which we see as a poorly disguised maneuver to mask his real intention, to see Gomes elevated to the position.
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This investigation took place at the behest of individuals in the community that we respect and trust because they were alarmed at the apparent attempts to manipulate them, and were concerned with what is going to happen to the board. As you may or may not know, there was extreme dissention in the ranks just prior to what was termed a retirement by former CB 9 DM Mary Ann Carey, and no one wants to return to that.
While this community newspaper does not have a vested interest in the candidate who ultimately is selected to represent CB 9 as its district manager, we are beholden to the residents of the neighborhoods for which the new DM will work on a daily basis; and so, we had to investigate this matter, and will continue to investigate it for as long as it takes.
This is not a smear campaign, but a civic-minded publication acting solely in the public interest. We do not presume to know who the best candidate is to fill this critical position. We have not been privy to the interview process. What we can do, by bringing to light these details, is give the Search Committee a clear field to begin again, without the burden of self-serving antics.
Again, we want to make clear, we do not know who the best person for this job is. But also want to make clear we know who is not: Lisa Gomes has proven, through her exceedingly poor judgment concerning the subpoena process, that she is not a candidate of merit, and in the opinion of this newspaper, her removal from consideration will cast aside any shadows of suspicion that hover over this process.
As for Esposito, he should not be allowed to walk away from the board under the guise of retirement. He should be removed immediately for his actions to corrupt the process.
The position is too critical to the operation of such an important tool for the community. They need to get this right.
The residents and business owners of Community Board 9 deserve better.
