February 2010 Meeting Minutes

70th Precinct Community Council
February 2010 Meeting Minutes

E-mail: 70PctCC@gmail.com
Blog: http://70PctCC.blogspot.com
________________________________________
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
7:30 PM
United Cerebral Palsy New York
175 Lawrence Street, Brooklyn, New York
________________________________________


Officers Present

Ed Powell, President
Beverley Kilpatrick, Vice President
Mary McRae, Secretary
Mavis Theodore, Sergeant-at-Arms


NYPD, Elected Officials & Other Guests

Inspector Ralph Monteforte, Commanding Officer
Captain Peter Venice, Executive Officer
Captain Michael Giovanelli, Executive Officer
P.O. Kim Walker, Community Affairs
Lt. Jacqueline Bourne, Community Affairs
P.O. Timothy Mercer, Community Affairs Bureau
Beverly Kilpatrick for Community Board 14
Roz Sokol for Assembly Member Steven Cymbrowitz
Eli Slavin for Congresswoman Yvette Clarke
Ed Powell for Assembly Member Rhoda Jacobs
Pinny Ringel for NYC Council District 44
Danny Cunningham, CAMBA
David Klestizick, Kings County District Attorney’s Office
Elaine Beal, Kings County District Attorney’s Office
Joe Burke, Kings County District Attorney’s Office
Rhonda Whitley, U.S. Census Bureau
Chaim Deutsch for Council Member Mike Nelson
Ernest Skinner for Council Member Jumanne Williams


________________________________________

The regular monthly meeting of the 70th Precinct Community Council was called to order at 7:45 p.m. President Ed Powell greeted all and invited everyone to join him in the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. President Powell then acknowledged the various representatives of elected officials and other distinguished guests present at the meeting (see above).

1. Message from King’s County District Attorney’s Office – David Klestizick
It is a please to work with the Inspector and Captains and the entire 70th Precinct. He spoke about the wonder work the officers had done. The officers did a great job of apprehending 3 guys in possession of guns which went to the grand jury.

2. Message on behalf of Congresswoman Yvette Clarke – Eli Slavin
Mr. Slavin stated that he report back to our congresswoman when there is good news and if there is news that needs attention he will let her know and they will do whatever they can do on a federal level.

President Powell announced that there will be a Poetry Slam on March 25th, 2010 at Manna’s Soul Food from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. sponsored by Cops for Kids, the 70th Precinct and Voices Seeking Change, Inc.
An event that is being promoted my Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, it is a talent show. Every precinct in patrol borough Brooklyn South would have at least one participant. Representing the 70th Precinct is our very own Nathan Thompson. Tickets are available. He asked everyone that represented an organization or elected official to take five (5) tickets. Each ticket was $5.00 each. Proceeds go to the 70th Precinct Community Council. Flyers are on the table regarding the talent show. The talent show will take place on March 11, 2010.

Every year, Community Board 14 sponsors a youth conference. Young people come out and participate; there are job opportunities, training, health issues, etc. The Community Board Youth Conference planning meeting is on March 3rd, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at the Community Board office. The Board office is at 810 East 16th Street.

3. Message on behalf of Council Member Jumanne Williams -Ernest Skinner
Mr. Skinner announced that Council Member Williams had asked him to express his gratitude to those that came to his inauguration. Mr. Skinner thanked the 70th Precinct for their visibility at the event. Any service provider or organizations in the 45th footprint who desire assessing discretionary funding through the city council, there are applications they have at the office and will send to you electronically. The deadline is March 10th, 2010. Since it has to be done electronically the email to the council member is williams@council.nyc.gov. In addition, any organization that expects to have support of the Council Member, it is mandated that they attend the planning meeting on March 19th at Brooklyn College from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in which they will do an interactive workshop. In terms of legislation the Council Member believes that voted recently in a negative way to a piece of legislation which was aimed at gang initiation. Those that voted against it felt that it is a poorly constructed legislation and is doing nothing to alleviate the problem of gangs. Council Member Williams believes that the city has continually cut budgets when it concern such things as recreational activities, after school programs, and other activities that can help with the problem.

President Powell announced that our treasurer Rosanne Boland has been quite ill and has not been at the last few meetings. He asked that everyone to remember her in our prayers and hope that she will be at our next meeting.

The meetings usually take place on the last Wednesday of the month however, the meeting in March will be held on March 24th, 2010. The week of the 31st is Holy week and there will be a lot of religious activities.

4. Report from the Commanding Officer. Commander Monteforte asked P.O. Officer Shafadiya to talk a little about the explorers and what they do.

Officer Shafadiya started by saying as she was growing up her parents always stressed to give back and what the Explorer program does is allow kids to understand and know how important it is to give back. The Explorer is a cadet program. It is for kids between the ages of 14 to 21. The program gives them information and guidance if they choice to go into law enforcement. In her program, they incorporate other programs such as Explorer business, Explorer medicine etc. She wants the kids to understand how important their future is and get an understanding of what their options are as they get older. Another component of the Explorer program is community service. They do at least 2 to 3 community services a month. It ranges from soup kitchens to graffiti cleanup, the Aids Walk, Diabetes Walk, from giving water to raising money. Her group has about 13 kids now and in a phase of bringing in new kids.

Commander Monteforte continued to say that Officer Shafadiya is in charge of anything that is youth related such as home visits. If anyone had trouble teenagers that need spoken to she goes and speak to parents. Last year we were down 27% in robberies which is a tremendous number. A lot of the robberies are done by young kids that have nothing to do on the streets and they steal I Phones or mechanical devices. Officer Shafadiya and her Explorers are doing an exceptional job. They are ranked No. 1 in the New York City Police Department in the amount of community service hours. Thirteen Explorers for the whole year did close to 4,000 community hours. Commander Monteforte wanted to acknowledge all the Explorers and Officer Shafadiya for all the work they do for the kids and for the community. They were given a plaque for their community service.

The Explorer of the Year is Nadia Bazan.

Anyone wanting to join the Explorers can give Officer Shafadiya a call at (718) 851-5524.

Commander Monteforte gave an award to show appreciation for our long standing member of the Precinct Community Council, Blossom Klass, “The Lady of Jokes”. She has been a member of the Council for around 25 years; a member of Nottingham Association covering the southern portion of the precinct; President of the Advisory Board of the Community Hospital located on Kings Highway and Bedford Avenue. She serves as a Community Liaison for the precinct and has been active participant of this precinct, serving and assisting the officers and the Explorers with precinct activities.

Cops of the Month
Sgt. Joseph Durante
Officer John Ryan
Officer Raymond Higgins
Officer Jon-Michael Lobosco
Officer Joseph Wernersbach

On Friday, February 19th at 12:15 in the afternoon Sgt Durante along with Officer Ryan and Higgins are assigned to our SNEU team (Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit). What they do is go out every day and look for drug dealers and drug buyers in uniform not like the narcotics unit that Captain Pascal is in charge of they are with the precinct. They made over 400 arrests last year which is a tremendous amount of arrest. They were driving around on 21st Street and Dorchester just looking for suspicious people when they noticed three males acting suspicious in that area. They approached the perps and they started running and began throwing guns. The guns they had were two loaded nine millimeters and one loaded 38. Commander Monteforte thanked St. Durante and Officers Ryan and Higgins for getting three guns off the street and for making the community safer.

Commander Monteforte stated that the District Attorney’s Office have been extremely cooperative with them. For instance if a person gets arrested and will be released the next day and has been arrested 30 or 40 times and they think he needs to stay in jail to get some treatment, maybe he’s a drug addict. We make that call to the District Attorney’s office he will make sure that person stays in jail and get the proper treatment.

7. Open Forum with Inspector Monteforte.

One member was concerned about two summons he had gotten for parking at a T intersection at Rugby and a half block south of Foster Avenue where there are no stop signs. Both tickets totaled $330 for obstruction of a pedestrian ramp. He referred to a law that was amended in 2008 in which states on the horizontal park of a T intersection if there are no stop signs and no other markings to cross walk you can park legally. He also stated that on Newkirk from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. there are 5 to 6 cars are parked on the sidewalk illegally.

Commander Monteforte stated that if anyone receives a parking ticket that they feel they issue in error contact them as soon as possible because the police department can void a summons in error. Commander Monteforte stated that they will go and take a look at the location mentioned above and see if it fits with the law he mentioned.

One member living on St. Paul’s and Caton Avenue said that there is a lot of water that accumulates and all four corners are obstructive with water. He called 311. His wife can’t see and they have to go in the streets as well as kids. There must be a sense of urgency to fix the problem because someone may get hurt.

Another member asked how to go about getting funding for her family in Haiti and asked if it was legal to go to subway for money. Commander Monteforte suggested Lt. Bourne to sit down and talk with her on how to go about getting funding. Several officers in the precinct have family in Haiti, one officer lost seven family members.

One member thanked the 70th Precinct for their cooperation regarding getting a noise problem. The noise is after midnight that goes on until 7:00 a.m. or 8:00 a.m.

One member stated complained that his daughter got a ticket when helping him take furniture upstairs. Commander Monteforte explained that if the car is unoccupied tickets are usually given.

One member wanted to know what could he do because he was harassed by a client that didn’t pay him and the client threatened his life. He complained that he called the police but no one took a report. Commander Monteforte stated that they will take a look into it and find out why a report wasn’t given.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary McRae
Nathan Thompson