Filing Complaints Against CB9 Chairman and Borough President Reynoso

October 8, 2024

Jocelyn E. Sträuben, DOI Commissioner
NYC Department of Investigations
180 Maiden Lanes 16th Floor
New York, New York, 10038

Online Application at https://www.nyc.gov/site/doi/contact/email-the-commissioner….

Re: Chairman Fred Baptiste and Borough President Reynoso:

Dear Commissioner Jocelyn E. Sträuben:

What can only be described as Mayor Eric Adams’ Playbook on Corruption, Brooklyn Community Board 9 “CB9” Chairman, Fred Baptiste is being allowed to violate the law in order to gain control over Land use matters in Brooklyn Community Board 9 “CB9”.

It was just ten years ago when residents in CB9, filed complaints to your agency about the various violations of the law, which included the former Borough President Eric Adams and who is now the first Mayor in the history of New York to be indicted.

The first such complaint was against Mr. Bishop Lamor Whitehead whom Mayor Eric Adams had sent to disrupt our meetings when we were organizing against his plans to turn our community into another 42nd street due to it proximity to the Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

This complaint was never investigated and Mr. Whitehead continued in his endeavors which has currently gotten him convicted and jailed for other crimes against citizens.

Mayor Eric Adams’ indictment is a testament to our City’s failure to curtail corruption despite the many agencies that are suppose to be in place to protect the public against unscrupulous elected officials, greedy representatives, employees and civil servants who are suppose to be representing the public and it interests.

Our filed complaints to your office failed time and time again to stop blatant corruption at the hands of the then Borough President Eric Adams.

We hope the present state of affairs will institute a new era in our city, where corruption at the lowest level of our democratic process will be taken seriously and not ignored. Because clearly corruption grows as Eric Adams’ current situation shows.

Chairman Baptiste Violations of the Law

Currently, the Chairman of CB9, Fred Baptiste is exerting dictatorship power over the Board by violating the many laws that govern Community Boards, including the Boards Bylaws, Parliamentary Procedure laws and Conflict of Interests Laws along with the criminal acts of the falsification of official documents of a Community Board.

Fred Baptiste is Chairing Four Committees.

Currently Fred Baptiste, who is the Chairman of CB9, is using his power to appoint himself as the sole person on CB9 to chair the most important committees to further his political and personal aims. This is in direct violation of CB9’s bylaws which only allow him to chair, the Board and Executive Committee. (see attached CB9’s Bylaws)

Fred Baptiste is Controlling the Election Process,
Engages in Conflict of Interests

Fred Baptiste has also used his political position on the board to control the Election process, allowing conflict of Interests to prevail and to run the Election committee meetings in direct violation of the CB9’s bylaws.  At the same time he has personally chosen all of the election committee members. CB9 Bylaws specifically state that the Chair of the Board may not be a member of an election committee and/or an ex-officio.

He has also selected Executive members to be on the election committee, who have openly stated they plan on rerunning for the position they currently have. Fred Baptiste has removed the wishes of the Executive Committee when they had declared that serious conflicts of interest exists when known people running for an office are also conducting the business of elections. Especially, when the primary job of the election committee members is to solicit members to run against them for office, clearly a conflict of interest.

Falsification of Legal Documents
Community Board 9 Bylaws.

Fred Baptiste has also falsified the legal documents of a Community Boards Bylaws and then has posted them onto CB9’s website declaring them to be the lawful Bylaws of a government agency. All to gain absolute power over the Board.

The Official Bylaws of a Community Board must be vetted and approved by Corporation Council (Community Board’s lawyers) and must contain the official seal of NYC. The current posted bylaws on CB9’s website do not contain such a document.  Please click on this link to see CB9’s lawful Bylaws with the seal of NYC.

Racially Polarizing Committees and Unlawfully Merging of Standing Committees

Fred Baptiste has racially polarized the Landuse and Housing Committee, and then “merged” two Standing Committees in direct violation of CB9 bylaws. He is using one committee filled with Black women to cover for the almost all white male Landuse Committee. All this was done without the consent of the Community Board and outside his duties and responsibilities, and a violation of CB9’s bylaws.

This racial division is being done on purpose to ensure that the community has no say in a proposal to commence a comprehensive plan and a “special district” in our community that Borough President Reynoso’s has declared to developers he will be instituting in the community.

Meeting in Secret with Criminal Developers to Gain Benefits. There are also allegations that Chairman Fred Baptiste is meeting or plans to meet in secret with the developers, regarding a rezoning application that is currently makings its rounds via the ULURP process. Again this is another one of *Mayor Eric Adams relationship with criminals within his administration. The developer in question is Alex Adjmi, who was convicted of selling drugs and who was pardon by Donald Trump. Now the very people he has harmed via his drug cartel, he is attempting to harm again by bringing hundreds of above market rate housing to the community under the pretense of “‘affordable” housing. There is talk of “benefits” being bestowed if the Community Board would give its signature of approval for the project, as its proposes to put “affordable” units starting at $140,000 for a single person, in a community whose average medium income is $55,000. Along with creating tall towers in a low rise commercial strip, which would put a public middle school playground in the dark forever, along with causing gentrification and displacement of one of the last affordable communities in central Brooklyn. *It was noted that Mayor Eric Adams has been playing a numbers game in his re-election bid, where he gets over the limit contributions, makes the announcement of these contributions to boost his fundraising amount and then reimburses the over limits amount. Alex Adjmi, was noted to be one of those over the limit contributors. Borough President Reynoso’s, following Mayor Eric Adams Playbook on Corruption Borough President Reynoso’s just like Mayor Eric Adams, is attempting to control CB9 by allowing the Chairman of CB9, Fred Baptiste to violate the laws to gain control over the Board. This is clearly to further his own political desires to run for higher office with the help of the real estate industry’s money. Reynoso Placed Mayor Eric Adams’ Official on CB9 Board Borough President Reynoso himself has appointed Mayor Eric Adams’ official, Mr. Joshua Thomas-Serrano, onto the board, who does not reside within the community and who has no affiliations to this community, except the desire to use our community to gain wealth for the developers who see us as a gold mine to plundered for its land. Mr. Thomas-Serrano LinkedIn page indicates that he works for Mayor Eric Adams Office of Economic Opportunity which is the right hand agency of the real estate industry dedicated to providing developers with the opportunity to gain wealth from the City’s assets and policies. According to online sources he resides in Brownsville in Community Board 16. This appointment done by Borough President Reynoso is in direct violation of the City Charter, which states that board members must reside in the community or work in the Community district they are a member of. Working for the Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity does not count! This is again another move right out of the Mayor Eric Adams” playbook.

Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso Refusal to Adhere to Freedom of Information Law Requests “FOIL” Reynoso has also refused to adhere to FOIL requests to disclose who are the board members of CB9, he has appointed to be on the CB9. Again this is right out of the Playbook of Mayor Eric Adams.  We  had to file a lawsuit against the former Borough President Eric Adams in order to force him to comply with our FOIL requests over 8 years ago. And again we are contemplating another lawsuit to force the Borough President Reynoso to comply with the law and disclose the identities and affiliations of board members who are now representing the communities interests. If you need any further documentation that is not readily available to you, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we gladly will provide further evidence for your review. Respectfully Submitted, Alicia Boyd The Movement to Protect the People, MTOPP.org