Katz
April 7, 2017 By Hannah Wulkan
A longtime Community Board 4 member was ousted from the board after she made disparaging comments about undocumented immigrants last month.
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz did not reappoint 30-year veteran Ann Pfoser Darby of Corona to Community Board 4 in the most recent set of appointments for the 2017 to 2019 term, according to a spokesperson for Katz.
Though the spokeswoman said that the Borough President’s office never discloses why an application may have been rejected, the ousting came after Pfoser Darby garnered lots of attention last month for making racist comments at a Transportation Committee meeting.
Following the committee meeting, Darby drew widespread criticism for allegedly saying, “Once Trump removes all the illegals from Corona, there won’t be anybody to ride bike lanes,” during a discussion on adding bike lanes to the neighborhood.
Transportation Alternatives advocate Juan Restrepo attended the meeting, and tweeted out the statement, which quickly drew the attention of local Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland.
Ferreras Copeland sent a letter to Katz requesting that Pfoser Darby be removed from the Board on March 1.
“This is a shockingly racist and xenophobic statement from a public servant. Such comments which are unambiguously racist and morally repugnant will not be ignored nor met with silence or indifference,” Ferreras-Copeland said in a statement at the time.
Pfoser Darby later doubled down on her claims in interviews with several news outlets, telling DNAinfo ““I see who goes by and who doesn’t, and there was a lot of people going by to work early in the morning and like about 90 percent of them are gone,” adding that she took it as a sign that these people have been “picked up by ICE [Immigrations Customs Enforcement.]”
“It looks like they were illegal aliens, I don’t know, I didn’t speak to them,” she told DNAinfo, saying that she could tell they were illegal by the way they dress and speak.
Community Board 4 chair Damian Vargas and Ferreras Copeland got in to a heated debate over the issue on Facebook on March 1.
“While the comments made by Ms. Darby are unacceptable and will not be tolerated by Community Board 4, Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland statement only serves to further a political agenda while further dividing a community in need of bridges and trust of our elected officials,” Vargas wrote.
Ferreras Copeland responded by writing, “As one of the three elected officials responsible for appointing the members of this board, it is my duty to respond when our community is attacked.”
All Community Board appointments for the 2017 to 2019 term were released on March 31, according to the spokesperson for Katz.
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6 Comments
How is what she said racist. Illegals comes in all ethnicities. Someone Thinking that it doesn’t is the true racist.
This just shows the extreme bigoted left are against diversity. The diversity of thought.
So Ferreras-Copeland wants 30 year member Ann Darby ousted? What nerve! Listen to the federal grand jury testimony she gave at her boss’s trial! Hyrem Monerat, another “upstanding politician and citizen”. All she wanted to do was to keep her a– out of jail! How long has she been a council member? What are her values? Since when is one not allowed to speak the truth? She needs to learn the difference between LEGAL and ILLEGAL, acts and immigrants. What a hypocrite!
Facts and wow!!!! Thumbs up– One cant cover the sun with his or her hand …. PS Hiram was outstanding … he took the fall and its evident .
Ignorant
Katz is a disgrace she is all for homeless shelters maybe they should put them up where she lives –
This is a load of crap. She told the truth so she gets canned? This world is upsides down. Time to move out of the area, illegals count more than taxpaying citizens