You are reading

Donovan Richards Unveils Transition Team for Queens Borough Presidency

Queens Borough President-elect Donovan Richards (Emil Cohen/ NYC Council Flickr)

Nov. 30, 2020 By Allie Griffin

Rockaway Council Member Donovan Richards, who won the Queens Borough President race, has put together a team of diverse leaders and experts to advise him as he prepares to take office.

Richards will look to the team members — who total more than 100 people — to shape new policy as he moves from his position on the City Council to Queens Borough Hall.

He will lean on the transition team for council before taking the reins from Acting Borough President Sharon Lee.

Richards’ team – which he unveiled Monday – includes elected officials, activists, nonprofit heads, union leaders and experts from a variety of different backgrounds and experience.

“As we look towards the future of Queens it’s so important that we have community input from every corner of our borough…,” Richards said in a statement. “There’s no question we have a tough road ahead, but with this diverse team of advocates, community leaders, and policy makers I know that we will start off on the path to success.”

The borough president-elect has chosen three co-chairs to lead his transition team — Jackson Heights Assembly Member Catalina Cruz; former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger and Queens Public Library President & CEO Dennis Walcott, who previously served as NYC Schools Chancellor and Deputy Mayor.

Rhonda Binda, Chair of the organization South Asian American Voice, will serve as the executive direction overseeing the transition.

In addition to Cruz, Richards has appointed two Queens council members and another state assembly member to his transition team which includes 14 committees.

Richard’s former opponent in the borough president race, Astoria Council Member Costa Constantinides, will serve as chair of the Planning Committee that oversees land use and development.

Southeast Queens Council Member I. Daneek Miller will serve as co-chair of the Transportation Committee alongside Juan Restrepo, the Queens organizer for Transportation Alternatives. Before taking office, Miller was president of a transit union.

Both Constantinides and Miller are term-limited and must vacate their City Council seats by the end of next year.

Meanwhile newly-elected Assembly Member Khaleel Anderson will serve on two committees within the transition team. The youngest Black assembly member in New York’s history at 24 years old, Anderson was aptly named to Richard’s Youth Committee as well as his Personnel Committee.

The Personnel/Appointments Committee will be co-chaired by Franck Joseph, the Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights and Ibrahim Khan, the Chief of Staff to the New York Attorney General.

The Youth Committee will be chaired by political strategist Martha Ayon, the head of Azul Public Solutions.

Other appointees include Executive Director of the Asian American Federation Jo-Ann Yoo as chair of the Immigration Committee; Director of Communications for Council Member Danny Dromm Michael Mallon as chair of the Community Boards Committee; pastor and community leader Bishop Taylor as chair of Community Affairs; media diversity consultant Juana Ponce de Leon as chair of the Communications Committee and Executive Director of The Black Institute Bertha Lewis as chair of the External Affairs Committee.

Richards has also named VP for Communications and Marketing at Queens College Jay Hershenson as the Education Committee chair; Executive Director at Community Voices Heard Afua Atta-Mensah as chair of the Policy Committee; Executive Director of Chhaya Annetta Seecharran as chair of the Economic Development Committee; Executive Director at the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning Cathy Hung as chair of the Tourism, Arts, Parks, Entertainment and Sports (TAPES) Committee and Major Sharon Sweeting-Lindsey, of VETS, Inc, as Chair of the Seniors and Veterans Affairs Committee.

Richards has also appointed three advisors to his transition team.

Cecilia Gentili, principal and owner at Transgender Equity Consulting, will serve as Richards’ LGBTQ+ Advisor; Mike Schweinsburg, president of the 504 Democratic Club, will serve as his Disability Advisor; and Mark Gold, venture partner at Acronym Venture Capital, will serve as his Technology Advisor.

Richards has yet to announce any cabinet picks, but members of transition teams often go on to serve as permanent members of a borough president’s administration.

email the author: [email protected]
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Queens Public Library hosts conversation with Astoria author on borough history

Borough history geeks will want to mark Tuesday, April 4, on their calendars for the Queens Public Library’s Queens Memory Project online talk with Astoria author Rebecca Bratspies. The processor at CUNY Law in Long Island City will discuss her new book, “Naming Gotham: The Villains, Rogues and Heroes Behind New York’s Place Names,” and take a deep dive into the lives of the people for whom many Queens places are named, some of which have become synonymous with congestion, recreation or culture.

“Queens is the most diverse place on the planet. That diversity is our greatest strength. Our patchwork of unique neighborhoods has welcomed successive waves of immigrants, each adding incredible foods and traditions to our vibrant civic life,” Bratspies said. “Yet it is striking how few of the names that grace Queens’ major infrastructure actually reflect that diversity. By tracing the lives of the people whose names have become New York’s urban shorthand for congestion, recreation, and infrastructure, Naming Gotham offers readers an accessible way to understand the complexity of multiracial, multicultural New York City.”

Mayor aims to streamline leadup to city’s public review process to better attack affordable housing crisis

Long before the cement trucks begin lining up on Tom Seaver Way and shovels hit the ground on the ambitious Willets Point project across from Citi Field, touted as a transformational endeavor that will bring a 25,000-seat soccer stadium and 2,500 affordable homes to the Iron Triangle, it must first go through the city’s arduous public review process known as Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).

The largest 100% affordable, new construction housing project in four decades will be scrutinized by the Department of City Planning, local community boards, the borough president and Borough Board and the City Council before it ever lands on the desk of Mayor Eric Adams.

Parks Department launches new maintenance initiative to address cleanliness in public greenspaces in Queens and throughout NYC

With temperatures rising and days growing longer, the NYC Parks Department has launched a new maintenance initiative that will deploy 240 newly hired full-time staff to address cleanliness in city parks during peak days and hours.

The so-called “Second Shift” will collect trash and litter and mitigate graffiti at 100 hot spots in 62 parks across the five boroughs. The additional shift will operate from Thursday to Sunday in the evening hours to create cleaner parks while also fighting the scourge of rats — a frequent target of Mayor Eric Adams, who announced the new program in November as part of his “Get Stuff Done” initiative.

Middle Village school encouraging students to walk to school on National Walking Day

P.S./I.S. 49 in Middle Village school is encouraging its students to walk to school on April 5 in celebration of National Walking Day.

According to the school’s Parent/Teacher Coordinator Christina Chiaramonte, the initiative started when she learned about National Walking Day from a local parent and thought it would be a fun idea for students. Additionally, she said the effort could potentially help to alleviate vehicular traffic around the perimeter of the school, creating a safer environment for students.

Hero cops from Queens’ 105th Precinct perform life-saving CPR on 15-month-old baby

A pair of police officers from the 105th Precinct in Queens Village performed life-saving CPR on a 15-month-old baby in Brookville earlier this month, according to the NYPD.

Police responded to a 911 call regarding an unconscious baby at a residence near 226th Street and 146th Avenue in Brookville just after 2 a.m. on March 8. The baby’s family was present at the time of the incident and made the 911 call, according to a police spokesperson.