Locals Grill Community Board Purchase of $26,000 Toyota

The purchase of a $26,000 Toyota SUV by the executive committee of Brooklyn Community Board 1 resulted in multiple community members speaking out at Tuesday’s public meeting against the board’s largest expense outside of payroll, the NY Post reports.

Approximately a dozen people spoke out on Tuesday against the purchase of the SUV which is used by CB1 manager of more than 40 years Gerald Esposito, who lives a few blocks from the SUV’s city designated parking spot, the NY Post reports:

Neighborhood resident Mike Cherepko, 37, called the SUV an “expensive waste” and called on board members to resign.

“I’m not here tonight because I don’t want you to think this is a mistake that’s just going to blow over and that people will forget about it anyway. It shows your not doing your job,” Cherepko said in the latter half of the meeting when community members can address the board.

Other residents shouted “resign!” from the back of the room, prompting Chairperson Dealice Fuller to bang a gavel and restore order.

“Nobody told us we couldn’t purchase the item purchased. We went through established protocol,” Fuller said when the issue was raised at the meeting.

“I wanted to know why the community wasn’t given an opportunity to have a say in what the funds were used for,” another resident, Deborah Spiroff, 48, said.

When asked by a Post reporter if he heard calls for his resignation, the board’s manager, Gerald Esposito, said: “What kind of stupid question is that?”