I'd like to add that Robert Ruffin who serves with me on Community Board 10 is also over 90 years old, and had a perfect attendance, too...
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WHILE dozens of community board members in Queens failed to show up for their regular meetings last year, there also was Tony Caminiti.
The 98-year-old Corona man has been an active member of Community Board 4 since he was first appointed in 1972.
Last year, he missed just one meeting. "I think I was ill," said Caminiti, a World War II veteran who worked in the moving and furniture sales business.
Caminiti also chairs the board's Parks Committee.
"The board is an important organization," he said. "There is a ruling that if you miss more than three in a row, they throw you off."
Many board members around the borough scored a perfect attendance rate last year. But that isn't always the case. Queens News looked at 2009 records for all 14 community boards in Queens.
Almost 60 people failed to show up for half of the meetings. There were even a handful who missed almost all of the regular meetings for the year.
Community Board 12 member Orville Hall, who founded the Hollis Famous Burgers/Hip Hop Museum, missed six out of seven meetings. Fellow board members Freddy Dill Jr. and Angela Powell-Hammond missed five out of seven meetings last year.
Community Board 3 member Ortner Vernon Murray missed all 10 meetings.
A message left for them at the board offices was not immediately returned.
On Community Board 7 in Flushing, Arthur Cheliotes, president of CWA 1180, missed nine out of 13 meetings last year. Cheliotes, who was reappointed this year, said his duties as a labor leader forced him to miss meetings.
Board member Esther Lee missed 11 of those 13 meetings.
A spokeswoman said Lee missed the meetings because of "personal issues" and her work with the Korean-American Association of Flushing.
The spokeswoman said Lee explained her problems to Borough President Helen Marshall's office earlier this year and was appointed for another term.
