Longtime Community Board 12 Head Adjoa Gzifa Gets the Boot by Clare Trapasso - NY Daily News

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The controversial head of a southeast Queens community board has been tossed from her post by a local councilman.

Adjoa Gzifa, 64, of Jamaica, speculated that City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) decided to end her 16-year run on Community Board 12 due to disagreements on various board issues.

Comrie declined to comment on why she was booted. "I'm not airing that in the paper," he said.

Gzifa, who served as the chairwoman of the board for three years, made headlines when she refused to support renaming a Jamaica street after slain police officer John Scarangella. The board shot down the renaming, which the Council then overrode.

She was also one of only two board members who voted against renaming a swath of Liverpool St. after Sean Bell, a bridegroom killed in a hail of police bullets.

"It stinks," Gzifa said of not being reappointed to the board. "I believe I served my community well. The fact that [Comrie and I] can't agree to disagree is disturbing to me."

Gzifa was quick to point out that she was reelected as chairwoman by her peers in December.

She found out about Comrie's decision on April 8, she said, a day after Community Board 12 District Manager Yvonne Reddick was involved in a car accident. Reddick is recuperating from non-life threatening injuries at Jamaica Hospital.

Jacqueline Boyce, the interim chair, said Gzifa will be missed.

"I'm saddened by the fact that she was not reassigned to the community board," Boyce said. "She proved to be a good leader and a good organizer."

But Gzifa had her detractors.

Valerie Bell, 55, the mother of Sean Bell, said the board could benefit from more sympathetic leadership.

"I know you can't name a street after everyone who's done something in the community," she said. "But it's time to have a heart for these things."

Board members are volunteers who can influence local projects and city budgets. Half of the Queens members are appointed by Council members, while the others are picked by the Borough President.

Gzifa, who is the director of the Workforce Education Center at LaGuardia Community College, said she doesn't plan to fight Comrie's decision.

"Just because I'm not on the board doesn't mean I'm going to shut up," she said. "I'm going to continue to speak out against everything that's ill in our community."

New York City to Pay $7 Million in Sean Bell Death by David W. Chen and A. G. Sulzberger - NYTimes.com

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Closing a key chapter in one of the most controversial police shootings in recent memory, New York City agreed on Tuesday to pay more than $7 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the family of Sean Bell, a 23-year-old black man who was fatally shot by the police outside a strip club in Queens on his wedding day in 2006.

Sean Bell with his fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell.

The decision by the city came after two days of intense negotiations in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. Mr. Bell’s estate would receive $3.25 million, and two friends of Mr. Bell’s who were injured in the episode would also receive payments: Joseph Guzman would get $3 million, and Trent Benefield $900,000.

The case set off an emotional debate over the use of deadly force by the police and prompted the city to change some of its policing procedures.

On Nov. 25, 2006, five police officers fired 50 shots into the Nissan Altima that Mr. Bell was driving. The car struck a detective in the leg and hit a police van just before the officers began firing.

None of the three men in the car had guns, although the officers apparently believed at least one did.

Three of the officers were acquitted of manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges in State Supreme Court in Queens in 2008. The other two officers who opened fire did not face criminal charges.

In 2007, Mr. Guzman, Mr. Benefield and the family of Mr. Bell filed a lawsuit, which accused the defendants of wrongful death, negligence, assault and civil rights violations. It had been stalled since then as the state and federal governments and city police officials investigated the shooting.

In a statement, Michael A. Cardozo, the city’s corporation counsel, said: “The Sean Bell shooting highlighted the complexities our dedicated officers must face each day. The city regrets the loss of life in this tragic case, and we share our deepest condolences with the Bell family. The city is also settling claims with Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield. We hope that all parties can find some measure of closure by this settlement.”

Mr. Bell’s family was still in court as of 6:30 Tuesday night and had not yet commented on the settlement.

Al Baker contributed reporting.

A Verb Michael Bloomberg Doesn't Like by Azi Paybarah - The New York Observer

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Lame duck Mayor Bloomberg finally shows his true colors...

Here's the mayor, during a City Hall press conference about a new way of processing juvenile court cases, taking issue with Newsday reporter Michael Frazier's use of the word "maintain" in a question about the Sean Bell case.