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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017
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The Rockaway Times
DBP Residents Accuse Board of Nepotism By Kami-Leigh Agard
For seven families residing at Dayton Beach Park (DBP) coop, a NYC supervised Mitchell-Lama Development located in Rockaway Beach, this may not be the season to be jolly, as they were served with an eviction notice due to suspicions that they were illegally renting apartments on the ground floor of one of DBP’s buildings. The drama became even more rabid when rumors circulated amongst the co-op’s shareholders that these seven families were illegally renting the apartments because of their familial relationships with various DBP Board members. One shareholder, who chose to remain anonymous, said, “One family is the sister of one of the Board members; one family is the ex-boyfriend of the Board president, who also has a mysterious job at the co-op, that he rarely shows up for, except to punch in and out; one family, who works for the management company is also the cousin of the Board president; one family is the son of the contractor who restores apartments at Dayton; and one family is the daughter of an employee of the management company.” The Rockaway Times reached out to the DBP management company and Board to confirm these claims, but they refused to comment. Just last month, The Rockaway Times published a story (DBP Residents Left in Limbo as HPD Throws Out Board Vote: November 22) revealing why the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) threw out DBP’s Board of Election vote due to suspicions of voter fraud. HPD issued a memo, dated November 1, to all resident-shareholders of the five buildings that make up DBP, located at 8600 Shore Front Parkway, stating: “HPD has received many concerns about the accuracy of the list of eli-
gible shareholders that Honest Ballot Association (HBA) has been relying on to determine the outcome of the 2017 Board of Directors. After a careful review of these concerns, HPD is voiding the voting that has occurred to date and is suspending the current voting. Proxies that have been submitted are also voided.” According to HPD guidelines for affordable rental apartments, the co-op management company must first publicly advertise that their waiting list for rentals is open. Interested renters can then request an application from the management company. Once their application is approved, they would be entered in an HPD-supervised lottery, where their name would literally be picked from hundreds. This week, when RT probed HPD as to why the seven families were evicted, the spokesperson responded, “The audit is still ongoing. We are working diligently but going through records that were damaged by Hurricane Sandy is a bit time consuming. We do not yet have a firm date for when the audit will be completed.” That statement even adds fire to shareholding-residents’ suspicions due to rumors that many families displaced in the buildings during Sandy were never able to return. One resident-shareholder said, “I would hope there is legal action being taken against any and all Board members who duped the Sandy survivors out of their home!” To add to the unfurling drama, a share-holding resident posted a memo on Facebook from DBP Board President Jennifer Grady stating, “I am happy to announce, on behalf of DBP’s Board of Directors, that DBP finalized and closed on $55M in Build It Back (BIB) New York…one Continued on page 13