Letter from Avella:
February 3,2017 URGENT UPDATE
Dear Neighbor:
I am writing to you with an urgent update regarding recent developments in our efforts to eliminate
excessive noise originating from the airplanes passing overhead.
As you may already know, I previously asked Governor Cuomo to direct the Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey (Port Authority) to hire a Facilitator to ensure that the New York Community Aviation
Roundtable (Roundtable) is able to finally adopt an agreed upon set of By-Laws. The reason for this
request was due to the fact that deliberations amongst the members of the Roundtable had begun to get
very contentious and were threatening to derail the entire process of creating the Roundtable before it
could even officially begin.
A permanent Facilitator is not only imperative to the organized creation of By-Laws, but also the
continued functioning of the Roundtable so that it operates in an efficient, organized and professional
manner. As recently as late November 2016, I advised the Port Authority that until a full-time. permanent
Facilitator is appointed the Roundtable will be unable to move forward.
The importance of appointing a permanent Facilitator is in keeping with the best practices of airport
roundtables that exist around the country, including San Francisco and Los Angeles which have
permanent Facilitators working on their roundtables. You can see this in practice by going to their
websites at w.slbroundtable.org and
www.lawa.oru.
Late on Wednesday, February l, officials from the Port Authority informed me that they are appointing a
“temporary facilitator” for the Roundtable who will attend a Roundtable meeting that has been scheduled
for Wednesday, February l5’. The Port Authority has stated that this “temporary facilitator” will only
be appointed for the meeting on February 15°’ for the purpose of assisting the Roundtable in adopting By
Laws. I have also been advised that the “temporary facilitator” will be Mr. Brian Simon, a former Port
Authority employee and current lobbyist for Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. While I respect Mr. Simon and
his service to the Port Authority during his tenure, the Port Authority’s decision to appoint Mr. Simon
who is now a private lobbyist as a “temporary facilitator” reflects their complete indifference toward
taking the community’s input seriously and is merely window dressing, which will do little to move this
process forward.
Let
The fact remains that the Port Authority must appoint a permanent facilitator to the Roundtable before any
further meetings of the Roundtable are scheduled.
1 am asking you to join me at my press conference to uniformly inform the Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey that their actions are unacceptable on Thursday, Februa’ 9th at 12:00 PM at
my District Office, 38-50 Bell Boulevard, Suite C, Bayside (entrance on 39th Avenue).
Sincerely
Tony Avella
State Senator
11th Senatorial District
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
