At a highly anticipated meeting on Thursday night, Bronx Community Board 11 voted to create a committee to consider the demotion of two leaders embroiled in controversy after the publication of a letter by vice chair Albert D’Angelo disparaging Black people.

In an executive session closed to the public, the board voted 24 to 11 and 24 to 10 to consider removing D’Angelo and board chair Bernadette Ferrara, respectively.

Both attended the nearly five-hour meeting virtually. D’Angelo did not address the controversy in the meeting and refused to comment to THE CITY after the vote. 

“I find things very disheartening that some new that have only a few weeks been on the board can sit in such judgment without even understanding who the people are,” Ferrara said after the vote, when board returned from the private session. “You’re trying to burn the bridge and not to build it. And I find that very disheartening and counterproductive.”

The vote to form the committee came months after D’Angelo, an Italian American, wrote an offensive column in the Bronx Times in April as president of the Morris Park Community Association. It demeaned Black people as “the least educated, least healthy, poorest and among the most incarcerated groups in this country,” who as a result of “social programs, which make people dependent on government handouts” are mostly living “a day-to-day existence with no vision for the future.” 

Separately, Ferrara drew the ire of the board after multiple said she neglected board duties during a run for the District 13 City Council seat and sent an unapologetic apology letter without consulting the rest of the board.

Borough President Vanessa Gibson, whose office oversees the Bronx community boards and can remove if it determines there is cause, labeled the “dysfunction” at CB11 as a “distraction” and called on board to focus on the business of improving their community during an emotional monologue Thursday night. 

“I am disappointed, frustrated, angry, pissed off that I have seen so much chaos and dysfunction happen here at CB11. It has been unacceptable,” Gibson said. “We all care and want the same things.”

Beginning shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday, the meeting concluded at nearly midnight. Gibson wondered aloud if she’d chosen the correct to serve on the board.

“We have appointed each and every one of you because we believe that you are a part of the growth of this community. But it’s disappointing that I have to see and hear for myself the disrespect. It tells me — did I make the right decision? Did I appoint the right people? What is going on at CB11 that we have meetings until 11 o’clock at night?” she asked the crowd at the Einstein College of Medicine.

In a statement on Friday, Ferrara said to critics that “we have a Constitution which protects free speech,” and that the controversy amounts to “discrimination with race and age” of herself and D’Angelo, who are both older and Italian American. She also called Gibson’s speech “ambiguous” and said her presence was just for the cameras. 

“Last night’s decision to go into executive session was on the agenda, and the Borough President’s speech to the media was ambiguous and would have had “teeth” if it was directed to this executive session visible on the agenda,” Ferrara told THE CITY in a written statement. “So she got her photo op … but failed to truly address the numerous emails sent to her office,” or to give guidance since May “with the horrific issues plaguing our community board.”

Several of the public who attended the meeting said that the only fair way to remove D’Angelo and Ferrara would be through a board election. 

“As a Black American woman, I don’t find anything that D’Angelo wrote offensive. And I wish the people that found it offensive would have written their own response to him, based in fact, to point out where he was wrong,” said community resident Sharlene Jackson Mendez. 

Others said the community had lost confidence in its leadership. 

“I don’t doubt Bernadette and Al have done real work that has benefited their friends and immediate neighborhoods. But as leaders of the board, leaders of you who serve the entire community, they have lost our confidence,” said local resident Diana Finch. 

‘Changes Are Gonna Happen’

As THE CITY previously reported, several board called out D’Angelo for writing the letter and previous questionable behavior, including a June 2021 Facebook post where he wrote that he was selling his “white privilege card” and “would be willing to do an even trade for a Race Card which seems much more widely accepted and played frequently by politicians.”

D’Angelo argued he had a right to express his opinion, citing presidential candidates who do the same. He told THE CITY earlier this month that he was only “stating the facts.” 

Ferrara, who was elected as the board’s first female chair in January, announced her challenge in February to Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez, who lost her seat to Councilmember-elect Kristy Marmorato earlier this month. After refusing to temporarily step away from board duties, at the behest of Gibson, she faced criticism from board on her commitment to the job. 

Several board and regular meeting attendees said Ferrara missed several board and committee meetings and mismanaged the board’s role in the “City of Yes” zoning plan and the cannabis license applications. 

They also criticized her handling of an apology letter from the board for how it handled a raucous public hearing in September 2022 about a proposed Just Home facility, which would provide housing for formerly incarcerated people with complex medical needs including cancer and congestive heart failure. 

In May, the board voted to issue a public apology for that meeting. Ferrara, who in the September 2022 hearing incorrectly referred to prospective residents as “inmates,” released an unapologetic letter on behalf of the board two months later, without consulting her colleagues on the board first. 

“This is not leadership. Our community deserves true leadership that corrects and apologizes for the inevitable missteps that s us in all our celebrated diversity. Leadership, not from a place of fear, but a place of love,” said Finch at the meeting, who submitted the complaint to the board’s ethics committee that ultimately led to the apology letter. 

At Thursday night’s hearing, Gibson warned board that her office is keeping a watchful eye on their behavior. 

“We will make sure that at the end of the day — the code of conduct, that every community board member signed — if you are in violation of that, changes are gonna happen,” she said.