Business & Tech

Bayside BID Vote Marked by Infighting

Board to decide in a few weeks whether a special election is necessary for group's residential tenant slot.

An annual vote for the ’s board of directors turned contentious Monday night, resulting in the group being forced to determine whether a special election was necessary to fill one of its slots.

Last spring, there was infighting among the BID’s members after then-executive director according to Chairman James Riso.

Lyle Sclair, formerly of the Brooklyn Economic Development Council, took over the post.

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At Monday’s annual meeting, Sullivan reappeared to run for one of the board’s slots during an election that quickly turned contentious.

Per city rules, the board must be made up of at least seven landlords, a commercial tenant, a residential tenant, the local City Council member, the city’s comptroller and a member of .

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Sullivan contended that he had been told he could run as a commercial tenant after having recently launched a business known as Bayside Live T.V.

But the board’s leadership argued that the Class B category in which he wanted to run was reserved for business owners with commercial properties.

Sullivan was then forced to run in the residential tenant class. But confusion over who could vote in the election by proxy led to the board’s deciding to look into the matter and later determine whether a special election should be held for the Class C residential tenant.

“I was told that I would be running in Class B,” Sullivan told Riso and Sclair during the election.

Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone, who assisted in the election, told Sullivan that he should be running in Class C.

“You are not a lease holder of commercial space,” he told Sullivan. “It’s very clear.”

“I was told other information,” Sullivan countered.

“You were the executive director,” Riso said to Sullivan. “You should know the rules. We know you want to be in the paper.”

The board will know within the next few weeks how the vote for the residential tenant will proceed.

At the meeting, the group’s Class A slate of landlords was elected as well as its commercial tenants.

Sclair said the group’s chairman and other top positions on the board will be elected during a meeting held in a few weeks.

Drop by Bayside Patch at 4 p.m. today for another story on the BID, during which Chairman James Riso discusses upcoming initiatives for the bid and city Comptroller John Liu talks about tax breaks for small businesses.


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