The Shelter Island Town Board on Tuesday removed Bob Kohn from the Community Housing Board. The decision, at a special meeting called in the middle of a regularly scheduled Tuesday work session, was unanimous.
Kohn, who was present at Town Hall, objected to the action and raised the possibility that he might file an Article 78 proceeding against the Town. The Town Board said it would redefine the CHB and advertise for open positions. Right now, the CHB has one member, Cris DiOrio. The board was designed to have five members, but recent resignations knocked it down to just DiOrio and Kohn.
The decision to remove Kohn followed a raucous, unofficial meeting of the Community Housing Board on Thursday, where Kohn proposed an “out of the box” solution to housing needs that called upon folks who can’t afford to live here to simply move elsewhere. Read our coverage of that meeting in this Gazette post.
Here’s the text of the Town Board statement read by Supervisor Siller at Tuesday’s work session:
“Last week’s meeting made it clear that Bob Kohn can no longer effectively serve on the Community Housing Board.”
“The simple fact is that Mr. Kohn has shown that he either does not believe in or does not understand that the point of the CHB is to promote community housing on Shelter Island.”
“According to Town Code, the purpose of the committee is to promote community housing ‘in order to maintain the local economy, community services, and the economic and social diversity that characterize the Town of Shelter Island.’ The fact that he called the idea of community ‘bullshit’ shows just how out of sync he is with what the Town is trying to achieve.”
“Mr. Kohn’s plan to move those who can’t afford to live here off-Island feels like the old plans to buy the homeless bus passes to make it someone else’s problem. This will do nothing to preserve our community. In fact, the only problem it will solve is to ensure that the wealthy few who can still afford to live here will have accessible labor in the next town. That is simply not the community we want. Furthermore, despite his assertions, his plan would actually raise taxes as paid services would have to be increased as volunteers moved away.”
“In addition to his complete failure to support the purpose of the committee, Mr. Kohn’s demeanor has been unacceptable. He has been combative, smug, condescending and has shown not a hint of compassion or understanding for the people of Shelter Island.”
“Finally, let me say that we are making no attempt to silence Mr. Kohn or anyone else. Mr. Kohn is free to say whatever he wants. He can attend public meetings as a member of the public and raise any point or objection he sees fit. But, in light of his recent actions, we can no longer allow him to speak as a representative of the Town of Shelter Island.”
You can watch the meeting at townhallstreams.com.
[This post has been updated with the Town Hall Streams link]
