- See more at: http://blogtimenow.com/blogging/automatically-redirect-blogger-blog-another-blog-website/#sthash.Q6qPkwFC.dpuf Earl Brown, Professional | Bronx News Networkbronx

Friday, March 6, 2009

Earl Brown, Professional

My friend and esteemed colleague David Gonzalez at the Times has a little fun this morning with the Brooklyn residency of our interim borough president, Earl Brown.

Lest anyone take away from this gentle gibing that Mr. Brown is not suited to the job -- which will only last about 6 weeks until the special election on April 21 -- I thought I'd just offer my two cents since I've known Earl since the mid-1990s when he was spokesman for the School Construction Authority.

Anyone who was around then and reading the Norwood News around 1996 or so, remembers the relentless reporting we did on the SCA's disastrous performance in building PS 20 and then PS 15 and also PS 54. They just couldn't do anything right and the years-long delays had terrible consequences for local schoolkids, like at PS 8 where the crowding was so bad they had double-sessions .

Earl and I tangled occasionally, like all reporters and city agency spokespeople do. But Earl was a straight-shooter and a professional and did his best in what was one of the city's most thankless jobs at that time. (This wasn't so true of his predecessors there.) He recognized the role of the press and he never took any disagreements personally, which will certainly serve him well in his new job.

Since then Earl has worked in government relations at the New York Botanical Garden and has always been helpful whenever I talked to him when he was deputy borough president. He may live in Brooklyn but, as he told Gonzalez, he spends most of his waking hours in the Bronx.

As David points out in his piece, many Bronx pols are rumored to live not just outside the borough, but outside the city, which unlike Earl's situation is flat-out illegal.

After the new borough president takes office, I hope Earl will have a place in the new administration or at least a job where he can continue serving the people of the Bronx.

Good luck, Earl.

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