Sitting behind her desk at Goddard Riverside Community Center, her trademark hat on her head and a phone to her ear, Rev. Georgiette Morgan-Thomas is frank about her goals as the new chair of Community Board 9.
“I’m not looking to run for any political office. I’m not looking to promote any personal project,” she said.
Morgan-Thomas officially took the helm of Community Board 9, which represents Morningside Heights and West Harlem, in July. A fixture at CB9 for over a decade, her status as a trusted voice on the board has garnered her a wide spectrum of support, and members say her appointment may bring the board a new stability.
“Georgiette has been on the board for awhile, and I think she can really get us back on track,” said CB9 member Savona Bailey-McClain.
Morgan-Thomas attended her first board meeting 14 years ago, and has chaired several committees since then. That means she also saw CB9 through its period of extremely contentious dealings with the University, as Columbia was unveiling the plans for its Manhattanville campus and determining the set of community benefits it would provide to the area.
She replaced Larry English, who was relatively new to CB9 when he won the seat. English held the position for one year and was known for his pro-Columbia stance, and his tenure was marked by tension with the rest of the board. Though this summer's election was relatively close, with 18 votes for English and 26 votes for Morgan-Thomas, many members said they see her experience working with locals as essential to moving forward on issues involving Columbia and otherwise.
Morgan-Thomas, a Protestant minister, is also the director of Harlem Services at the Goddard Riverside Community Center, working to help house mentally ill and elderly residents and helping others cope with medication and addiction problems.
“As a minister, I do a lot of service for the community already … but now being chair of the community board will allow me to drive the direction of city dollars,” Morgan-Thomas said. “What better place to be?”
Morgan-Thomas says her position toward the University is one of continued collaboration and dialogue, which reflects the more moderate stance that the board in general has taken now that construction in Manhattanville is well under way.
“I don’t think that animosity is ever constructive. We can look at the mistakes that we’ve made and look at the mistakes that Columbia may have made, but that’s the past,” Morgan-Thomas said.
“At this point we need to look at how we can work together, how we can collaborate on the expansion, and how our community can benefit from the inconveniences of the expansion.”
But she recognizes that the economy has created pressing issues beyond the neighborhood’s relationship with the University, and at the top of her list of priorities for the community board is finding jobs for residents.
“We have to figure out how to make sure that those jobs go to minorities and women in district 9, not just minorities and women. There are so many people who are not working in CB9,” she said. “We want to do whatever we can to be proactive,” Morgan-Thomas said.
She emphasized the importance of the Columbia University Employment Information Center as a potential resource for the community—and the importance of regulating it.
“A center should try to do the things necessary to help people develop themselves into prospective employees … the bottom line is, there aren’t a lot of people going in there,” Morgan-Thomas said. “We really do have to monitor that better because Columbia does need to be accountable and show us some kind of numbers and statistics in terms of people who are hired.”
This commitment comes at an opportune time, as West Harlem residents protested the center this weekend, claiming that the center is “phony” and has hired few community members.
In a recent statement, Columbia officials said, “The Columbia University Employment Information Center has been actively engaged in reaching out to Community Board 9 to identify local residents who might be eligible for employment with the University,” and offers services like in-person training workshops, online training, and one-on-one job search counseling.
The University confirmed that staff members in the Office of Government and Community Affairs have already met with Morgan-Thomas, and that University representatives will continue to attend community board meetings.
“We always try to be responsive to the board’s priorities and look forward to continuing a productive relationship with Ms. Morgan-Thomas,” Columbia spokesperson Victoria Benitez said in a statement.
Morgan-Thomas said she is pleased with Columbia’s efforts, but said that it is important to look outside Columbia for solutions to the jobs issue. In the last few weeks, she has been researching opportunities with the fire department and helped set up a meeting with Assemblyman Keith Wright’s office for unemployed men in the area.
“In fairness, I certainly feel that we want to work with Columbia to access those services that are available, but we can’t blame Columbia for everything and we certainly can’t expect Columbia to pick up everything that are outside of their scope,” she said. “We want to be responsible as a board to recognize that we are operating in as much of a partnership with Columbia as we can.”
Now that construction has begun and the court battle over eminent domain has ended, that partnership mainly involves the community benefits agreement, a contract that commits the University to $150 million for affordable housing, the building of a public school, and support for a variety of other local initiatives.
Though CB9 does not directly handle the funds of the community benefits agreement, it does have two members on the West Harlem Local Development Corporation, the group that wrote the agreement and will ultimately monitor the distribution of that money. That organization has undergone months of restructuring, and at a recent Community Board meeting, LDC representative and former CB9 chair Pat Jones said that they are currently looking for office space.
Morgan-Thomas said she will continue to keep an eye on the development corporation’s progress.
“It’s like anything else, until you identify your place, and get your personnel in position, only then you can begin to do your services,” she said. “We certainly need to make sure that we have ongoing reports from the LDC … It may not necessarily be monthly, but it must not be less than quarterly."
On the whole, Morgan-Thomas said she was optimistic for the future of CB9’s ongoing relationship with the University, as long as officials remain honest and open with her.
“I’m the kind of person, that I go to the top if I’m not satisfied. I would even reach out to President Bollinger,” she said. “I’m an assertive person, but I’m a diplomatic person ... I’m going to stand on my integrity, I’m going to be honest and straightforward, but I will always represent the community board.”
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