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Penny-W ise A nd Pound-FoolishThe new , announced aim of the c ity %u2019s D epartm ent of G eneral Servicesto seek to re-negotiate all leases on city-ow ned property used by private,non-profit and com m unity groups seem s to be an idea filled w ith m erit,but one that should not be indiscrim inately pursued. It m akes sense toexam ine w here city-ow ned buildings m ight be a better source of revenuefor our financially beleaguered city, but certainly not in som e of thecases of local properties m entioned as possible by departm ent o fficialsin our story up front this w eek.B uildings which are prim e candidates for vandalism as em pty, unusedstructures have been m ade assets to neighborhoods instead of turninginto blight, as in the case of Old P.S. N ine in Prospect H eights. And allacross northern Brooklyn dozens of vacant lots have been turned intovest pocket parks and com m unity-m aintained space, w here only garbagehad collected before.In m any cases, the w ork and the fundraising it takes to createprogram s in otherw ise unused buildings and space is backbreaking andusually predom inately volunteer labor. It seem s to us that it would becounterproductive to seek increased revenue from people and groupswho are m aking a tangible contribution already to the w elfare of the city.Lease re-negotiation may be a wise general policy, but we w ant to see itwork for the best possible overall good to our neighborhoods, not killhard-won neighborhood program s and projects.Community ForumEDITOR%u2019S NOTE: After receiving thefollowing letter from Jack Uhrich accusing the principal of John Jay High Schoolof excluding members of the communityfrom the Consultative Council at JohnJay, we invited Principal Robert Weinberger to reply. Both letters follow.Robert Terte, official spokesman of theBoard of Education describes the Consultative Council which is part of theprogram at every city high school, asmade up of %u201cstudents, parents andfaculty,%u201d a body that devises its %u201cownrules and procedures.%u201d He said that itcan %u201cdevelop an agenda, communicateswith the school community, provides aforum for constituents and guests withconcerns, questions, suggestions orproblems.%u201d Terte had no answer whenasked if a principal of a high school couldinclude or exclude anyome in theConsultative Council.I was deeply disturbed and angered to hear of your recent decision to bar community members from the meetings of the Consultative Council of John Jay High School. Although community members have been sharply critical of your leadership, your attempt to keep the community from observing and giving input into the problems of John Jay is not the way to stop those criticisms. Rather, your action can only serve to increase the gap between what the community needs in a high school, and what John Jay and the Board Of Education gives them.Three years ago, when the Community Committee on Children Out of School asked you what you were going to do about John Jay%u2019s 60 per cent drop-out rate, about theBootstrap program, and about the %u201c double session%u201d at John Jay, you said you were asking the Consultative Council to search for solutions to these problems, and invited community members to participate. Since then, community members have been active on this Council and many of the major changes that have happened at John Jay over the past three years nave occured because of the efforts of community members. This is especially true of members of the Community Committee. Our members have played a leading role in setting-up-community based education programs for John Jay students, and in providing counseling, jobs and enrichment programs. We have also been outspoken in attracting community attention to John Jay%u2019s problems. We think the results of our efforts speak for themselves.When we came to John Jay four years ago and complained about the Bootstrap program (where over 1,000 students received only 3 classes a day), we were told there was no way the program could be stopped. However, one and a half years later, after being told that one too many times, we took political and legal action, and Bootstrap was eliminated.We were also told four years ago that the %u201c double session%u201d could not be eliminated. (The %u201c Double session%u201d meant that half the students have to go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m, and the other half go to school from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.). However, when we sharply challenged this set-up this past January at a Park Slope Together meeting, and called for a public forum to discuss John Jay%u2019s problems, all of a sudden it didn%u2019t seem so impossible. Just this past week we were told that thereis a good possibility to develop an annex to relieve overcrowding and to allow students and teachers to have a normal school day.Would these changes have been a possibility if the Community Committee, Park Slope Together and other sympathetic community people had not created pressure for action? I think not.You may not like us Mr. Weinberger, but the fact remains that, if not for the efforts of concerned community people like those I have mentioned, many educational, counseling and enrichment programs at John Jay would not exist, Bootstrap would still be around, and we would still be haring the same tired story about how it was %u201c impossible%u201d to eliminate the double session. Whether you like us or not, our actions led to results that were good for John Jay.We cannot afford the same old, tired stories for much longer, Mr. Weinberger. When we talk about a 60 per cent drop-out rate in a technical society like this, we are talking about a 60 per cent unemployment rate, because if you don't have a diploma, you don%u2019t get the job. (In fact, the city-wide unemployment rate for white youth is 60 per cent, and over 80 per cent for Black and Puerto Rican Youth). Maybe that doesn%u2019t mean much to you, since you live in a different neighborhood, but to us you are talking about 60-80 per cent of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends.Since the Board Of Education rarely listens to the community and since you are a powerful man within the Principal%u2019s union, it is very possible that you could lock out the entire community for the rest of the school year and still receive a permanentGoing One Step Forward and Two Back With the Democratic Partyappointment as Principal next July. But your victory would be empty, won at the expense of the students, parents and teachers of John Jay.Mr. Weinberger, John Jay needs and deserves a good Principal. The Community Committee on Children Out of School has said that they do not think you are the person for the job. I cannot blame you for disagreeing, but you do your case no good by your recent actions. I urge you to reconsider the direction you have chosen and to readmit Community Members to the John Jay High School Consultative Council.%u2014Jack Uhrich, Community CommitteeOn Children Out of School.Mr. Uhrich's assertions concerning the Consultative Council at John Jay High School are factually incorrect. Membership on the Council consists of parents, %u2022students and faculty members who are elected each year. Community representatives may be invited as guests. This is in accordance with the policy and practice of the Board of Education.During the past years many diverse individuals representing a wide range of community interests have participated in discussions with the Consultative Cour il.. It was never intended for one person or one group to have permanent and exclusive membership.John Jay will continue to seek the advice and opinions of various community agencies and persons. The Consultative Council welcomes input from anyone interested in helping the students of John Jay to achieve their educational, personal and vocational goals.%u2014Robert Weinberger, PrincipalJohn Jay High SchoolBYBENTENZERThe 1980 Delegate Selection Plan of the New York State Democratic Party is, in the name of reform, a monstrous step backwards. Will it help Carter? Will it help defeat Carter? No one knows. The plan, now the law, will end up sending delegates to Madison Square Garden. But it is so complicated, so bureaucratic, so un-democratic that even Meade Esposito, the Democratic County Leader, can%u2019t figure out the details. The fact that he likes it should make you nervous.In short, here%u2019s how it works (the entire plans are contained in a thirty-six page legal-size document!). First, they%u2019ll allocate each Congressional District a certain number of delegates based on previous voting patterns. Our Fourteenth C.D. will get four delegates. (Parenthetically, the only Republican district in New York City - Congressman Green%u2019s - will get seven Democratic delegates and upstate right wing Republican Jack Kemp%u2019s district will be given six Democratic delegates.) Then, we%u2019ll have a Primary on March 25, 1980. But delegates%u2019 names will not be on the ballot. On the machines will be the namesof presidential candidates (Carter? Brown? Kennedy? Carey? Moynihan? Mondale?) plus that perennial favorite Mr./Ms. Uncommitted.After the primary results are tabulated, each candidate, including Uncommitted, will be allocated from each Congressional District the number of delegates inBen Tenzer, a Brooklyn Heights resident was an elected Delegate to the Uemocranc National Convention in 1976.approximate proportion to the percentage vote in that Congressional District. To make it simple, since we are entitled to four delegates, if Carter gets50percent of the vote and Kennedy gets 50 percent then each will have won two delegates. I%u2019m sure you can imagine the complication of more-than-two candidates and not-exactlyprecise percentages. Remember: acandidate cannot win a fraction of a delegate.The next step is getting the actual human delegates picked. After the Primary, on a particular day (Shabbos? Heaven forbid! Sunday morning? Saints preserve us!) in a particular %u201c centraiiy located%u201d place in the district, you'll get a chance to vote again in a caucus meeting. But first you%u2019ll have to register at the caucus. Then you'll vote in the particualr individual mini-caucus for the candidate of your preference - Carter, Uncommitted, Whatever (can you imagine the donnybrook between Uncommitted right-tolifers, women%u2019s libbers, anti-nukes, and Daughtry%u2019s United Front - all voting in the same mini-caucus, fighting for, say, one delegate slot?).PARTYTIME FOR BIGWHEELSNow that the delegates are elected, the process is not over. It%u2019s party time for the big wheels and new-Ieft-fascists. The next step is that twenty-six party and elected officials (read: Meade Esposito, Miriam Bockman, Hugh Carey, Carol Bellamy) will be selected as delegates. Who will do the selecting is not you. Then, twenty-five percent of the total delegates, excluding the previously mentioned big wheels, will be selected at-large. Presumably in some proportion ui iuyaiiy iu iiic unal m a it:-wiucpercentage of the presidential candidates%u2019 vote totals. Who will do the selecting? Not you again! Surprised? They will be selected by the State Committee.Done? Finished? Had enough? Oh, nooooo. The approximately 2/3rds \ted%u201d at caucus delegates and l/3rd %u201c selected%u201d delegates must be subject to QUOTA. Fifty percent must be women, and a fixed percentage must be Black and a fixed percentage must be Hispanic (they%u2019re still fighting over the exact %u201c fix%u201d ). So if Kennedy wins two delegates at a caucus, maybe one has to be a man, even if two women get the highest vote. They%u2019re not sure. They%u2019re not sure how to count men or women or Blacks or Hispanics. But they will. And they%u2019re not sure how to count a Cuban-American woman named Teofila Stevenson whose ancestry is African. Does she count as Black? Female? Hispanic? *all three? And if she%u2019s Jewish, will they hold it against her?There are many more details I left out. But here%u2019s adetail that may fascinateyou. You will be forced to vote for men or women at the caucus, even ifyou don%u2019t want to. You will not be allowed to vote for the delegates ofyour choice without voting for men or women you may not want. If you don%u2019t, your ballot will be thrown out. Why? This appeases the quota demands of women politicians: it will guarantee that women will get approximately fifty percent of the vote cast as well as fifty percent of the delegates. If will make horse manure appear to be ice cream.How did these ugly facts come about? Why is it that our district, ShirleyV.II1M 10IIU 5 em u u u u u ) u d i u a 5 in m eBronx - the three most minority designed districts in the state - will have a total often Democratic delegates? And we have voted solid Democratic in the last three presidential elections. How could three Republican, largely white districts get 19 Democratic delegates?!! I%u2019ll tell you ho analliance of single-issue pressure groups who care more for power than democracy sold us out. And like most hypocrites, they did it in the name of democracy.Who are they? Who sold out Brooklyn?The answer is: Manhattan reformers who worry more about Mississippi in 1968 than Brooklyn in 1980, so long as it gives Manhattan extra power; the regulars who will do the picking; the women%u2019s liberation movement who will see many female delegates regardless of how they got there; the rotten borough incumbents. Black and Hispanic political leaders who, in our city, seem to care more about keeping pathetic crumbs of power for themselves than transferring real power to out minority citizens; the Carter forces who saw correctly that such a plan would gain Carter a substantial number of delegatesWhat can you do? Very little at present. One idea is to think about screwing up the works. Do opposite of what you%u2019re expected. Vote white! Vote male to the maximum extent possible. Nothing would be funnier than to see Meade Esposito and Bella Abzug, on selection day, picking a virtually all minority, all female delegation.Starting in 1968, we reformers in the Fourteenth C.D. have elected delegates in every presidential primary. In fact, we have dominated. I see no reason (hat we can't have fun again and get our maximumi%u00bbiaiC.November 15. 1979, The PHOENIX, Page 7