Community Board 12 ExperienceMason was a full appointed member of Community Board 12 Manhattan from mid-2003 until April 2005. He is now a Public Member appointed by the chair of the board. In this volunteer role, he served as a member of the Public Safety Committee and as the Assistant Chair of the Economic Development Committee concurrently. He had a 100% attendance record at all of the Board’s general meetings as well as all of his assigned committee meetings.
On the Public Safety committee the board members met monthly with representatives from the board's local police precincts and fire companies. He took an active role in getting the precincts to share pertinent information with the Board and fostered a better working relationship with the public safety officials. He organized a large community forum to discuss the implications of the recent reforms to the Rockefeller Drug Laws that was attended by State Senator Eric Schneiderman and over eighty community residents and activists.
As an extension of his involvement with the Public Safety Committee, he was also a member of the CB12 CERT (Community Emergency Response Training) Team and was trained in the first OEM/FEMA CERT training course. He was very excited to be trained in how to respond to emergencies in his neighborhood and felt the experience was a great team building exercise for the Board members and other members of his community that have participated.
On the Economic Development Committee he was actively involved in the review and recommendation process for State Liquor Authority and Taxi Limousine Commission license applications. He was appointed in his second year to Vice Chair of the committee by the current Board chair, Mr. Martin Collins.
Mason has always emphasized peaceful co-existence between these establishments and the surrounding neighbors. He successfully mediated three large disputes between tenant associations and nightlife operators (Monkey Room, El Nuevo Sambuca and La Parilla). All three disputes involved the establishment making significant capital improvements to soundproof the location. The committee has not had any follow up complaints and Mason considers this a personal success.
As part of his involvement with the Economic Development Committee he has volunteered to do extensive outreach and leafleting on the weekends to businesses for the Uptown Arts Stroll, the Audubon Rezoning Study, and other important meetings.
Mason was nominated by the former chairperson, Mr. Zead Ramadan, to sit on the District Manager Search Committee. As a committee member, he worked very hard to ensure that a fair system was designed and followed throughout the process. The process took six months of 2004 to complete due to an inability of the committee chair to hold regular meetings with a quorum. Mason was the only committee member, aside from the committee chair, which attended every meeting and every candidate interview. He was also responsible for designing the intricate scoring matrix that was used to track the scores of the candidates.
As one of the members of the Board with the most experience in modern office technology, Mason successfully planned and organized the first CB12M web page (www.cb12m.org). This page was designed by and is still maintained by volunteer support that he organized on behalf of the Board.
Mason believes that his demonstrated service, attendance, and spirit of community improvement, as an active and constructive member of Community Board 12, gives him a sound base to build on for future efforts of community service.