NYC Mayoral Districting Commission Appointment

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENTS TO DISTRICTING COMMISSION

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced seven appointments to the Districting Commission, which also includes eight members appointed by the Speaker and Minority Leader of the City Council. The Districting Commission meets once every ten years following the decennial census to redraw the City Council’s district lines to address population shifts within the five boroughs. The Districting Commission will submit a plan to the City Council for new Council district lines in accordance with criteria defined in the City Charter and the final submission will include a total of 51 City Council districts.

Our esteemed Brother Oscar Odom III from Xi Phi Chapter was selected as one of the seven Mayoral appointments.


Bro. Odom III is the former First Deputy Sheriff of New York City. His career in law enforcement spans a quarter-century, having held numerous assignments within the NYPD, including patrol officer, Police Academy instructor, and detective. Odom was the director of Public Safety at the MetroTech Business Improvement District, and currently serves as Professor and Chair of the Criminal Justice Division at ASA College in Brooklyn, having held similar positions at other area academic institutions. Odom served in the U.S. Army, has a bachelor’s degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a law degree from CUNY School of Law, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Education. Odom is a resident of Brooklyn.

Fatherhood Initiative Recognition

Please congratulate Brother Dominick Boyce for being recognized by the New York City Council  for his work on the Fatherhood program.

Alan Farrell (l) & Bro. Dominick Boyce

Alan Farrell is the head of the Mayor's fatherhood program here in New York City.

Also congratulations should go out to Brother Thabiti Boone in being recognized for his leadership in working on the Fatherhood Initiative on behalf of the Fraternity and the White House and the Chi Rho 3rd Annual Father's Day Program this Saturday.

Finally, kudos to the Brothers of Chi Rho Chapter, under the leadership of Brother Jason Calihan, for putting on an excellent father's day program.

64th District Conference - National Harbor, MD

National Harbor, MD - April 28, 2012, On behalf of the Corridor please accept my hearty congratulations to the members of our Corridor who have won an office or been recognized in the following categories:

2nd Vice DR: Bro. Ernest Pierre-Louie

2nd District KF: Bro. Sean Robinson

2nd District Counselor: Bro. Charles Coleman Jr.

2nd District Council Undergraduate Member: Bro. Kazeem Oni

Undergraduate Advisor of the Year Award Winner (Psi Lambda Lambda/Omicron): Bro. Dominick Boyce

Eddie Taylor Superior Service Award: Bro. J. Kendall Smalls

Social Action Undergraduate Chapter of the Year: Omicron Chapter

Social Action Graduate Chapter of the Year: Epsilon Chapter

Social Action Graduate Chapter of the Year - 2nd Place: Xi Lambda Lambda Chapter

Graduate (Small) Chapter of the Year: Epsilon Chapter

2nd District National High School Essay Contest Winner: Chi Rho Chapter

Keynote Speaker, Ronald McNair Undergraduate Luncheon: Brother Ted Childs - Phi Nu Chapter

Omega Scholarship recipient: Bro. Gregory Etienne

Omega Scholarship recipient: Bro. Kevin Purcell

Corridor V Brothers in Attendance

We are indeed pleased and proud of you all.

For those receiving awards from the District, well done. We are happy for your success.
For those who have been elected to new positions of authority, if you need our help, support or counsel,do not hesitate to call upon your brothers in this corridor for help.

In addition, there were also those of us who sought high office and did not attain it this time. To them, I also say congratulations for wageing a hard fought campaign and doing all you could to win. I pray that you will remain true to your dreams, for if you do, your day will come.

Finally, this year, we had more chapters in corridor 5 submit applications for recognition for individual and overall chapter excellence than ever before. Although you may not have won you have shown us what wonderful and substantiative work is being done by you or your chapter in your community. 

Please continue to apply. The day will come when you too are recognized by our peers.

God Bless and keep you all and God Bless the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.

Bro. Walter Rivera -Town Justice of the Greenburgh, NY Town Court

Pictured: Bro. Steve Schmidt, Bro. Rivera and Corridor Rep, Bro. Woodhouse (l-r)

Bro. Walter Rivera is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D. 1979), Columbia University (B.A. 1976), Governor’s Academy (1973) and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. He crossed into Omega Psi Phi Fraternity by way of Omicron Chapter in 1974. He is currently a member of Beta Alpha Alpha Chapter. On February 10, 2012 he was awarded the Carter G. Woodson Memorial Award by Metro Omega for Excellence in Judicial Law. On February 11, 2012 Bro. Rivera was honored as the Citizen of the Year by Beta Alpha Alpha chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.

Bro. Rivera began his legal career in 1979 as a Law Clerk for the New York State Court of Appeals. In September 1981, he was appointed an Assistant Attorney General of the State of New York. He entered private practice in January 1985 and is a Partner in the firm of Rivera & Colon, LLP located in Manhattan. He is a resident of Greenburgh, New York. On November 8, 2011 he was elected to a 4 year term as Town Justice of the Greenburgh Town Court, Westchester County, State of New York. He commenced his term on January 1, 2012.

Bro. Rivera has guest lectured before numerous civic organizations and in the public schools. He has served as an Instructor for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy at Hofstra Law School. He is a member of the board of the School of Visual Arts and previously served on the boards of the Pocantico Hills School Foundation and the National Hispanic Business Group. He is a member of the Puerto Rican Bar Association, and is a past member of its Board of Directors. He is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the National Hispanic Bar Association. He is a past Chair of the Committee on Small Law Firm Management of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. In 1997, he was appointed to the Chief Judge’s Task Force on the Profession, Ethics Institute Subcommittee. Bro. Rivera has served as a Site Visitor to different law schools as part of the American Bar Association’s law school accreditation process. On June 2, 2006 Bro. Rivera was appointed to a three-year term on the Standing Committee on Lawyer Referral and Information Service of the American Bar Association. Bro. Rivera served a 2 year term as a member of the Greenburgh Board of Ethics and concluded his tenure in December, 2010.

Bro. Rivera is admitted to practice in New York. He is also admitted to practice before the United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern, and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the United States Military Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. He is AV rated, which is the highest level of ethical standards and professionalism conferred by his peers in the legal profession and is so listed in the Martindale Hubbell ratings of lawyers.

Bro Toney Earl Elected 8th District Rockland County Legislator, NY

                                                      Brother Toney Earl

Rockland County, NY. November 2011. Brother Toney Earl was elected as Rockland
County 8th District Legislator. He was appointed to the Rockland County Legislature in
November 2010. Currently he serves as the Safety manager for the Town of Ramapo, NY.
and is the Former Health & Safety Director for NYC Transport Workers Union, Local
100.

Brother Earl crossed the Burning Sands through Beta Alpha Alpha chapter in 1999.  He is a member of Xi Lambda Lambda Chapter, a Life Member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and a 33rd Degree Mason.

Centennial Summer Series NYC Vol. 2 The 90's Party

Pre-Father’s Day “Daddy & Me” Reading Program

 Harlem, New York – On Saturday, June 11, 2011, the Corridor Five of the Second District hosted a Pre-Father’s Day “Daddy & Me” Reading Program at the Harlem PAL Center located on 441 Manhattan Avenue. This kick-off event was held during National Father’s Week in New York City. On this day 30 Omega men from across the 18 chapters of Corridor Five came together to read donated books to children who traveled as far as Long Island and Rockland County to participate in this event in Harlem. The event was held in partnership with the Police Athletic League (PAL), a well-known youth organization, and the target audience was children from pre-Kindergarten to fifth grade. The program consisted of individual book readings, a gift-wrapped presentation of books to the PAL Staff for its library, two artistic performances, an arts and crafts corner, and three educational raffle drawings. At the end of the program, the children got to keep the books that were read to them by their fathers, male guardians and Omega men. A total of 52 books were received by individual children on this day. The featured performer was Paul McIntosh, a noted poet, youth advocate, and author who brought down the house with his stirring medley of Langston Hughes’s works such as Mother to Son, A Dream Deferred, and Dream Boogie.”

The event was chaired by Bro. Dominick Boyce, Second District’s Fatherhood & Mentoring Representative and a Deputy Corridor Five Representative in New York.

The purpose of the event was to create a new community partnership that would promote fatherhood and mentorship and exhibit the positive impact that Fathers and male role models can have in the life of children. Further, the Fraternity wanted to offer a free opportunity for fathers/guardians and/or male role models from the Fraternity to bond with children from the surrounding community. Brothers were invited to bring their children too. The impetus for this event was the Fraternity’s partnership with President Barack Obama’s White House Fatherhood & Mentoring Initiative and the Fraternity’s adoption of an International Fatherhood & Mentoring Initiative at the 76th Grand Conclave in Raleigh, North Carolina. Corridor Five would be the first and lead Corridor to sponsor an event under our Fraternity’s International Initiative. Our thanks go out to he Brothers of Corridor Five under the capable leadership of Brother Kevin J. Woodhouse for another honorable project that has impacted lives in a positive manner.