The man is hammered out!
Community Board 6’s highest-paid employee announced his resignation on Oct. 6, about a week after he returned to his post from a leave of absence stemming from his two April arrests on stalking charges.
Craig Hammerman, a panel staffer since 1990 who earns $112,000 annually in his soon-to-be-vacant position of district manager, said he will step down on Oct. 20 in order to spare the board from fallout following his months-long absence and arrests. Cops cuffed him once after his former flame accused him of using her Uber account to track her to a Bedford-Stuyvesant hotel, and again when he allegedly violated a court’s order of protection by approaching his ex in a Park Slope bar less than a week later.
“I took an extended medical leave … because my personal circumstances had become a distraction,” Hammerman wrote in an e-mail sent to board members. “I believe what would be in the best interest of the community board, and myself, is for me to step down as district manager.”
The civic honcho began his leave in May, and extended it twice before he returned on Sept. 28. A group of board members was set to evaluate Hammerman’s performance in a closed-door session after he reassumed his job, Community Board 6 chairman Sayar Lonial said at a meeting prior to his return, but it is not clear whether they ever met with the embattled staffer.
Lonial declined to comment about Hammerman’s resignation, instead saying he will address it at the panel’s next full meeting on Oct. 11.
The district attorney’s office plans on dropping its stalking case against the district manager in November, according to his lawyer, who said her client is concerned his ex-girlfriend’s allegations will continue to haunt him long after he is exonerated.
“There are always people who figure he got away with murder,” said Joyce David. “It’s human nature.”
And Hammerman’s ex continued to try to contact him via text and in person following his arrests, David said, which made him worry that her behavior could result in further scandal for him and the community board.
“He is having a very difficult situation with a woman following him, trying to hurt him, and taunting him by contacting him with no repercussions,” she said.
The outgoing district manager expressed gratitude to the advisory panel’s volunteer members in his resignation letter, thanking them for allowing him to serve the community, and acknowledging Lonial and the board’s treasurer, Jerry Armer, for their sensitivity throughout his legal ordeal. And he urged the group to pursue its commitment to civic virtue in the statement.
“Doing the people’s work is a calling; it’s a sacred public trust,” Hammerman wrote. “Keep making mistakes and learning along the way. Every mistake is a learning opportunity. Every Problem is a challenge. Keep reaching for the light and growing.”
