Exclusive: Shakeup of Somos Leadership (UPDATED)

The past few weeks may have been as busy for Assemblyman Marcos Crespo as they were for the rest of his colleagues in Albany dealing with the end of the 2015 legislative session, but that didn't prevent the Bronx lawmaker from maneuvering changes to the Somos El Futuro Conference.

Crespo, who chairs the New York State Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, attended the first part of the Saturday morning meeting in which Somos El Futuro Chairman César Astralaga—who was hand-picked for the job in 2012 by former Task Force Chair Assemblyman Félix Ortíz—resigned his post. 

Somos El Futuro is a separate organization created by the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, which is comprised of state lawmakers. The official separation was done so no elected official played a role in the fundrasing Somos does. Historically the chair of the Task Force has picked the chair of Somos, with the Somos chair then picking his or her own executive director. 

With out missing a beat, the Somos board accepted Astralaga's oral resignation—who said his reason for leaving is the need to devote more time to his career as an international business consultant—and proceeded to nominate Paloma Izquierdo-Hernández to take his place.

Izquierdo-Hernández is the president and chief executive officer of Urban Health Plan, a network of community health centers located in the South Bronx and Queens. She has been a member of the Somos board since the beginning of this year and received a unanimous vote from the board to become the next president and chair. The anointment was exactly what Crespo wanted.

According to a source, Izquierdo-Hernández has agreed to serve for as long as Crespo needs her to oversee changes he feels need to be made and has been trying to convince the board to make since he took over. Some of those changes include persuading previous Somos collaborators and partners to once again be involved with both the fall and spring conferences.

Some of Crespo's other plans are to consult with previous chairs of the Task Force. Also, there is talk of an event at the November conference in San Juan that would acknowledge and recognize the role of the previous chairs. To one insider who spoke to C&S, the move sounded like an attempt by Crespo to "limit criticism" of his regime. 

The Somos board has also replaced Executive Director Andrés Rivera. According to sources at the meeting that took place in a midtown Manhattan hotel, Rivera will remain in his role until Aug. 1 to help the transition. The new Somos executive director will be José Paulino, who was picked by Crespo, according to sources. 

According to everyone City & State spoke with, none of the actions of the board will change the plans for the November conference since the major decisions were decided last year and were finalized at the fall conference in November 2014. 

A press release is expected to be released soon by the Somos board. 

UPDATE: José Paulino responded to City & State, saying "At the moment, I would consider myself a candidate; as I have not yet formally accepted the position of Executive Director of SOMOS.  Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to concluding that decision in the very near future."

Paulino is currently the Director of the Albany office of Tonio Burgos & Associates. He has already spoken to the principal of the firm, Tonio Burgos, about the new position.