Good morning, Chair Restler and Thank you for holding this hearing today. I am representing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to once again note that despite this committee having oversight over the city’s 59 community boards, their budgets are not part of today’s agenda. Community boards are a critical link between the public and City government, weighing in on important issues that impact everything from small businesses to street safety to the availability of affordable housing, and their individual budgets, as well as the support they receive from external partners, deserves the Council’s attention.
The Charter mandates community boards with 22 responsibilities, including holding public hearings on issues facing their districts, creating their annual Statements of District needs and Budget Priorities, weighing in on local land use proposals, working with City agencies to communicate information to residents and evaluate service delivery, and much more. Yet due to chronic underfunding, community boards struggle to carry out these mandates, let alone day-to-day work. Most community boards have very small staffs, with little money left over to hire other assistance, such as professional planners or communications support.
Additionally, Charter’s framework for external support for community boards is confusing and scattered, calling on the Borough Presidents’ offices, the Civic Engagement Commission, and other agencies to provide various (and sometimes overlapping) support. However, none of these entities receive enough funding to do so adequately, and none of them have supporting community boards as their primary mandate. An example of the difficulties this can cause for day-to-day operations is regarding IT support – the Charter mandates the Office of Technology and Information (OTI) to assist boards with some technological needs because OTI only has one staff person who supports all 59 boards, it can take the agency three or more months to create an email address, three years to remove one, and weeks to address email access issues.
The following recommendations build on the work of the Future of Community Boards Working Group and incorporate the experiences of Brooklyn District Managers and the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office:
Recommendation 1: Adequately Fund Community Board Staffing:
Increase community boards’ budgets to allow for the payment of competitive salaries within existing City employee pay ranges, as well as necessary OTPS for day-to-day operations. This would support hiring an experienced District Manager and at least three full-time, professional support staff, as well as OTPS for upgraded technology, livestreaming meetings, office supplies, etc. We have proposed a change to the Charter that would base this budget on a percentage of the budget for Borough Presidents’ offices; the funding for each community board district office should be the total expense funding amount for all five Borough Presidents’ offices as outlined in Charter Section 82 Subsection 18, divided by 59. For example, based on the FY2020 numbers in the Charter, the budget that year for each community board office would have been $498,087, a significant increase over current funding levels. The City could commit to this funding increase without a Charter mandate.
Recommendation 2: Create a Central Office to Support the City’s 59 Community Boards:
We have also been advocating for Charter change to streamline the responsibility to provide external support for community board operations into one entity, the Community Board Central Office (CBCO). Should this proposal move forward, it will require a budget allocation. Based on the model of the Independent Budget Office (created through the 1989 Charter Revision Commission), the CBCO would be an independent agency funded consistently at a percentage of the City’s total budget. This would protect the CBCO from vulnerability to budget cuts by the Mayor or City Council, insulate it from political volatility as Mayoral and Borough President administrations change, and ensure that the CBCO can hire and maintain the qualified staff needed to meet its mandate. Inspired by the City Council’s Central Staff, the CBCO’s professional staff would provide expert support to community board staff in the areas outlined below.
Overseeing the CBCO would be a rotating committee of five District Managers, representing each of the five boroughs. These representatives would be elected every two years by all the District Managers and have a term limit of four two-year terms. This committee would hire and conduct regular performance reviews for a CBCO Director, who would be in charge of everyday operations of the Office.
The City should create and fund the CBCO to provide the following support to community boards:
- Planning Expertise: Provide professional technical assistance in land use planning to inform the boards’ role in the ULURP process.
- Communications and Technology:
- Hold and livestream hybrid meetings (as required by State law).
- Assist with office IT needs, such as installing hardware, creating specifications for new equipment and software pertinent to community boards’ needs, creating and removing email addresses, and fixing internet access issues.
- Produce website and social media content.
- Create flyers and mailers in multiple languages and provide translation and interpretation at meetings as needed; and
- Assist Borough Presidents’ offices with informing the public about the opportunity to participate with community boards and apply for membership.
- Space needs:
- Assist with identifying public meeting space that meets accessibility requirements.
- Conduct regular Physical Needs Assessments of community board offices and liaise with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) on necessary repairs and upgrades; and
- Work with DCAS to locate permanent, accessible office space as needed and support lease negotiations.
- Human Resources and EEO:
- Provide guidance on hiring and firing staff.
- Approve job postings and post on the City’s hiring website; and
- Provide trainings for both staff and board members that are available to all City employees, including discrimination, harassment, and reasonable accommodation.
- Procurement: Provide support for purchasing, paying bills, and signing off on vendor payments.
- Intergovernmental Support:
- Ensure meaningful engagement from City agencies on budget consultations and other district issues; and
- Regularly convene community board staff and provide digital tools for information sharing and communication between the boards.
- Legal Support:
- Handle any FOIL requests that the board receives.
- Provide guidance on updating and enforcement of bylaws; and
- Provide other legal support as the CBCO deems necessary.
- Training: Provide training for board members on:
- Land use and housing
- Parliamentary procedure/Roberts Rules of Order
- Conflicts of Interest
- City budget and legislative processes; and
- Other trainings as the CBCO deems necessary.
Thank you again for holding this hearing today. We look forward to working with you to develop, codify, and fund these proposals.