FIGURING IT
Community Boards gear up for in-
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
The end of summer is fast
approaching, and with it the
end of a two-month summer
break for community boards
across the city. For the fi rst
time in a year and a half,
the local advisory committees
will be meeting in-person
— sparking anxieties as
the Delta variant drives up
COVID cases in New York
City.
“I have already started receiving
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notices from board
members that have told us if
these meetings are going to
be in person then I won’t be
there,” said Celestina Leon,
district manager for Bushwick’s
Community Board 4.
“I would guess that maybe up
to ten board members probably
just won’t be there, at this
point, because of the Delta
variant.”
Community boards are
bound to the state’s Open
Meetings Law, requiring that
the public receive adequate
advanced notice of when and
where a meeting of a public
body is scheduled, that
minutes and votes taken are
recorded, and, most importantly,
that those meetings
are held in person.
When Gov. Andrew Cuomo
signed an executive order declaring
a state of emergency
in New York State in March
2020, public bodies — including
community boards —
were allowed to take their
meetings online, meeting virtually
from the safety of their
homes.
In late June, the state of
emergency was lifted, mandating
that meetings be held
in person again. Most community
boards were already adjourned
for the summer, and
CB 9 frequently holds committee meetings in their Nostrand Avenue offi ce, which is a space too cramped for
social distancing. Photo by Ben Verde
were not prepared to return
in person just two months
later.
Members who choose
to skip in-person meetings
won’t be giving up their place
on the board, Leon said, but
it may become more diffi cult
for committees to achieve a
quorum of more than half of
committee members, making
it impossible to take votels
and pass resolutions. Current
guidance from the state says
that committee members attending
remotely do not count
toward the quorum.
She’s been reviewing op-
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