By Carol Tannenhauser
There is an important Community Board (CB) 7 meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom. You can register to attend here.
WSR previewed the main event yesterday — the upcoming vote on the fate of West Park Presbyterian Church. Click on the link for details and ways to register your opinion.
But there’s another item of interest on the agenda, easily overlooked, that has raised questions about freedom of speech and the press. It centers on an amendment to the board’s bylaws, which, if approved, would require board members to notify the board chair about any contacts they have with the press.
“This abridge[s] board members’ free speech rights,” said Ken Coughlin, a board member. “They should be free to speak to anyone they wish to about board matters without having to tell someone they are doing it. We would never expect a City Council member or a member of Congress to inform their speaker every time they talked to the media. Community board members should be no different.”
The Rag asked Mark Levine, Manhattan borough president, who appoints community board members, to comment on the proposal. But his press secretary said, “We are going to hold off from making comments about this…until after tonight’s vote,” he said.
Board Chair Steven Brown reserved the same right, but added, “Based on the last draft I read, I do not see anything that is stopping free speech or allowing board members to speak to the press.”
This seemingly arcane issue, which follows the church vote on the agenda, has the potential to turn rancorous, as it did in the task force meetings that preceded it.
If you have never been to a community board meeting, this is a good place to start.
RE: The rights and duties of board members — I have served on several not-for-profit boards, currently 3 educational institutions. From the first, I have understood that as a board member it is NOT appropriate for me to respond to inquiries from the press or other individuals about matters before the board. From time to time, if I receive such inquiries, I refer the person asking to the Board Chair. As an individual member I cannot speak on behalf of the Board, much less the organization, but the person asking the question is often seeking an answer that can be represented as such, or create or exploit differences among board members as they deliberate
If a matter is confidential, it is not for me to claim that free speech permits me to disclose it – either actively by speaking out or passively by responding to a question. If a matter is subject to a Board vote, and not yet resolved, I am not in a position to say what the outcome may be. If the vote has been taken, in my opinion and understanding of the working of boards, it is not for me to undermine the vote by agreeing or disagreeing publicly with the outcome, sharing the distribution of votes, etc. If the proceedings of the organization are of a public nature, the relevant material will be published in minutes — and, when the matter is confidential,some or all details will NOT be published. The exception to this is when, as a matter of conscience and concern for public well-being arises, creating the need for a “whistleblower” to disclose such facts…but, imho, this is different from individual board members either responding to or seeking out members of the press to discuss board proceedings.
“If you have never been to a community board meeting, this is a good place to start.”
Seriously? This was a four hour meeting and a first time participant would probably never return.
The meeting seemed to be setup to discourage community participation. Frankly this happens far too often on Community Boards. I served on one for ten years.
1. The public was given no access to the proposed revised bylaws. That meant that it became an entirely internal discussion among board members.
2. This internal discussion was placed in the middle of the agenda meaning that community members who had come to speak on other issues were forced to sit through this internal discussion.
3. The text of resolutions being voted on was also not distributed to the public during the meeting.
4. A link to the meeting agenda was not provided in the meeting. Community residents had to dig through the cb7 web site to find it.
Come on CB7, you can do so much better.. Mark Levine are you listening? What are you doing to make Community Board meetings more community friendly? After all, they are literally COMMUNITY boards.
About 2 weeks ago, Streetsblog had an article/opinion discussing that CB 7 was considering a proposal to modify rules for CB members affiliated with lobbying groups.
Streetsblog’ focus is on bicycles and was critical of the proposal.
Interesting that Streetsblog had the story…