Audit Report on the Fourteen Queens Community Boards’ Compliance with New York City Charter and New York City Administrative Code Requirements for Public Meetings and Hearings, and for Websites

Executive Summary

Community Boards are established under the New York City Charter (City Charter) Chapter 70, Section 2800(a), which states that “[f]or each community district . . . there shall be a community board.” The Community Boards are local representative bodies authorized by the City Charter to advocate for the residents and needs of their districts. New York City (the City) is divided into 59 community districts, each served by a Community Board.

Several City agencies are responsible for assisting the Community Boards in fulfilling their overall responsibilities including the respective Borough President, the Civic Engagement Commission, and the Mayor’s Office Community Affairs Unit.

Each Community Board comprises up to 50 non-salaried members, each of whom must reside, work, or have some other significant interest in the district. One of the Community Board members is elected by the other members to serve as the Chairperson. In addition, each Community Board appoints a District Manager and may employ other staff and consultants to fulfill its duties, all of whom are paid by the City. Each Community Board is allocated funds through the City budget to cover staff salaries and non-salary expenses, including rent, utilities, and other miscellaneous expenses.

Queens has 14 Community Boards that collectively cover the entire borough.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The Queens Community Boards generally complied with the City Charter requirements to maintain a website which is translatable into the seven most commonly spoken languages in New York City and provides board contact information.

However, our audit found that not all of the Queens Community Boards complied with the City Charter requirements relating to public meetings and hearings and to maintaining websites. Specifically, we found that most of the 14 Queens Community Boards did not consistently conduct monthly public hearings, and that certain Queens Community Boards did not consistently conduct monthly general board meetings, did not provide required adequate public notice for meetings and hearings by notifying media outlets and posting notices in physical public locations and on their websites, did not make meetings and hearings available for broadcasting and cablecasting, did not set aside time for the public to speak before the board took actions such as votes during meetings, and did not publish past meeting minutes on their websites. Additionally, one Queens Community Board did not set aside time for the public to speak during a meeting at all.

Additionally, our audit found that not all of the Queens Community Boards fully complied with New York City Administrative Code (NYC Administrative Code) requirements relating to maintaining websites. Specifically, some Queens Community Boards did not maintain websites which were fully accessible for persons with disabilities.

For the majority of findings discussed in the report, the Queens Community Board officials informed us that the main reasons they are not in compliance are a lack of: (1) guidance, instructions, assistance, and support from the other City agencies who are responsible for assisting the Community Boards, and (2) financial and professional resources necessary to fulfill the requirements.

Audit Recommendations

Based on our findings, we made the following eight recommendations to the Queens Community Boards. The Queens Community Boards should:

• Conduct public hearings each month in accordance with the New York City Charter Chapter 70, Section 2800(h) and, if necessary, seek guidance on how to comply with this requirement by contacting the New York City Law Department as well as the other City agencies tasked with providing assistance to the Community Boards—the Queens Borough President’s Office, the Civic Engagement Commission, and the Mayor’s Office Community Affairs Unit;
• Set aside time to hear from the public and ensure that people of the district are allowed to speak at all board meetings prior to taking actions in accordance with the New York City Charter Chapter 70, Section 2800(h);
• Ensure that public notice of all general board meetings is given to news media outlets and posted in public locations;
• Ensure that public notice of all public hearings is published in the official newspaper or in a newspaper having general circulation within the municipality and posted in public locations and includes the date, time and place of the hearing, and a brief statement of the purpose of the hearing;
• Take the necessary steps to ensure that all meetings and hearings are made available for broadcasting and cablecasting, including but not limited to, determining how to obtain access to channels dedicated for governmental use, identifying the associated costs, and allocating or seeking the necessary resources to comply with the City Charter mandate;
• Provide adequate public notice of upcoming meetings on their websites and include information such as the date, time, and location of the meeting as well as the internet address of the website streaming such meeting if applicable;
• Post meeting minutes from meetings for the past 12 months on their websites; and
• Contact DoITT and website platform vendors to ensure that their websites are fully accessible to persons with disabilities in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA standard.

Agency Responses

On December 7, 2021, we submitted a draft report to the Queens Community Boards with a request for written comments. We received written responses from Queens Community Boards #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #8, #9, #10, and #12.

In their responses, Queens Community Boards #8 and #10 submitted comments in response to certain findings and recommendations of the draft report, including actions they will take in response to the recommendations. Queens Community Board #6 stated that the board is “in receipt of this report and your recommendations and will ensure these recommendations are implemented to the best of our ability in 2022.”

Queens Community Boards #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #9 and #12 submitted written comments in response to certain draft report findings but did not specifically address most of the report’s recommendations.

We considered the comments and additional documentation provided by Queens Community Boards #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #8, #9, #10, and #12 and modified the report where warranted.

Queens Community Boards #7, #11, #13, and #14 did not submit written comments in response to the draft report.