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

Introduction

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.

Staten Island has three Community Boards that collectively cover the entire borough.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The Staten Island Community Boards generally complied with the City Charter and New York City Administrative Code (NYC Administrative Code) requirements to conduct monthly public meetings, to set aside time to hear from the public at public meetings, to make meetings and hearings available for broadcasting and cablecasting, and to maintain a website which provides board contact information, and is translatable into the seven most commonly spoken languages in New York City.

However, our audit found that not all of the Staten Island Community Boards complied with other City Charter requirements relating to public meetings and hearings and maintaining websites. Specifically, we found that none of the Staten Island Community Boards consistently conducted monthly public hearings; and none published all of the required meeting minutes on their websites; one Staten Island Community Board did not set aside time for the public to speak before the board took actions such as votes during a meeting; and none of the boards provided the required adequate public notice for meetings and hearings by posting the written notice in public locations and on their websites.

Additionally, our audit found that not all of the Staten Island Community Boards fully complied with NYC Administrative Code requirements for maintaining websites. Specifically, none of the Staten Island Community Boards’ websites were fully accessible for persons with disabilities.

For the majority of findings discussed in the report, the Staten Island 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 that 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 six recommendations to the Staten Island Community Boards. The Staten Island 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 Staten Island Borough President’s Office, the Civic Engagement Commission, and the Mayor’s Office Community Affairs Unit;
• Set aside time to hear from the public prior to taking actions at meetings and hearings;
• Ensure that public notice of all general board meetings is given to news media outlets and posted in public locations;
• 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 to ensure that their websites are fully accessible to persons with disabilities as per the WCAG 2.0 Level AA standard.

Agency Response

On December 2, 2021, we submitted a draft report to the Staten Island Community Boards with a request for written comments. We received written responses from Staten Island Community Boards #1 and #2. In those responses, Staten Island Community Board #1 stated that the board “will follow all requirements,” and Staten Island Community Board #2 stated that the board “agrees with the audit report’s findings and will comply with” each of the report’s six recommendations. We did not receive written comments in response to the draft report from Staten Island Community Board #3.