Audit Report on the Twelve Manhattan Community Boards’ Compliance with New York City Charter and New York City Administrative Code Requirements for Public Meetings and Hearings, and for Web

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 Presidents, 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.

Manhattan has 12 Community Boards that collectively cover the entire borough.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The Manhattan Community Boards generally complied with the City Charter requirements to conduct monthly public meetings, to set aside time to hear from the public at public meetings, and to maintain a website which provides notice of upcoming meetings and board contact information.

However, our audit found that not all of the Manhattan 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 12 Manhattan Community Boards did not consistently conduct monthly public hearings, and that certain Manhattan Community Boards did not provide required adequate public notice for meetings and hearings by notifying media outlets and posting notices in physical public locations, did not make meetings and hearings available for broadcasting and cablecasting, and did not publish past meeting minutes on their websites.

Additionally, our audit found that not all of the Manhattan Community Boards fully complied with New York City Administrative Code (NYC Administrative Code) requirements relating to maintaining websites. Specifically, some Manhattan Community Boards did not maintain websites that are translatable into the seven most commonly spoken languages in New York City, and others did not maintain websites which were fully accessible for persons with disabilities.

For the majority of findings discussed in the report, the Manhattan Community Board officials informed us that the reason they are not in compliance is mainly due to 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 six recommendations to the Manhattan Community Boards, specifically, that the Manhattan 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 Manhattan Borough President’s Office, the Civic Engagement Commission, and the Mayor’s Office Community Affairs Unit;
• 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 includes the date, time and place of the hearing, and a brief statement of its purpose;
• 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;
• 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 include a translation feature that allows the text of their website to be viewed in the seven most commonly spoken languages in the City and are fully accessible to persons with disabilities as per the WCAG 2.0 Level AA standard.

Agency Responses

On December 6, 2021, we submitted a draft report to the Manhattan Community Boards with a request for written comments. We received written responses from Manhattan Community Boards #1, #2, #4, #6, #7, #8, and #12. In their responses, Manhattan Community Boards #4, #6, and #8 generally agreed to implement the report’s recommendations. Manhattan Community Boards #1, #2, #7, and #12 addressed only certain report findings and generally did not address the report’s recommendations. We considered the comments and additional documentation provided by Manhattan Community Boards #1, #2, #4, #6, #7, #8, and #12 and modified the report, where warranted.

We did not receive written comments in response to the draft report from Manhattan Community Boards #3, #5, #9, #10, and #11.