City Council Requests New CB Review Policy

 
Queens community board members will be facing changes in the application process in response to a new policy requested by City Council members and approved by Borough President Helen Marshall. The new policy (which is recommended in the Charter) requires all board members to formally renew their applications at the end of the standard two-year term.
Spokesperson for the borough presidents office Dan Andrews stressed that these changes are normal procedure and that there is no reason for existing community board members to be concerned. Only those members currently up for renewal will be required to fill out new applications this year.
"We are not looking for wholesale non-renewal of terms, its just a procedural thing thats being done. There has never been an entirely new city council before, so the circumstance is unusual and was prompted by a number of councilmembers expressing concern about who the board members are," Andrews said.
District Manager of Community Board 12 Yvonne Reddick agreed with the Councils request, noting that it was concurrent with the Charter. "If thats the process, thats the process," Reddick said. "Its been so long and since we dont have term limits, if I was a new councilmember I would want the opportunity to review and appoint some members to the community board."
Kathleen Reilly, district manager of Community Board 6, also agreed, providing the reviewers take into account the past service records of the applicants.
"If youve been on the board for 25 years, I feel maybe its time to be reviewedas long as they take their attendance records into consideration as well as the application. If theyre doing a review, it should be a general review, not just one thing. Do they participate in meetings? Do they have a good attendance record? You need to look at the total contribution a person has made," Reilly suggested.
Under former Borough President Claire Shulman, community board members were automatically reappointed. But current councilmembers, all having begun their tenures in 2001, seem to want the chance to look at their predecessors choices for the community boards.
"A lot of us have gotten to know civic leaders over the years and we are proud to make recommendations to the borough president for them," said Councilmember Melinda Katz.
This could mean that current board members will face greater scrutiny than they have in the past and thus may be more likely to lose their positions.
According to Anne Marie Boranian, district manager of Community Board 11, long-term community board members are concerned about the change and she predicts that the boards "are going to undergo a lot of shifting."
"These people volunteer their time and service to their communities. I have community board members that go back as far as 1966 who are absolutely offended to see applications," she said.
Others, such as Joseph Conley, chairman of Community Board 2, are simply confused as to the motives behind the newly implemented policy. He stated that while he did not understand the need for reapplication, he would accept it with high expectations.
"At our board, we review all our members for attendance and performance. I would hope that they would look at those things instead of just the length of time a board member has served."
When asked why the new policy was put into place, Councilmember Hiram Monserrate answered that "with a new city council and a new borough president, they may not be adhering to the same unofficial practices as the old administration."
Under the City Charter, 50% of people serving on community boards have to be nominated by City Council members and the borough president must then approve all nominees. Dan Andrews cautions that the new policy shouldnt be seen as an attempt by the City Council members to restock the community board.
"I dont think you should get the impression that this is an attempt to have a mass blood letting of community board folks; its just to go through a process that were allowed to do that enables the new councilmembers to take a look at the people who are serving that came from nominations of previous councilmembers and were not appointed by these new councilmembers."