Some Bronx community board members are feeling uncertain about engagement and participation as they make the switch to in-person public meetings, after nearly three years of virtual gatherings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Emergency Executive Order 435 — a state of emergency order that allowed the city’s community boards to operate remotely starting on March 12, 2020 — expired without renewal from New York City Mayor Eric Adams on June 19, ending citywide public health-related emergency measures. That includes the ability for community boards to conduct meetings remotely.
Now, community boards across the five boroughs are scrambling to comply with pre-pandemic era public meetings regulations.
Karla Cabrera Carrera, the district manager of Bronx CB7, told the Bronx Times in an interview that the board’s first in-person meeting — a Housing, Land Use and Economic Development Committee session on June 20 — only drew one member of the public.
“Usually during Zoom people are from home so it’s easier for you to click and join in a meeting,” she said.
Cabrera Carrera took over as district manager of CB7 — which covers the neighborhoods of Norwood, University Heights and Jerome Park — back in April, so leading in-person meetings is new to her. She said it’s been relatively simple to attend community board meetings for the past few years, noting that it’s been convenient to cut commute times out of her schedule.
This convenience has also fostered engagement. In a previous interview with the Bronx Times in March, CB8’s youngest member Leona Teten — and the youngest member serving in the Bronx at the time, at just 17 years old — said she thought young people would be more inclined to apply for their local community boards if members were regularly allowed to participate remotely.
She said the commute to attend in-person meetings adds another level of commitment for people with busy schedules, especially high school students like herself who have to wake up early for school or finish homework. Teten also said she finds it easier to speak up at remote meetings, with the hand-raising and unmuting features Zoom offers.
“The institution of Zoom and the way that it’s kind of become a part of daily life isn’t going away,” the teen told us in March.
But that’s not to say that virtual meetings have always gone off without a hitch, either.
There have been instances of Zoom “bombings,” where members of the public join in on a virtual meeting to broadcast profane language or imagery. In late April, CB7 fell victim to a Zoom bombing that included pornographic videos — and it wasn’t the first incident of that nature.
Community boards aren’t forced to forfeit all aspects of virtual meetings, however.
Laura Spalter, the board chair of CB8 in the northwest Bronx, said her crew is going to try their luck at hybrid meetings to give residents an opportunity to tune in remotely. The first big hybrid test run took place Thursday night at the board’s full meeting at 7 p.m. inside a conference room at the College of Mount Saint Vincent.
According to Spalter, the new meeting regulations from the city outline hybrid guidelines — which state that board members must convene in person, unless they have extemporaneous circumstances. But otherwise, boards can record and live stream their meetings for the public to attend remotely.
She said CB8 passed a resolution that deferred the decision to offer hybrid meetings to the coinciding committee chairs, and that most chairs are probably going to go that route.
“This is new, we’re going to do our best,” Spalter told the Bronx Times in an interview. “The public really took to the Zooming in.”
But all this doesn’t come without a cost, literally. The CB8 chair said she estimates the board has already spent around $5,000 on new equipment to be able to offer virtual meetings to the public. That equipment includes microphones, cameras, a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, laptops, speakers and extension cords.
“Will it work? Remains to be seen,” Spalter joked. “… It’s not like we have an IT department.”
But some Bronx boards aren’t fitted to host hybrid meetings.
Cabrera Carrera, for example, said CB7 isn’t able to offer live streams of their sessions yet because of lack of equipment. So did Robert Garmendiz, the chair of CB4 — which covers Highbridge, Concourse, Mt. Eden and Concourse Village.
And even more than equipment deficits, some of the struggle now that’s accompanying in-person meetings is finding a space that can physically accommodate both board members and the public.
Garmendiz, who leads a lot of CB4’s operations since the board’s district manager position is currently vacant, said the group is at the “beck and call” of larger-scale meeting spaces. He said CB4 is going to start seriously inquiring about a permanent meeting space in September.
Cabrera Carrera’s in the same boat. She said CB7 has no consistent gathering space, since the board office is too small to comfortably fit larger groups of people. Because of this, CB7 usually meets at different places throughout the district, including Lehman College, Monroe College and the Bronx Library Center.
“One of the main things that would really help us do hybrid meetings is to have a set location,” Cabrera Carrera said. “But in reality there’s just a lot of moving parts. As of now, there’s a lot of things that we don’t have.”
The CB7 district manager also said she’s enlisting the help of the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services to lock in a meeting space.
But even with the tribulations of switching to in-person gatherings, there are advantages to bringing everyone back together in the same room, according to Spalter.
The CB8 chair said even though it’s “easier” to attend meetings “in your slippers,” there is something to be said for coming together to get to know both community residents and fellow board members on a more personal level. She said there are some board members she’s never met in person yet.
“I am not deterred,” Spalter said. “I am hopeful.”
— Aliya Schneider and Megan LaCreta contributed to this report
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
