Overview

The New York City Charter defines the power and duties of the Community Boards and the Community Boards’ relationship to the City’s governmental bodies.  The New York City Charter explicitly charges several governmental bodies with the responsibility of assisting Community Boards in the administration of Community Boards’ Charter-mandated responsibilities and the training and education of Community Board members.

The structure of the New York City government provides two channels in the communication of information to Community Boards. The orgnization of the City government provides an opportunity to communicate directly with the Community Boards through District Managers of the Community Boards and indirectly via the Office of the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit.

While the New York City Charter’s compartmentalization of Community Boards into fifty-nine separate boards, which consist of up-to fifty members, seemingly poses a logistical challenge in our efforts to coordinate new policies, the Charter’s requirement that each Community Board appoint a District Manager provides a liaison to communicate with the Community Board. The Mayor’s office provides an indirect channel to the Community Boards. The government agency responsible for the coordination of the policies that relate to the Community Boards is the Office of the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit. Our efforts in the coordination of policies related to Community Boards should be directed to the Community Affairs Unit and select District Managers.

The Community Board’s responsibilities are broadly defined in twenty-one categories in §2800 of the New York City Charter.  Of the twenty-one Charter-mandated responsibilities, the majority of the categories relate to the Community Board’s administrative functions and relationship with City agencies.  While §2800(3) of the New York City Charter provides Community Boards with the authority to hold public hearings with the respect to “any matter relating to the welfare of the district”, the New York City Charter provides virtually no guidance on the substantive administration of the actual matters before the Community Board’s public hearings that do not deal with land use, zoning, and franchises.

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