Charter Revision Commission to Strengthen Government Efficiency Brooklyn Hearing

Good evening, Commissioners, and thank you for holding this hearing tonight in Brooklyn. My name is Spencer Williams and I am the Director of Land Use and Topography for Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, and I am here to share testimony on his behalf.  

Two of our office’s main responsibilities involve land use and oversight of community boards, and I’m here to share some ideas about how both can be improved to strengthen equity, efficiency, and engagement with City government.  

As stated in the preamble to the City Charter, Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso affirms that “We strive to be a city where the value, talents, and contributions of every New Yorker are recognized and embraced, and where equity and inclusiveness, community empowerment, accessibility, and opportunity for every New Yorker are the unwavering standards to which we are held accountable in all aspects of governance, business, and service delivery.”  

Last year’s Commission made important changes to support affordable housing development and fair housing. We are hopeful that this Commission will further those goals by including a mandate for the City to create a comprehensive plan.  

New York City is one of the only major cities in the world that does not have such a plan to guide how land will be used, where investments will be made, and how communities will accommodate growth and change. This leaves too many decisions open to political whims, increasing rather than addressing disparities across neighborhoods. This shows up in health disparities, shorter lives, hotter summer days, access to open space (or lack thereof), transportation options, or the number of available school seats. 

Delivering a whole of government approach that prioritizes working people requires a “just efficiency”: a commitment to eliminating disparities and advancing equity with limited but targeted resources. What we have learned from the last century in New York City is that the equitable path IS the most efficient path. When we fail to address core needs, what starts off as a modest investment can cost significantly more in the long run. From climate adaptation to housing affordability, we find our city to be lagging behind our vision of what it means to lead by example. We must ask ourselves: who benefits and who is burdened by the processes we establish?   

We are united in our resolve to build a just and equitable city for all. To navigate crisis-after-crisis, we continue to leverage urgency and political will when we should be able to rely on a consistent, comprehensive implementation of a shared vision for the city.  

Previous planning efforts have pointed to the idea that we are too big to plan for. This could also be understood as being too chaotic to be strategic, too distracted to see opportunities, or too inefficient to identify resources needed to advance equitable outcomes. However, our government is already doing the work. We have the Fair Housing Framework, the Mayor’s Housing Plan, PlaNYC, the Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, the Streets Plan, the Industrial Plan, and the NYCEJ plan, just to name a few. But too much of this work is done in silos, creating inefficiencies. By improving the coordination of planning functions and infrastructure investments through comprehensive planning, we stand to increase the efficiency of government to better allocate resources to meet needs, improve health and quality of life, and increase access to opportunity for all New Yorkers.   

There are multiple options for how this will work; although we suggest that any comprehensive plan include the following elements:  

• A citywide, comprehensive needs assessment 

• A plan for growth based on transit-oriented development and fair housing principles, shown in a Future Land Use Map 

• Meaningful community engagement; and 

• 10-year capital plan that implements this vision, focusing on historically underserved neighborhoods and addressing climate change. 

This Commission can start by adding a simple comprehensive planning mandate to the Charter, with further implementation details to be decided between the Mayor and City Council.   

Community Board Support: 

Our second recommendation to support effective service delivery is to increase support for community boards. Community boards are the most grassroots level of City government and are often the first representatives of local government that New Yorkers encounter.Thus, any effort to make government work better for New Yorkers must give attention to its 59 community boards.    

The Charter mandates the 50 volunteer members of each board with 22 responsibilities, including: holding public hearings on issues facing their districts, creating an annual Statement of District needs and Budget Priorities, weighing in on local land use proposals, working with City agencies to communicate information to residents and evaluate service delivery, and much more. The Charter also includes administrative mandates for the boards, such as creating their own bylaws, maintaining a website, participating in mandated trainings, and maintaining a list of local service organizations.  

Yet due to chronic underfunding, community boards struggle to carry out these mandates, let alone day-to-day work. Members often do not have professional experience related to these responsibilities, and most boards have very small support staffs, with little money left over to hire the other assistance allowed by the Charter, such as professional planners or communications support.  

Additionally, the Charter’s framework for external support for community boards is confusing and scattered, calling on the Borough Presidents’ offices, the Civic Engagement Commission, and other agencies to provide various (and sometimes overlapping) support. However, none of these entities receive enough funding to do so adequately, and none of them have supporting community boards as their primary mandate. IT support provides an example of the difficulties this can cause for day-to-day operations. The Charter mandates the Office of Technology and Information (OTI) to assist boards with some technological needs. Yet because OTI only has one staff person who supports all 59 boards, it can take the agency three or more months to create an email address, three years to remove one, and weeks to address email access issues. 

Based on advocacy from the Future of Community Boards Working Group and the experiences of Brooklyn District Managers, we propose creating, through the Charter, a new Community Board Central Office (CBCO). This will streamline the responsibility to provide external support for community board operations within the Charter into one entity. Based on the model of the Independent Budget Office (created through the 1989 Charter Revision Commission), the CBCO would be an independent agency funded consistently at a percentage of the City’s total budget. This would protect the CBCO from vulnerability to budget cuts by the Mayor or City Council, insulate it from political volatility as Mayoral and Borough President administrations change, and ensure that the CBCO can hire and maintain the qualified staff needed to meet its mandate.  

Inspired by the City Council’s Central Staff, each community board would maintain its existing staff, while the CBCO’s staff would provide professional, expert support in the areas outlined below. Overseeing the CBCO would be a rotating committee of five District Managers, representing each of the five boroughs. These representatives would be elected every two years by all the District Managers and have a term limit of four two-year terms. This committee would hire and conduct regular performance reviews for a CBCO Director, who would be in charge of everyday operations of the Office.   

The Charter should task the CBCO with providing the following support to community boards:  

1. Planning Expertise: Provide professional technical assistance in land use planning to inform the boards’ role in the land use review process.  

2. Communications and Technology:   

• Hold and livestream hybrid meetings (as required by State law). 

• Assist with office IT needs, such as installing hardware, creating specifications for new equipment and software pertinent to community boards’ needs, creating and removing email addresses, and fixing internet access issues. 

• Produce website and social media content. 

• Create flyers and mailers in multiple languages and provide translation and interpretation at meetings as needed. 

• Assist Borough Presidents’ offices with informing the public about the opportunity to participate with community boards and apply for membership.  

3. Space needs:  

• Assist with identifying public meeting space that meets accessibility requirements.  

• Conduct regular Physical Needs Assessments of community board offices and liaise with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) on necessary repairs and upgrades. 

• Work with DCAS to locate permanent, accessible office space as needed and support lease negotiations.  

4. Human Resources and EEO:  

• Provide guidance on hiring and firing staff. 

• Approve job postings and post on the City’s hiring website. 

• Provide trainings for both staff and board members that are available to all City employees, including accommodation, discrimination, and harassment. 

5. Procurement: Provide support for purchasing, paying bills, and signing off on vendor payments. 

6. Intergovernmental Support: 

• Ensure meaningful engagement from City agencies on budget consultations and other district issues. 

• Regularly convene community board staff and provide digital tools for information sharing and communication between the boards.  

7. Legal Support: 

• Handle any FOIL requests that the board receives. 

• Provide guidance on updating and enforcement of bylaws. 

• Provide other legal support as the CBCO deems necessary.  

8. Training: Provide training for board members on:  

• Parliamentary procedure/Roberts Rules of Order. 

• City budget and legislative processes.   

• Other trainings as the CBCO deems necessary.   

We thank you for your time and for your consideration of both proposals. We are available to discuss them further and look forward to doing so.