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CB2 chair tightens committee reporting, confirms recording of meetings and standard forms for public members
Summary
Chair Valerie Dela Rosa told the Executive Committee that public members’ committee votes must be tallied separately, recusal must be recorded, and recording meetings for archive and YouTube posting will be the default going forward.
Valerie Dela Rosa, chair of Manhattan Community Board 2’s Executive Committee, used her chair’s report to clarify committee procedures and to announce a set of operational changes the board will implement ahead of upcoming audits and a new city administration.
Dela Rosa reminded committee chairs that votes by public members at the committee level do not count toward formal vote outcomes and must be tallied separately in committee minutes and resolutions, per the board’s bylaws. She said recusal should be recorded when applicable because a recusal affects the denominator used to determine majorities.
The chair proposed standardizing forms for recording requests to attend remotely under the board’s extraordinary-circumstance and medical-waiver provisions so the office has a consistent record. Dela Rosa said the board will encourage in-person participation as the default for public members while preserving waivers for qualifying circumstances and noted that public members often provide expertise that the committee prefers to retain even when they sometimes attend by Zoom.
On transparency and records, the chair said recordings will be the default going forward and that committee video or audio will be posted to the board’s YouTube page. The change follows prior audits that flagged inconsistencies in meeting recordings; Dela Rosa said the board began routine full-board recordings before COVID and that the default of recording all meetings will continue.
Committee members raised questions about the logistics and any potential budget implications for recording and hybrid meeting technology. Staff said the current meeting room setup and recent investments make routine recording feasible and that the principal budget pressures relate mainly to full-board hybrid production; the committee did not adopt a separate spending plan during the meeting.
Ending: The chair said standardized templates and a one-page guidance sheet will be circulated by email and included in the renewal packet for public members, and the office will follow up on any committees needing to update prior minutes.
