Community Board 11 refers April complaint to leadership after gallery dispute

A complaint from a resident identified in the record as Mr. Press about being denied opportunity to speak at an April leadership meeting was raised during public comment at the Sept. 15 Community Board 11 Bylaws and Ethics Committee meeting. Mr. Press said he wanted an apology from the board chair and asked why his complaint had not been heard.

Jeanette Wilson, acting chair of the Bylaws and Ethics Committee, and other committee members reviewed the events the complainant described, emphasizing the board’s established gallery-signup procedure. Wilson noted that staff and officers had asked Mr. Press to complete a gallery slip to record the request and that he declined to do so. Wilson said there is not a fixed cutoff for the gallery session and explained the purpose of the written sign-up: to create a traceable record.

Several committee members said the complaint involved people who are now either on different committees or no longer on the committee that would consider an ethics complaint. For that reason, members concluded the complaint is more appropriately handled by the board’s leadership committee rather than this newly merged ethics panel. A member recorded that the matter has already been referred to leadership and that a leadership meeting is scheduled for Thursday to address it.

Mr. Press said he wants a formal apology from the board chair for being denied an opportunity to speak; committee members replied that they would follow the procedural path already established and that leadership would review the matter. The committee did not conduct a hearing at the Sept. 15 meeting.

The committee moved on after the referral; members said the bylaws review and the ethics flowchart will be revisited by the subcommittee to ensure clearer expectations for gallery sign-up and speaking time limits.