Queens community boards get support from BP on virtual meetings

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Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and representatives from most community boards signed on to a letter against a forced return to in-person meetings. Photo via Borough President’s Office

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and representatives from most community boards signed on to a letter against a forced return to in-person meetings. Photo via Borough President’s Office

By Rachel Vick

Less than a week after Queens Community Board 6 announced that they would continue to meet virtually for the safety of their members, despite the expiration of the state’s emergency order, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards released a letter Friday urging state legislators to support their request.

The boards are once again required to meet in person as per the Open Meetings Law, but the letter from Richards and signed by nearly every other Queens board asks Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to take the borough’s circumstances into account as COVID cases rise.

“Now more than ever, it is imperative we keep Community Board leadership and members safe,” Richards wrote. “We believe following a hybrid model, giving Community Boards the option to meet virtually or in-person, is a fair compromise.”

Richards said that the boards are “rightfully” concerned about a complete return to in-person.

Community Board Chairs from every district except 5, which represents Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth, Fresh Pond, and Liberty Park, signed on.

CB 5 did not respond to request for comment.

CB6 issued their letter just after the expiration of the emergency order to notify officials of their intention as the city battles the rise of the Delta variant, also requesting to continue the virtual model that they said is preferable to both board and community members

“To require Community Boards to meet in person at this juncture is extremely problematic [and] antithetical to the accessibility standards Queens Community Board 6 strives for,” the board's chair Alexa Weitzman wrote.

Weitzman told the Eagle that she sees “ a disconnect between reinstating Open Meetings Law as it was in a pre-COVID world and catching up to what we know we can do successfully now.”