Term Limits For Community Boards Floated In New Report

NEW YORK, NY — Spots on New York City's community boards could open up a lot more often under a new proposal. Mayor Bill de Blasio's Charter Revision Commission should consider imposing term limits on the city's 59 neighborhood panels to help make them more diverse, a Tuesday commission report says.

Members of the public told the commission, tasked with proposing changes to the City Charter, that reappointing the same people to community boards over and over leaves them lacking "sufficient ideological or demographic diversity," according to the commission's preliminary staff report.

"The primary benefit of term limits would be increased turnover on Community Boards, allowing for potentially increased diversity through new appointments," the report reads.

Established in 1963, the community boards advocate for residents and advise city officials on local issues. Each board has up to 50 members appointed by its respective borough president, with half nominated by City Council members.

Each member serves a two-year term, but there's no limit to the number of terms one can serve, the report says.

Members of the public told the commission that the boards' membership may not reflect the changing neighborhoods they're meant to serve, and that some boards have "racially homogenous" leadership that doesn't look like their diverse community districts, according to the report.

The report recommends the commission consider imposing term limits on community board members while weighing ways to protect the boards from losing "institutional memory." The report doesn't propose a hard number of terms, but notes that the public and experts proposed limits ranging from four to ten years.

The term limits are one of several proposals in the 126-page staff report, which is meant to guide the commission as it crafts ballot proposals that will to go to voters in November.

The report also recommends the commission consider lower political campaign contribution limits; strengthening public campaign financing; possible changes to local elections; the creation of a new office to boost civic engagement; and changes to the City Council redistricting process.

The commission will hold a series of hearings on the report and the City Charter across the five boroughs in the next two weeks. The first one is at 6 p.m. Monday, July 23, at New York University's Vanderbilt Hall.

"New Yorkers have been engaged since the start of this process and this report reflects the wide range of issues we discussed in all five boroughs," commission Chair Cesar Perales said in a statement. "Now, the Commission is going to get back to work meeting with New Yorkers at another round of hearings to discuss this report and ultimately will issue a final report and proposals to put before the voters in the fall."

(Lead image: Photo from Shutterstock)