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14 Recommendations

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data.nycuriosity.com › Community Board Suggestions › 14 Recommendations
Governance July 2026

14 Fixes for Community Boards. Most Cost Almost Nothing.

The full reform table from the article, organized into three categories: making members effective, making meetings work, and building shared structure. Several items any board can adopt on its own tomorrow; the rest need the Council, the borough presidents, or the Charter. Only one carries a real price tag, and it is about $15 million in a $117.8 billion budget.

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Six of the 14 recommendations change who serves on boards, four change how meetings run, and four change the structure around them

Every recommendation from the article, with the actor who can deliver it and what it would take. Only the last one comes with a dollar figure attached.

# Recommendation Category Who acts What it takes
1 Appoint and train a parliamentarian on every board
Robert's Rules enforcement stops depending on the chair's mood.		 Members Boards, borough presidents, CEC Free to low. Bylaws change plus expanded CEC training.
2 Build a Robert's Rules AI assistant and transcript review
Settle procedural disputes in seconds; coach parliamentarians after meetings.		 Members A borough president's office or the CEC Low. Build once, share across all 59 boards.
3 Make onboarding mandatory before appointment
Meetings, resolutions, ULURP, the budget process, and conflict rules.		 Members Borough presidents with the CEC Low. Condition appointment on completing training.
4 Mandatory staff training on technology, HR, and bylaws
Standardize best practices across 59 small offices.		 Members CEC or borough president offices Low. Standardized curriculum.
5 Publish member attendance and enforce removal
End "members in name only" who never show up.		 Members Boards and borough presidents Free. Enforce existing bylaws and report the data.
6 Recognize outstanding members with borough awards
The carrot alongside the attendance stick.		 Members Borough presidents or the Office of Mass Engagement Minimal. New recognition program.
7 Cap member speaking time per motion
The public gets a timer; members should too.		 Meetings Each board Free. Standing rule under Robert's Rules.
8 Mandate reliable hybrid attendance
59 boards currently make 59 separate videoconferencing policies.		 Meetings City Council and OMB Moderate. Legislation plus equipment and staffing funds.
9 Extend Local Law 103 webcasting to community boards
The 2013 law exempts boards by name; a webcast now needs a laptop.		 Meetings City Council Moderate. Local law amendment plus equipment funding.
10 Set a model bylaws floor and a violation intake process
Consistent attendance, removal, and conduct rules citywide.		 Meetings CEC or Charter revision Low. Charter amendment or citywide guidance.
11 Create a permanent CB support division in each borough
Training, HR, legal, and tech support that survives administrations.		 Structure Charter revision and borough presidents Significant. Charter reform plus permanent staffing.
12 Stand up one shared tech platform instead of 59
Agendas, minutes, resolutions, and complaints in one searchable system.		 Structure City (OTI) Moderate one-time. Procurement plus maintenance.
13 Publish a public dashboard on every board's performance
Meeting length, attendance, minutes timeliness, hybrid access.		 Structure Borough presidents or the CEC Low. Data collection standards.
14 Baseline a budget increase with a planner on every board
Restore the in-house land use expertise boards had before the 1990s.		 Structure Mayor and City Council Roughly $15M per year added to the adopted budget.
Source: NYCuriosity analysis, drawing on the Future of Community Boards Working Group report (2021) and the Comptroller's 2024 appointments audit Note: the roughly $15M for recommendation 14 is the author's estimate, one planner line on each of the 59 boards plus a baseline increase.

Sources informing the recommendations: Future of Community Boards Working Group Final Report (December 2021); NYC Comptroller, audit of borough president board appointments (October 2024); Local Law 103 of 2013; NY Public Officers Law §103-a; the CEC's Better Public Meetings NYC initiative; and the LA Department of Neighborhood Empowerment model.

The $15M estimate is the author's: roughly the loaded cost of one professional urban planner line on each of the 59 boards plus a baseline OTPS increase. The 2021 Working Group and the CEC's own 2021 annual report both recommended restoring in-house planners, which boards commonly had before the Giuliani administration.