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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Jesús Pérez, District Manager of Manhattan Community Board 6
4:52:30
·
131 sec
Jesús Pérez, District Manager of Manhattan Community Board 6, testified about the challenges community boards face regarding office spaces and meeting venues. He emphasized the need for adequate facilities controlled by community boards to accommodate their operations and public meetings.
- Many community boards struggle with small, disrepaired, or non-ADA compliant offices
- Finding suitable and affordable meeting venues has become increasingly difficult post-pandemic
- Lack of control over meeting spaces often results in unreliable AV equipment and WiFi, hindering transparency and accessibility
- Manhattan Community Board 6 officially requests adequate facilities for district office space, committee meetings, and full board meetings
Jesús Pérez
4:52:30
Good afternoon.
4:52:31
Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today.
4:52:35
My name is Jesus Perez, and I am the district manager of Manhattan Community Board six.
4:52:39
Yes.
4:52:41
You've heard from some of my colleagues, and you will hear from more, regarding the underinvestment in our city's 59 community boards.
4:52:51
In the interest of time, I will not repeat their points, but I enthusiastically echo their testimonies.
4:52:58
I'd like to address you today on an unexciting but important matter, the fact that community boards across the city are struggling with their office spaces and meeting venues.
4:53:11
Some community boards report offices that are too small for their needs, in disrepair, or are not ADA compliant.
4:53:18
Some community boards struggle to find suitable venues for their meetings.
4:53:23
In many districts, venues that previously welcomed community boards before the pandemic have now closed their doors to them or have instituted significant fees for renting meeting space.
4:53:35
Some boards rely on the generosity of one or two free meeting venues, but would be at a loss for where to go should that generosity come to an end.
4:53:45
And while always appreciated, spaces we don't control often come with drawbacks like unreliable AV equipment or WiFi which are essential for making community board meetings as transparent and accessible to the public as possible.
4:54:01
For many boards, simply undertaking our most fundamental function, holding monthly public meetings is an exercise in frustration and precarity.
4:54:12
Manhattan Community Board six's official position is that community boards, being city agencies which are charter mandated to hold monthly public meetings, must have adequate facilities that they control that would accommodate district office space, meeting space for committees, and larger spaces for full board meetings.
4:54:33
We ask you to work with us to address this important and long neglected need and to bear it in mind in your budget deliberations.
4:54:41
Thank you.