August 31, 2021

Honorable Kathy Hochul Governor The State of New York The Capitol Albany, NY 12224

Honorable Andrea Stewart-Cousins NYS Senate Majority Leader 88 State Street, Room 907 Legislative Office Building Albany, NY 12247

Honorable Carl Heastie NYS Assembly Speaker Legislative Office Building, Room 932 Albany, NY 12248

Dear Governor Hochul, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie:

As the Governor and the leaders of the New York State Legislature convening a special session to address the pressing need to extend eviction prevention protection to New York residents, I write to ask you to include the amendment to the State’s Open Meetings Law (OML) as part of the scope of the special session.

The OML was passed in 1977 to enable the public to testify before public bodies and to see that the deliberations and voting processes of appointed members—public officers—were not conducted in secret. As is true of many laws, the OML was passed at a time when virtual meetings were not among the available options of holding a meeting.

When Governor Cuomo declared a state of emergency in March of 2020, he passed an Executive Order that suspended the OML which enabled agencies including New York City’s 59 Community Boards (CBs) as well as 32 Community Education Councils (CECs) to continue to comply virtually with New York State laws and New York City Charter mandates. On June 24, 2020, the OML was back in effect when Governor Cuomo rescinded the state of emergency.

We need the State Legislature to amend the Open Meetings Law (OML) to enable agencies to hold virtual or hybrid meetings. The resumption of the OML has caused some challenges and confusion. Many CBs cannot find meeting space that accommodates 50 CB members, staff, and neighborhood residents. Many of the institutions of higher learning that the CBs have relied on such as Pace University, NYU, and Columbia University are not allowing the CBs to hold meetings in their facilities.

Last month, a Manhattan Community Board 2 Full Board Meeting led to three (3) CB members testing positive for Covid-19 even though they were vaccinated. In one of these cases, the spouse and children also tested positive. Members of my staff and I were contacted to get tested since we attended the meeting. It is unclear how many people were actually contacted, since members of the public did not have to sign in unless they were planning to give testimony. Nearly 300 people attended the meeting to listen and give their opinions on the SoHo/NoHo Land Use matter, which was of great interest to the public. The meeting had the potential to become a super spreader event, but we got lucky.

Earlier this year, when a controversial homeless shelter came before Manhattan CB7, my office provided the technical support to accommodate 800 people via Zoom. As a matter of fact, every Manhattan Community Board has described an increase in attendance from members of the public attending virtual meetings and participating through the chat and Q&A functions. Public input was not compromised and public safety was maintained. Now that there is an uptick in Covid-19 cases as a result of the Delta variant, we should not take unnecessary risks by mandating in-person meetings to comply with the OML.

There is a State Senate bill (S7261 sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman) and two Assembly bills (A8134 sponsored by Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou and A8155 sponsored by Assembly Member Amy Paulin) on amending the OML. The bills would allow public officers to vote, remotely, from a location that is not accessible to the public such as from their homes. We need to amend the OML to allow for virtual or hybrid meetings as it would not sacrifice the original legislative intent and further the City and State’s public health goals.

Thank you for your anticipated assistance in amending the Open Meetings Law. I look forward to working with you on this important matter.

Sincerely,

Gale A. Brewer Manhattan Borough President