One Brooklyn
BOROUGH PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES UPCOMING DEADLINE FOR 2018 APPOINTMENTS, ENCOURAGES YOUTH TO APPLY, PUSHES FOR GREATER DIVERSITY OF VOICES
BROOKLYN, NY, December 20, 2017: Today, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams encouraged civic-minded Brooklynites from every neighborhood in the borough to apply for a position on one of Brooklyn’s 18 local community boards, inviting interested candidates to submit their application online at brooklyn-usa.org. Community boards, which have existed in their current form for more than 40 years following the Charter Revision of 1975, are the most local representative bodies of government in New York City; they are responsible for dealing with land use issues, assessing neighborhood needs, and addressing community concerns. Borough presidents are responsible for the appointment for each of their community board’s 50 unsalaried members, half of whom are nominated by local members of the City Council. Borough President Adams announced that that the closing date for application submissions in hopes of a 2018 appointment will be Thursday, February 15th.
“The women and men who serve on Brooklyn’s community boards represent the diverse voices of our diverse borough,” said Borough President Adams. “Community boards provide a public forum to help to move our city forward, connect Brooklynites with the many resources and services available to them, as well as address neighborhood concerns at the hyperlocal level. I hope that this new application cycle will bring in a diverse applicant pool of community leaders, including people who haven’t engaged in civic life before, who will stand up and make their voices heard in every corner of the borough from Greenpoint and Gerritsen Beach, to Canarsie and Cypress Hills.”
Borough President Adams encouraged young Brooklynites ages 16 to 18 to apply, as well as Black, Latino, Asian, and LGBTQ+ individuals, to ensure that the community boards reflect the vast diversity of the communities they represent. Since 2015, he has used the authority granted under a new State law that gives borough presidents the ability to appoint two members who are at least 16 years of age to each community board. Borough President Adams has previously stated his goal to appoint youth members on every community board in the borough, which will remain the practice in this application cycle.
Applications for 2018 appointments and re-appointments for Brooklyn community boards are now available at brooklyn-usa.org; hard copies will still be provided, but only by special request. Applicants must be New York City residents in order to serve on a community board; to qualify for a particular board, they must live, work in, or have a professional or other significant interest in that board’s district. Borough President Adams reminded Brooklynites that the application is available online on a rolling basis to encourage a robust, diverse pool of submissions year-round.
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