City Council Bill could make community boards go digital

By Liam La Guerre...March 7, 2014

It’s possible that the city’s community boards could be coming into the digital age.

Councilmember James Vacca, chair of the Committee on Technology, held a hearing for his bill recently that would require community boards to webcast their full board meetings.

At the hearing, members of the community boards and civic organizations raised questions about the complexity of implementing the law, because each board will have to learn to use the broadcast equipment. Also, funding for the equipment and the ability to webcast from various locations could be problematic for the community boards.

But Queens leaders of local civic organizations that already use the Internet to connect with residents support the bill.

“People don’t come to a meeting because they need to pay a baby sitter to watch their kids,” said Kathy Masi, president of the Glendale Civic Association, which doesn’t hold meetings in person, but is “cyber-civic” by utilizing Facebook. “James Vacca is on the right track. If you can’t get people, because their lives are busy, to bring that meeting on their computer is really great.”

The bill is still being reviewed in the technology committee.