NYC-WTC_000195490

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

COMMUNITY BOARD PARTICIPATION IN THE BUDGET PROCESS I New York City’s 59 community boards provide a formal structure for local citizen involvement in the budget process as well as other areas of City decision making. Each board represents up to 250,000 residents in a community district. The Charter mandates that the community boards play an advisory role in three critical areas: changes in zoning and land use, monitoring the delivery of City services in the community district and participating in the development of the City’s capital and expense budgets.

Each community board receives an annual budget to pay for a district manager, support staff and other operating expenses. In 2002 the uniform base budget for each community board is $163,358. This excludes the cost of office rent and heat, light and power which are in a Separate unit of appropriation. To help defray the relocation costs for those community boards planning to move offices in 2002, funds for the cost of the move and the one-time cost of telephone installation are also included in the rent unit of appropriation. To help community boards insure the contents of their offices, community boards are insured by the Citywide Central Insurance Program. Collective bargaining funds will be added to each board’s budget when appropriate. , /• ' Each Borough President appoints board members for staggered two year terms. City Council members in proportion to each member’s share of the district’s population nominate half the appointments. The fifty volunteer members of the community board either live or work in the district. :

Each year agencies that deliver local services, prior to preparing their departmental estimates, consult with community boards about budget issues and the needs of the districts. The boards then develop and prioritize their i capital budget requests (up to 40) and expense budget requests (up to 25). For 2002 community boards submitted 2,048 capital requests to 29 agencies and 1,843 expense requests to 41 agencies. Almost two-thirds of the community board capital budget requests seek improvements to streets, sewers and parks. Community board 18 expense budget requests concentrate on Citywide programs and personnel increases such as added street cleaners, ! park workers! and other service employees. ■I K Boards also rank agencies’ local service programs by their importance to the community. For the upcoming year community boards ranked 85 programs within 26 agencies. The top five programs are community youth Y. programs, services to the elderly, parks maintenance, police patrol and, after school/summer school programs. Historically, local services have been the highest ranked. • District specific budget information is available in the following geographic budget reports, which accompany the release of the 2002 budget.

I Register of Community Board Budget Requests for the Executive Budget, Fiscal Year 2002 - lists the funding status for all community board proposals in priority order within community district. Also available in Council district and agency sorts.

Geographic Report,for the Executive Expense Budget for Fiscal Year 2002 - details the expense budgets of fourteen agencies that deliver local services by borough and service district. Includes 2002 Executive Budget ' Information as well as 2001 current modified budget and headcount data (as of April 17,2001).

Executive Capital Budget for Fiscal Year 2002 - details the Mayor’s Capital Budget by project within agency including two geographic sorts of the Capital Budget. One presents budget data by community district and borough. The other presents the budget by borough within project type.

J ■ (

15

NYC-WTC_000195512