EAST HARLEM — A community board member may lose her seat at the table for not showing up to enough meetings.
Community Board 11 voted unanimously Tuesday to start the process of removing Alexa Birdsong from the board.
When acting chairwoman Diane Collier initiated the vote, several board members said they didn't even know who Birdsong is.
“Everyone’s questions as to who she is speaks loudly,” Collier said. “The bylaws say that you are only supposed to miss five [full board] meetings. Her absenteeism has been more than five — in fact 10.”
According to the city charter, community boards have the power to remove members, “for cause, which shall include substantial nonattendance at board or committee meetings.”
While not entirely unprecedented, removing a board member in the middle of his or her appointment is rare.
“So far I am aware of one other case so far since [Borough President Gale] Brewer has taken office,” spokesman Andrew Goldston said.
“That case was in CB 9 in 2014. That’s the only instance that I am aware of so far. There may have been other instances where the board may have started this and the member may have resigned.”
The borough president does take attendance into account when considering reappointments, Goldston added.
Birdsong could not be reached for comment.
The last full board meeting that Birdsong attended was in February 2014. She has missed the last 12 consecutive meetings, records show.
She will have the opportunity to appeal the community board's vote and make a case for why she should stay on, Collier said.
Birdsong has previously worked as the director of programming at Mist Harlem and in the special programs department of the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, according to her LinkedIn account.
