CROWN HEIGHTS — A Brooklyn judge has thrown out a lawsuit against Brooklyn's Community Board 9 stemming from a controversial rezoning debate — saying the board did not violate transparency laws, despite the board's own dismissal of its former district manager amid related allegations.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Loren Baily-Schiffman dismissed the lawsuit, brought by activist group Movement to Protect the People against the board and its former manager, Pearl Miles, ruling that CB9 acted within the law on all counts.
“[The] court finds that the allegations in the Petition do not make out a violation of the Open Meetings Law, the NYC Administrative Code, the City Charter, the CB9 Bylaws, the Guide to Parliamentary Procedures for NYC Community Boards and the First Amendment,” the judge wrote on Nov. 25.
The decision comes weeks after CB9 dismissed longtime District Manager Pearl Miles on the grounds that she engaged in “a longstanding pattern of misconduct,” “unprofessional behavior” and has left locals feeling that she is “gravely out of touch with the community that she is employed to serve,” the board said before the removal.
Among the issues that arose at the board in the past year were a miscount by Miles of a board vote on whether to consider changes to land use rules in Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens last year.
Movement to Protect the People — a constant presence at CB9 meetings in response to the rezoning proposal — had filed an Article 78 proceeding to force the board to correctly abide by open meeting laws and Freedom of Information Law requests, among other things, documents show.
MTOPP’s outspoken founder Alicia Boyd said the group plans to appeal the decision with the help of an attorney from the National Lawyers Guild.
Boyd said the ruling shows that oversight beyond the courts is needed at CB9.
“What it does is vindicate our position that we need other forms of supervision when it comes to the way community boards are run,” she said.
CB9's chairman Demetrius Lawrence declined to comment on the decision, saying in an email that the board "will continue to work with all community residents on addressing the issue and concerns" of the district.
As MTOPP prepares to file an appeal of the decision, Boyd and MTOPP are hailing a separate court decision.
Boyd said a judge dismissed arrest charges on Nov. 23 against herself and MTOPP member Anne Pruden stemming from their protests at CB9 meetings in February and March.
“It was an appropriate decision,” Boyd told DNAinfo. “First Amendment rights are very strong in this country and community boards are supposed to be a place where the community has an opportunity [to speak] about whatever subject they choose.”
Boyd has been arrested multiple times at CB9 meetings for leading prolonged, filibuster-like protests of the board and the proposed rezoning for the area. Charges against her for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest are still pending from arrests in May and June, but she expects those charges to be dropped as well.
Her next court appearance is scheduled for late January, court records show.
Meanwhile, the future of the rezoning in Crown Heights remains unclear. Though the board voted last May to formally request the Department of City Planning begin a study of zoning changes in the neighborhood, the agency has not taken up the project.
At the same time, the board has considered — and voted down — separate citywide changes to zoning proposed by the planning department. Last week, CB9 members voted to reject the proposed “Mandatory Inclusionary Housing” and “Zoning for Quality and Affordability” plans — which have been shot down overwhelmingly by boards in Manhattan, Queens and elsewhere in the city.
