The Bronx Community Board 7 general meeting via Zoom on Tuesday evening was infiltrated by a group that displayed pornographic imagery — and District Manager Karla Cabrera Carrera said it wasn’t the first incident of this nature.
“I think before it was just someone would say something inappropriate during the meeting. And now it’s definitely a lot worse,” said Cabrera Carrera, who was recently appointed to the position.
Before the official start time of the CB7 meeting Tuesday night, some board members expressed concerns that they noticed a suspicious attendee in the call, but were unable to locate them. Minutes later, the call was interrupted by three separate individuals showing sexually explicit videos of a man masturbating on screen, accompanied by applause from multiple other virtual participants.
Moderators then locked the meeting — muting all participants, cutting video and returning everyone to the virtual waiting room. After the Zoom bombers were removed, multiple attendees, including the Bronx Times, struggled to re-enter the meeting as moderators tried to ensure none of the hackers remained.
“We weren’t live thankfully, but it’s still very shocking and it’s of course something that none of us are ready to experience,” Cabrera Carrera said.
There have been upwards of four Zoom bombings during CB7 meetings in the past year, she said, and this week’s meeting was the second time pornographic imagery was broadcast. The New York Post also reported that Brooklyn’s Community Board 13 experienced a similar attack on Wednesday night, and a contentious CB11 Zoom meeting over parking fees earlier this month in which a member flipped his middle finger has The Bronx Borough President’s office investigating a member for comparing the fares to sexual assault.
In addition to the Zoom bombings, Cabrera Carrera said CB7 has run into other issues with virtual public decorum.
During a Feb. 28 meeting — while members of the board and city Department of Transportation Interim Bronx Borough Commissioner Keith Kalb were discussing the five-phase Grand Concourse improvement project — unnamed participants also aired pornographic content, including a drawing of genitalia. At the same meeting, one person un-muted their microphone and told members to “shut the f–k up.”
“That’s the first time that it happened actually, in February,” Cabrera Carrera said. The NYPD confirmed an individual affiliated with CB7 filed a complaint after that February meeting.
Cabrera Carrera said before that incident, the chairperson was the only board member facilitating virtual CB7 calls. But because of recent Zoom bombings, staff started attending all meetings to provide administrative support.
“It has definitely prompted us to take a more preventative role into these things, but they still happen,” she said.
Most public meetings of various government bodies throughout the city are supposed to adhere to codes of conduct.
CB7’s code of conduct, read allowed before every meeting, declares the board “has the right to remove and or ask a member of the public to leave a meeting or block participation of anyone who engages in inappropriate conduct, including but not limited to obscene or offensive images or language, personal attacks, threats or any other behavior that reasonably impedes the orderly administration of the meeting.” That includes both in person and virtual meetings.
Additionally, each NYC community board has its own set of bylaws — outlining procedures for meetings, votes and participation. CB7’s bylaws haven’t been updated since 2019, before meetings moved online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 12, 2020, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an emergency executive order that suspended part of the state’s Open Meetings Law to allow for meetings to be held remotely. Before the pandemic, the law required meetings of public bodies to be open to the general public and take place in person. And even though Hochul’s order has now lapsed, fully remote meetings have continued in NYC because of executive orders — which are re-signed every 30 days — extending the state of emergency from Mayor Eric Adams. If those executive orders stop, the state’s current Open Meetings Law — at least until July 1, 2024 — allows community boards to provide remote access as long as a quorum is physically present at a location available to the public. But after July, community boards may be required to meet in person once again.
While Cabrera Carrera noted that officials receive training on how to use Zoom, including features like locking the call and muting individual participants, members of the board find themselves in a difficult situation when tasked with determining how to prevent videoconference violations. She told the Bronx Times she plans on filing a complaint with the NYPD over Tuesday’s incident.
But until virtual open meetings regulations are tweaked, or CB7 reworks its individual bylaws — which Cabrera Carrera said a new draft will be up before the board next month — the new district manager said there’s not much else board members can do.
“As of now, our meetings are open to the public,” Cabrera Carrera said. “And we have to allow every single person who joins into the meeting, even if those people have ill intentions.”
– Aliya Schneider contributed to this report
