Tension High As Manhattan Board Grapples With Bias Case Aftermath

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — A Manhattan community board whose chair was cited for gender discrimination last year still grappled with claims of bias this week, even as members voted on a resolution to increase diversity and look into creating its own ethics board.

Community Board 12 — whose now-former chair Richard Lewis was cited last year for bias against female board members — passed a resolution Tuesday that members called the first step in a "healing process" to fix a culture that allowed for Lewis's actions on the board, which oversees Washington Heights and Inwood.

The investigation into Lewis, first made public by The City, found that he created a hostile environment for women and demoted them from leadership positions on the basis of sex.

But much of the hour-long discussion about Tuesday's resolution was spent in a tense back-and-forth in part fueled by a male member's attempt to replace the resolution, drafted largely by the women who experienced the alleged bias, with his own version.

"This is problematic and indicative of the problem we are talking about — we have a lone member of our board taking it upon himself to ex-out everything we've done that includes the voices the female community," said Tanya Bonner, who filed the complaint against former Chair Richard Lewis and helped draft the original resolution. "I think this is horrendous that someone would be allowed to do this."

The board eventually shot down overriding the resolution with the one-page version drafted by member James Berlin, though Bonner agreed to add some of his language to the original version. Berlin said he wrote his version with feedback from other board members who had problems with language in the original draft.

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The final resolution calls to fix diversity issues by figuring out ways to get more "intersectional female/non-binary leadership" on the board, requiring board members go on retreats to discuss their issues and investigating creating an ethics and grievance committee.

Board members also sparred about the ethics committee idea and whether to include Lewis' name in the resolution, which begins by detailing the seven-month investigation by the Manhattan Borough President's Office into his behavior.

"The past is the past," current Chair Eleazar Bueno said. "The previous chair had made some mistakes but I don't believe we should continue to put his name in the resolution...I think it vilifies him."

The Equal Employment Opportunity investigation into Lewis wrapped up in October. Lewis, who threatened legal action because it was made public, ultimately did not run for reelection in December to his position as chair, but still sits on the board. He wasn't present at Tuesday's meeting.

Board members narrowly rejected Bueno's suggestion to take out Lewis' name in a split vote.

"We can't do revisionist history and wipe the bad history out because we don't like it," Bonner said. "It's important to name what happened so we can begin the healing process."

Members also shot down the idea to not investigate creating an ethics committee. Those who suggested the change argued that responsibility should rest with the Manhattan Borough President's Office, who oversees the borough's community boards.

The final resolution points out a lack of diversity not just of women, but Hispanic board members as well. No black women serve in leadership roles on the board and Hispanic members only make up about half the board, despite Community Board 12's 69 percent Hispanic population, the resolution says.

The resolution says the board will make any necessary changes to its bylaws to support all forms of inclusivity, diversity and collegiality.

"It's actually not a personal thing, though it might have stemmed from a personal complaint," Bonner said. "The idea is to look at it from a holistic lens and see how all the multiple social identities are coming together."