In the November issue of the Horizon, this newspaper reported that Community Board 4 may have violated the state's open meetings law when it met privately for a tour of the proposed sites for a new Yankee Stadium and the redevelopment of the Bronx Terminal Market. Members of this newspaper's staff had hoped to participate in the tour in order to provide their readers with more information on these projects that could change the face of Highbridge and the surrounding communities.

In the weeks following the article's publication, the community board's leadership circulated a terse response to the article to a long list of people via email, insisting that the board had not violated the law. At the request of the board's leadership, the Horizon is not publishing that response because the leadership says it was written in haste and they do not wish to get into a tit-for-tat exchange. They also declined an invitation from this newspaper to have published a revised response.

That said, many members of the Highbridge community have seen the board's comments, and the Horizon wants to make clear that it stands by its story, which was meticulously reported.

The newspaper is neither judge nor jury and cannot say that the board is guilty of violating the law. But the state's employee responsible for monitoring open meeting laws, Bob Freeman, said the board appeared to have violated the law when almost 20 of its members took the tour and discussed the stadium proposal privately. If two or more members of a public body in New York State meet and discuss public business, that meeting must be announced and open to the public. There are a few exceptions to this law, but the board's tour did not appear to be one of them, according to Freeman.

While it is reassuring to know that the community board took the time to review the incident, even if it reached a different conclusion (interpretations of the law often differ), it is disappointing that the board leadership acted hastily on such an important issue and never explained the basis for its findings.

Some community members who received the board's response were angered by this. The community deserves to know how and why the board's leadership concluded that the meeting it held was appropriate and legal.
The city's land use review process is obviously flawed when a proposal as significant as the one to build a new Yankee Stadium can come as close to reality as this one has without more input from local residents. While, since the private tour, the members of the community board have officially voted against the current stadium proposal, there will be other chances for this body and others to weigh in on this project. And there are many other development projects near and along the Harlem River that will be coming soon.

It is critical that the lines of communication between community leaders and officials and Highbridge residents remain open and transparent. To this end, the actions of the board's leadership are not encouraging.