Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson has removed Miguel Dyer, who gave the middle finger to a local resident over Zoom last April, from his seat on Community Board 11, THE CITY has learned.
In a letter to Dyer on Dec. 28, Gibson noted several other instances in which Dyer violated the code of conduct members agree to follow, including through “unprofessional and prohibited behavior in reference to a cannabis dispensary applicant before the committee” and by “stating that DOT is ‘raping’ the people,” referring to the city transportation department.
The letter arrived weeks after CB11, covering much of the East Bronx, voted on Nov. 30 to create a committee exploring the removal of both Chair Bernadette Ferrara and Vice Chair Albert D’Angelo. Ferrara is accused of abandoning the board during a failed run for office and D’Angelo wrote a newspaper column saying that Black people had only themselves to blame for failing to achieve the American dream.
At that Nov. 30 meeting, Gibson criticized the behavior seen at the board and called on members to focus on the business of improving their community.
Gibson removed a board member from neighboring CB10 last year, also for conduct violations, a person familiar with that move told THE CITY.
Community board members are volunteers, albeit with significant advisory power over liquor licenses and some zoning matters. The borough president oversees the boards, and has the power to remove any member for just cause.
Ejections are rare. When a board member acts unprofessionally or simply stops showing up, the usual response is to call and ask them to step down or simply not invite them to participate again when new members are selected every two years, said one person familiar with the process.
“Every community board member in our borough signs a code of conduct to ensure they represent their community with the highest level of professionalism and integrity. When there are direct violations to the code of conduct as outlined in Mr. Dyer’s letter, a member can be removed at any time during their appointment through our internal review process,” Gibson told THE CITY in a written statement.
Gibson told Dyer in her letter that his behavior had been “unprofessional” and had been “an unwelcome distraction to the Board’s mission [that] is incompatible with your duties as a public servant and constitutes cause for removal.” Thus, she concluded, “effective immediately, you are hereby terminated as a Member of Bronx Community Board 11.”
Half-Baked
Speaking with THE CITY over the phone on Wednesday, Dyer said that the board’s ethics committee had already adjudicated both the middle-finger incident, which some locals have referred to as “Fingergate,” and his inappropriate comments about the Department of Transportation.
As for his behavior towards a cannabis dispensary applicant in an October 18 committee meeting, Dyer contends he made a joke that he recalled as something along the lines of “In the interest of good faith, would you consider getting us all freshly baked?”
“I think that it’s an undemocratic process,” Dyer, who joined the board in August 2022, said of his ouster. “The borough president going above and beyond that, while allowing Al [D’Angelo] and Bernadette [Ferrara] to go through the process is a little disingenuous. It’s definitely selective outrage … There was no due process for my removal.”
Ferrara did not respond to a request for comment. (Dyer, who had been the only openly gay member of CB11, served as the treasurer for Ferrara’s failed City Council run before resigning after she made public remarks against gay marriage.)
D’Angelo said Dyer’s removal went too far.
“What Miguel did was wrong. An apology to the person he offended and to the board, along with a suspension should have been enough,” he texted THE CITY. “Anyone can make a mistake.”
The borough president was not having it. “This type of request, joking or not, is prohibited,” Gibson said in the letter, noting that he had “been warned on multiple occasions” and made “public apologies” for some of his remarks.
Roxanne Delgado, the recipient of the middle finger and a local resident who several board members say has disrupted meetings with what they described as interruptions and tirades, told THE CITY Dyer’s ouster was overdue.
“I guess it’s better late than never. I personally don’t feel any vindication because it was done almost a year after the incident with the middle finger at the public meeting directed towards me,” she said.
Dyer said he’s unsure of his next move. Moving forward, he said, he hopes the board will “absolutely reflect the community that we serve. I would like the board to embrace transparency and democracy.”