Community Board 7 voted unanimously last week to support a resolution that recommends that meetings of the committee set up to monitor the construction of the filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park be open to the public.

At the first meeting of the Facility Monitoring Committee (FMC) earlier this month, Board 7 representatives, which included Board 7 chair Nora Feury and district manager Rita Kessler, supported the decision of the group to conduct the sessions behind closed doors.

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) organized the FMC. It exists to update the community about construction progress and to provide a mechanism for people to raise issues and problems. It is comprised of representatives of the three affected community boards (7, 8 and 12) and a staff person from Council Member Oliver Koppell’s office. Norwood activist Lyn Pyle also serves on the Committee as a designee of Board 7.

Board 7 member Greg Faulkner raised the open meetings issue. I’m confused how the community will be able to have input if [the meetings are] closed,” he said, later adding, “There are very few meetings in the City of New York that I know of that are closed to the public. I would like us to ask the Committee to revisit the issue.”

Board members Don Bluestone and Hector Lopez echoed that view.

“I think this is the wrong message,” Lopez said. “It doesn’t mean they [the public] are going to talk, but at least they can hear what happens.”

Feury said she would bring the Board’s concerns to the Committee.

But Faulkner wanted the Board to vote on the matter. “I think we need to go on record as a board,” he said.

After some back and forth, Feury then put a resolution forward and the Board approved the measure unanimously by a show of hands. There were no “no” votes and no abstentions.

In a phone interview after the Board meeting, Feury said she was concerned that the meetings would lose their focus if people outside the Committee were allowed to participate.

“If you let the public in, there’s no way you’re going to keep them from talking,” she said. “There’s going to be no protocol.”

But she agreed that Board 7 itself had been successful in limiting public comment to a brief period before its official meetings. And she said that, in light of the Board 7 resolution, the FMC would revisit the matter.

The next FMC meeting is on Thursday, April 7 at 2 p.m. at the DEP’s new community office at 3660 Jerome Ave.