Fernando Tirado, the district manager of Community Board 7 in the Bronx, is fighting for his job after nearly half of the board’s members voted to dismiss him from his position on Tuesday night. Because of procedural issues, however, Tirado remains in his job for the time being.

At the end of their final meeting before a summer break at the New York Botanical Garden, the members of Community Board 7, which is comprised of neighborhoods in the northwest Bronx, held a closed-door executive session. Tirado was asked to exit the room. Executive sessions are rare at community boards, but can be called to discuss personnel matters. The topic of last night’s session, would be about whether or not Tirado should be dismissed from his position. The action, members said, had been brewing for months.

During the session, attended by 28 of the board’s 32 members, a motion calling for Tirado’s dismissal was brought to the floor. The vote came out split, with 13 members voting in favor of Tirado’s dismissal, seven voting against it and eight abstaining. While telling, the vote does not appear to be binding.

[Update: In a statement, the Bronx Borough President’s office said, “Upon review of the vote, procedural requirements were not followed and the vote did not carry.” In addition, Bronx BP spokesman John DeSio said the yays would have to outnumber all other votes, including no votes and abstentions, for the motion to carry. That means, even if the procedures would have been followed Tuesday, the motion to dismiss Tirado would not have passed because there were 13 yays and 15 combined  no votes and abstentions. DeSio said the board would need to hold a special public meeting and conduct the vote again if it wants to take action to remove Tirado.]

Because the vote was behind closed doors and not in a public setting, Board Chairman Paul Foster said the board will most likely have to call a special public meeting in July or wait until September to conduct a legally-binding vote. Either way, Foster said, it’s clear that many people on the board are unhappy with how Tirado is running things. (For those unfamiliar with community boards, the district manager, who is paid a salary by the city, acts as an employee of the volunteer board and serves at their discretion.)

Reached at the board office in Bedford Park, Tirado declined to comment on the situation. The Norwood News reached out to the borough president’s office, which oversees community board affairs, to get clarification on the voting process, but are still waiting for a response. Foster said the board is looking into all the procedural guidelines to see exactly what next steps need to be taken.

According to Foster and other board members, this vote did not come out of the blue. For months, the board has held internal discussions about whether Tirado was the right fit for their board. Foster said it wasn’t as much about his performance, but about how he dealt with the board and its members.

“The question [for Tirado] is, can you work with people?” Foster said in an interview yesterday, a day after the vote. “These are you bosses, whether you like it or not. I think there was some frustration on behalf of board members.”

Foster said board members had been expressing their desire for a change in behavior from their district manager for some time, with little response from Tirado. Foster pointed to a particular instance earlier this year, when board members found out after-the-fact that a group was holding huge parties inside the Kingsbridge Armory. He said Tirado knew of the Armory events, but was late getting the information to board members.

Longtime board member Lowell Green said she voted for Tirado’s dismissal because she didn’t feel like he was on top of scheduling meeting locations in a timely manner. Others, she said, may have had other reasons for his departure.

Tirado, a former board member who was hired in 2008 after the board ousted longtime district manager Rita Kessler retired under pressure from the board, ran for state senate in 2010. At the time, many board members were taken by surprise when he announced his intention to run for office. He eventually took a leave of absence from the board to focus on campaigning. Foster and Green both said Tirado’s handling of the situation left a bad taste in the mouths of board members.

“At some point in time, Fernando might be a wonderful candidate,” Green said. But, she added, choosing her words carefully, “The people advising him didn’t do a good job.”

Foster and Green both said the action taken on Tuesday, while not binding, was the sign of an active board that that cares about its role in the community. Ultimately, they said, the board felt compelled to take action.

“We, as a body, felt that the reputation and efforts of the community board would become in danger [with Tirado as district manager],” Green said.

Foster agreed. “The thing that can’t be compromised is the work of the board,” Foster said. He later added, “We didn’t want this [dissatisfaction with their district manager] to turn into a big ugly monster.”

Until the board holds another public meeting and a majority of board members votes him out, however, Tirado remains at his position, working for an organization that is actively seeking his removal.