There is one item on the agenda for tonight’s Bronx Community Board 7 monthly general board meeting at the Bronx Library Center: a public vote on whether the board’s district manager, Fernando Tirado, should remain in his post.

During the last general meeting in June before the summer break, a motion was brought to the floor by one of the board members calling for Tirado’s removal. At the end of the meeting, board members held a closed-door session and voted 13 to seven (with eight abstentions) in favor of removing Tirado. But because of City Charter regulations that say personnel decisions must be voted on in public, the vote didn’t count.

Tonight, the board’s getting a do-over.

At the time of the first vote, Board Chairman Paul Foster was vague about the reasons behind the motion calling for his ouster, basically saying things weren’t working out and that several board members felt Tirado wasn’t being responsive to their needs. District managers are employees of the boards they serve and can be removed from their position for almost any reason.

But two letters obtained by the Norwood News, one from Foster outlining the problems and another sent by Tirado in response, begin to shed light on the rift between Community Board 7 and its district manager.

 In a letter dated July 2, a couple of weeks after the first closed-door vote, Foster sent Tirado a letter enumerating seven ways that Tirado had “failed” the board, including:

— Going to the borough president’s office (which oversees community board affairs) without first consulting Foster and accusing a board member of a racial slur.

— Talking to the media without consent from board leadership (Tirado spoke to Crain’s about the killing of the Kingsbridge Armory mall project in a way that Foster says damaged the board’s relationship with the borough president’s office).

–Not following up on a $15,000 grant that was never used by the board.

–Not responding or following up on requests by committee chairs, including sending out letters, calling city agencies and setting up meetings.

–Not following up on a request by Foster to have a police escort during the funeral of former board member Ozzie Brown.

–Not engaging with the head football coach at DeWitt Clinton High School in a “friendly supporting manner” after the board allocated money to Clinton’s football and female track teams.

–And failing to inform board members in a “timely fashion” of meetings with outside groups about the Kingsbridge Armory.

The letter ends with some harsh words, saying Tirado needed to take immediate action to “correct these issues as soon as possible” and that he would be subject to “suspension or dismissal” from his job if he didn’t respond adequately. It also said this letter would not “supersede or negate” any action taken by the board.

In August, board leaders were supposed to meet with Tirado to discuss these issues. Whatever happened at that meeting, the vote is still on the table.

Two weeks ago, Tirado sent an extensive and itemized response detailing why Foster’s complaints are unwarranted and to show that the move to dismiss him is “not based on my work performance.”

In the letter, Tirado says that more than a year ago, in August 2011, he was alerted by “board members, residents and a Bronx district manager regarding my imminent dismissal from my position.” When he talked to the borough president’s office and Foster was alerted, Tirado said he was labeled insubordinate. Then, in April of this year, Tirado says he felt it would be “irresponsible” not to report to the borough president’s office on the alleged racial slur from a board member during a budget meeting, which he considered “highly offensive.”

Tirado said he was allowed to speak to the meeting on a case-by-case basis until the Crain’s article was published and that he hasn’t spoken to the media since.

Tirado blamed the loss of the $15,000 grant from Councilman Fernando Cabrera on Foster, saying he came up with a contract proposal with “specific deliverables,” which was approved last May. But Foster, Parks Committee Chair William Francis and “several board members insisted that I find a way to ‘rollover’ the funding.” Tirado says he warned them that it couldn’t be done and attempted to make it happen, but ultimately, the funding was lost.

He says the complaints from the committee chairs aren’t valid and that he has never posted a committee meeting announcement less than 30 days before a meeting.

As for his failure to engage the Clinton coach in “friendly, supporting” manner, Tirado said he did his best trying to work around city regulations with regards to transferring funds for athletic equipment and that, in the end, it got done. He called the accusation “false.”

The accusation that Tirado failed to inform the board in a timely manner about events at the Armory also rings hollow, he said in the letter. He admits a week went by between when he first heard about an event possibly being held at the Armory on Feb. 11 and when he told the board about it. But he was under the impression that the event might not happen and he said by the time he confirmed the event and told the board, there were still four days before the event was scheduled to take place.

Tirado explained that he was at a loss as to how he could rectify the situation or change his behavior since these were all specific incidents that he felt he acted appropriately during and after. He said he wanted “let it also be known” that he had not violated any board rules, by-laws, the City Charter or “any other agency governing the Board.”

In a brief interview this morning, Foster said, with the vote tonight, the board is simply following up on a motion brought before the board last June, one that was not handled incorrectly at the time. He added that he was eager to move on, whatever the board decides.

“We’ll take a vote,” Foster said. “After that we’ll close the meeting. That will be it. The board will have a decision.”

“We don’t want anyone to lose their job, but we need to figure out how to make this work,” he said. “It would be the same for anybody whose name continues to pop up.”

In the end, it sounds like Foster is ready to move on, regardless of the outcome tonight. “I have bigger fish to fry,” he said. “We have the [redevelopment of the Kingsbridge] Armory coming  up and a lot of other stuff.”

Community Board 7 contains several neighborhoods in the northwest Bronx, including Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham, Kingsbridge Heights and University Heights, which make up the primary coverage area of the Norwood News.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.