Forst Exit: BPCA Purges Only Battery Park City Resident from Its Senior Staff

Ms. Forst’s departure may be part of an emerging pattern in which high-level female Authority staffers over the age of 60 are dismissed for no reason that is ever publicly explained. Less than one year ago, a similar fate befell Tessa Huxley, the widely admired creator and guardian of Battery Park City’s award-winning parks and public spaces. In June, 2015, she was dismissed (after decades of service) without any publicly stated reason. (Neither Ms. Forst nor Ms. Huxley was willing to speak to the Broadsheet for this article.)

A resident of Battery Park City since 1989, Ms. Forst raised two children in the community and began her public service with volunteer positions with Community Board 1 (CB1), where she chaired the Battery Park City Committee, and on the executive board of the then-new P.S. 234 (in the years before P.S. 89 had opened). In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, she joined the staff of newly elected City Council member Alan Gerson. After three years with Mr. Gerson, Ms. Forst moved to the staff of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, where she spent nine years mitigating the local impacts of widespread construction in Lower Manhattan.

	Dennis Mehiel

When Ms. Forst joined the BPCA in January, 2014, the Authority’s chairman, Dennis Mehiel, said, “Robin brings tremendous knowledge and experience to the Authority, having spent much of her career working on behalf of the residents and area businesses in Lower Manhattan. We are very happy to having her join the BPCA senior management team.”

Ms. Forst stopped speaking on the behalf of the BPCA sometime before the April 5 meeting of CB1’s Battery Park City Committee, at which she did not appear. Instead, the Authority was represented at that session by its vice president for real property, Gwen Dawson. When she was asked by a member of the Committee, “where is Robin?” Ms. Dawson replied, guardedly, “she won’t be here tonight.”

At the Authority’s April 13 Open Community Meeting, in which BPCA board members and executives answered questions from the public, Authority chairman Dennis Mehiel was asked by resident Rosalie Joseph, “some community members have noticed the absence of our community liaison and fellow resident at the last few meetings, and not being able to reach her, we were wondering what is the status of Robin Forst?”

Mr. Mehiel replied, “I can’t respond on this setting to a discussion about personnel matters, as I’m sure you understand. If something changes in Robin’s status, when that happens, everybody will know about it.” This unwillingness to discuss personnel changes was contradicted at the same meeting, when Mr. Mehiel and Authority president Shari Hyman announced the departure (apparently voluntary) of Eric “T” Fleisher, the director of horticulture for the neighborhood’s parks.

When asked for a statement on Ms. Forst’s departure, a BPCA spokesman said, “we decline to comment on personnel matters.” It was not immediately clear how this position could be reconciled with Mr. Mehiel’s promise that, if Ms. Forst departed, “everybody will know about it.”

Ms. Forst took over as the BPCA’s chief spokesperson at a time when relations between the Authority and the community turned toxic, as the result of a series of BPCA decisions that were made in defiance of the expressed will of neighborhood residents and local elected officials. This frustration was compounded by the perception that the Authority often conceals major initiatives until they have been decided upon, and then presents them as a fait accompli.

Among these were the 2015 eviction from North Cove Marina of the local resident and  businessman who operated highly regarded community programs there for more than a decade, and the transfer of control at that facility (which is legally mapped as park land) to the owners of the Brookfield Place office and retail complex, a company with no experience managing boat basins, but a long record of making campaign contributions to Governor Cuomo, who controls the Authority.

Another contentious decision by the BPCA was the summary dismissal of Ms. Huxley, along with the decision to absorb the once-separate Parks Conservancy into the BPCA.

A third BPCA move that aroused widespread condemnation was the Authority’s January, 2016 decision to replace the Parks Enforcement Patrol officers who had safeguarded the community since 1992 with private security guards from a firm once owned by an investment group at which a senior aide to the Governor Cuomo previously served as a top executive. This development came after months of assurances from BPCA officials that the PEP officers would continue to patrol Battery Park City, and that their contract, “is still in effect.” (The abrupt move was announced on the BPCA’s website on Saturday, January 30, and took effect the following day.) Each of these major changes inspired repeated, unanimous criticism of the Authority by residents, Community Board 1, and elected officials representing Lower Manhattan. All to no effect.

While Ms. Forst attended community meetings, explained the positions of BPCA management to residents, and agreed to convey local concerns to Authority decision-makers, her superiors decided to hire (without competitive bidding) an outside public relations firm that had no experience representing government agencies. This firm was paid $45,000 for four and a half months work, but created no work product (such as press releases, brochures, informational videos, or strategy memoranda) that the Authority could produce when asked.

Instead, the BPCA’s chief of staff, Kevin McCabe, pointed to three stories about the Authority that appeared in New York newspapers during the time the BPCA employed the publicity firm. But when the Broadsheet contacted the reporters who wrote those stories, they all said that Ms. Forst had been their point of contact, rather than the outside public relations firm. A source with direct knowledge of the relationship between the BPCA and the outside publicist says that the firm’s account executive had previously worked closely with a senior Authority staff member when they were both employed by the Bloomberg administration.

Local community leaders have been vocal in their response to the BPCA’s decision to terminate Ms. Forst. Ninfa Segarra, a former deputy mayor who now serves as the vice chair of CB1’s Battery Park City Committee, observed that, “after years in government, I have developed and participated in community engagement. To succeed it takes commitment by leadership and a commitment to transparency.” Ms. Segarra continued, “Robin is a consummate public servant, who has served the City’s residents in many ways, especially in times of need. Unfortunately, BPCA the did not take her insights into consideration. The proof is in the continuing controversies with the community and all of our elected officials. Her departure is a tremendous setback and raises major concerns. Quarterly town hall meetings and the changing of the guard will not cure the problem.”

Ms. Joseph observed, “I have worked in partnership with prior BPCA administrations on numerous community projects including the annual block party and the Community Emergency Response Team. They showed their commitment to the community in concrete ways. Things have clearly changed under the current leadership. Hiring Robin Forst marked an encouraging change and sent a strong message that developing a collaborative and positive relationship with the community was a priority. But it became clear that BPCA did not appreciate her deep understanding of the needs of the community. Instead they put her in an impossible position due to their unresponsiveness and made decisions that angered the community and elected officials. Her departure is a great loss.”

Maria Smith, a member of CB1’s Battery Park City Committee, called Ms. Forst’s departure, “terrible news,” and said, “we have one less person at the BPCA who understands the needs of the community. I believe she did a very fine job as a liaison to the residents and I don’t think the Authority appreciated the goodwill ambassador they had in her. She was, and is, a true professional. Her departure, along with Tessa Huxley’s and T. Fleisher’s, is another huge loss.”

Tammy Meltzer, who also serves on CB1’s Battery Park City Committee, said, “I think the problem with the BPCA lies, in the greatest part, with its management and their attitude towards public engagement. The fault does not lie with any one person, and certainly not with a community relations representative. It is systematic and structural.”

She continued, “in the past, we’ve had BPCA presidents who regularly came to CB1 meetings. In the last few years, it’s been a struggle to get anybody to show up, much less somebody who had real information, as opposed a person who had been told in advance what they could and could not say.”

“Changing the face or the voice that tells the BPCA’s story doesn’t change the problems with the story,” Ms. Meltzer added. “Robin Forst’s departure and replacement with a new spokesperson doesn’t change the substance of engagement and dialog. The underlying facts remain the same. And the facts are that there is no engagement and there is no dialog.”

Local leader and community activist John Dellaportas said, “Robin is and has always been a lovely lady and a tireless public servant. Unfortunately, making Robin the public voice of an organization that loathes the public was doomed from the start. Still, the BPCA has taken another big step backwards.”

At its May 3 meeting, CB1’s Battery Park City Committee passed a resolution noting that, “after two years of difficult relations between the BPCA and the Battery Park City community, BPCA Chairman Dennis Mehiel hired Robin to take over the challenging task of community relations,” and observing that, “Robin demonstrated extraordinary professionalism in meeting the challenges of being the public face of BPCA during a period of highly unpopular decisions, providing BPCA with the skills and experience of a long-term resident and government official and ably balancing her job of conveying community concerns to BPCA with her duty to convey BPCA’s decisions back to the community, irrespective of any personal concerns she may have had regarding those decisions.”

This resolution also expressed gratitude for Ms. Forst’s, “hard work in facilitating communications between the BPCA and the community during difficult times,” and called upon the Authority to, “work directly with the community to enhance the communications between BPCA and the CB1, BPC and the Lower Manhattan community at large.”