The Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1) has passed a resolution giving a qualified endorsement to a law proposed by State Senator Daniel Squadron, which (if enacted) would require that Lower Manhattan residents be appointed to the board of the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), while also rigorously questioning the Senator’s representative about whether the measure goes far enough.
At the March 7 meeting of the Committee, chair Ninfa Segarra explained, “the Senator has again introduced a bill that regards the composition of the BPCA board and the issue about residents being put on the board.”
The Senator’s director of operations, Eric Mayo added, “back when Battery Park City began, it was a mound of dirt and a development project. So the Authority’s board members tended to have expertise in the areas of development. Now, it’s 40 years later, and there’s no development going on. Yet the board members are still primarily composed of folks in finance, construction, and development. This bill is designed to get more community representation on the board.”
Eric May, Director of Operations for State Senator Daniel Squadron: “A resolution from CB1 would be really helpful, showing that this is an important issue to the community.”
Mr. Mayo continued, “currently, there are five members on the BPCA board. It’s a seven-member board. Two seats are vacant, and four seats are occupied by people serving expired terms.” (Authority board members with expired terms continue serve at the pleasure of the governor, until reappointed or replaced.) “And only one member of the board is a resident of Battery Park City,” Mr. Mayo added, in a reference to Martha Gallo.
“This bill would require the governor to appoint a majority of the board from residents of the local community,” he noted. “Other agency boards have similar requirements, and the BPCA board has a unique role in determining what happens in this community. It’s important that community members are on this board so their experiences and expertise are added to the issues that the board considers.”
This measure is a reprise of a similar bill that Senator Squadron sponsored last year, which the Senate’s Republican majority prevented from ever coming to a floor vote. (In the State Assembly, where Democrats have a majority, an identical bill, sponsored by Assembly member Deborah Glick, passed by 140 to one.)
Battery Park City Committee member Tom Goodkind said, “we need coverage in the press outside Lower Manhattan. We need headlines like, ‘State Lawmakers Work to Replace Cuomo’s Cronies.'” (This appears to have been a reference to the fact that many current Authority board members have a history of making significant financial contributions to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s various runs for elective office.)
“If we don’t get tough on this,” Mr. Goodkind continued, “we’re headed to defeat.”
Mr. Mayo replied, “we’ve been pushing at an individual level for members of the board to be residents. When a board opening was available, we would talk about the need for residents. This was usually met with silence from the governor’s office, because he feels that it’s his purview to appoint people to boards.”
Tammy Meltzer, co-chair of the Battery Park City Committee: “the community needs to understand that even if the bill passes, there’s no guarantee that Battery Park City stakeholders will be on the board, other than the one we have. Is that fair to say?”
“Last year,” Mr. Mayo continued, “Senator Squadron decided, if they’re not going to listen, let’s write a bill. There is a similar law for Roosevelt Island, which we used as a basis.” This was a reference to the Roosevelt Island Operating Commission (RIOC), the State agency that governs that community, and is in many ways similar to the BPCA. Under a 2002 State law, five of the seven board members at this agency must be residents of the community.
Battery Park City Committee co-chair Tammy Meltzer seized on this point, saying, “RIOC is an authority much like ours, except their entire board is residents and people who work there, such as a teacher. This gives me ire, because they are able to have majority control and domain over their own space.”
Ms. Metlzer then focused on a provision within Senator Squadron’s proposed bill, which mandates a majority of the BPCA board reside in Lower Manhattan, rather than in Battery Park City itself. “This does not require stakeholders who fund BPCA,” she said, in a reference to the fact that neighborhood residents (through their remittances of ground rent and payments in lieu of taxes) provide the revenue that sustains the BPCA.
“When we were first discussing the bill,” Mr. Mayo explained, “we brought it to people in Albany, who said that finding board members from a small area would be difficult. We don’t agree. There are plenty of qualified people in Battery Park City. But the idea is that we want the broadest coalition possible to get the bill passed. We don’t want to give lawmakers an easy way to say, ‘no.’ We thought it made the most sense not to give them that out, that this is a tiny area and we’re not going to be able to find people. We wanted to broaden it a little bit, but still keep it within the broader community. Having the biggest possible coalition would make the most sense in terms of building public pressure to get it passed. So that’s how we landed on this language.”
Battery Park City resident Pat Smith: “Have you gone to the Senate’s Democratic Conference leader? Have you gone to the leader of the Independent Democratic Conference? You need votes in the Senate to win this. It’s that simple.”
Ms. Meltzer pushed back, saying, “but then the Battery Park City community needs to understand that even if the bill passes, there’s no guarantee that Battery Park City stakeholders will be on the board, other than the one we have. Is that fair to say?”
Mr. Mayo answered, “that’s an accurate reading, yes. We’re still going to do our work, looking for residents. But we’re flexible about the language. It’s not set in stone. If there are concerns, we’re happy to discuss them. I’m happy to take them back to Senator Squadron and see what we can do about them.”
Justine Cuccia, a public member of the Battery Park City Committee, returned to the issue of raising public awareness, asking, “what we can do to help bring more attention to this?”
Mr. Mayo advised, “a resolution from CB1 would be really helpful, showing that this is an important issue to the community. One of the great things about the Senate is that there are a lot of bills that pass on a daily basis about solely local issues. So the Senate has a pretty good tradition of when an issue affects a locality, if the community is in agreement, they move forward — if we can show that the community really cares about this, and it affects this community, and requires state action.” He also suggested that residents and CB1 members consider traveling to Albany to lobby State legislators in person.
Ms. Meltzer and Ms. Cuccia replied in unison, “yes, we would do that.”
Robin Forst, also a public member of the Battery Park City Committee, returned to the issue of finding board members among Battery Park City’s population. “There are roughly 15,000 people here, so it’s not such a small community,” she said. (In fact, Battery Park City’s population is approximately 50 percent larger than Roosevelt Island’s.)
When Ms. Segarra opened the floor to questions from the public, a reporter asked whether Senator Squadron had ever taken the step of formally requesting a face-to-face meeting with the governor to discuss the issue of residents being appointed to the BPCA board.”
Mr. Mayo replied, “we have sent letters to the governor, there was one last January. Senator Squadron has had conversations about why this is important. And we’ve been ignored.” Pressed on whether Mr. Squadron had expressly requested a meeting with the Governor, Mr. Mayo answered, “I don’t know.”
Pat Smith, a resident of Rector Place, asked, “have you gone to Andrea Stewart Cousins” the Democratic Conference leader within the State Senate.
Mr. Mayo replied, “she would have no say in this.”
Mr.Smith pushed back, “she’s the minority leader of the State Senate and she has a bunch of votes.”
Mr. Mayo argued, “it’s not that simple.”
Mr. Smith retorted, “it is that simple. Have you gone to Jeff Klein,” the leader of the Independent Democratic Conference and the Senate Coalition leader.
Mr. Mayo answered, “the governor controls this process, I can tell you from experience.”
Battery Park City Committee member Tom Goodkind: “We need headlines like, ‘State Lawmakers Work to Replace Cuomo’s Cronies.’ If we don’t get tough on this, we’re headed to defeat.”
Mr. Smith insisted, “you need votes in the Senate to win this. Those votes are going to come from Andrea Stewart Cousins and Jeff Klein, and maybe some Republicans. But if you have Cousins and Klein lined up on this, you’d have your majority of the Senate to pass a Senate bill.
“If they were able to line up on a lot of things, we’d have a Democratic majority, which we don’t have,” Mr. Mayo replied.
“This board would like to know, when you come back next month, that you’ve spoken to this person in the Senate, and here’s what they said, and yes, we’ve spoken to that person in the governor’s office, and here is what they said,” Mr. Smith pressed.
“We’ve had those conversations,” Mr. Mayo insisted.
“The Senator needs to do some homework,” Mr. Smith concluded.
Once the discussion had closed, Ms. Meltzer read into the record the proposed resolution that the Battery Park City Committee was considering, which said, in part, “since its founding, Battery Park City has transformed from a development project into a vibrant residential and commercial community, but the governance structure of BPCA has not changed as the community has evolved,” and that the BPCA’s, “seven-person board has never had more than one resident as a member, despite the fact that residents and CB1 have been calling for greater representation on the BPCA board for more than ten years.”
Noting that, “a number of BPCA board decisions over the last 18 months have caused significant community concerns and amplified the call for a local voice in decision making,” the resolution also said, “this is the perfect time for the governor to address the vacancies and expired terms and appoint more Battery Park City residents to the BPCA board.” The resolution also said that, “CB1 commends Senator Squadron for introducing [the proposed bill] and for his leadership on this issue.”
But the resolution also said that, “CB1 strongly supports the principle that Battery Park City residents should make up a majority of the BPCA board of directors,” and “CB1 asks that language showing a preference for Battery Park City residents,” as opposed to a larger group of Lower Manhattan residents, “is added to the bill or entered into the official legislative record.” The resolution closed by saying, “CB1 urges the New York State Senate to pass [the bill] as soon as possible, to fill the two vacancies on and address the fact that there are four BPCA board members whose terms have expired.”
When the votes were counted, the resolution was passed unanimously by CB1’s Battery Park City Committee. It next goes before CB1 as a whole, at its upcoming monthly meeting, which will be held on March 28 at Seven World Trade Center (250 Greenwich Street), on the tenth floor, at 6:00 pm.
(Editor’s Note: Ms. Cuccia is related to the reporter who wrote this story.)