BPCA secretly replaces General Counsel Alix Pustilnik

This post has been read 1883 times!

April 12, 2018- by Steven E. Greer

During the April 10^th BPCA board meet, General Counsel Alix Pustilnik was not present. This is highly unusual since board meetings are scheduled in advance and even the Chairman does not use vacation as an excuse to be absent. Pustilnik’s former junior attorney Abby Goldenberg was sitting at the board table with the title of General Counsel.

BPTV has confirmed that Alix Pustilnik no longer works at the BPCA. She was replaced approximately one month ago.

Communications Director Nick Sbordone refused to answer his phone or reply to our email requests about this matter. The BPCA made no mention of the change in general counsel at the board meeting and issued no press release. In other words, the BPCA is being secretive again about yet another senior management change.

Since being hired in early 2014, Alix Pustilnik oversaw numerous controversial, and possibly illegal, actions by the BPCA, such as:

A) Allowing Robert Serpico, accused for decades of behavior worse than Harvey Weinstein, to “retire” with full benefits

B) Supervising the federal lawsuits against the BPCA, costing the authority millions in legal fees for cases most lawyers thought should have been settled

C) Was aware of former Director of HR Brenda McIntyre’s egregious abusive behavior and apparently did nothing. McInytre was eventually fired.

D) Was employed when the BPCA fired Kirk Swanson after he refused to play along with the corruption related to contracts.

E) Devised a lame plan to bar BPTV from public meetings, lying to the NYPD and Brookfield Security, claiming that the meeting room was too full and that BPTV would have to view the meetings at a video room down the street. That move is now the source of a complaint in federal court.

F) Whispered into Chairman Dennis Mehiel’s ear during a jam-packed board meeting in 2015, full of residents angry about the eviction of Mike Fortenbaugh from the marina, that he should “admonish” the crowd.

G) Oversaw the shady lease agreement between the BPCA and Howard Milstein to give Milstein $250,000 a year for “office space” at 200 Rector Place, despite the BPCA needing no office space. The space sits vacant to this day. The lease was made just weeks after BPTV filed a federal lawsuit against the BPCA and Milstein. In that lawsuit, BPTV accuses the two parties of orchestrating this bogus lease as a way to reimburse Milstein for legal expenses.

H) Oversaw the firing of Linda Soriero in 2017. Soriero was the long-time assistant to Robert Serpico and began to cooperate with BPTV in the federal lawsuit. She is now suing in federal court for wrongful termination.

I) Oversaw the shady deal to relocate former General Counsel Seema Singh into an MTA job rather than fire her.

One of the new members of the BPCA board is Louis Bevilacqua, who is a senior partner at the large law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. It is quite likely that he reviewed all of the legal matters burning on the stove and concluded that Ms. Pustilnik needed to be replaced.

It is unclear where Ms. Pustilnik is working now. Her LinkedIn page still lists BPCA as her job.