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November 20, 2013- Sources tell BatteryPark.TV that the city might take control of the BPCA for $1, which is a clause in the BPCA Act. Mayor de Blasio’s staff is in talks with Governor Cuomo on the matter.
However, it should be emphasized that simply because the Mayor’s staff is asking around does not mean that the city will assimilate the BPCA. In fact, the Mayor would be flat out derelict of duty if he did not investigate whether it made sense to take control of the cash generating BPCA.
Why the previous mayors have not exercised the option to buy the BPCA is uncertain. Some sources have speculated that billions in bond debt owed by the BPCA would downgrade city bonds. With the newly issued $800 Million in BPCA bonds to refinance the older more expensive bonds, perhaps the BPCA is a more desirable target for the city to now gobble up.
Please BPC Owners do not let this happen! They will use our funds to offset the NYC short fall and leave our community without.
So the big issues for the city are taking on BPC debt and maintaining the neighborhood, correct?
Seema Singh was given a ten percent raise to $146,000.
Robert Serpico was given a raise from $179,000 to $205,000
Phyllis Taylor hired three new lawyers at over $100,000
Tessa Huxley has hired over a half dozen permanent new people and given stealth raises to over ten people. The two people fired in March were fired for cause after long-term nonperformance and repeated warnings in writing.
Allison Ford and Phyllis Taylor coordinate all false filings and claims of mistreatment by staff, and encourage lying about what happened when so they can have job security and pressure Robert Serpico.
Anne Fenton was brought in by Gayle Horowitz to stir things up and create an atmosphere of lying. When Gayle was forced out, Anne’s sole preoccupation was to survive by coordinating with Allison Ford to further atmosphere of lies and false accusations so that the organization would be in constant state of fear
The real Matthew Monahan.
To Matt
If you are the real Mr. Monahan, please email us your phone number and chat.
Are you kidding me? Wow.
Matt Monahan should know what he’s talking about since he worked there with all of them.
It’s time that the City of New York took this place over and managed it along with the rest of the City, just like Daniel Squadron wrote in the New York Times three years ago and Gayle Horowitz was very upset and sent Anne Fenton to smooth it over in Albany.
Seems to me that they are all trying to undermine Dennis Mehiel who came in two years ago to clean the place up. I think Monahan is a good guy and that what he says is true. They all create lies and atmosphere of lies and deceit about each other and undermine whoever is put in there to clean up the place.
Daniel Squadron lost for Public Advocate, but he is still a Senator and he should push the new Mayor to take over this organization and stop all this unneeded drama and get the City its money directly, as well as bring our community into the City formally.
I am also confirming that Matthew Fenton is on the Battery Park City approved journalist list because he is close to Anne Fenton, and was given all the exclusives by Gayle Horowitz. I have had enough. Matthew.
(Editor note: there is no way to confirm that this is the true Matt Monahan)
To William Bester
We doubt that the person posting under the name Matt Monahan is the real guy, but they do seem to be real BPCA employees.
Editor
I don’t know that the previous commenter is Matt Monahan. Matt is generally much more articulate and would get the spellings of peoples’ names right….
In any event you missed or were not told that Phyllis Taylor has been asked to retire and will leave on December 31st. Details are sketchy at this time.
The legal department has hired two new lawyers, not three, plus a paralegal.
The information about the raises for Singh and Serpico seems accurate.
Anne Fenton and Phyllis Taylor came in with Gayle Horowitz. The three of them were highly involved with Bill Thompson’s 2009 Mayoral Campaign. Anne Fenton is one of the most unqualified, classless, mean and divisive people you will ever meet. Universally despised by the staff both at the Authority and at Parks.
If you knew Allyson Ford you would know that she and Fenton despise each other. You would never see them work on a project together.
As reprehensible as Fenton is, Allyson Ford is as nice a person as you will ever meet. She was removed as the EEO Officer because I believe she was too sympathetic to the rank and file workers. She was in charge of taking complaints and reporting them to her superior (Taylor) but it is HIGHLY unlikely that she would turn them into lies.
Tessa Huxley’s staff are among the most underpaid in the agency. Good for her if she’s managed to secure raises for some of them.
Seems since I left for a better job that more crazy things have been happening with the “24th floor”, as we call them at the Conservancy.
The reason I left was because there hasn’t been any pay increase at the Conservancy for over 4 years! No merit increase no COLA increase!
And to piggy back off of “Fly on the Wall”, yes, the Conservancy is among the most underpaid in the agency. But I didn’t hear of anyone getting any raises at the Conservancy, but rather most people in the Authority have. That is why there are people leaving often at the Conservancy.
I still have friends there, and they are just tired and fed up with what the “24th floor” has been doing with their lies. They are just beating around the bushes. The Community Center shouldn’t be closing, btw, it’s all of Fenton and Serpico’s fault from what I heard when I was there. The Center was fine until the pool closed down and started losing members, not because Asphalt Green opened up because many adults think it’s too expensive and there is no time given for adults to swim or use the basketball courts.
DISASTER! If the new “progressives” at City Hall take over BPC here is what we can expect:
1. Park quality deteriorating to the level of 1970s Central Park
2. Safety collapsing and PEP officer numbers decreasing while salaries increase
3. Taxes up, and more dollars going from our “1%” community to “affordable housing” in the outer boroughs.
Billy D is salivating over our rich coffers of cash. Just imagine what he could do with our “surplus”!
Think it can’t happen? Well — as they say — it’s all politics. Bloomberg and Cuomo hated each other, so the deal was never going to happen. Before him Guiliani was preoccupied and after 9/11 seemed a little too sensitive. Cuomo would like to get DiBlasio in his back pocket for any left-wing votes he may need if he runs for higher office (he’s got the center locked up) and this would be a nice carrot and a big win for DiBlasio and really a non-event at the State level.
Be warned — unless we start voicing against this now, we will not know how good we have had it!
Lets face it, on one hand, we have witnessed the maintenance of BPC decline significantly, while there has been gross mismanagement. On that front, I would be in favor of the city taking over.
On the other side, the level of maintenance could become worse, in which case I believe there is an opportunity to organize the neighborhood to campaign to elected officials about gouging us on the PILOT charges.
In the spirit of equality and fairness, we might have both a good case and more receptive ear to campaign loudly for the normalization of common charges to be more competitive with other parts of the city. We ought to be thinking about campaigning for a 50% reduction to our PILOT charges. Bringing them in line with other parts of the city.
To Sparky
Can you try to do an apples to apples comparison of city real estate taxes of Unit X in FiDi or Tribeca compared to PILOT on Unit Y charges in BPC?
You rock that is so awesome!