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December 7, 2011
By Steven Greer, MD
The Community Board 1, BPC division, met last night and the main topic was the bizarre firings of 19 long-time BPCA employees, first reported by BatteryPark.TV. One of the fired employees, former media relations person Leticia Remauro, was invited to attend. The CEO of BPCA, Gayle Horwitz, did not attend the meeting, despite being the person responsible for the handling of the firings. She assigned her newly hired media relations person, Anne Fenton, to speak for the BPCA. Both Horwitz and Fenton served for BPCA Chairman Bill Thompson prior to him becoming the BPCA Chairman.
One member of the CB1 described the meeting as “Very awkward”. Three different members of the CB1 asked BPCA’s Fenton questions and she replied each time, “We do not discuss personnel maters.” Recall, this was the same reply that CEO Horwitz gave at the BPCA “Town Hall” last month.
BPCA’s Fenton explained that, “The reporting in the local papers was wrong.” When pressed to elaborate, she repeated, “We do not discuss personnel matters.”, further frustrating the board.
The one bit of clarity provided by Ms. Fenton was when she explained that severances were indeed provided to the fired employees, contrary to the “reporting in the papers”. At which time, fired Leticia Remauro replied, “I have a severance?”
The CB1 agreed to write letters of recommendations for the 19 fired employees. The BPCA has refused to do this for those employees.
Related to this scandal that is plaguing CEO Gayle Horwitz, BatteryPark.TV has learned that there are rumors of Ms. Horwitz being replaced. The incident has turned into a political liability for
Chairman William Thompson who is running for New York City Mayor. BatteryPark.TV is also aware of increases in Google searches for terms such as “Gayle Horwitz fired”. A member of the CB1 told us, “This story is not going away for her (Horwitz)”.
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