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February 17, 2013 By Steven E. Greer
The local flier Downtown Express posted an article about Battery Park City residents not having a high job approval for Bill Thompson, the former BPCA Chairman. Mr. Thompson is running for New York City Mayor this year. Building on accomplishments and reporting by BatteryPark.TV, which was the only vocal critic of then Chairman of the BPCA Bill Thompson, and contributed to his abrupt resignation, the article stated, “Several neighborhood activists were asked to assess Thompson’s mayoral candidacy from their perspective of his performance as B.P.C.A. chairperson. “Although I’ve lived in Battery Park City and have been an active member of the community throughout Thompson’s tenure as chair, I cannot cite a single accomplishment of his,” said George Calderaro, vice chairperson of Community Board 1’s Battery Park City committee. “What I do know is that he brought in political and campaign cronies and fired one-third of the Battery Park City Authority’s staff, including the agency’s only licensed architect and engineer.”…..
John Dellaportas, another long-time resident of Battery Park City, was less critical of Thompson than of the authority in general. “The [B.P.C.A. chairman] has no function other than as a lawful means to steer public funds to friends of the governor,” he said. “So Mr. Thompson’s tenure…wouldn’t tell me much about the kind of mayor he might be. For all I know, he could be great, or he could be terrible. He seems like a decent enough fellow, but it’s a tough job.”….
Liz McCabe, who worked with others to try and get the Asphalt Green community center open, said she had voted for Thompson when he ran for mayor in 2009 but would not vote for him again based on what she had learned about him over the last six months. “He was chairman during the stalling of Asphalt Green,” she said. She also mentioned that shortly after Thompson’s departure as B.P.C.A. chairperson, Gayle Horwitz, president of the authority and a close colleague of Thompson’s, hired Randy Mastro — the biggest fundraiser for Thompson’s mayoral campaign — to start legal action against Asphalt Green. McCabe called Thompson’s actions “corrupt.”
In the article, the only person to support Bill Thompson’s performance as BPCA Chairman was Little League organizer Mark Costello. Two of the “cronies” referred to by Mr. Calderaro are BPCA media relations Matt Monahan, and Anne Fenton. Ms. Fenton was awarded a 45% raise and job promotion recently.
The full article is found here.
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