Phase Out Battery Park City Authority, Says Community Board Chair Updated 5 hrs ago

November 8, 2010 1:00pm Updated November 9, 2010 6:25amcommentshareprint

Julie Menin, chairwoman of CB1, called the Authority's spending habits "shocking."

¿Story¿CommentsOfficials managing Battery Park City wasted more than $300,000, a state Inspector General report found. (Flickr/MD111)By Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

Julie Menin, the chair of Community Board 1 in Lower Manhattan, has called for the phasing out of the Battery Park City Authority, according to an article today by Julie Shapiro at DNAinfo.com

Referring to a "squandering" of "more than $300,000 in public funds," Ms. Menin said "this was a complete breach of public trust," adding that "It's really shocking that taxpayer money was being spent on such frivolous and superfluous items."

According to a report by the New York State Inspector General released Friday, the authority "poured tens of thousands of dollars into open-bar parties, lavish picnics and nonprofits unrelated to Battery Park City over the past several years," the article said, "under the oversight of former Authority President Jim Cavanaugh and Chairman James Gill, who have since stepped down."

"Although the Authority now has stricter regulations and a new leader in Chairman Bill Thompson, Menin said the Authority's usefulness has expired," the article continued, adding that she was not arguing "for the Authority to be shut down tomorrow, but said there needs to be an orderly plan enacted to phase out the organization."

"Founded in 1968, the state-run Battery Park City Authority was charged with developing the new 92-acre neighborhood on Hudson River landfill, work that is now nearly complete," the article said.

"The whole mission of the Battery Park City Authority needs to be scrutinized," Menin said. "It's time that it should be sunsetted."

One way of closing the Authority would be for Mayor Bloomberg to buy Battery Park City from the state for $1 and then to run it like any other city neighborhood, without the extra layer of bureaucracy. "Bloomberg and city Comptroller John Liu looked into that option earlier this year but did not immediately comment on it Monday," the article noted.

Ms. Menin said the state could also shut down the Authority, and she called on Gov. David Paterson and Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo to look into doing so but the article said they did not respond to requests for comment, and an Authority spokeswoman declined to comment."

The report by Inspector General Joseph Fisch said that "also fired an employee who complained about favoritism and paid her to keep quiet.

The Authority sunk $13,000 a year into lavish themed picnics for employees between 2005 and 2008, including $1,000 for pony rides, $600 for face painting and $460 for a clown, the report said, adding that it "also threw a $14,000 holiday party each year, with an open bar and a $2,000 DJ."