Julie Menin to Lead Community Board 1

 by Barry Owens


By a wide majority, Community Board 1 elected Julie Menin, the founder and president of Wall Street Rising, as chairwoman in a special election held June 21.

Julie Menin, one of three candidates for chair of Community Board 1, speaks to the board before the vote is taken. Behind her, at right, is acting chairman Richard Kennedy, one of her opponents. Photo: Carl Glassman
Menin won 35 of the 49 votes and will serve the remaining year of former chairwoman Madelyn Wils' two-year term. Wils' tenure was cut short in March when Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields declined to reappoint her to the board.

"We are at a critical crossroads for our neighborhood," Menin said during her campaign speech, asserting that issues such as a growing amount of construction in the neighborhood, a booming residential population, and overcrowding in local schools called for active leadership. "We really need a forceful and staunch chair."

The election was largely viewed as a race between the two front-runners, Menin and Richard Kennedy, who served as acting chairman after Wils' departure, and it created a palpable sense of political drama.

For nearly two decades board elections have been
low-key affairs that often involved little or no challenge to the sitting chairperson.

"It's exciting," board member Harold Reed said before the meeting. "It feels like a real election."

The two other candidates for chairperson were Anthony Notaro, who headed the board's Battery Park City Committee, and Marc Ameruso, who was making his third bid for the position but dropped out of the race just before balloting began.
Notaro, who has been a board member for five years, pointed to the consensus-building skills he had honed as committee chair as an example of his leadership style.

"It really isn't just about the chair, it's about [input from] everybody," he said.

Kennedy, a real estate executive and longtime member of the board, focused on his experience. He has chaired the board's World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee and was CB1's vice chairman before becoming acting chairman.

"We need to get our strengths together," he said. "Community Board 1's voice, vision and input needs to be woven into the rebuilding [effort]."

Ameruso delivered a few parting shots as he spoke to the board before withdrawing from the race. A frequent critic of what he perceives as factionalism on the board, he called for more voices to be heard in the group's decision-making.
Julie Menin acknowledges applause from fellow Community Board 1 members last month following the announcement of her victory in the election for board chair.

"The issues will take care of themselves so long as everyone is allowed to be included in the process," he said.

Menin, 37, lives on Broad Street with her husband, Bruce, who heads Crescent Heights, the largest residential and hotel condominium development company in the nation. She is a mother of three (including infant twins) and a former attorney in regulatory law. Menin founded the Downtown business revitalization group Wall Street Rising after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

I think that Julie brings a level of sophistication to the job that is bolstered by her experience with Wall Street Rising," board member Paul Hovitz said.

"She has got a difficult road ahead of her with all the things that need to get done and in sort of healing the rifts," said Marc Donnenfeld, another board member. "But she is a very smart woman, a very hard-working woman, and I look forward to working with her."

Some on the board said that Notaro and Kennedy might have fared better had many members not made up their minds long ago to vote for Menin.

"[Kennedy] positioned himself as a continuity candidate and for whatever reason, people don't want continuity," said a Kennedy supporter who asked not to be identified. He said he had favored Kennedy for his coalition building skills and political and real estate connections.

"I don't know that his leadership abilities were as apparent to the community board," the member said, adding that Menin is "very well presented, articulate and incredibly smart."

Rebecca Skinner, who supported Menin, said she wanted to vote for someone whom she could see continuing beyond the one-year term.

"I didn't want a Band-Aid," she said.

Rick Landman, a longtime board member and frequent critic of the group's practices, said he believed that the leadership change will help unify the board.

"I mean, she got 35 people to vote for her," he said. "I think there is a consensus already."