Online News From The Tribeca Trib

Menin Wastes No Time Bringing Change to CB1

by Barry Owens

It took Julie Menin, the newly elected chairwoman of Community Board 1, months of quiet campaigning to earn her landslide victory on June 21. But it took her less than a week to make good on campaign promises.

"I think this election was about reform, I really do," Menin told the Trib in an interview late last month. It was her fourth day on the job and already she had shaken up committees by appointing new chairs, formed a task force to look into controversial board practices, appointed a parliamentarian to settle procedural disputes, and enlarged the executive committee to add new voices to the running of the board.

An Internal Workings Task Force that Menin created will look at Friends of Community Board 1, the board's fundraising arm, which critics on the board claim has operated in secret and without oversight. It was founded and is still headed by Madelyn Wils, CB1's former chairwoman.

"Friends of Community Board 1 are using the Community Board's name and the purpose, as I understand it, is to assist the board, so the community board as a whole should have a much larger say in the operation," Menin said.

The task force meets July 11. It is the first meeting on the board's monthly agenda, and deliberately so, Menin said.

"They are meeting immediately because I want to get these process issues out of the way so we can focus on the substantive issues of our community." she said. "The lawyer in me says we should focus on the process, resolve it and move forward."

Board member Bill Love, also an attorney, will chair the task force along with co-chair Tim Lannan. Menin has also tapped Lannan, a longtime board member, to serve as parliamentarian. During meetings he will offer the final word on procedural questions.

Additionally, Menin has formed a Small Business Task Force and named Joel Kopel, who manages William Barthman Jewelers and sits on the board of directors of the Alliance for Downtown New York, as its chairman.

In other changes to the CB1's leadership, Menin has sought "new voices" to head the board's committees, although she has returned some familiar faces to leadership roles as well.

Among the more notable changes:

Catherine McVay Hughes, who lives across the street from the World Trade Center site and has been outspoken on environmental issues, is replacing Richard Kennedy as chair of the World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee. Michael Connolly, a lawyer and Tribeca resident, will be co-chair.

Linda Belfer, a longtime board member and head of the Gateway Plaza Tenant's Association, has replaced Anthony Notaro as chair of the Battery Park City Committee. Jeff Galloway will continue as co-chair.

Carol De Saram, a veteran of many battles against developers and club owners in northern Tribeca, takes over as the chair of the Tribeca Committee, replacing Albert Capsouto. De Saram is a former chair of the later-disbanded Quality of Life Committee.

Menin has resurrected that committee. It will be led by Pat Moore, a Cedar Street resident, and co-chaired by John Fratta, a Southbridge Towers resident and Democratic district leader who ran for City Council in 2001.

Most board members whom the Trib talked to welcomed changes to the committees.

"Sometimes, if you are in a place too long, that can be an issue," said Marc Ameruso.

But one member, who did not want to be identified, noted that some of the committee chairs chosen by Menin, such as De Saram and Belfer, have served as chairs in the past. The member said those appointments seemed to counter Menin's call for reform, and called them "old war horses who have been part of the establishment."

Menin said that one of the complaints she heard most frequently from members was that too few people had too much influence on the board, so she has added members to the executive committee.

"She's opening up the board for new people, trying to come up with an executive committee more representative of the community," said Love. "And I think on balance she's done that."

Menin has resigned as president of Wall Street Rising, the business group she founded (she remains on the board of directors), and dismissed talk that she seeks to use her position as CB1 chairwoman as a stepping stone to public office. Her only civic commitment, she said, is to the board.

"This is what my focus is," Menin said. "I think that anyone who has worked with me closely on a committee knows that when I make a commitment to something and I work on an issue, I give it a 110 percent."

There seemed little doubt among her supporters that she would deliver on that promise.

"She will devote all of her time and energy to making sure the Downtown community has a voice in the decisions that have to be made over the next two years," said Michael Connolly. "She's already shown that she's going to hit the ground running."