Free Lunches, Legal Fees, Car Services, Consultants
By Sarah Ryley
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN — Whoever said, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” didn’t work for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation.
Wendy Leventer, former president of the state agency, ordered lunches like seared tuna and slow-roasted pork several times a month while working on the park, and took the bill out of the park’s budget, according to invoices obtained via a Freedom of Information Law request.
Architects from the firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates also enjoyed lunches on the taxpayer dollar for meetings several times a month, generally ranging from$12 to $35 a plate, at restaurants like The Coffee Shop, Ennju and Union Square Café. Thousands of dollars in lunches are only a fraction of the expenses that have since 2003 whittled at least $30 million away from the park’s $153 million capital budget, according to contract amendments, information compiled by the Empire State Development Corporation [ESDC] and other documents pertaining to amounts owed to firms.
Many people familiar with large capital construction projects called this type of spending “business as usual” in city and state government, while others balked at what they called an abuse of taxpayer dollars.
ESDC spokesman Errol Cockfield said Van Valkenburgh architects were entitled to paid lunches, even if the meetings were only among members of that firm, as was often the case. The firm has a $21.9 million contract to design the 85-acre park, including subcontractors, according to contract amendments.
He said Leventer, who was terminated last March, was also entitled to paid lunches if she was present at those meetings.
In one invoice, a lawyer billed $79 for two private car services to chauffeur him between 599 Lexington Ave. and the ESDC’s office at 633 Third Ave., according to receipts. A government and community relations consultant was paid $200 an hour, in part, to attend neighborhood association meetings, racking up a bill of $132,000 so far. In one day, $9,443 was spent to serve the heads of containerport operator American Stevedoring eviction notices for Pier 5.
“City workers don’t get paid lunches. Are you kidding me?” said parks advocate Geoffrey Croft. “With little government oversight and accountability, this desperately needed and long-delayed park has become a free-for-all.
“The taxpayers are the real losers,” he said.
“My general impression is that they were not conducting business any differently than any other major public project,” said Claude Shostal, former co-chair of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, a non-profit that raises programming funds.
“The way these development projects are handled should be subject to more scrutiny, in a broader sense,” he said. “But a private developer will spend 20 times that amount just to get the job done right.”
A source who worked on the project said, “In the small-earth sense, maybe they were breaking the rules. That’s wrong, but in the big sense there’s no malfeasance [such as] big bills for people and not working; falsifying invoices for fraudulent time. People worked incredibly hard.
“The real story here is that the park is going to cost a hell of lot more money than anybody ever said. It’s a very controversial and complicated project that took a whole lot of effort to get approved.”
Park Still in Budget?
Pre-construction and “soft costs” were not to exceed $20.3 million in the park’s original capital budget. That budget includes landscaping and site preparations for four of the six former industrial piers, some of the uplands, and a portion of the amenities detailed in the renderings.
Construction on the park recently began — two years behind schedule — and the ESDC announced that a pool barge would soon be opening for the remainder of the summer.
So far, the $10 million in additional pre-construction and soft costs exceeds the amount originally budgeted for active public recreation on the four piers. But Cockfield pointed out that several of those amenities have changed over the years.
Cockfield confirmed that the budget has not been revised in the past four years, during which time another pier was added to the park, but said a new one is being worked on, and that the park is still within budget.
Shostal disagreed: “We never looked at detailed numbers, they were never made available to us, but anybody involved in waterfront construction knew you could not build a 1.3-mile waterfront park for $130 million.”
Judi Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, a coalition of civic groups opposed to the current park plan, said, “To learn that more than $30 million of the $150 million capital budget has already been spent on consultants, without any plan for how much more will be spent on consultants, before any actual park construction can begin, is alarming.”
The group has long charged that the ESDC is more interested in developers profiting than building a public park, which they say needs more active recreation facilities.
The agency approved a $206,000 amendment to Van Valkenburgh’s contract to study the feasibility of an indoor athletic facility, but noted that the community would have to raise its own funds for such a facility to be built.
Park Racks Up Legal Fees
Shostal held lawsuits waged by the Defense Fund partially responsible for the overspending. Outside legal expenses against the park’s budget total at least $2.2 million, according to proposed and passed contract amendments and information compiled by the ESDC.
Environmental counsel Sive Padget’s contract reached $1.11 million last March, according to an approved amendment, in part for work on a lawsuit challenging the park’s use of luxury housing to finance its upkeep and alleged inadequacies in its environmental review.
Real estate counsel Shearman & Sterling’s contract is currently capped at $750,000, but the firm is owed $130,000, according to a proposed contract amendment considered last month, marked “privileged and confidential.”
“The firm is retained on an hourly basis … with the aggregate fees currently capped at $750,000,” said the amendment. “The firm continues to perform its work, and there is currently due to the firm approximately $130,000. As the project progresses, the amount of real estate-related legal work is increasing, and a number of legal matters are in progress. In order to continue working with the firm, staff proposes that the Board authorize amendment to the agreement providing for an increase of $500,000 for an aggregate contract value of $1,250,000.”
Cockfield said no votes were taken on that matter.
“We often have to turn for outside legal counsel to help with very specialized legal services, and that is routine in government,” said Cockfield. “Our goal is to make sure that taxpayers’ interests are best represented in court.”
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
All materials posted on brooklyneagle.com are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast, posted on Gotham Gazette.com or any other blog without written permission, which can be sought by emailing arturc@att.net.
Main Office 718 422 7400
