LMDC Board

Here’s a snippet of a community board meeting in Manhattan last night about the construction work at the former Deutsche Bank building, where two firemen were killed and two more injured in a seperate incident afterwards.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is jointly controlled by the governor and the mayor, hired as the general contractor for the site a company called Bovis Lend Lease. Bovis, in turn, hired as a subcontractor the John Galt Corporation, who Bovis has since fired.

Several investigations are now underway.

But residents at the meeting last night wondered how Galt was hired in the first place, since the company had no experience doing the kind of work they were contracted to do, and allegedly had ties to organized crime.

In the clip above, Bovis Executive Vice President Mark Melson (right) and Senior Vice President James Abadie (left) are asked that question by a local resident.

"Who forced your hand? Was it the former governor? Was it the former governor’s mentor, Al D’Amato? Who was that person," the resident asked.

Melson said he doesn't know.

The Mayor adds:

“Although I understand Governor Pataki’s decision, I am disappointed that we were not able to find a way to reconcile the freedoms we hold so dear with the sanctity of the site.”

We are left wondering how it is that the Mayor considers the decision to be the Governor's alone--or rather, we don't really wonder, the Mayor's role in downtown planning was always advisory at best. But it is worth pointing out that just last week, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation announced three meeeting to be held this week for public input.

"Through these efforts we continue our open, public process," LMDC John Whitehead said in the press release.

The press release continues: "The LMDC Board will use the public comments and feedback gathered through this public process to inform their discussions and determine how to proceed."

The Mayor and Governor once had eight appointees each to the LMDC board, but over time, they failed to fill vacancies as they were created, and right now the Mayor is down to four, while the Governor has six. So even if the Mayor wanted to see the issue through another bloody week, and wanted an open vote when the LMDC next met Oct. 6, he would be outvoted. Of course, given the Mayor's comments yesterday, perhaps the Freedom Center felt outgunned anyway.  read more »

Meanwhile, The New York Post, which has been championing the center's opponents, is the only major city daily not to have the story on its web site, since it uses only AP national feeds. But we expect there may be something in the paper tomorrow.