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Tip of the Iceberg:
Forest City Ratner Funds BUILD with $5 Million. |
Context &
Questions: Ratner, BUILD & the "Community Benefits Agreement"
A" Community Benefits Agreement" (CBA), signed in June 2005 between
eight groups and Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) for the Nets arena
and high-rise project in Prospect Heights and Park Slope in Brooklyn, has
been hailed by many as an "historic agreement", and a "new paradigm for
doing development in the city."
25 elected officials at the city, state and federal level have endorsed
this CBA, as have many union and labor organizations.
The CBA was signed less than ten days before the MTA bids for the Vanderbilt
Yards were due.
Of the eight signatory groups, only four are incorporated, one of which
is Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD). BUILD has no
track record in workforce and small business development (the areas for
which it is responsible in the CBA), and was established by Assemblyman
Roger Green. In a January, 2004 press statement, under a section titled
"An Open and Democratic process", Roger Green announced he was helping establish
BUILD to "work within the process that is being set-up by Brooklyn Borough
President Marty Markowitz to ensure community input into this historic development."
It has just been uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request
that FCRC paid $5 million to BUILD during the CBA negotiations and before
BUILD received its 501(C)3 status.
After generous salaries for the BUILD core staff (3 officers) are accounted
for, almost $4 million of the total $5 m illion is budgeted for an unspecified
"other wages and salaries". The unidentified recipients of this $4 million
will be paid during 2005-2006; the two crucial years for FCRC to receive
political support for their proposal.
The $5 million was given to BUILD before the CBA was signed, so it was NOT
part of compensation identified for BUILD in the CBA agreement. (The CBA
details that FCRC and BUILD will seek and secure public and/or private funding
for the various workforce and small business development initiatives). Furthermore,
both FCRC and BUILD have repeatedly denied that FCRC
has funded BUILD. BUILD denied this on Brian Lehrer's live CUNY-TV show
as recently as Sept 21, 2005.
Besides seriously undermining (if not completely delegitimizing) any perceived
validity of the CBA, this information begs the question: who
are the recipients of the unaccounted $4 million?
Is FCRC using BUILD as a conduit to pay people with political
influence to support the proposal? Or is BUILD just being grossly overpaid
to shill for FCRCÍs proposal? (recall that BUILD has no experience in workforce
and small business development). Will the elected official withdraw their
endorsement of the CBA in light of this new information? What sort of deal
did the other CBA signatories get?
PLUS: While
no financial information has yet been sought on the other CBA signatories,
DDDB is concerned that ACORN, another leading CBA signatory, has not spoken
out on the fact that the CBA commitment “VI.b.(1): The Project Developer
will make 50% of the residential units built at the Project affordable”
has already been broken. The draft scoping document released on September
16, 2005, indicates that only 2,250 out of 7,300 housing units, or 31% will
be made affordable. |
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