Online News From The Tribeca Trib

Wils Says Goodbye to Community Board 1

By Barry Owens

Madelyn Wils received a standing ovation and heartfelt thanks from Community Board 1 members as she said goodbye April 19 to the board she has chaired since 2000.

“I just want to say how proud I am to have served with all of you,” said a tearful Wils in her farewell speech. “It has been a pleasure, an honor and a privilege to serve this community. I have never had any other agenda other than a love of this community and the people in it.”

Wils was forced to walk away from the board this month after Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields notified the board’s chairwoman that she would not be reappointed for the coming year. The announcement cut short Wils’s term as head of the board, which was to end in June of next year.

Wils had served on the board since 1987.

In a statement regarding her rationale for removing Wils from the board, Fields said that the chairwoman’s involvement in other boards “may adversely impact on her ability to adequately and fully participate as a Community Board member.”

Wils, president and CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute, also sits on boards of the Hudson River Park Trust, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Downtown Alliance. Fields reportedly wanted Wils to resign last year but at Wils¹s request Fields gave her a year to complete negotiations on several projects, including the new k-8 school on Beekman Street.

Fields is running for mayor and some on the board and Downtown residents who spoke at the meeting said Wils’s removal had the whiff of dirty politics. In Lower Manhattan, Wils’s name recognition rivals, if not eclipses, that of

Fields, who did not attend the meeting. Her representative, who read a routine report to the board, made no mention of the former board chair.

“The way this was executed reeks of Tammany Hall-style politics,” said Martha Gallo, a Battery Park City community leader who spoke highly of Wils’s service. Like others who spoke, Gallo added that Fields decision to remove Wils from the board was a mistake that would cost the Borough President Downtown votes in her bid for mayor.

The announcement early in the month that Wils would be removed sparked an outcry from many members. A letter to Field’s office urging that she be retained was signed by 29 of the 50 members. At the meeting, more than a half dozen board members, some of them expected to be candidates for the chair themselves, spoke of their sadness at Wils departure and of their anger at her removal.

“It is clearly not in the best interest of our community to be deprived of such an effective leader at this time,” said board member Michael Connolly, adding that he was disappointed that a resolution passed by the board did not include the original language that condemned the action taken by Fields.

“I am appalled and really shocked that a duly elected officer of this body has been removed for no real reason,” said board member Anthony Notaro.

Board member Bruce Ehrmann called Wils removal from the board a ‘tremendous loss” and demanded answers. “I voted for [Fields],” he said. “I think we are entitled to a further explanation.”

Board member Jeff Galloway said Wils’s removal could have a chilling effect on the board decisions as a whole. “We are supposed to act in the way that we think is responsible and not have to worry or look over our shoulder and wonder if we are going to be removed,” he said.

Wils was not without her detractors on the board. During the meeting, three members abstained from voting on the

resolution thanking the chairwoman for her service and a handful of members remained seated as others rose to applaud her entrance.

Board member Una Perkins said she was troubled that Fields’s actions were being condemned by board members though she was not there to defend herself.

“Has any one even bothered to invite the borough president?” Perkins asked.

Board co-chair, and now acting chairman Richard Kennedy said Fields would be invited to address the board next month. Beyond issuing a written statement, Field’s has declined to comment on the matter to the Trib.

Linda Roche, a longtime board member who was defeated by Wils in 2000 in her bid for board chair, commended Wils on the job she had done, particularly in the dark days following the Sept. 11 attacks and the Downtown redevelopment efforts Wils has had a hand in since.

“In 2000, I ran against her and I lost. I will tell anybody today that I’m thankful that I did,” said Roche. “Things happen for a reason, and maybe this happened for a reason. Maybe she’ll be our next borough president.”

During her tenure on the board, Wils worked zealously for the rezoning of both southern Tribeca and of the South Street Seaport area, which in part prevented high-rise development in those neighborhoods. She was the driving force behind the creation of Millennium High School and was closely involved with gaining city approval for the k-8 school that is planned for Beekman Street.

In thanking the board members and staff of CB1, Wils promised she would continue working for the Downtown community.

“By the way, I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “You have my word, I will be working along side you. Many of the things that we have started together, we will finish together.”

A nominating committee was elected during the meeting and next month will announce chair candidates for elections to be held in June.