CB1 and 'Friends' Nearing Pact Over Control of Disputed Funds by Barry Owens Community Board 1 and Friends of Lower Manhattan-formerly Friends of Community Board 1 and formerly on much better terms with the board-appear to be close to finally settling their differences. Last month the groups neared an agreement on an allocation process for funds that the Friends group raised back in the days when it was more tightly aligned with the community board. The board, under its new chairwoman, Julie Menin, created a task force to investigate the relationship between the two groups and how they should work together. The Friends group, formed in 2001, is a nonprofit organization whose proceeds from benefit dinners went mostly to fund Community Board 1 projects and office expenses. The group changed its name shortly after its leader, Madelyn Wils, stepped down this spring as CB1's chairwoman. The community board's chief concern was that the $500,000 nest egg Friends was sitting on not be spent without the board's input. Some board members maintained that all of the money should be spent on community board projects, as the money was raised in the board's name. The Friend's group disputes that claim, saying that its charter was to help Downtown agencies in general. After months of closed-door meetings and telephone and e-mail negotiations, a proposal from Friends to set up a "community fund" of $125,000-to be allocated by a panel of five Friends members and five community board members and an independent facilitator-won the approval of the full community board. The Friends group also offered the board a 2006 line item budget, totaling $120,000, for office expenditures. Under the proposal, the remaining $250,000 would be withheld by Friends, with the possibility that a "community fund" panel will consider spending proposals for that money for the 2007 budget year. The board's counter-proposal calls for the $120,000 to go to the board's budget without spending stipulations. Board member Bill Love, who heads the task force, said late last month that he had yet to hear back from the Friend's group on the board's final proposal. But during a meeting earlier in the month, he had struck a hopeful tone. "If we can just do this little minuet, walking hand in hand until the money is spent, that's my idea of an agreement," he said. Others said that some fence mending is needed, but that the proposal was a start. "Maybe if we get a working relationship going," said CB1 member Rick Landman, "we can talk about it more."