It’s street festival season again, and there’s turnover at the Mayor’s Community Assistance Unit, which does permitting for all those street closures – in addition to fighting graffiti and keeping in touch with community groups. Commissioner Patrick Brennan, who held that position for about a year after helping Mayor Bloomberg get re-elected and serving as political director for an SEIU 1199 healthcare project, recently tendered his resignation. Brennan’s going to stay until a successor is named; no word on where he’s headed next.
A new deputy commissioner for operations is already at work at CAU, taking the place of Chris Coffey, who left in March. Jarrod Bernstein, until recently the press secretary at the Office of Emergency Management, is now heading up this area, whose responsibilities are apparently evolving. At the Street Activity Permit Office itself, a CAU staffer, Christiana Huus, has stepped up to the director’s position, replacing Mildred Duran, who retired earlier this year.
The C40 Large Cities Climate Summit takes place this week, gathering mayors of cities around the globe to address climate change. Just in time, host Mayor Bloomberg named Meyer Feldberg president of New York City Global Partners, the event’s co-sponsor along with the Partnership for New York City. Feldberg, a senior advisor at Morgan Stanley and professor and dean emeritus in the Columbia business school, replaces acting president Marjorie Tiven, who remains on the board of directors of the Partners – formerly known as the Sister City Program – a nonprofit reporting to the Mayor’s Office. In addition to his tenure at various business schools, Feldberg serves on corporate boards and has been chairman of the National Advisory Council of Business Education and the Council on International Educational Exchange.
Elsewhere in business, the mayor announced the resignation of Thomas McCormack from his post as chairman of the Business Integrity Commission. For the past decade, McCormack worked at BIC and its forerunner, the Trade Waste Commission, to keep organized crime out of historically mob-connected industries including shipboard gaming, private carting, and the city’s seven public wholesale markets. Bloomberg said McCormack, “played a critical role in the rehabilitation of these three industries over the past decade.” He is retiring after 30 years working for the city; previously he served as inspector general for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in the Department of Investigation. No successor has been named for this position, which reports to the deputy mayor for administration.
At the business improvement district for Lower Manhattan, the Downtown Alliance, president Eric J. Deutsch announced he’ll be leaving next month to become managing director of real estate developer The Clarett Group. Deutsch is a former executive of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, the city Economic Development Corporation, and the NYC Industrial Development Agency.
In the neighborhood, Avi Schick has recently been appointed the chairman, and David Emil the president, of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Schick is also the COO of the Empire State Development Corporation. Emil, a businessman and former owner of Windows of the World, created the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund along with two of his colleagues, which has raised $25 million.
A faithful reporter on most of the above, Jonathan Mandell, left his position as editor of Gotham Gazette in March to become a producer and writer at CNN.com. Gazette staff member Gail Robinson is the new editor, taking over the website and bulletin that Mandell – with the backing of the Citizens Union Foundation – developed over the past several years.
At Housing First!, affordable housing consultant David Muchnick is taking over the campaign coordinator role from outgoing consultants Hilary Botein and Ginny Shubert of Shubert Botein Policy Associates.
Erik Pitchal, the director of Fordham’s Interdisciplinary Center for Family and Child Advocacy, is headed to Boston next month, where Pitchal and his wife have both accepted positions at Suffolk University. He will be designing a child advocacy clinic for the university’s law school. The Center’s associate director, Payal Dalal, will continue to manage programs and projects until a new director is appointed.
The Vera Institute of Justice has filled two positions – Daniel Wilhelm is now the chief program officer after serving at the center in various directorships since 2001. He will now be responsible for supervising all of the Institute’s centers and programs. Wilhelm succeeds Nicholas Turner, who will go on to become a managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation after almost a decade at Vera. Criminologist Neil Weiner is the Institute’s new research director. Weiner joins Vera from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice, where he explored justice issues such as human trafficking, the death penalty, and accuracy in police reporting as a senior research investigator. Weiner replaces Tim Ross who stepped down from the research director post in 2006 to focus on Vera’s Child Welfare, Health and Justice Program, which he has directed since then.
Montefiore Medical Center will soon lose its president, Dr. Spencer Foreman, who is retiring after more than 20 years leading the center. His departure is part of a planned leadership transition that began last year. A search committee is being formed to determine his replacement.
And at the end of the month, SUNY Chancellor John R. Ryan will be move on to head another educational institution, becoming president and CEO of the nonprofit Center for Creative Leadership. During his five years at SUNY, Ryan also served as president of the Maritime College and interim president of the University at Albany.
