PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

Pols Reject Gag Order on Armory
Won’t Sign Confidentiality Agreement

By ALEX KRATZ

A controversial confidentiality agreement is threatening to derail the selection process as New York City searches for a developer to renovate the Kingsbridge Armory in the northwest Bronx.

The city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which is heading the Armory project, is asking everyone on the Armory task force – an advisory group comprised of local elected officials and community leaders – to sign a confidentiality agreement before reviewing the three Armory proposals at a meeting on March 1.

Local elected officials are balking at signing the agreement because it effectively precludes them from publicly discussing the details of the Armory proposals from the moment they sign it until the end of time.

The EDC has said it will not allow those who do not sign the confidentiality agreement to participate in the review process. It remains unclear, however, what would happen if all the elected officials – including Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Congressman José Serrano, City Council Member Oliver Koppell, Assemblyman Joel Rivera, State Senator Efrain Gonzalez and Councilwoman Maria Baez – refuse to sign the agreement.

Serrano, a long-serving, powerful member of Congress, said he would not sign the agreement on general principle and concern for his constituents.

“I did not sign the confidentiality agreement because clearly communicating information about pertinent and pressing issues to constituents goes to the core of a Member of Congress’ work,” Serrano said in an e-mail statement. “Anything that imposes limits on those communications would be problematic for any Member of Congress.”

Koppell said the agreement is problematic for him as well and will not sign it. “I don’t agree with it,” he said. “This should be an open and public process.”

A spokesperson for Carrión said the B.P. needed more time to review the document before making a judgment on it.

The confidentiality agreement is common practice, the EDC says. “As with all RFPs [Request for Proposals], the process is competitive and to keep it as fair as possible, we require confidentiality – of ourselves and the developers, as well as the task force members,” said EDC spokesperson Janel Patterson in an e-mail.

On March 1, proposals will be presented to the task force anonymously and without financial details. “They will have ample time to ask questions, review presentations and provide their input,” Patterson said in an e-mail. “We anticipate a series of such meetings and presentations with the task force.”

But in presenting their input, the EDC has told the task force not to create any kind of scorecard to base their opinions on. If they do, those numbers will not be used to make a decision. Task Force members say they are going to create a scorecard anyway.

Though it’s trying to avoid setting hard deadlines, the EDC has said it would like to choose a developer by June.

The other problem is that the confidentiality agreement does not run out, said CB7 Chair Greg Faulkner, who sits on the task force. “What happens when I want to write my book?” he said, half-jokingly. He said that he signed the agreement, but was thinking about retracting if no one else on the task force signs it.

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