Community Board 7’s handpicked appointees for the Kingsbridge National Ice Center’s Community Advisory Council have been removed by the presiding CB7 chair, which included a previous CB7 chair and another who ran against her in June. The timing came days before the full CAC was to hold its first meeting.

The unilateral decision came last Friday. Adaline Walker Santiago, chair of CB7, informed members of the decision, citing stipulations in the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), which allow the sitting CB7 chair to decide who will be on the panel.

The original CAC members–Paul Foster, Lowell Green, and William Francis–were replaced by Walker-Santiago, and fellow CB7 members Helene Hartman-Kutnowsky and Gloria Bent, as per rules set forth in the CBA. Pastor Joe Hernandez was named the so-called “member at large,” replacing Bishop Fernando Rodriguez. Foster, when chairing the Board, had originally chosen himself, Green, Francis, and Hernandez to join the panel in 2013. Stipulations in the CBA, however, allow the presiding chair to nullify those decisions with little input, impaneling any member a Chair deems worthy.

The move comes two months after CB7’s elections, where Walker Santiago won over Francis in a contentious race for Chair. Francis had taken indirect jabs at Walker-Santiago during the race, pointing out his dissatisfaction with the current climate of the Board. Walker-Santiago did not return repeated calls for comment. While Bent was unavailable to comment, Hartman-Kutnowsky declined to comment.

In an email sent out to Walker Santiago, Francis criticized the decision as “purely vindictive,” saying the decision ultimately removes the appointees “who have the knowledge and experience of budgetary and financial matters relating to the Armory with people who have less or no knowledge or experience of the same.” Hartman-Kutnowsky does have a business background, serving as a business analyst for the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. The original members had met periodically to flesh out community needs.

The panel was formed as part of the Community Benefits Agreement, a legal document worked out between KNIC developers and community stakeholders, offering direct benefits to the Kingsbridge community. This includes the use of 50,000-square-feet of community space inside the Armory. In 2013, the New York City Economic Development Corporation cleared KNIC to repurpose the city landmark into an ice center, complete with nine skating rinks and a 5,000-seat arena.

The panel, eleven members in all, will formally meet on Aug. 25 at Kittay House. This came after stakeholders, include the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance, a group that helped flesh out the CBA with project developers, appointed its three members as per the CBA’s bylaws. Councilman Fernando Cabrera, who as the 14th Council District legislator, chose his members in July, according to agreements set forth in the CBA.

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