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Brooklyn Bridge Park committee alleges conflicts of interest among advisory board
Brooklyn Bridge Park leaders are outing a former committee member for not having looked out for community interests and instead profiting from her role in the park’s oversight. The Brooklyn Paper reported that Kate Collignon was a principal at development consulting firm HR&A Advisors while she worked on the committee, even though her biography made no mention of her involvement.
HR&A has consulted on the development of the park since 2005, when the park was still in the early planning stages. She joined HR&A in 2009, and a year later was added to the park’s panel. She resigned from the panel two months ago, only to resurface as a representative for a proposed Pier 5 bike track that’s part of a record $40 million donation to the park.
Other panel members say there’s a lot of money to be made from the bike track project, and Collignon’s dual role is one of several conflicts of interest among committee members.
“We should be representing a community of park users — not the people who provide the park with services [for profit],” committee member Roy Sloane told the Brooklyn Paper. —Adam Fusfeld [Brooklyn Paper]