NYC Partnership Forms Task Forces (10/4/01)

Kathryn Wylde, president and chief executive officer of the New York City Partnership (NYCP) said the NYCP is gearing up efforts to establish task forces to make recommendations to strengthen and rebuild the city following the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Wylde said these efforts are “a work in progress." They include several task forces, including an Infrastructure Task Force for which Louis J. Coletti, chairman of the Building Trades Employers’ Association "has taken the lead to staff” it.

While Coletti is helping to staff the Infrastructure Task Force, Wylde pointed out that Marilyn Jordan Taylor, chairman of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) of New York and Bob Prieto, chairman of Parsons Brinckerhoff of New York, are co-chairing the task force.

“This effort will be a united effort amongst any number of industry associations to move the city forward,” Coletti said.

A Consortium

There is a “consortium consisting of the NYCP, the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and representatives of organized labor and a number of other organizations that are collaborating on this Infrastructure Task Force,” Wylde said.

Elaborating, she explained that on “September 17, NYCP formed the Infrastructure Task force. We asked David Childs of SOM and Bob Prieto to lead that effort to assist the city and property owners with expeditious assessment of building conditions and renovation needs, and to interface with public agencies and utilizes on power, sewer, transportation and other issues.”

“The task force has met several times and I think they are looking at an expanded agenda. At the same time, since September 17, we have been working with REBNY to try to coordinate industry efforts since we think it is important to get the industry to speak with one voice with regard to recommendations and channel resources effectively since there is an outpouring of interest in being helpful with the belief and recovery efforts,” Wylde added.

Other Task Forces

In addition to the Infrastructure Task Force, Wylde said NYCP has other rebuilding task forces.

“We have a task force focusing on information technology and telecommunications services called the Communications Task Force. It will focus on information technology and telecommunications services, data systems and equipment and it is being headed up by Richard Parsons, co-chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner,” she explained.

“Then we have a Government Affairs Task Force to troubleshoot for business issues that require priority attention from government such as funding and security,” she continued. “We are actively lobbying for the federal takeover of airport security. This task force is headed up by Peter Powers, president of Powers Global Strategy.”

There is also an Employee Assistance Task Force. This task force is charged with putting together a program to promote hiring and extend the necessary retraining of displaced workers. This task force is being headed up by Robert Catell, chief executive officer of KeySpan.

Next, NYCP has formed an Economic Impact Task Force and a Business Finance Task Force. The Economic Impact Task Force is conducting an assessment of the economic impact of the disaster on key industries and the city economy in general.

It is being headed up by Henry Kravis of Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts.

The Business Finance Task Force is coordinating private expertise and financing for displaced businesses. This task force is being led by Richard Stowe of Welsh Carson Anderson and Stowe, a private equity firm.

Details of some of the task forces are still being developed.

Infrastructure Task Force

The Infrastructure Task Force, however, is moving full-steam ahead.

SOM’s Taylor described the Infrastructure Task Force as “an oversight committee that would serve as a clearing house for the dissemination of information and ideas.”

Prieto said he expected members of this task force to contribute to the assessment of the economic impact of the World Trade Center disaster and to help develop recommendations for action to mitigate damage and accelerate recovery and how to help rebuild downtown Manhattan using public and private initiatives.

Prieto said he believed that the building industry in New York City “must make it attractive for firms to stay or return to New York.” Toward this goal, he added, "the industry needs concrete safety measures, combined with the appropriate economic stimuli" and that the industry needs to move forward with projects that can begin construction now.

Taylor added that the NYCP has called for “a consolidated listing of ongoing projects with the number of square feet, process hold-ups and out of the box approaches.” The Partnership will ask the Council on Tall Buildings to produce a statement that addresses what went right and also the safety of tall buildings.

In addition, the NYCP has designated task force members to make the necessary contacts for the long-term views and approaches, Prieto said, noting that architects and engineers responded quickly following the tragic events at the WTC. As such, the NYCP needs to lobby for “Good Samaritan" legislation to cover the professional exposure that has accrued to those professionals. "More broadly, this legislation should be structured to include similar involvement during the rescue phase of other events,” Prieto noted.

“The relationship between major transportation infrastructure and potentially higher risk facilities needs to be reviewed, inventoried and assessed,” Taylor added.

Elaborating, Prieto said, “The potential for collateral damage needs to be better understood.” He cited “a bomb in a transportation tunnel under a high profile or [high] risk building” as an example.

Prieto also said that indemnification language in the contracts of the New York City Department of Design & Construction and other city agencies for emergency response “is not appropriate and needs to change. Current language results in over conservative assessments. This should be undertaken both retroactively to the WTC event and most certainly proactively.”

Wylde emphasized that NYCP task forces are an ongoing “work in progress” and that there could be new task forces or current task forces may even be consolidated.