BATTERY PARK CITY — One of nearly two dozen workers who was unceremoniously booted from the Battery Park City Authority last month returned to the agency's headquarters Tuesday night to blast the way she was treated.
The 19 former employees, representing a third of the workforce, were quietly let go on Nov. 9. Many had extended careers at the state agency, which oversees the Lower Manhattan neighborhood, including one who had 28 years on the job.
"It was an abrupt dismissal with no communication," Leticia Remauro, a former vice president of the authority told Community Board 1's Battery Park City Committee Tuesday night, in her first public comments since her firing.
"The way in which it was handled was unprofessional and was unbecoming to this authority."
Remauro, 48, a Staten Island resident who worked at the agency for 12 years, said she was shocked when she walked into what she thought was a routine meeting on Nov. 9, only to be told that she and 18 others had lost their jobs and had to leave the building immediately.
The fired employees — who have organized as the "Battery Park City 19" and are considering legal action against the authority — were told that they would just be paid through the end of that day and would receive health insurance only to the end of November.
The move sparked CB1's Battery Park City Committee to vote to write a letter to the BPCA criticizing the way the firing was carried out and raising concerns about how the authority will function missing so many staff members.
"As a human being, I'm just sickened by the manner in which this was done," said Jeff Mihok, a CB1 member. "We should make whatever stand we can on it. It just feels really wrong."
The committee also decided to write individual letters of appreciation and commendation for all 19 fired employees, in the hope that that would help them find new jobs.
"That you care is an amazing thing," Remauro said, wiping tears from her eyes. "I'll never have another job like this."
Anne Fenton, assistant to the BCPA's president, Gayle Horwitz, declined to comment about the reason for the firings and the way in which they were carried out.
But she said that the BCPA paid all of the workers for unused vacation days, sick time and comp time as well as three weeks of severance pay.
Remauro said that she had only received about half of what the agency said they paid her.
