By Kathianne Boniello
Coast Guard Restoration Advisory Board member Larry Ordine accused RAB Community Co-Chair Richard Jannaccio of promoting animosity during his tenure and repeatedly insulting people within the group. Jannaccio did not respond to the charges during last week's meetings.
Mercury was discovered at the Civil War-era fort in 1985 in a drainpipe of Building 615 by the U.S. Coast Guard, which shared the base with the Army. Army Corps officials said the metal was present after years of repairs to mercury-filled torpedo guidance systems, which were maintained at the fort.
The Army, which vacated the base in 1995, agreed to remediate the mercury in May 1998. The city was slated to take over the base as parkland in less than a year and a half. This year Brouwer has maintained that he could not uphold the cleanup promise until he knew the results of this summer's testing.
Ordine, who serves at the vice chairman of the Coast Guard RAB and heads the currently defunct Army RAB, asked Jannaccio to stay on the board but not in his current role. The group voted to hold elections at its March 1 meeting.
“Richard is a very valuable member of the committee,” Ordine said at last Thursday's RAB meeting. “He uses a slash-and-burn approach, gets into a lot of arguments and intentionally insults people.
“I think it would be better if he serves on the committee but not as chair,” said Ordine, who claimed he did not want the position of Coast Guard RAB community co-chair for himself. “We need someone who is diplomatic.”
But Jannaccio told Ordine “that's your opinion.
Jannaccio has fought bitterly with the Army on several issues over the past year and has accused U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager David Brouwer of dishonesty. He requested Brouwer's removal from the project over the summer.
Ordine said the co-chairman Jannaccio, who ran an unsuccessful bid for state Sen. Toby Stavisky's (D-Flushing) seat in 1999, has also suggested the possibility of collusion between laboratories processing samples from this summer's testing and state agencies like the Department of Environmental Conservation.
Community activist Jannaccio had little to say to Ordine during the meeting, but did maintain the group had held more meetings during his term as co-chairman.
The Coast Guard RAB has been dogged by internal dissension and arguments over how to proceed with the clean-up process at Fort Totten.
A proposal put forth by the Army in May to “revitalize” the RAB to include more community members in the group was seen by many as an attempt to remove Jannaccio from the co-chairman position. Brouwer has repeatedly denied that accusation.
When asked about the dissension within the Coast Guard RAB, Brouwer said he hoped the group could move beyond its difficulties.
“We created the RAB to help us reach out and to make the decisions regarding cleanup,” he said.
Over the upcoming year Brouwer said the group would have to analyze the data from last summer's testing of Little Bay and make a decision about whether or not to remediate the contaminants at the fort or commission further tests.
“There is going to have to be productive meetings and we're going to have to deal with the issues that are certain to come up,” he said.
