Updated 9/5
This relates to Washington Square Park: There’s a larger story around privatization of public parks: how our public spaces are being used to fatten bank accounts and raise social capital.
The New York Post ran a cover story earlier this week on the Central Park Conservancy; it was quite illuminating.
At Washington Square Park, the park had been run by the NYC Parks Department solely until earlier this year. There was not a private entity running the park – there clearly was a group pulling strings behind the scenes but they did not have a license agreement to do so – unlike Central Park Conservancy which was put into place at a particularly dubious time in that park’s history during the 1970s.
The community within Washington Square did not want a private conservancy at the park; the space was managed quite fine by the city’s Parks Department overall (not perfect, of course) for dozens of years.
The community worked to prevent private and corporate interests and NYU from getting a hold on this important public space via back room deals, commercialization, change in use and a lack of transparency, which all typically transpire when a park is run by a private entity.
However, earlier this year, the controversial private Washington Square Park Conservancy was just handed a “license agreement” to run this park. Incredibly, there was no input from the public.
“The public” – via low attendance at one Community Board 2 Parks Committee meeting in June – was only “notified” at that time six months after this was put in place by the city’s Parks Department ignoring all the history of what had come before.
This private organization intentionally was formed behind closed doors by four neighborhood socialites who started out by misrepresenting themselves again and again in their one meeting before the public omitting “murky” (their word) details. They are now allowed to privately run this public park: the license agreement has never been seen by either the Community Board or the community.
More reporting to come on this.
New York Post: ‘Overpaid’ Central Park Conservancy executives rake in green with ‘outrageous’ salaries: ‘Give me a break’
By Carl Campanile
Sep. 1, 2025
There’s a lot of mint in Strawberry Fields!
Top executives at the Central Park Conservancy — a tax-exempt group that famously manages and maintains the world-renowned park under a contractual agreement with the city — are raking in mounds of green, records show.
President and CEO Elizabeth Smith’s total compensation was $933,592, including her hefty bonus incentive — and 12 other officers pulled in at least $300,000 apiece, according to the group’s 2024 IRS filing for the 2023 calendar year.
Central Park Conservancy president and CEO Elizabeth W. Smith earned $933,592 last year, according to records.
The year before, Smith’s salary and benefits package came to a cool $1.178 million, while 15 others scored more than $300,000.
Smith earned $740,000 in 2021, a 22% increase from her $605,000 in salary and compensation in 2020.
By comparison, Mayor Eric Adams is paid $258,750 to oversee the entire city, and President Trump earns $400,000 to run the country.
The conservancy’s chief financial officer, Stephen Spinelli, also pulled in $654,429 — a 24% increase over four years.
The compensation for Roger Mosier, chief of park operations, topped $500,000, the 2024 IRS report revealed.
Stephen Spinelli, the conservancy’s chief financial officer, earned $654,429 last year.
These salaries for a not-for-profit, tax-exempt “charitable” group are beyond the pale, critics said.
“Those salaries and benefits are outrageous. Where do you draw the line?” said City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Queens), a member of the council’s Parks Committee.
“Give me a break.”
Arthur Schwartz, a lawyer who served for 20 years as chair of Manhattan Community Board 2’s Parks and Waterfront Committee in Greenwich Village, said other parks and playgrounds in the city are in desperate need of funds.
“Central Park has always been well-funded because wealthy people created a conservancy,” Schwartz said. “If they have enough money to pay these kind of salaries to executives, New York City would be better served if the conservancy adopted some local parks in the Bronx or Queens and helped with repair, renovation and upkeep.
“No one needs a million dollars to run a park,” he said. “The mayor makes $250,000.”
Smith, who has been the conservancy’s CEO and president since 2018 and is married to Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton, took sides in a heated recent controversy related to the park by voicing support for legislation to phase out horse carriages in the Big Apple.
The conservancy is a tax-exempt group that manages and maintains Central Park under a city contract.
John Chiarello, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, which reps the horse carriage drivers, ripped Smith as “a detached, super-rich aristocrat attacking 170 largely immigrant carriage drivers and spreading lies about them. …
The conservancy is not the only nonprofit group whose high salaries have faced scrutiny. …
The Central Park Conservancy generated $172 million in revenue during the 2024 fiscal year, of which $36.5 million was provided by the city and helped fund the new Davis Center at the Harlem Meer in the northern part of the park, as well as being used for operating aid, according to the group’s 2024 financial report. …
The conservancy is flush, with $400 million investments in its endowment and $677 million in net assets, documents show.
Smith and the conservancy declined to comment to The Post.
Original article at the NY Post is here.
Previously at Washington Square Park Blog – on privatization of private space and our city’s parks:
NY Daily News Op-Ed: Return all New York City Parks to the People April 10, 2022
NY Post: Wash Park Goes ‘Square’