Gilmartin on Stuckey: not involved in departure but supported Ratner’s handling of personnel matters (hmm)
There's an interesting passage in Reinvention acts, a 5/1/19 article in the Real Deal about the #metoo issue in the real estate industry:
Omitted here is Forest City's corporate role in Stuckey's departure.
When Stuckey resigned 6/13/07, "effective immediately," the project "remains on target," Forest City insisted, despite deploying Howard Rubenstein, the city's leading p.r. crisis manager, for the press release.
"[O]nly sexual shenanigans or serious financial impropriety," mused NoLandGrab's Lumi Rolley presciently, could explain the exit.
"There are other interests I want to pursue," Stuckey claimed, "and, quite honestly, when you're working 18-hour days on a project as complicated as this, with a company as great as Forest City, it's very difficult."
Such hype sounded fishy, but it took four years—until Stuckey left that next job at NYU--before details emerged.
The New York Post would report that Ratner acted on harassment complaints only after Stuckey sat female underlings on his lap at a party. A draft discrimination complaint, according to a later report in the Real Deal, charged that other Forest City executives covered for Stuckey, one telling complainants he was "an important person." Those executives were apparently unnamed.
Gilmartin on Ratner's role
From the new Real Deal article:
That paraphrase of Gilmartin's role is open to more than one interpretation. If she was not involved in Stuckey's departure, could that mean that she, too, was unwilling to blow the whistle earlier? Or that she had no role, positive or negative, in nudging Ratner to belatedly act?
Upon Stuckey's departure from NYU, a New York Post exclusive, with an ambush photo of a grim-faced Stuckey, revealed those new and past allegations of sexual harassment.
Ratner, a member of the NYU Schack Institute's advisory board, had helped Stuckey get hired; a company source told the Post that potential employers were told about Stuckey's departure. (So, did Gilmartin support that process?)
Even if employers were told, NoLandGrab's Eric McClure suggested that was akin to a pope transferring—rather than punishing—a priest tarred with sexual impropriety.
James Stuckey, who in the early 2000s led Forest City Ratner’s development of Atlantic Yards (now Pacific Park), faced sexual harassment allegations at the company and later at New York University, where he was a professor.Note: that NYU allegation was never upheld or adjudicated, as the case was ultimately settled. The accusations at Forest City were never formally filed, but prompted Stuckey's departure.
Stuckey resigned from the firm in 2007, citing “personal reasons.” But when a colleague at NYU filed a lawsuit against him five years later, alleging that he “forcibly placed her hand on his crotch and his erect penis” during a dinner that was arranged to discuss a possible promotion, the complaint noted that he’d been accused of misconduct at Forest City.
Omitted here is Forest City's corporate role in Stuckey's departure.
When Stuckey resigned 6/13/07, "effective immediately," the project "remains on target," Forest City insisted, despite deploying Howard Rubenstein, the city's leading p.r. crisis manager, for the press release.
"[O]nly sexual shenanigans or serious financial impropriety," mused NoLandGrab's Lumi Rolley presciently, could explain the exit.
"There are other interests I want to pursue," Stuckey claimed, "and, quite honestly, when you're working 18-hour days on a project as complicated as this, with a company as great as Forest City, it's very difficult."
Such hype sounded fishy, but it took four years—until Stuckey left that next job at NYU--before details emerged.
The New York Post would report that Ratner acted on harassment complaints only after Stuckey sat female underlings on his lap at a party. A draft discrimination complaint, according to a later report in the Real Deal, charged that other Forest City executives covered for Stuckey, one telling complainants he was "an important person." Those executives were apparently unnamed.
Gilmartin on Ratner's role
From the new Real Deal article:
MaryAnne Gilmartin, who took over for Stuckey at the company, said she was not involved in his departure but supported Bruce Ratner’s handling of personnel matters.(Emphasis added)
“I was in charge of picking up the pieces after Jim left,” Gilmartin said. “I took over all the people that he led, and I think I did a decent job of keeping the company moving forward in a positive and healthy way.”
Stuckey now runs a development firm in Staten Island, Verdant Properties, though his LinkedIn page indicates that he is based in Florida. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
That paraphrase of Gilmartin's role is open to more than one interpretation. If she was not involved in Stuckey's departure, could that mean that she, too, was unwilling to blow the whistle earlier? Or that she had no role, positive or negative, in nudging Ratner to belatedly act?
Upon Stuckey's departure from NYU, a New York Post exclusive, with an ambush photo of a grim-faced Stuckey, revealed those new and past allegations of sexual harassment.
Ratner, a member of the NYU Schack Institute's advisory board, had helped Stuckey get hired; a company source told the Post that potential employers were told about Stuckey's departure. (So, did Gilmartin support that process?)
Even if employers were told, NoLandGrab's Eric McClure suggested that was akin to a pope transferring—rather than punishing—a priest tarred with sexual impropriety.
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