The head honcho of the Central Park Conservancy infuriated the operator of Wollman Rink this week by bragging about an op-ed she wrote bashing the city and the firm to her board.
Conservancy CEO Elizabeth “Betsy” Smith, however, seemed to have forgotten that the company in question, Related Companies, is on her board — and did not take kindly to her braggadocious diss, according to a letter exclusively obtained by The Post.
“Making unfounded and inflammatory accusations about a member of your own Board—and then bragging about it here—is truly something to behold,” Related Companies’ CEO Jeff Blau wrote in a scathing letter sent back to Smith and the board in response to her Tuesday op-ed in the Daily News.
Smith’s op-ed bashed Mayor Eric Adams’ administration for its likely move to hand a 20-year management contract for the iconic Wollman Rink to a joint venture between Related Companies, a real estate developer, and City Pickle, a pickleball brand.
“For decades, Wollman has been run by for-profit entities whose main goal is to extract profits. While the city receives modest fees, the corporate interests reap big profits and exploit huge branding opportunities,” Smith wrote.
“I wanted to share, attached, an op-ed I wrote for today’s New York Daily News where we share our vision for a renovation of Wollman Rink and the surrounding area — and our disappointment with the current path the City has chosen,” she said in her email to the board, also obtained by The Post.
In response to Post inquiries about the tiff, a rep for the conservancy shared Smith’s response to Related’s Blau, in which she stands by the op-ed and the decision to publish it.
“We felt strongly that we needed to take our case directly to the public, and we stand by our decision,” she wrote in the reply, which reiterated her case that the Conservancy should’ve been taken up on its $120 million investment offer.
A NYC Parks hearing over the proposed license for the rink is scheduled for Thursday.
Wollman had been run by the Trump Organization until 2021, when then-Mayor Bill de Blasio kicked it off the contract.
The Trump org unsuccessfully bid to take over the rink again this year, but lost to Related Companies and City Pickle’s joint venture, which operates as Wollman Park Partners II, LLC.
The Conservancy, which operates Central Park on behalf of the city, did not participate in the bidding process to manage the rink, but instead made a whole separate offer to invest $120 million in Wollman and the surrounding area of the park.
Related Companies’ did not return a request for comment late Wednesday.
Smith and other top officials at the Conservancy have faced criticism recently for taking home lavish salaries from the non-profit organization.
Smith makes a whopping $933,000 annual salary — with a dozen other officers raking in over $300,000.
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