Corporation established to create Pataki museum
ALBANY — A corporation will raise money to create a museum named after former Gov. George E. Pataki.
Former employees of the Pataki administration formed the corporation, and a committee was created to establish the Governor George E. Pataki Leadership and Learning Center.
The not-for-profit entity is seeking to raise funds for a museum to be chartered by the state Board of Regents.
Officials close to Pataki say the center, to be opened on property now under rent in Peekskill, will be geared to helping young people get a flavor of the importance of public service. The idea gained momentum earlier this year during the scandal involving former Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer’s ties to a prostitution ring. Pataki aides say that scandal did not help with the notion of public service in the eyes of the public.
The Pataki museum committee has three directors: David Catalfamo, the governor’s former communications chief who still performs public relations for Pataki; Kimberly Cappelleri, who was first lady Libby Pataki’s chief of staff and a member of a Pataki fundraising committee that was supposed to help him with a national campaign bid; and, Amy Holden, who served as an executive assistant to Pataki when he was governor.
“The purpose is to establish a center, in particular for young people, to come together and understand and appreciate the value of public service,” Catalfamo said. “We believe Governor Pataki, with his experience as a governor, legislator and mayor, provides a base of experience that students can draw upon.”
Catalfamo said the center, initially aimed at pupils in grades four through eight, will raise only private funds. Among those helping to raise money is Charles Gargano, Pataki’s longtime political fundraiser and the state’s former economic development czar. He said it is not being viewed as a Pataki library, but rather a place that eventually will include symposiums and panel talks on public service. It will be nonpartisan, he said.
Catalfamo did not know how much the facility will cost to build, or when it might open.
The incorporation papers for the committee say its duties will include obtaining real estate for a future museum, raising donations and “making plans to establish a permanent collection of documents and artifacts, and researching the availability and sustainability of appropriate documents and artifacts.”
The public benefit corporation is based in Peekskill, where Pataki grew up and once served as mayor. The documents were filed with the Department of State on July 7. The papers were submitted by Larry Levy, a Manhattan attorney who had been general counsel to the failed presidential campaign of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
The effort still needs the approval of the state Department of Education, an agency Pataki frequently butted heads with during his 12 years as governor. After leaving office, Pataki joined the Manhattan law firm of Chadbourne & Parke, focusing on energy, environmental and corporate matters. Pataki also has a consulting business with John Cahill, his former chief of staff in Albany.
The incorporation filing has raised some eyebrows in Albany because, as governor, Pataki was slow to release documents about his administration to the State Archives, which collects the papers of governors and releases them for public viewing. It got so bad at one point that the Assembly passed legislation to give new powers to state archivists to obtain gubernatorial documents.
