Kahn/FDR Memorial Boondoggle Site Control Agreement Will Not Be Made Publicly Available For Review By RIOC Board and Public Prior To Execution

Image of Pigs feeding at the public taxpayer trough from the Troy Polloi

This week's column by RIOC President Steve Shane in the October 11 Main Street WIRE indicated a draft agreement for conditional site control of the southern portion of Southpoint Park written by the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute has been submitted to RIOC. I inquired the following of Mr. Shane:

I understand from your Main Street WIRE column that FERI has submitted a draft of a conditional site control agreement for the southern portion of Southpoint Park for the Kahn/FDR memorial.

Will you permit this proposed agreement to be made publicly available for review and comment by the RIOC Board as well as the Roosevelt Island community prior to execution? If so, I would be happy to post it on the Roosevelt Islander blog.

Also, given the recent financial meltdown in private markets and NY State and City budget crisis, will RIOC confirm with the NY City Council that the $4 million allocated in the next 2 years for FDR Memorial is still available and may reasonably be expected to remain available despite the expected State and City budget cuts in the near future. I think this is a very important factor to confirm since such funding played a large role in the RIOC Board's approval of conditional site control?

Mr. Shane replied:

No. We do not negotiate agreements in the public. We, as officers of the corporation are entrusted with the obligation to carry out the intent of the Board. If we breach our fiduciary obligation, we should be fired.