Who Will Be New Roosevelt Island Operating Corp Acting/Permanent President and Why Did Former RIOC President Resign? RIOC Board Of Directors Meeting Tomorrow To Discuss, Again

 RIOC Directors and Staff At September 24 Governance Committee Meeting

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Board of Directors will meet tomorrow to discuss the appointment of an interim President to replace former RIOC President Leslie Torres who resigned for still unknown reasons on September 21. Also to be discussed by the RIOC Directors will be the establishment of an executive search process to select a permanent RIOC President.

As previously reported, during the September 24 RIOC Governance Committee meeting:

... the RIOC Directors announced that General Counsel Donald Lewis will be the Interim RIOC President/CEO until an Emergency RIOC Board of Directors meeting is held which is scheduled for next Wednesday October 3. At that full RIOC Board meeting, an Acting President/CEO will be named by the RIOC Directors and procedures will be announced for conducting a job search for a new RIOC President....

The full web cast of the public portion of September 24 Governance Committee meeting is below. Prior to the public portion of the meeting, the RIOC Governance committee met in Executive Session without the public or press present. During the Executive Session, after discussions among themselves, the RIOC Board Governance Committee met individually with RIOC General Counsel Donald Lewis, RIOC Vice President of Operations Fernando Martinez and RIOC Chief Financial Officer Steve Chironis.



Reliable sources report that Mr. Lewis, Mr. Martinez and Mr. Chironis are the most likely candidates for interim RIOC President (Biographies of each are available at the RIOC web site). Both Mr. Martinez (joined RIOC in 2007) and Mr. Chironis (joined RIOC in 2008) have much more experience working at RIOC and on Roosevelt Island issues than Mr. Lewis (joined RIOC 2011) though Mr. Lewis is reportedly favored by the Governor and/or the Governor's Office for the position of Interim RIOC President and perhaps even the permanent President.

The last two times an interim RIOC President was selected following the departure of a RIOC President, the Chief Financial Officer was selected for the temporary position - Steve Chironis following  RIOC President Steve Shane in 2010 and Patrick Siconolfi following RIOC President Robert Ryan in 2003.

Below is the Agenda for tomorrow's RIOC Board of Directors Meeting

AGENDA

OCTOBER 3, 2012
MEETING OF THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
THE MANHATTAN PARK COMMUNITY CENTER,
8 RIVER ROAD, ROOSEVELT ISLAND, NEW YORK,
5:30 P.M.

I. Call to Order
II. Roll Call
III. Old Business
IV. New Business
1. Chair�s Motion for Executive Session to Review and Discuss Personnel Matters; and
2. Any Other Business Which may be Brought Before the Board of Directors.
V. Adjournment 

Questions remaining to be answered include:

• How much of the RIOC Board discussion will be conducted in public,
• What will be said in secret, 
• Why did former RIOC President Leslie Torres resign and
• Will the RIOC Board make an independent decision to hire the next President after a professional executive search is conducted or 
• Will the Governor and/or his office ("The Second Floor) force the appointment of a political crony/patron.

Interesting times for Roosevelt Island.

UDPATE - 10/4 - RIOC Board selects Don Lewis as the Acting President and will conduct an Executive Search for a permanent President. More here.