Thursday, November 29, 2012

Interim RIOC Operations Vice President And Review Of All Open Roosevelt Island Projects On Agenda For Operations Committee Meeting Tonight - RIOC Hurricane Sandy Response, Four Freedoms Park Illegal Fence And Operations, Boat Prow Restoration and More Also On Agenda

 Image of RIOC VP Of Operations Fernando Martinez (center) at 11/15 Ops Committee Meeting

As reported last November 19, Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Vice President of Operations Fernando Martinez resigned his position effective December 21.
... Reasons for Mr. Martinez resignation are not known as yet. He will be difficult to replace since he is so familiar with all aspects of Roosevelt Island and nobody on the current staff has his detailed knowledge about Roosevelt Island.

This is a big deal, particularly with the many Roosevelt Island infrastructure issues that need to be addressed as well as coordination of the new Cornell NYC Tech Campus and Southtown Buildings 7-9....
According to the Agenda for RIOC Operations Committee scheduled for later today, Mr. Martinez will report to the Committee on:
... all Open Projects and Contracts for Turnover...
Also, there will be a:
... Chairs Motion for Executive Session to Review and Discuss:

a. Discussion of Possible Interim Vice President of Operations...
Below is the Agenda for tonight's RIOC Operations Committee meeting:
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that a meeting of the Operations Advisory Committee of the RIOC Board of Directors will be held on Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 5:30 p.m. at the RIOC administrative office, 591 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, New York.

Agenda:

1. Report on RIOC�s Response to Hurricane Sandy
2. Report from Fernando Martinez on all Open Projects and Contracts for Turnover
3. Discussion of Southpoint and Four Freedoms Parks Fence and General Operational Issues
4. Update on Prow Restoration Project
5. Update on Cultural Center Repairs
6. Update on Camera Project
7. Update on Parking Project
8. Discussion of Octagon Field Issues
9. Discussion of Additional Project Management Support
10. Chair�s Motion for Executive Session to Review and Discuss:

a. Discussion of Possible Interim Vice President of Operations

b. Discussion of Personnel Performance Review and Promotion Policy

11. Any Other Committee Business That May be Brought Before the Committee

***

The Open Meetings Law of the State of New York requires that all public bodies conduct meetings, convened for the purpose of officially conducting public business, in a manner open to attendance by the general public to observe and listen.
An audio web cast of the meeting will be available within a few days.

4 comments :

YetAnotherRIer said...

It's a bit of a stretch to compare "not patrolling" with "not being used" and, even worse, "absenteeism" (but you just had to get Camden into your rhetoric there, right?) And I will soon regret that I even replied....

Frank Farance said...

According to Mr. Guerra, 17-21 FTEs (full-time equivalents) are used/available for patrolling (Guerra's 4-5 officers extrapolated to a 7-day, 3 shift/day framework). Also according to Mr. Guerra, no more officers are available to work because of RIOC's cap on staff levels. So with 37 officers (as per the RIOC proposed budget) and 21 officers in use, that means 16 are not in use, i.e., 43% of the staff are not being used.

No matter how you slice it, something isn't right here.

I think Camden is relevant because it is a police force at an extreme. If 30% of the force is absent in Camden, well then they aren't working (not in use). The point here is that the Camden people paying for their officers aren't getting good value because about a third of the officers are not working, or said reciprocally, for every two employees you hire, you'll have to hire one that does no work for you.

For Public Safety, the numbers are higher: four every 4 officers you hire, you'll have to hire 3 more officers that don't do work for you.

It's at these points where some people say: Hey, we need to rethink this completely. Add in the ongoing $1.2 million annual deficit, and the fact that Public Safety is one third of the corporation's employees, then the need for review becomes even more compelling.

CheshireKitty said...

Camden is an extreme case - a town that has long ago given up. The absent cops there are probably involved in some sort of side-racket.. corruption is probably a way of life.. I'm not surprised the PD there was taken over or disbanded. What you should look at is the national average of utilization - not the extreme cases. It's possible the variance of PSD from the national average or the norm is not as great as you think, Frank! On any given day, maybe up to a third of employees of any organization will be either in training, out sick, on vacation, or there may be vacant positions - which will all total to about a third less people working on any given day. You should go to these RIOC committee meetings - if they are open to the public - to express your views, with all the supporting information you gather. You may in this way be able to get a reasonable explanation for your complaints. Us discussing these issues here on the thread is pure speculation - none of us is a PSD official. My view is to give PSD a break - consider them innocent until proven "guilty". The Island is considered a safe place to live, the overwhelming majority of the buildings are doorman buildings. I think PSD does a good job in keeping RI safe - if anything, maybe more money should be allocated to expand the force and hire more officers. Since you're so concerned about PSD, why don't you apply? ;-P

mpresident said...

Differences between Roosevelt Island and Camden, NJ:
- We have less crack dens
- We have more white people (ie we did not have a tremendous white flight in the early 60s leading to an influx of poverty and crack dens)
- All of my hubcaps were taken from my car in Camden, NJ.