Update On Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Fund Grant Allocation - Resolving Potential RIRA Conflicts Of Interest

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RIOC Community Relations Specialist Erika Wilder sends the following update regarding the application procedure and criteria for Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Funds.

Please be advised that the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) has amended the criteria for evaluating Public Purpose grant applications. Please visit http://rioc.com/pdf/PPG_Guidelines.pdf to review RIRA's current guidelines. In addition, please take note that the line item requesting all applicants to submit community letters of support is no longer required.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me.

There was some controversy over how the Public Purpose Funding process was conducted by RIRA last year primarily regarding the appearance of a conflict of interest among some RIRA members who were also grant applicants but it appears that issue has been resolved to RIOC's satisfaction.

According to RIOC:

Criteria and Procedures for Voting Membership in RIRA's Public Purpose Subcommittee

RIRA Common Council Members are frequently also active in other Island organizations. These organizations may very well be requesting public purpose funds. In order to avoid any opportunity for impropriety, the following rules regarding the composition of the Public Purpose Subcommittee and the voting for funding recommendations will apply:

Membership in the Public Purpose Subcommittee:
This committee will evaluate the requests for funding, gather the necessary information about the requests and the organizations making them, interview the principles and make funding recommendations to the RIRA Common Council. The following are requirements for membership:

1. Membership in the subcommittee will be limited to Common Council Members and Alternates in good standing.

2. Membership is prohibited for individuals involved in the administrative or financial management of any of the organizations that have submitted applications under review by RIRA (heretofore termed "petitioning organizations")

3. While subcommittee members can be "clients" of the petitioning organizations, they are expected not to have a meaningful financial interest in the distribution of funds. (For example, a member with a child on special scholarship to a specific organization, would have a financial interest in seeing that organization get funding, and, on that basis, would be ineligible to vote.)

4. Prospective subcommittee members are expected to disclose such involvement before they participate any of the subcommittee's deliberations

5. In the event of questions regarding possible conflict of interest of prospective members, RIRA officers (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer) and the remaining subcommittee members will be the final arbiters.

Voting in the Common Council

The RIRA Common Council will consider the recommendations offered by the Public Purpose
Subcommittee and vote to approve or modify those recommendations and offer them to the RIOC Board of Directors for final approval.

When voting on these matters, a similar criteria of voting privilege will apply:

1. RIRA Common Council Members involved in the administrative or financial management, or having significant financial interested in the distribution of funds of any of the petitioning organizations are requested to recuse themselves from voting on recommendations (whether to approve or reject) for distribution of Public Purpose Funds by responding with "Abstain" in Common Council votes. (Note: This is consistent with Robert's Rules in that: If a member has a direct personal or pecuniary (monetary) interest in a motion under consideration not common to other members, the rule is that he/she should not vote on a motion (Abstain is not a vote), but even then he/she cannot be compelled to refrain from voting.)

2. RIRA members are expected to disclose such involvement before they participate in any votes.

3. In the event of questions regarding possible conflict of interest, the RIRA Common Council Members will be the final arbiters.

Vetting Practices of the Public Purpose Subcommittee:
1. Each year, the Subcommittee, will review the Guidelines and Criteria, make any modifications it deems appropriate, and make all such information available to the general public.

2. The Subcommittee will establish a timetable for interviewing applicants, and make this schedule available to the community.

3. Interview sessions will be available to the general public, and there will be a "Public Session" preceding each meeting, where residents can make comments.

4. The Subcommittee may request a private session after the public interview session is completed, so that they can discuss the information presented, plan for next steps, and assign any additional fact-gathering tasks they deem necessary.

More information about Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Fund Grants is available from RIOC here.