RIRA President On Community Participation In Common Council Discussions, RIRA Elections, Blood Drive, Future Meetings & More To Come
Image Of Heated Discussion During May RIRA MeetingRoosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Frank Farance sends the following report to Roosevelt Island residents.
1. Comments in last WIRE about heated RIRA discussion. We welcome the residents to speak at the public session, which is the beginning of each RIRA Common Council meeting (note: RIRA Town Hall meetings are completely for the residents). I recognize that, to some extent, we all need to vent our frustrations. But to make your suggestion/complaint/topic more constructive, the Common Council would like to hear your suggestion on what we (RIRA) should do about your concern. Obviously, some things are outside of our control (e.g., store leases and enforcement), but we do gather input and work with the relevant parties (RIOC, government, building owners, etc.) and express your concerns. In the last RIRA meeting, the discussion went from a complaint about a particular merchant to a general discussion about leasing store fronts. I'm hoping to have a RIRA Town Hall meeting on June 16 to inform the community about the discussion -- no decision-making, just information-sharing for all of us.The RIRA President's message is also published as the RIRA column in the 5/22/10 Main Street WIRE.
2. RIRA elections this November. We reach out to the community to become more involved. You can volunteer to be a RIRA Common Council member. We have building-wide representatives (several for each of the housing complexes) and Island-wide representatives (President, Vice President) -- all are directly elected positions. If you'd like to see what this is like, please come to one of our meetings. It's rewarding, you get to know your neighbors and community, and you can have a positive effect on things around you.
3. RIRA Blood Drive on June 19, Roosevelt Island Day. Don't forget to donate blood. Thanks to Matt Katz for organizing this.
4. Upcoming RIRA meetings. The next Common Council meeting is June 2 at 8:00 p.m. in the Good Shepherd Community Center; future meetings are on September 15 (no planned meetings over the summer) and October 6. Upcoming RIRA Town Hall meeting (in preparation for RIOC Board meetings) is on June 16.
5. A short column? A good number of things are in progress and not yet ready to report. Hopefully more by the next column.
6 comments :
Many people are not staisified that RIRA is going in the right direction under Frank Farance. Matt Katz did a great job of balancing everyone's views, positions & opinions - because we ALL Live here.
We need a new President because Frank doesn't do that. Would someone please run against him? Maybe he should just "do the right thing" and step aside after his term.
I agree with the above blogger. Many good people have even left the RIRA Common Council (like Ron Schuppert, for example) because of the way Farance runs RIRA. A change is needed there. I'm just sorry I don't have the time to do it. Please, someone with the time - please run.
Someone like Joyce Minchef or Deloris Green. Please. Please. Please.
I disagree about the above characterization of Mr. Farance. I think he is doing a good job balancing the various interests of Roosevelt Island residents in a fair and impartial manner. Though I may disagree with him on particular issues and he is sometimes strident in his language, he is knowledgeable on the issues and represents residents well with a strong voice in dealing with RIOC.
His initiative starting RIRA Town Hall meetings and having RIOC staff appear to discuss current issues is a very welcome development.
All in all, in my opinion RIRA has an excellent President for what the position requires.
Communication trumps everything. Even knowledge. If you present yourself abrasive nobody cares how much you know. I just cannot get over the way he reacted after the softball incident where "blue beard" was detained. Also how he never straightened the record for being so wrong about the impact the tram outage would have on the train.
I agree, his comminication skills, or lack there of, make him difficult to deal with. If you tell him you disagree with him, forget it. He'll keep on and on ... all the while, trying to make you feel foolish for having your own opinion. He argues points until he changes your mind. Then you walk away and say, "Wait a minute, I don't agree with that."
Matt Katz started the relationship with RIOC. Frank Farance only continued what was already there. Someone less arrogant should lead the residents into the Gov. Cuomo Era.
I don't think Farance is a bad guy. He's just one of those people that feels he has to take a position on everything, and will argue his side even if the other side is a better position.
Post a Comment