RIRA President On Election Difficulties, RIOC Board Nominations, Maple Tree Group, Critics, Tribalism, Calendar, Capital Budget & Other RI Issues

Image of Mr. Farance At September 2010 RIRA Meeting

Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Frank Farance sends the following report to Roosevelt Island residents. Mr. Farance addresses:

1. RIRA Elections. We elected Aaron Hamburger as Chair of the RIRA Nomination Committee, which is responsible for getting candidates for RIRA's approximately 50 seats, including building representatives and two Island-wide representatives (President and Vice President). We elected Joyce Mincheff as Chair of the RIRA Elections Committee, which is responsible for the running the elections. Unfortunately, Mincheff has since resigned because of difficulties with the Nominations Committee, who didn't include her in discussions and review. I haven't seen the documents forwarded to the WIRE. Hamburger has not responded to questions on who was on the committee and when they met. You would think that with all fuss made previously, Common Council members would be sensitive towards including *all* members that wish to participate, but this still continues. Immediately, I will look for a new Elections Committee Chair for proper elections this November.

2. RIOC Director Nominee Elections to be held in 2012. We voted 14-4-3 to postpone the RIOC elections. I believe they made a serious mistake. With no resident nominees, the Governor will start filling the spots. What will we do? We've already lost this argument. The Governor will say "You had the opportunity to run elections, but chose not to". A quick election in response? "But short elections don't give the best candidates (according to MTG)". Running a longer election? "But only elections in conjunction with biannual general elections produce good candidates (according to MTG)". We have thwarted every line of rhetoric for the Governor to pay attention to us. MTG suggested elections *after* term expiration. For example, RIOC director seats expiring in June 2011 (Kalkin and Kraut) would not face elections until 2012, giving them 2 extra years. In the 2012 elections, the next candidate's 4-year term is shortened: starts in 2013 and expires June 2015. Elections *after* expiration *never* produce a good result, unless you're interested in keeping the current RIOC Board members in place (which gets back to the secret meetings, apparent conflicts of interest, etc.). The Governor understands this: manipulation to keep present board members. Mr. Katz worries about burning bridges, but doesn't consider MTG's legislation to "taking all the marbles" (we have 5 resident directors now, we want all 7) is just a poke-in-the-eye to the Governor. Katz and others don't see the RIOC Board, in exerting much more force than necessary, was the perfect corporate manipulation: coax them to flex their muscles to toss Shane (unwanted by the Governor), then point out the all-resident board is predisposed to too much force (merely board resolutions could have boxed in Shane). The Shane firing becomes long-term rhetoric for why the Governor will give no more on self governance. In sum: (1) we've ruined the rhetoric and elections to provide our own nominees, (2) MTG legislation is our own power grab that caught the attention of the Governor, (3) RIOC Board overreacted on the Shane firing which demonstrates why we (residents) aren't good at governing.

3. RIRA Presidents Have Always Spoke Their Own Opinions In This Column. I agree with Ms. Vicky Feinmel who seems to have handy my E-mails from 1999. Ms. Feinmel omits reporting that at the October 1999 RIRA meeting (recorded by Mr. Matthew Katz, then Secretary of RIRA) RIRA agreed with my suggestion: the RIRA Column in the WIRE is always an opinion column. Mr. Patrick Stewart, Mr. Katz, Mr. Steve Marcus, and I have always said this was an opinion column that might or might not necessarily represent the positions of RIRA.

4. RIRA Sponsored 9/11 Memorial Service. We had a crowd of about 30-50 people with singing from Sherie Helstien and Laura Stelman Jaeger, piano accompaniment by Craig Crabtree, and poetry reading by Linda Heimer. We had an open microphone and one resident made the observation that, unlike downtown Manhattan, Roosevelt Island has a inclusive spirit, including broad and strong support for the establishment of a mosque here for the Muslim community.

5. RIOC Presentation on 15-Year Capital Budget. RIOC CFO Steve Chironis made a presentation to the Common Council of the 15-year capital budget. According to Mr. Chironis, the RIOC Budget needs to be approved in December, so the schedule is pushed back earlier for us: we're now reviewing in September what we usually review in January. RIRA will be providing feedback and Mr. Chironis will present this at the October 12 RIOC Board meeting. Mr. Chironis felt comfortable with the building of Southtown 7, 8, and 9, which are essential to RIOC's finances.

6. RIRA Support for NY Public Library to Move to 504 Main Street. At the meeting RICLA (Roosevelt Island Community Literary Associates) presented a proposal for designating one floor of 504 Main Street as the new home for the Roosevelt Island branch of the New York Public Library. RIRA endorsed the proposal. The proposal is consistent with the RIOC Master Lease RFP which recognizes that NYPL was interested in the space in 504 Main Street.

7. Island Organizations work towards Common Calendar. On September 21, we met. We had input from the following organizations: RIOC, PS/IS 217, PTA, Main Street Theatre and Dance Alliance, Island Kids, RI Marlins, RI Youth Program, RI Beacon Program, NY Junior Tennis League, RI Jewish Congregation, RICLA, Main Street WIRE. We learned about each others programs, activities, members, and schedules. The goal is to have regular meetings, roughly every September, December, February, and May so we can avoid gratuitous schedule conflicts (which have happened in the past). Roosevelt Island Day 2011 will be on June 11 (so far, so good). The Holiday Tree Lighting will be on December 3 and the PS/IS 217 Winter Concert will be on December 8 (whew, a near miss). However, the Halloween Parade and the RIYP soccer games are both on October 30. Ms. Erica Wilder (RIOC) and Mr. Scott Bobo (RIYP) discovered that conflict and will work to resolve that by changing the schedule of the soccer games that day. We expect to meet in the next 4-5 weeks, with a combined calendar; and we expect to meet regularly to schedule events 10 months into the future. Thank you all the participated, I welcome other organizations to participate.

8. Upcoming RIRA meetings. The next meeting is on October 6 at 8:00 p.m. in the Good Shepherd Community Center, which is our last Common Council meeting for the 2008-2010 session. Because RIOC meeting was rescheduled to October 12 and the day prior is Columbus Day, RIRA will include an hour-long public session (RIRA informational meeting) that addresses Q&A for the RIOC meeting.

9. Response to letters in last WIRE. I'll make this as brief as possible. In the history of RIRA, right now RIRA has the best working relationship with RIOC and other organizations. I have a good working relationship with all RIOC departments. If Mr. Kellner thinks he has a poor relationship with RIRA, then why did he call me on vacation 6 timezones away to set up the community meeting on short notice with Ms. Torres as a RIOC President candidate? I spent 3 days of vacation making the arrangements so that Mr. Kellner, Ms. Torres, Mr. Lawlor, RIOC, the RIOC Board, DHCR, etc. all could look great and have the community interact well with her. It was a big success. So Mr. Kellner asked me to do something that was completely counter to my complaints about RIOC and Mr. Shane's firing. Why did he ask me? He knew that I would do my best to help him in my role as RIRA President, and he knew I could pull it off on short notice. Likewise, Mr. Kellner has had many gruff words about Mr. Shane, yet it didn't stop them from working together. Even at our last RIRA meeting, the RIOC CFO came to present to us, Mr. Kellner's representative attended, and three RIOC Board Members attended, including Mr. Kalkin and Ms. Smith who spoke at the public session (on why their RIOC Board terms should be extended). Mr. Katz is wrong, there is no loss of working relationships for RIRA -- in fact, the relationships are much stronger than when he left office.

The people that are complaining in these letters are deflecting the fact that the main issue is: the Maple Tree Group (MTG a subcommittee of GRC) got caught with an un-democratic, un-inclusive, secretive process. At last week's RIRA Common Council meeting, Government Relations Committee (GRC) Chair Ms. Ashton Barfield confirmed the basic facts of the secrecy: the meetings were not open to all members, the discussion of voting did not include all members, and the vote itself excluded some the members. I asked Ms. Barfield why the GRC report had listed 8 members of MTG instead of the 12 members she reported in her E-mail of July 7 confirming MTG membership. She said that the 8 members were "Formal Members". I asked what provisions in the RIRA By-Laws make the distinction of "Formal Members" versus other kinds of members (bingo!). She threw her hands back and said "Maple Tree Group is open to everyone". It has taken 13 years for some residents to hear that. Many have complained quietly about being shut out of MTG and so did I. It was only by complaining publicly that MTG has changed. Mr. Katz implies that I shouldn't tell the truth about what is going on here, how I should not say it at all, or say it obliquely -- as anyone on the Internet can tell you, that doesn't get results. The galling part of MTG's actions are: they held themselves out as the shining beacon of democratic principles, no different than the disappointment in the "Sherriff of Wall Street" getting caught with prostitutes. The problem isn't having a secret meeting (or getting caught with a prostitute), the issue is: behaving inconsistently with principles that are essential and foundational to their identity. On top of that, Mr. Katz is the former RIRA President who shepherded RIRA through the revision of its Constitution and the creation of its By-Laws. yet Mr. Katz is advocating a process the is improper for the By-Laws of the corporation -- he should know better.

Regarding other points in the letters:
• Regarding Ms. Heimer's concern about a bid to the Storefront RFP by me, unlike Ms. Heimer's building, the Island House Tenants Association (of which I'm the corporate secretary) does *not* own the building and could never make such an offer. In fact, the tenants in Island House are purely focused on long-term preservation of affordable housing and the retention of the existing tenancy post-conversion (if it ever happens), they are not interested in the store fronts (Mr. Kalkin knows this).
• Regarding Ms. Heimer's report about Mr. Kellner and privatization she omits the full discussion: it was months ago that I told Mr. Kellner that the privatization issue was only with Rivercross and not Island House; since then (according to Graham Cannon, President of Island House Tenants Association) Mr. Kellner recognized that was true and issued a memo in support of Island House privatization and decouples the two buildings (one making more progress than the other). There are three points here: first, as I reported originally, the privatization issues surrounding the firing of Steve Shane only concerned one building (which Mr. Kellner did not know at the time); second, I asked Mr. Kellner to socialize his efforts among a wider audience because (as he now recognizes) he is getting a limited perspective on Roosevelt Island from these self-selected residents; third, because of the Governor's veto and the complaints about proposed legislation, Mr. Kellner again understands that a broader review (not just self-selected residents from MTG) would improve proposed legislation. Mr. Kellner does very good work for Roosevelt Island; it is a shame that he was misled.
• It is too bad that Ms. Heimer does reflect upon the fact that if a state-appointed official or RIOC Board Director took the same actions as a resident RIOC Board Director, Ms. Heimer would be complaining loudly. Largely, there is a sense of tribalism here: only residents can do good, state-appointed officials can only do wrong. That is not my take on RIOC, which is why I (along with RIRA members and RIOC staff) have been able to build a better relationship -- a transactional one, not a tribal one. As another example, Ms. Heimer complains that there were only two merchants at the RIRA Town Meeting on the storefronts. Ms. Heimer omits that one of them was the head of our Chamber of Commerce, whose role is intended to represent the merchants. When a RIRA representative goes to a meeting, Ms. Heimer would never let someone get away with the perception "just one person attended", she's voice loudly that that person represents RIRA, which represents the Island; so why does Ms. Heimer diminish the same kind representation the merchants have in their Chamber of Commerce?
• It should have been clear to Mr. Katz that I referred to a different sense of "whopper", akin to the kind of hamburger one buys at Burger King.

A version of the RIRA President's message is also published as the RIRA column in the 9/25/10 Main Street WIRE.

Additional background on the Farance/Maple Tree RIOC Board Nominee dispute available here.