New Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Matthew Katz Reports To The Community - He's Back

RIRA President Matthew Katz Speaking At November 2010 Common Council Meeting

Newly elected Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Matthew Katz sends the following report to Roosevelt Island residents. From Mr. Katz:

November 6, 2010

I’m back. Again.

The campaigning is over and it’s time to get to work. The RIRA Common Council is blessed with the largest turnout of delegates in our history, thanks to the efforts of Nominating Committee Chair, Aaron Hamburger. In addition, you have been offered three Candidates’ Nights plus the Great Debate between me and former President, Frank Farance, to help decide your vote. This and the professionally conducted fifteen hours of Election Day were courtesy of long-time Election Committee Chair, Joyce Mincheff, and we owe her and her crew of poll workers a vote of thanks. My thanks to all who voted for me, and especially for the record turnout of voters who supported RIRA by casting their ballots. The powers that be pay attention when we vote in significant numbers.

I checked back to see what I wrote after my last three presidential campaigns and I think it’s worth plagiarizing my November 18, 2006 RIRA Column: Many friends and neighbors asked if I was nuts for running again or whether I was simply a masochist. While accepting the possibility of insanity in the family, I did have reasons for wanting to take on this two-year task along with a new Common Council. Four years later, this still rings true. Roosevelt Island is in transition, with a new RIOC President, a RIOC Board of Directors composed of seven (out of nine) Island residents and a new Governor, Andrew Cuomo, to be sworn in next January. There are many issues in which I have participated that hang in the balance: Housing and the potential end of Mitchell- Lama subsidies, additional residential development and the strains on infrastructure and transportation that will result, retail stores and restaurants and the community’s input into the Master Lease, and the continuing development of our parks and open spaces. I want to be a part of that.

I also said this: At this point, I’d like to plagiarize—from myself---several statements from previous RIRA columns. In my first column, dated November 19, 2000, I said, “Will my writing be biased, opinionated and subjective? Y’betcha!” That won’t change. In my [last] column, dated November 6, 2004 I said, “During the first RIRA debate in 2000 a prescient questioner asked me how much time I would devote to the task [should I be elected]. Ruffled, I answered, ‘As much time as it takes.’ Little did I know how many hours every week that would entail.” I now know very well how consuming the RIRA presidency can be. Again, my answer hasn’t changed. However, let me explain what the RIRA Column is, and isn’t:

This column is not an official duty of the RIRA President; never has been. It is the result of an agreement between the last three RIRA Presidents and the editor of this newspaper to print whatever that President wishes to write, unedited and uncensored, and the same deal holds true for the RIOC Column. While the name “RIRA Column” may be misleading, it is the editor’s choice; I’ve been comfortable with it during my six years writing the column. Neither my predecessors nor I have vetted our words with the RIRA Common Council; you wouldn’t want to read a column written by committee. It will be informative but chatty, and I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

Here’s a story from the election: I was campaigning at the subway station last Monday evening, when a young man confronted me angrily about the material I had posted on the pillar just outside the station. He said that the 425 Main Street tenants’ committee had prevented him from using that space for his own purposes and he resented my use of the pillar to advance my election hopes. Now, I think the residents of every building should be provided with open bulletin boards where they may post anything they choose. However, he informed me that this committee had regularly removed my signage from that spot. I reminded him that the pillar belonged to and was the responsibility of the Transit Authority, not any Southtown building, and that the TA had expressed no objections to allowing me to utilize their pillar like one of the Main Street kiosks. The gentleman described my posters as “garbage,” stating that it “messed up” the area. I said to him (and now, to you) that American democracy is messy and raucous, and that folks had been putting up campaign signs on anything that wasn’t moving for two hundred years. It’s how we’ve always chosen our leaders, and trying to stem that tide is like trying to hold back a tsunami with a teaspoon. The electoral process in this country can be intrusive and even embarrassing some times, but it beats every other system hands down. So please, temper your impatience with campaign extravagance; embrace it! On the other hand, I don’t think I got his vote.

So let’s get down to business. The first meeting of the RIRA Common Council, Class of 2010-2012, met this past Wednesday. We elected the two remaining Officers of the corporation, Russell Fields as Treasurer and Sherie Helstien as Secretary of the Council. Both have served in this capacity before. Many of you know that Sherie is my wife, and served as Secretary during the six years of my previous administrations. This is a labor-intensive job, especially keeping the minutes--the permanent record of our meetings--up-to-date and accurate. It’s so convenient to be able to nudge her in bed when I need to discuss agendas!

When I was first elected RIRA President in 2000, I initiated a series of orientations for the new Members and we will continue this practice. This is an opportunity to provide the delegates with our basic documents; the RIRA Constitution and Bylaws, the General Development Plan for the Island, the legislation that created RIOC in 1984 and that Public Benefit Corporation’s Bylaws. We also cover Roberts Rules of Order; the essential set of guidelines that maintains structure and order during meetings that otherwise might become unruly. And finally, I can give these folks an idea of what we do, how we do it and what is expected of them individually and as a team.

I remember when Sherie and I first joint the Common Council in 1997. We were intimidated by the organization and by how much we didn’t know, and so, we kept our mouths shut for the first three months. I hope the Orientation will allow our “newbies” to hit the ground running when we meet again on December 1. At that meeting, I intend to call for nominations for Council Committee Chairs. Much of our business is conducted within the committees and every delegate is required to participate in at least one. Did you know that any RIRA member (i.e. any Island resident) may join and work with a committee?

I intend to start us working on existing issues immediately and hope quickly to put in place an effective Council ready to face the unexpected. Don’t forget that RIRA is also an environment that encourages innovation, and so, I hope to add to the roster of RIRA events, both fun and informative, some free and some fund-raisers, that have enhanced our reputation on the Island and kept us in the mainstream of Island life.

RIRA is the voice of Roosevelt Island, and RIOC, the local politicians and the media recognize us as such because so many of us volunteer to join the organization and so many of us come out to vote in the elections. If you’ve read any of my old RIRA Columns, you know that I’m a sucker for a good quote. Here’s one from my old boss at The New York Academy of Sciences, Margaret Mead, which I’m often happy to resurrect:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world. 

It’s the only thing that ever has.

A version of the RIRA President's message is also published as the RIRA Column in the 11/6/10 Main Street WIRE.

Mr. Katz also provides this President's Report to the November 2010 Meeting of the RIRA Common Council.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT – November 3, 2010

I want to welcome the new RIRA Common Council, Class of 2010-2012. I hope you will find your service to this community as rewarding and beneficial as I have. I want to thank the outgoing Delegates from the Class of 2008-2010 for their work and their commitment. I especially want to thank past President, Frank Farance. I know how difficult the President’s job is and how hard he has worked at it. Yesterday, we were adversaries; today we are colleagues, and this role feels far more comfortable and far more familiar.

I especially want to thank Aaron Hamburger and his Nominating Committee, which has brought the largest group of Council Members to this table in the thirty-three-year history of the organization. And, predictably, Joyce Mincheff, our long-standing Elections Committee Chair, has produced an impeccable and flawless election with the help of her team of poll workers, and the turnout of over 1,400 voters is quite impressive. Thanks to you all.

First, a piece of extraneous business: Over the last few months, Sherie and I have received a ton of 2011 wall calendars. We can’t use them all, and so, I will offer them to you, first come, first served, after we adjourn.

I intend to keep this first meeting, convened fewer than twenty-four hours after the polls closed, short and sweet. We will elect the officers of the corporation, without whom we cannot conduct business. The old timers will notice that I have eliminated all committee reports other than the report of the Election Committee. This is because the new committees’ chairs have yet to be determined and their committees reconvened. Then, we will set a date (or dates) for the Orientation that has become a tradition over the last decade. The intention is to shorten the learning curve necessary for new members to get up
to speed on the documents, requirements and practices of the Residents Association. There is lots to learn about RIRA, Roosevelt Island and our place within the City and State, and our two-year terms encompass only twenty regular meetings. Believe me, these terms whiz by incredibly fast and we need to get down to cases quickly. And finally, we will consider a request from the Roosevelt Island Chamber of Commerce for financial support.

This agenda will give us a month to consider committee chair appointments. RIRA Committee chairs are elected by the Common Council. Every RIRA delegate must join at least one committee, and we will use the next four weeks to determine nominees for the leadership positions. I hope that both grizzled veterans and “newbies” will think about running for these essential posts. After all, much of our Council work takes place within our standing and ad hoc committees.

So, let’s get started.

More on the November RIRA meeting here.