Come Learn What Is Going On At Roosevelt Island and Add Your Voice To The Process -Roosevelt Island Residents Association Meeting Returns Tonight 8 PM At Good Shepherd Community Center

Image of June RIRA Common Council Meeting

After taking the July and August summer months off, the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) monthly meeting returns tonight, September 7, 8 PM at the Good Shepherd Community Center (543 Main Street lower level).  Below is the Agenda for tonight's meeting.




As always, prior to the start of each meeting there is a public session in which any resident can come and address the Common Council Delegates on any issue of concern.

RIRA is composed of members of the Roosevelt Island community elected by their fellow building complex residents every two years. RIRA has no real power or authority other than an advisory role as the voice of the Roosevelt Island community. RIRA's voice of the community role is recognized and encouraged by our elected representatives and the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC).

RIRA is not without controversy. Some residents have expressed an opinion that RIRA does not represent them, that it is a closed, insular group of people looking out for only their own interests.

I think that view is wrong. RIRA represents those people who participate in the process, show up to meetings or if they can't attend meetings, just make their concerns known. In this respect, RIRA is just like every political entity in the United States - if you don't show up and participate in the process, it is difficult to have your concerns addressed.

Responding to this comment from a reader of a previous post:

The executives of RIRA - Pres, VP, Treas, Sec'y - are all from WIRE buildings.  Most of the committee chairs - WIRE buildings.  The MTG is composed primarily of WIRE building residents.  There's nothing wrong with WIRE residents disproportionately represented in executive/chair positions - as long as the same people do not keep popping up year after year.  There should be term limits for executive/chair/RIOC board member positions to prevent cliques from forming.

RIRA Communications Chair Vini Fortuna wrote:

You are right about the officers (Pres, VP, Treasurer and Secretary). They are all from the WIRE buildings. (Here is the list http://www.riraonline.com/abou...

However, that's not true for the chairs anymore. You can find the chair of each committee on their pages in our website (www.riraonline.com). Here is the list:
Communications: Vini (me) - Southtown
Gov. Relations: Bill Long - Octagon
Housing: Helen Chirivas - Island House
Island Services: Aaron Hamburguer - Southtown
Planning: Frank Farance - Island House
Public Safety: Erin Feely-Nahem - Westview
Social, Cultural & Educational: Lynne Shinozaki - Manhattan Park
Constitution & Bylaws: Dave Evans - Southtown

What I want to say is that I believe things are changing. Slowly. At least, the committees are changing and the relative proportions of the buldings. I agree that it can be frustrating to see the same people over and over again at the head of RIRA. One big problem is that it's not easy to be the president. It takes a lot of time and effort, and requires a lot of experience on the island, which essentially eliminates new blood.

And if you impose term limits, we may end up with no one in the executive positions! Remember that all the members are voluntary. No one receives anything for that and they dedicate their (sometimes little) free time

It seems to me that's a hard problem to solve, but I would love to hear suggestions to solve it.

On another front, I believe RIRA has a huge communications problem. RIRA doesn't communicate with the community well. People don't know what RIRA is doing. People hear about RIRA on Frank's rants. There's a lot misinformation. The lack of communication doesn't help, and that causes the perception of hidden agendas and secrecy. But that's not the case. Unlike some may think, you don't see deliberate efforts to hide information and act behind other people's back. The problem is just that the information doesn't get out there.

As the Communication Chair, I've been spending a lot of effort to fix that. I've already set up the website (www.riraonline.com), the Facebook (www.facebook.com/riraonline), and Twitter (www.twitter.com/riraonline) to help opening the communication channels with the community. We also have a calendar of RIRA events and meetings (www.riraonline.com/calendar). So the plumbing have been laid out. Now it's time to get the information flowing. My next step is to get RIRA members (specially chairs) to get content online. I want people to know everything that is going on on RIRA. My ultimate (maybe ambitious) goal is to  get residents to trust RIRA, and get more involved. If we are able to make the community more engaged, maybe we'll have more volunteers and candidates for the association, and the extra members and diversity will result in better representatives, solving some of the problems you pointed out.

I think that people like Vini and other RIRA members should be thanked for the time and effort they put in to try and improve the Roosevelt Island community in which they live. Sure, sometimes it's a messy and tedious process, some personalities may be more difficult to deal with than others, but that's how a representative political body functions.

Here's an interesting discussion with RIRA President Matt Katz. Mr. Katz was recently interviewed for the Community Board 8 Speaks program. He talks about the role of RIRA as well as the history, governance and current issues facing Roosevelt Island.