The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) will be meeting tonight, 8 PM, at the Good Shepherd Community Center (543 Main Street).
Image Of September 2013 RIRA Meeting
As always, prior to the start of each monthly meeting there is a public session in which residents can come and address the Common Council Delegates on any issue of concern.
Among the items on tonight's Agenda is this Bill Of Particulars to Expel Frank Farance from RIRA.
BILL OF PARTICULARS
November 6, 2013
WHEREAS: the preamble of The Constitution of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association clearly states that residents “want to live together in harmony based on mutual respect and the voluntary sharing of responsibility,”
WHEREAS: An environment of intimidation, fear and hostility is not conducive to conducting the work of the Common Council,
WHEREAS: Common Council Representative, Frank Farance, has repeatedly engaged in conduct that is counter to the principles of harmony and sharing but rather is consistent with creating intimidation, fear and hostility in the following ways:
- Abusing his position to denigrate and defame people without a basis of fact, endangering their professional and personal reputations,
- Denigrating the reputation of the Common Council, itself, thereby diminishing the community’s goodwill and jeopardizing community support,
- Threatening and attempting to diminish the respect of government entities with whom the organization interacts, thereby hindering the organization’s effectiveness,
- Cyber bullying by publicizing defaming statements and misusing various communications platforms, both internal and external to the organization, (such as the email reflector, blog, social media, and The Main Street WIRE).
- Depriving the members of the Common Council of the respect they deserve for their devoted service to the community.
WHEREAS: The Common Council has previously taken the step to censure Frank Farance on October 5, 2011; But, his offensive behavior has continued unabated and without improvement,
WE THEREFORE MOVE TO EXPELL Common Council Representative Frank Farance, effective immediately pursuant to Article III, Section 9, paragraph (b).
Here is
October 2011 post on previous RIRA censure motion against Mr. Farance.
Did you know Mr. Farance may also be a
Witch.
Here is an example of a recent statement by
Mr. Farance that appeared on Roosevelt Islander and in the
Main Street WIRE that some RIRA members found objectionable. In it, Mr. Farance gave his opinion that:
As a RIRA Common Council representative from Island House, I am reporting the very sad state of affairs in RIRA. We are half-way through our RIRA term, the meetings have been the most dysfunctional in my 17-year recollection....
and was highly critical of certain RIRA members (
Full statement here).
In my opinion, this Bill Of Particulars against Mr. Farance is ridiculous, a waste of time and damages RIRA more than anything Mr. Farance has ever said or done.
There is nothing that Mr. Farance has published on Roosevelt Islander, or what I have seen in the WIRE, which is defamatory at all. It may be critical, highly opinionated and in some cases rude but it is not defamatory and certainly does not justify RIRA expelling him from a Common Council that he was elected to by the people who live in his building. Also, Mr. Farance often has a valid point to make, or, at least, an issue worthy of further investigation by NY State, RIOC, RIRA and the media.
The attempt to expel him is for his dissident views made public, sometimes rude characterizations as well as personal dislike of him by some RIRA members. None of these reasons are sufficient cause to expel him from RIRA.
Notice that the Bill of Particulars only contains conclusory statements about defamation without any specific examples.
I may or may not agree with what Mr. Farance says or does but he certainly has a right to publicly express his opinions about issues of concern to the Roosevelt Island community and should not be expelled because some within RIRA disagree with him.
Here's the rest of tonight's RIRA Agenda.
Common Council Meeting
Please arrive a half hour early to help set up tables and chairs
RIRA Common Council Agenda
Date: Wednesday November 6 , 2013
Time: 8pm-Finish
Place: Good Shepherd Community Center, 543 Main Street
1. Public Session: Dolores Green- speaking about Jessica Lappin thank you party being planned. Dr Catherine Reid, Veterinarian, introduction
2. Roll call
3. Elect new secretary
4. Approval of minutes
5. Approval of agenda
6. Treasurer’s Report
7. President’s Report
8. Seat Southtown representative Article III, Section 6, Vacancies "If a district has no alternate, one may be appointed pursuant to b), c), and d) above.
9. Committee reports
Communications- Motion to approve a Bill of Particulars
SC&E- Resolution to approve insurance
Resolution to approve anti bullying campaign
Resolution to approve Ben Hugs day
Public purpose
Constitution-Bylaws committee-resolution to create a
Code-of-conduct committee
Housing
Public Safety
Island Services
Planning
Government relations
10. Old business- motion to reconsider Korean Pavilion vote
11. New business
resolution to create a code of conduct committee
UPDATE 11/7 12:30 AM - The Bill Of Particulars to expel Frank Farance was approved by a majority vote of the Common Council. As described by its RIRA supporters, the Bill Of Particulars approval was the equivalent of a showing of probable cause to expel Mr. Farance.
At the next monthly RIRA meeting in December, Mr. Farance will have the opportunity to defend himself against the charges. In order to expel Frank from RIRA it will take a vote of 2/3 of the Common Council.
Though some Common Council members spoke thoughtfully of perceived harm caused to them or others by statements made by Frank, I did not hear any specific statement that Frank made which caused the alleged harm. There was no substantiation to any charge against Frank other than he publicly embarrassed the RIRA President by publishing criticism of her in this Blog and the WIRE.
The overwhelming sense of those who supported this motion was that Frank was being disloyal and harmful to RIRA by making his criticism of RIRA public to the Roosevelt Island community.
Frank was not going to be permitted to speak at this meeting but after he requested time to speak was allowed to speak for about 4 minutes.
I video recorded the RIRA Bill of Particulars motion to expel Mr. Farance. Here's how it began with
RIRA President Ellen Polivy
and other RIRA members
voicing their opinion on the issue.
Will post rest of the discussion video later today.
UPDATE 10:15 PM - More video from last night's discussion on the Bill of Particulars to expel Mr. Farance.
RIRA Public Safety Committee Chair Erin Feeley-Nahem described how her committee worked with Frank despite differences.
Island Services Committee Chair Aaron Hamburger
offered an additional Bill Of Particular against Mr. Farance which was accepted by RIRA.
AMENDMENT TO BILL OF PARTICULARS
Organized a “Public “ Safety group independent of RIRA. This group is in competition with RIRA’s Public Safety Committee. This group undermines the work and credibility of RIRA’s Public Safety Committee.
RIRA Vice President Jeff Escobar spoke of his concerns that statements by Mr. Farance hurt the professional standing of Common Council members.
RIRA Member Helen Chirvas asserted that Mr. Farance was being punished soley for exercising his constitutional right to free speech but RIRA member
Nicole Warden said it was not a question of free speech but responsible speech and protecting RIRA's effectiveness.
Finally, Mr. Farance spoke followed by the vote on the Bill of Particulars. The vote was 18 in favor 2 opposed and 10 abstentions.
Stay tuned. I am sure there will be more on this subject.
