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Termination Of Main Street Wire Newspaper Door Drop Delivery To Roosevelt Island Apartments And Keeping Member Communications Secret Among Items On Tonight's Roosevelt Island Residents Association Meeting Agenda

The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) will be meeting tonight, 8 PM, at the Manhattan Theater Club (8 River Road).

 Image Of February 2014 RIRA Meeting At Manhattan Theater Club

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 a motion asking Roosevelt Island building owners to prohibit the local newspaper, the Main Street Wire,

from distributing the paper at each apartment door. According to the resolution:

Roosevelt Island Residents Association

Motion Demanding Issuance of Letter by RIRA President re Distribution of The Wire.

Movant: Helen Chirivas, Secretary

“Whereas the WIRE publication does not reflect the interests and aspirations of the entire RI community in its reportage;

Whereas the WIRE publication has offended the sector of the RI community whose interests and aspirations it does not reflect;

Whereas the WIRE publication is currently distributed door to door to every household on RI, thereby causing offense to the residents of the RI community its reportage does not reflect;

Therefore, be it resolved that RIRA President J. Escobar, acting in the best interests of the entire RI Community, will arrange for the dispatch of letters (sample attached) via Email and Certified Mail, to each and every management company on RI, requesting, on behalf of the entire RI community, that said management companies henceforth not permit the door- to-door distribution in their properties of the WIRE publication.”

Below is an except from the sample letter described in above motion:

It has come to the attention of the Roosevelt Island Residents’ Association (RIRA) that residents are unhappy with the quality and tenor of the reporting in the WIRE publication, and many no longer wish to be obliged to take delivery of the publication by means of the present door drop distribution method in effect at your property.

I trust that you will agree that the responsible course of action is to therefore terminate the WIRE door-drop distribution policy in your property so as to eliminate the possibility of further offending any tenants/owners residing therein.

To implement the cessation of the door-drop distribution policy in your property, please contact the WIRE via email...

Other RIRA members who object to the reporting in the local newspaper suggest an opt in policy for delivery of the WIRE. They suggest if a building resident wishes to have the paper delivered to their door, they tell building management of their desire and they will receive delivery. Those who don't opt in will not get door delivery. Supporters of the door drop delivery to every apartment claim that an opt in system for delivery will ruin the business advertising model of the Wire.

Also on tonight's RIRA Agenda is a motion to keep secret from the Roosevelt Island public certain communications among RIRA members. According to the resolution:

Roosevelt Island Residents Association

Motion Regarding Transmittal of RIRA Electronic Communications

Movant: Mickey Rindler, as Chair of Ethics Committee

“Be it Resolved

Common Council members shall not publicly disclose, publish, or distribute confidential information, including transmission of:

1. private emails or conversations in which RIRA business is discussed, unless authorized by the author or speaker.

2. communications posted on Common Council-sponsored websites or email reflectors unless authorized by the author or unless otherwise authorized by the Council.

3. Committee work, minutes, or reports not approved for release.”

Here is the rest of tonight's

RIRA Agenda which includes approval of a conflict of interest policy, support of the annual Blood Drive and more.

UPDATE 11:35 PM - Another excellent job by RIRA President Jeff Escobar presiding over tonight's Common Council Meeting. Here's Mr. Escobar's Report to the Common Council which followed the decision by the Common Council to remove the item regarding the Wire distribution door drops from the Agenda.



Also, the motion by the Ethics Committee Chair to prohibit disclosure to the public of internal RIRA communications was tabled and not approved by the Common Council.

RIRA's Aaron Hamburger stood up for Common Council openness and transparency by stating:

I'm strongly opposed to this motion. We are an open organization. We represent our community. There are no secrets. If you write something you stand behind it. I don't care if gets sent to the public. It should in fact....

... In my view it is contrary to the spirit of this organization....

Here's the RIRA Common Council discussion of the issue



and vote to table the issue.



Needless to say that I agree with Mr. Hamburger.

Roosevelt Island Residents Association President Seeks To Plug RIRA Leaks To Blog - Some RIRA Members Want Code Of Conduct To Keep Discussions Secret And You In The Dark

Image From Dreamstime

Last Monday, reported:

... There have been ongoing union demonstrations protesting use of non-union labor for construction of Hudson Related's Southtown Riverwalk Building 7 recently....

and:

... the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) has invited the Carpenters Union representative, Mr. McWilliams, to speak at the January meeting of the Common Council.  At least one RIRA member has objected to inviting the union representative to the monthly RIRA meeting  but suggested that if the union member is invited, so should a representative from the building contractor/developer....

Apparently, RIRA President Ellen Polivy objected to information about the Union representative being invited to the next RIRA meeting becoming public.

Ms. Polivy wrote to other RIRA Common Council (CC) members

How did information I put on CC talk get onto the blog?

I am getting emails from people who said they saw information about the invite of the labor union coming to our public session on the blog. Who is taking information meant only for discussion on the CC and posting it on the blog?

I want to point out that information on CC talk is only for discussion among CC members. It is private and not meant to be given to outside organizations.

If this continues, then it renders preliminary discussions among council members useless.

Some RIRA members object to having their statements made public to the Roosevelt Island community whether on this blog or the Main Street WIRE newspaper. A RIRA committee is drafting a Code of Ethical Conduct regarding RIRA communications policy. One member of the Committee suggests that RIRA should prohibit certain information discussed by RIRA members from being shared with the public. According to that RIRA member:

RIRA is defined as a membership organization of which the Common Council is a representative body. Our Constitution states:

ARTICLE II, RIRA MEMBERSHIP
Section 1, Membership
All individuals who live in residential housing on Roosevelt Island are members of RIRA.

Our Constitution goes on to state that “all meetings of the Common Council shall be open to the public.” Nowhere does it state that all our communications shall be public and in fact the CC has the right to vote to go into executive session that is not shared with the public. Therefore the common council has the right to restrict communications and is not obligated to share all of its communications. Moreover, since we are not a government organization we have the right to prohibit communications to nonresidents, just as individual building Residents Associations do. Since the RI blog and the Wire are open to entire public, including nonresidents, we do have every right to prohibit CC members from publishing CC talk communications in those entities.

Whether “members” of RIRA (i.e., residents) have the right to access all CC communications is a separate issue and something we should seek legal counsel about. However, I note that even the federal government is not required to disclose deliberative process information or presidential communications to the public under the FOIA. In our case, I would argue that deliberative process covers the vast majority of our communications on CC talk, which are discussions of potential legislative or policy initiatives. This information must not be shared with others and indeed to do so is a violation of fiduciary duty to the organization. Those who wish to express their opinions on blogs or in the newspapers at the very least should not include verbatim quotations from CC talk or from private emails/discussions.

Not all RIRA CC members wish to keep their discussions secret. Some RIRA members believe that since they are elected to represent the interests of Roosevelt Island residents, CC members should be free to discuss issues of concern with the public as they see fit.

The next RIRA meeting is 8 PM Wednesday, January 8, at Good Shepherd Community Center. Perhaps this issue will be part of the discussion.

RIRA Housing Committee Chairperson Responds To Criticism Of January Report - Intent Was To Highlight Differences Between Roosevelt Island's More Affluent Southtown And Mixed Income Northtown

Image Of RIRA Southtown Resident Aaron Hamburger Defending Southtown

The Housing Committee report submitted to the January 2011 Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) was quite controversial resulting in part to the prohibition/censorship of RIRA Reports being published on this blog prior to RIRA Monthly meetings, the withdrawal of that report to RIRA and a defense of Southtown (including video) from it's area RIRA representative Aaron Hamburger. Before this evening's March RIRA meeting, Housing Committee Chair Helen Chirivas, the author of the controversial Housing Committee Report wanted an opportunity to present her side of the issue. From Ms. Chirivas:

Although the issue is from last month, could you please put my entire report into the blog archive which recorded Aaron’s attack on my report? He of course completely misinterpreted what I was trying to say: I never said Southtown residents brag about their wealth etc, I simply said the buildings telegraph the message that because they contain expensive apartments and condos, they are only accessible to those with money. Ordinarily I wouldn’t care if a building telegraphs this or any other message – but on Roosevelt Island, which is supposed to be a “mixed income, racially diverse waterfront community situated in the East River of New York City” an island which in theory at least was to be developed under the terms set forth by the GDP, the message of exclusivity and wealth had to be noted in a frankly shocking manner to make the point that Related – or another developer if not Related – must build 7, 8, and 9 as affordable housing as was originally planned! Otherwise, it seems to me, Southtown remains an enclave, and cannot be considered an extension of RI as it was originally planned, as a mixed-income community. I tried to force people to look at the differences as they exist today between Southtown and Northtown by writing that section in as shocking, forthright, or attention-grabbing manner as possible. If it has gotten people to think about the ramifications of how each “half” of RI was developed, then my purpose was accomplished.

Interestingly, no-one on the Housing Committee (including Matt) said anything negative about the report when I relayed it them before Matt re-transmitted it to the CC. I was therefore shocked by the Housing committee members that attended the 1/5 RIRA CC meeting + Matt caving into Aaron at the CC meeting of 1/5. They had all read the report beforehand and never indicated there was anything wrong with it. When I asked Matt about this about-face afterwards, he claimed via email to never have read the report before transmitting it the CC. (!) Either he read the report and agreed with it (which is what his comments by email to me thanking me for the report indicate) or he really didn’t read the report – which invites questions about Matt’s diligence as RIRA President.

In fact, I thought, as a Committee Chair “rookie” writing a “maiden” report, I would certainly get feedback from at the very least Matt, on that report. I was surprised the portion about the Southtown building telegraphing arrogant messages to the often poorer people of the rest of RI didn’t grab Matt’s attention or generate comments. I could only conclude that he agreed with the report. 

Ms Chirvas adds:

... this was the first report from a first-time Cttee Chair, and in submitting the report to the Housing Cttee + Matt + Ellen I pretty much expected a reaction/comments or pointers/constructive criticism from them, before Matt re-transmitted it to the entire CC.  Not only did I not get a negative reaction/comments from the Cttee, Matt + Ellen, I received positive emails from Matt & Lisa; the rest of the Cttee members never replied back.  Matt then relayed the report on to the entire CC. 

Also, most importantly, it was never explained to me that reports/minutes must be voted on & OK'd by the Committee before they are submitted to Matt for consideration by the CC.  In fact, I don't think there ever was an instruction to that effect so I simply wrote a report and forwarded it to Matt, Ellen & the Housing Cttee. Now it's been explained to me that any reports/minutes must first be considered by the Cttee in an actual Cttee meeting. Actually I thought by emailing the report to the Cttee Members + Matt + Ellen, it would give them a chance to consider/approve the report, which is what I had thought happened.  As I wrote above, Matt (& Lisa) at least appeared to approve it. Matt didn't indicate there was anything wrong with it.  Then he relayed it on to the entire CC, so I can only conclude he thought it was OK. 

My current status on RIRA CC is certainly up in the air.  Matt has been requested to remove me from RIRA. I expect there will be a motion (probably from Joyce) at the upcoming CC meeting to remove me which may very well pass, in which case the entire episode will be a moot point. I am expecting some supporters of my position (i.e. working to find a way to fix loopholes in protection for Sec 8 Eastwood tenants so they may keep their apts if their income eventually exceeds Sec 8 income guidelines) to attend and make statements during the public comment portion of the meeting.  I'm not sure if RIRA Treasurer Russ Fields, who is my spouse, and has been upset about the entire controversy since the Jan CC mtg, may quit in solidarity with me if I am removed, but I would certainly be surprised if he did not. At that point, RIRA would need to immediately find an accountant -- even one from outside the Island -- to fill the spot of Treasurer as it is a position that must be filled by an accountant according to I beleive NYS corporate law. Interestingly Sherie (Matt's wife) has never contacted Russ - a long-time volunteer Wire distributor - to help distribute issues of the Wire since the controversy broke in Jan.  I guess she thinks it's in poor taste to ask Russ to distribute a publication that has run stories since Jan that have certainly been a source of anger for him.  Or maybe this is part of the process of freezing Russ (and me) out of Island affairs etc. in anticipation of Matt/CC formally removing me next week.

Maybe the report + my comments appearing on your blog will clarify what I was trying to do etc. I never got a chance to defend the report before the CC because of health problems I did not attend the last 2 CC meetings. I will be at the upcoming CC meeting; however, the issue of the actual report may not be revisited and instead the "remedy" CC members may wish is my removal.

Ms. Chirivas January Housing Committee Report to the RIRA Common Council is after the jump.

JUMP!

January 2011: RIRA Housing Committee Report

By Helen Chirivas

The Committee met on 12/6/10 and the attendees included Lorraine Williams, Lisa Knox, Russell Fields, Matthew Katz, Sal Morabito, and Committee Chairwoman Helen Chirivas.

Our Committee met to consider the three questions on the Agenda:

1. Section 8 tenants in Eastwood that eventually exceed the Section 8 income guidelines are not then automatically transferred to the LAP Program; this violates the exit agreement whereby all of the tenants of Eastwood were to be protected upon exit from Mitchell Lama.
2. Southtown is not in compliance with the guidelines set forth in the General Development Plan, as it was not developed inclusively and does not provide low-income or affordable housing, a vital component of the General Development Plan, which is still in effect.    Unfortunately, the lack of affordable housing at Southtown and the sense that Southtown is an enclave has exacerbated social tension and resentment on RI. Whereas RI was previously an oasis where the socioeconomic mix provided opportunities for building bridges and friendships across the ethnic, economic, social spectrum, we now have the phenomenon of a nearly complete lack of contact between the populations of Southtown and Northtown, leading to community conflict and the tarnishing of its reputation as an inclusive, caring place to live. The divisions of NYC, which were previously absent on RI, have now arrived on RI. Day and night, the million-dollar apartments of Southtown telegraph the message to the people of Northtown: We have money, you don’t; we do not need to know you much less lay eyes on you; Northtown residents don’t count because they can’t afford million-dollar apartments; Southtown is where the money is; that’s why Southtown residents never set foot in Northtown and definitely do not care to interact in any way with Northtown residents. Buildings 7, 8, 9 should be developed as truly affordable Rent Stabilized housing open to tenants with fixed incomes, moderate incomes, and those receiving Section 8 subsidies– this would help rebalance the socioeconomic mix on RI.
3. The RIRA Housing Committee would be happy to assist and support efforts in any of the complexes on RI; however, we can only assist at the request of the building associations. If a building or complex does not have a building committee or association, the Housing Committee has no-one with whom to coordinate efforts within a particular building.    Landlord intimidation may be a factor preventing tenants from organizing building committees in some buildings.

The attendees had a thorough discussion about the lingering issue of the Section 8 tenants of Eastwood, who, because of economic circumstances such as families doubling up due to rampant unemployment, children becoming adults, managing to get jobs but still not being in the position to move out because of high rents, or Section 8 tenants slowly getting pay increases through the years so that eventually their income may exceed the Section 8 guidelines, and many more possible situations whereby a household may no longer qualify for the Section 8 subsidy, these families are suddenly exposed to the excessive market rate rents being charged by Urban American, and because of this unjust economic circumstance, are usually then forced to face the harm of having to give up their apartments. This represents an unfair displacement since the other tenants that were in place at the time the building exited Mitchell-Lama in 2005, those that did not qualify for Section 8 subsidies are permanently protected from excessive market rate rents by having been placed in the LAP Program. Yet all Eastwood tenants at the time of exit from Mitchell Lama were promised they would be forever protected from market rate rents. The Committee agreed there is unfairness with the above scenario – the loophole whereby the landlord can prey on Section 8 tenants that may wind up even slightly exceeding the Section 8 income guidelines by suddenly imposing excessive rents on those tenants -- and considered how the situation can be corrected.

First, we must find out how many Section 8 tenants are vulnerable to displacement as outlined above. We agreed that many Section 8 tenants, those on fixed incomes for example retirees or disabled, would likely not exceed the income guidelines, but that many other Section 8 tenants, those whose children have grown up and gone to work but cannot afford to leave home, or other families that may have taken in a grown child or relative that may be down on their luck but eventually may earn some income, may be affected. It is possible that this data may be available from the DHCR so that we could have an idea of the size of the problem.    If in the end it turns out that the number of households in danger of displacement is in the range of 300-400, then the issue is a major problem with the risk of displacement affecting hundreds of residents. We would like to have this data before proceeding with next steps such as having meetings with RIOC, Urban American, elected representatives, etc., to plead that the
exit agreement and the agreement worked out with the tenants and the new owner upon exit could be amended to extend LAP protection to Section 8 tenants that may eventually exceed the Section 8 income guidelines. We need to find a way to keep people in their homes especially in these times of high unemployment and high rents.

We recognize that the Tenants Association of Eastwood/Roosevelt Landings is currently fighting the landlord over electrical sub metering, that is, electrical sub metering the way the landlord wishes to carry it out –making electrical bills a lucrative source of income as well as providing another way to evict tenants that may be unable to pay grossly inflated electrical bills, by considering the non-payment of inflated electrical bills as equivalent to the non-payment of rent, and extending to the landlord the power to evict tenants even if the tenant can afford to pay the rent but cannot afford the unjustly inflated electrical bill. As the Tenants Association is currently focused on this problem which threatens the future of all Eastwood tenants, the issue of Section 8 tenants exceeding income guidelines and not being transferred into the LAP Program, may not be immediately addressed. Also, the above possible steps can only be carried out under the auspices of, and as an effort by, the Eastwood tenants and their organization. We discussed that it is vital for Section 8 tenants of Eastwood to become active and involved in the Tenants Association. If requested by the Tenants Association the Housing Committee is happy to lend support and help with these issues.

We discussed the problem of Southtown not providing affordable housing. Related has said the hospital housing is affordable housing. This claim is ludicrous not only because hospital housing not open to the general public, but even within the hospital community itself, this housing is only made available
to certain exclusive employee categories such as doctors, nurses, post-docs etc. These segments of the hospital community, with the exception of post-docs, do not earn low or moderate incomes. The hospital buildings cannot be described as affordable housing and do not satisfy the requirement to provide publicly accessible affordable housing. Related would go a long way toward correcting this imbalance by constructing buildings 7, 8, and 9 and insuring that these buildings are Rent Stabilized and open to Section 8 tenants as well. It appears that Related would like to “protect” its investment – the enclave of Southtown -- by conveniently “forgetting” to build the moderate income buildings – RIOC and the State Government should hold Related’s feet to the fire and force them to build these buildings. State Government must act in the interest of all of the people of the State of New York, not just the high-income people.

We discussed the problem of Manhattan Park not having a Tenants Association so that there is no counter-weight to oppose landlord actions that harm tenants such as inflating the price of the sub metered electricity. Manhattan Park tenants must first organize themselves and form a Tenants Association. The Housing Committee would then be happy to assist a Manhattan Park Tenants Association once it is organized.

RIOC Changes 3 Year Old Policy On Release Of Daily Public Safety Report Information To Roosevelt Island Community- Senior Staff Needs To Review First, Why?

Image of Redacted Report From Ann Arbor Chronicle For Illustrative Purposes Only

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Public Safety Department has been including me on an email distribution list of it's Daily Public Safety Reports since January 2008 when I asked former RIOC President Steve Shane to do so and he agreed. Since that time I have been periodically posting these reports on this blog's main page and including the reports for the previous 7 days on the blog's sidebar.

Last week the Roosevelt Island Daily Public Safety Reports stopped arriving in my email folder. I sent an email to Public Safety Director Keith Guerra about this but received no response. Last Friday, I ran into RIOC's Press Spokesperson at Starbucks, told her that I was not receiving the Public Safety Reports and asked her if she could look into the matter, which she agreed to do. Earlier today, I received this message from the RIOC Press Spokesperson:

I check{ed} on the email alerts you asked about.  It appears you got on an internal RIOC distribution list that was meant for senior RIOC employee only.  Your name has now been removed from that list.  You can still get information here : http://www.rioc.com/incidentreport.htm

Hope that helps,

I responded and copied RIOC President Leslie Torres, VP Of Operations Fernando Martinez as well as the RIOC Directors:

Why has my name been taken off the Daily Public Safety Report list? I have been receiving these daily public safety reports and posting on blog for over a year with the knowledge and permission of Senior RIOC staff since Steve Shane was RIOC President. It was not a mistake that I was on that list.

What has changed in RIOC policy between last week when I received the information and now?

RIOC's Press Spokesperson replied:

Your name was taken off the Daily Public Safety Report email list because this is an internal RIOC email for senior staff.  You can still get access to this information on RIOC's website at http://www.rioc.com/incidentreport.htm, so you can still post the information on the blog.

I replied:

That this is an internal RIOC email list does not answer the question as to why I was taken off the list since I was on the list since January 2008 with the knowledge and permission of RIOC senior staff. What has changed from the prior three years, including last week, to this week that requires my removal from this list.

The RIOC Incident Report web page that you link to is not a sufficient method of informing the Roosevelt Island public because it only lists the report for a single day and then is removed. If I happen to miss that particular day there is no way for me to access the information. Also, there are days when the Public Safety Incident Information is not put up on the site.

By including me in the emails, as has been the practice for over a year, I am able to provide the Roosevelt Island public with important Public Safety information on a timely, effective and efficient basis.

What, if anything, is now different with the content on the email list? I don't understand the rationale for removing me from a source of information that has served the Roosevelt Island public well for over three years.

Why would RIOC want that stopped?

RIOC's Press Spokesperson answered:

 I understand that you are unhappy about being taken of the list, but the Daily Public Safety Report email presents the first time senior staff at RIOC have to opportunity to see and discuss this information.  They need an opportunity to review this information before it goes public.

RIOC is willing to create an archive of incident reports, if that helps you.

This makes no sense at all and contributes to the perception that RIOC is hiding/filtering Public Safety information from the Roosevelt Island community. Why does the Senior Staff now need to review and discuss the daily Public Safety Reports prior to it's release when they had not been doing it for the last three years?

What is going on?

I was just about to press the publish button on this post when RIOC VP Of Operations Fernando Martinez spotted me at Starbucks and sat down for a conversation on this subject. Mr. Martinez emphasized that the purpose of having Senior RIOC staff review the Daily Public Safety Reports prior to releasing it to the community was so that he would know what is going on and be able to respond if questioned about a particular incident. Mr. Martinez promised that the Daily Public Safety Reports would not be censored and still be made available that same day - only a little later in the day on RIOC's web site where I can take the reports and publish on this blog.

After speaking with Mr. Martinez I understand his position better but still think there is no reason to add another layer of RIOC review prior to releasing the information to the public. If a resident asks him a question that he does not know the answer to, all he has to say is that I will get back to you on that when I have the answer as has been done for the last three years.

UPDATE 3/1 - I spoke with RIOC President Leslie Torres earlier today who promised to send me a separate email with the daily Public Safety Report after she or other RIOC senior staff members review it.

UPDATE 3/2 - Received today's Public Safety Report in separate email from RIOC and posted on sidebar, If this procedure is continued, should work out fine. It included same information as went to RIOC senior staff.

Roosevelt Island's Version Of Wikileaks - RIRA Committee Reports Made Available Prior To Tonight's Monthly Meeting

 Image From The Public Record

Roosevelt Island's own version of Wikileaks - below are the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Committee Reports which had been the subject of January 2011 RIRA Censorship Resolution preventing their publication to the public prior to Monthly Meeting.

As you can see from reading these Committee reports, there is absolutely no reason why they cannot be made available to the public prior to the RIRA Monthly Meeting as they had been on this blog for the last two years. Hopefully, RIRA will repeal their Censorship resolution at their meeting later tonight.

Government Relations Committee Report
1/17/11

The Government Relations Committee met on 1/17 to provide background to members concerning the present state of governance on Roosevelt Island and how we got that way. The meeting brought the members of the committee, as well as members of The Maple Tree Group, the sub-committee, together.

Margie Smith, past Chair of GRC, gave the history of the community’s governing structure. Ashton Barfield, immediate past Chair of GRC identified the conditions that relate to the upcoming election, slated for November, 2012 which will fill expired RIOC Board terms for Resident Board Members.

Discussion took place concerning possible alternative governance options and brought to light the statement made recently by our new Governor regarding closing some of the Public Benefit Corporations maintained by the State. The matter is under consideration with no definitive stance.

Dave Evans volunteered to update the contact list of Government Officials and their staffs who represent or interact on Island affairs.

Margie’s information confirmed the role of Government Relations as the connection point between the Common Council and our elected representatives. The GRC should be contacted when any committee or Common Council Member needs to interact with someone who is in an official or elected capacity.
Submitted By: Joyce Mincheff

RIRA – ISLAND SERVICES COMMITTEE (ISC) REPORT TO THE COMMON COUNCIL MEETING 2/2/11

At the 1/12/11 meeting of ISC, we adopted 7 issues to work on:

o Red Bus schedule –Goal is to have a reliable and predictable bus schedule. (Frank Farance will be the lead ISC person for this issue).

o Main St. stores – Objective is to have more and better stores. (Max Long & Alex Fletcher are lead persons.)

o Public Library –Goal is to relocate library to a larger and better space (likely 504 Main St.) and upgrade services and collections. (Marilyn Atkins is lead person.)

o Strollers on Red Bus during rush hours – Change RIOC policy so strollers are allowed on bus at all times. (Frank Farance is lead person.)

o Parks – Monitor operations of new Southpoint Park (which opens in April or May). Correct/improve park regulations and procedures as necessary. (Matt Katz is lead person.)

o Night programs for senior youth – If the Social, Cultural & Educational Committee agrees to lead RIRAʼs efforts on this issue, ISC will join the expected Task Force to work on this issue. (Erin Feeley-Nahem is lead lSC person.)

o Pedestrian safety barrier on Queens side of RI bridge – Goal is to have the Department of Transportation install a pedestrian safety barrier similar to the barrier on the RI side of the bridge. (Jim Bates is lead person.)

Recent developments In mid-January, after meeting with RIRA representatives, RIOC began a 15 minute Red Bus schedule in non-rush hours to see if this will give us the desired reliable and predictable bus schedule. So far, there’s not enough data to know if the plan is working. We’ll need about two months of operation to know if this new schedule is performing as RIOC expects.

Aaron Hamburger, Chair - ISC


Communications Committee Report
Meeting Date: January 24, 2011
Chairs: Ava Dawson & Vini Fortuna
In attendance: Ava Dawson, Vini Fortuna, Matt Katz, Sherie Helstien, John Paul, Frank Farance, Rick O’Connor, Ahmed Darwish, Barbara Allen, Lorena Fortuna and Joseph Terranella (arrived after voting)

Committee Internal Censorship

•    Resolution: Be it resolved that it is our standing policy to make public the minutes, reports and “work products” of this committee with the exception of sensitive information or unless otherwise specified.

o    Unanimous approval: 10-0-0 •    Resolution: Be it resolved that sensitive information will include specific e-mail addresses/contact information, passwords/access codes/credentials, internal urls security codes and proprietary information.

o    Unanimous approval: 10-0-0 •    As a courtesy to the committee, draft committee reports and minutes will be sent to the committee for comment at least 24 hours before being sent to the president for inclusion in the agenda package when possible.

Island Censorship
•    Tabled

Update on Publication of the RIRA Column
•    Matt and Dick have reached an agreement regarding the re-publication of the RIRA column. The RIRA column will be made available for publication on the RIRA website the Wednesday following WIRE distribution at 3pm. A specific credit line will be included in the re-publication. Additionally, past RIRA columns will be made available for publication on the RIRA website. The communications committee thanks Dick Lutz for allowing us to provide more island residents with access to this information.

The RIRA Website

•    The RIRA website, Facebook and Twitter were launched on 1/28/11! The website is available at www.riraonline.com with links to the Facebook and Twitter.

•    Calendar – Barbara, Vini, Matt and Sherie will have posting access to the calendar. Committee chairs will send their meeting times to the calendar address previously specified (please contact the above named for the address if necessary).

•    The communications committee will issue a press release to the WIRE and the Roosevelt Islander Blog when launched.

•    The committee is considering the creation of a forum or group function on the website and will discuss the implementation of such a function at our next meeting.


Subject: RIRA Planning Committee Report 
Date: 2011-01-28
From: Frank Farance

The RIRA Planning Committee met on Wednesday, 2011-01-12 for approximately 90 minutes. We adopted an initial work programme for the remainder of the 2010-2012 term that includes the following six items:

Topic #1: Blackwell Park Planning. Scope: In the prior RIRA session, we had collaborated with RIOC on a Master Plan. We need to provide continuity for RIOC so that community involvement is not lost. The Blackwell Park Subcommittee (of the RIRA Planning Committee) was handling this task. We have new/different members this RIRA session, so we need to make sure there is follow-up.

Topic #2: Long-Term Financial Planning/Budgeting for Roosevelt Island. Scope: In the 1990's there was a state subsidy of $1.6 million. As presented at the November meeting, the RIOC CFO has presented a bleak financial picture. We should be investigating the amount of revenue lost by the lack of State and City taxes returning to Roosevelt Island. By saying "lack", it doesn't mean zero, it means that we aren't getting our fair share. The purpose of this activity would be to research and calculate what our fair share might be, and then to make suggestions on how to acquire that kind of funding and/or services.

Topic #3: Amendments to Roosevelt Island's General Development Plan (GDP). Scope: There is an existing GDP, but more will need to be said about the present and near-future configuration of the Island. One might ask: Why worry about the GDP if most of the development (except Southtown 7-9) is complete? Answer: The GDP also identifies open spaces, parks, etc. and if the GDP becomes a weak document (because both sides, City and State, are ignoring it in residential development areas), then it becomes equally invalid on designation of park spaces and such. This activity would look towards providing revised wording (even though we aren't a party to the contract) and advocacy through the Mayor's office.

Topic #4: Working on an Island-wide evacuation plan. Scope: At present there is no Island-wide evacuation plan, but RIOC has plans for several kinds of emergencies (snow, cold, heat, power failure). Normally, the City's OEM (Office of Emergency Management) coordinates all of this, including ordering evacuations, i.e., the Mayor orders this, not RIOC. The lack of planning for Island-wide evacuations has been a concern of residents for many for years. We plan on working with RIOC, the Roosevelt Island CERT, and the City's OEM.

Topic #5: Main Street and Retail Planning. Scope: We recognize that the master-lease process is ongoing within RIOC, but there is a need for resident input on planning topics that are long- range, not merely short-term questions of providing specific services. We plan on coordinating and collaborating with the RIRA Island Services Committee to formulate RIRA planning positions.

Topic #6: Roosevelt Island Waterfront Planning. Scope: This work involves coordination with the NYC Department of Planning and their "Vision 2020" effort (a comprehensive waterfront plan).

NOTE: The RIRA Planning Committee is free to revise its work at upcoming meetings, based upon priorities and resources. The purpose of establishing a work programme is to announce our intentions for areas of study and recommendation.


SC&E Committee Meeting Notes
Thursday, January 18, 2011, 7pm-9pm

Present: Shinozaki, Katz, Polivy, Helstien, Greene, Darwish, (Nina) Kaul, Feely-Nahem, Reid Absent: Strong, Ferrera, Marcus

We reviewed several ideas that were discussed in our first meeting:

1.    EZGlide 350 Company:    S. Helstien contacted company and got pricings for various size and timings for the possible ice-skating idea.
We discussed more specifically, venue and funding: if outdoors, location and especially security would be major issues; there are three possible outdoor basketball courts (Capobianco, Blackwell or outdoor court behind Sportspark). Security is a real issue as we would have skates, the panels that create the skating surface, rubber matting for the lace-up area to keep secure and protected. If indoors, we might be able to use Sportspark the indoor basketball court. Security would then be no problem. No discussion has been had with RIOC yet. It was decided that we should first meet with Doryne Iseley of Roosevelt Landings to see if Urban America, the RL owners, would be interested in being a part of the funding of this endeavor and if Ms. Islely would be able to then help us get other building managements into the funding circle. We need to know how much each of the building/complex managements would be willing to put into the pot to make this happen. Then we can go to RIOC to talk about spaces they control. We were initially aiming for February, but we may not be able to make it happen that soon. Pricing details below.
Pricing is high: from $10,085 for 2 days (in Feb) up to $16,395 for 14 days. We have pricing in increments from 2 days, 7 days/$12,452, 10 days/$14,088, 14 days. They will offer incremental donations because we are a 501(c)4 non-profit organization.($1000, $1500, $1800, $2800). All pricings include the following:
80 EZ Glide 350 DoveTail panels, EZ Glide Enhancer, 200 pairs of Skates, 560 square feet of Rubber matting for the skate lace-up area, All surface preparation Accessories and Installation materials, Freight to and from venue
RIRA would charge for skate rentals; there is a W hotel in the city that has a skate rink made of this synthetic material. Skating is free, but skate rentals are $12 per pair. We will investigate this further.

2.    Shinozaki and Feely-Nahem, Public Safety Committee Chair, will meet with the Legacy High School President, to discuss RI teen youth issues. We would like to work with the school and their expertise with children to develop a plan Loitering is a problem and the kids need a place to “hang out” from 9pm – midnight. There has been agreement from a sub-committee of Island Services as well, to help and support this effort to find a place for these kids to congregate and socialize.

3.    Helstien and others discussed picking up the Bollywood party. Possible venues again discussed, along with food ideas. Helstien will call Tiffin take-out/restaurant, which advertises with The WIRE and does food delivery on the Island to see if they’re interested and what they might charge for catering. Feely- Nahem has some other food ideas as well.

ACTION ITEMS:

1.    “Welcome Wagon” - L. Shinozaki – Approached the management of Manhattan Park and met with a positive response. Shinozaki will pursue this idea further for that complex. It was decided by the committee that the respective RIRA building reps need to be present for any of these building events. It was originally thought that any of the RIRA reps could be present at any of these WW’s and that may also be possible, but it was recognized as discussion progressed that it would be incumbent on the specific reps to be available during an event for their building, as this is how we link with the community that elected us. Helstien informed the committee that the RIRA website will soon be launched (no date available at the time of this meeting) and that we would like to have some print materials available for these WW sessions talking about the link.
The Committee supports unanimously going ahead with this project and will bring this information to the February Common Council meeting.

2.    “MarketAmerica” - Bob Darwish - We revisited this fundraising program. The link is: http:// marketamerica.na4.acrobat.com/npo The committee voted unanimously to proceed with this and will bring this information to the February Common Council meeting. It costs RIRA nothing, and it has the potential of bringing in some money to RIRA (people shop through this website and a percentage of the money spent comes back to RIRA). SC&E will propose that this program be included as a link on the website as well. This information would be included in print material for the Welcome Wagons. We want to see this site posted on the RIRA website, on Rick O’Conor’s blog site if possible and possibly in The WIRE.

The Committee supports unanimously going ahead with this project and will bring this information to the February Common Council meeting.

Respectfully submitted, Lynn Strong Shinozaki

Interesting to note that the Island Services Committee Report is already on the RIRA Website.

Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Monthly Meeting Wednesday Februry 2 At Child School Gymnasium, Come Learn What Is Happening On Roosevelt Island - Censorship Motion Still At Issue

Image Of January 2011 RIRA Common Council Meeting

The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) will be holding it's February 2011 Monthly meeting Wednesday night starting at 8 PM. The RIRA monthly meeting will take place at the Child School Gymnasium (566 Main Street) and not at the Good Shepherd Community Center. 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.

Below is the Agenda for the January 2011 RIRA meeting.
February RIRA Aganda

In the past, I would have included the RIRA Committee Monthly Reports in this post but due to the RIRA Censorship motion passed at the January RIRA meeting, I cannot share them with the Roosevelt Island community prior to the monthly meeting.

Here's a video of the censorship motion's introduction and rationale at the January RIRA meeting.

You Tube Video Of RIRA Censorship Motion

RIRA Communciations Co-Chair Ava Dawson opposes the censorship motion and writes:

I believe that the censorship motion passed at the last common council meeting was a mistake, and greatly damages the legitimacy and transparency of RIRA. It makes us seem hypocritical in our demands for similar transparency from RIOC if we cannot make our information available to the public, especially when all island residents are technically members of RIRA. 

As co-chair of the communications committee, we have been working to establish a presence on the internet for RIRA (to be available soon), and have been working to make committee reports and RIRA documents available to the public on our website. I am worried about the censorship motion's potential effect on our efforts in this regard.

To comment on Rick's publication of the minutes: It is my belief that committee minutes and reports are public domain, and I feel that he was completely within his rights to publish these documents.  The fact that the documents contained unfavorable viewpoints and harsh wording reflects poorly on those who wrote them. It was not Rick's job to censor this information prior to publication, as he was not the original author of the documents. This responsibility lies in the hands of the elected committee chairs. The public has a right to know the opinions of its elected representatives and how they are reporting these opinions to the organization.

If you do not like the job that your committee heads are doing or you do not feel that you are being adequately represented, please come and voice this opinion at the next RIRA meeting or within the committee meetings themselves.

Please note that this is my personal opinion and does not reflect the sentiment of RIRA or the Communications Committee.

Ms. Dawson's comments were received prior to the RIRA website going live last week.

Former RIRA President and current Planning Committee Chair Frank Farance also opposes the RIRA Censorship motion and believes that the vote was procedurally invalid. According to Mr. Farance:

Subject: Request for Interpretation to void "censorship" vote result because it required a 2/3 vote
Date: 2011-01-28
From: Frank Farance

I request the RIRA Common Council to formally interpret its constitution, by-laws, and rules of order with respect to the apparent approval of a "censorship" motion at the January 5, 2011 RIRA Common Council meeting. Based upon the following reasoning, the RIRA Common Council did not follow its own procedures, which require a 2/3 vote for approval of such a motion; the motion was inconsistent with the present RIRA Constitution; and the motion implied a change to the present RIRA Constitution. Thus, the 17-12 vote on "censorship" did not meet the required approval criteria and did not follow the required procedure and, thus, is null and void.

The following is background information that led up to the vote and a motion I will make at Wednesday's RIRA Common Council meeting.

1. I request the following motion at the February 2 RIRA Common Council meeting:
Whereas the RIRA Common Council at its January 5, 2011 meeting adopted a motion by a vote of 17-12 on censorship, which included restrictive policies for distribution of documents;

Whereas RIRA Constitution Article III, Section 4, "Meetings" implies that all RIRA meetings are public when not in Executive Session ("However, the Council may be called into executive session by a Two-Thirds vote of the Council Members. Executive sessions are not open to the public and no votes may be taken at any executive session.") and the said censorship motion, by virtue of its controlling the flow of information, would imply non-public meetings of the RIRA Common Council and its committees;

Whereas RIRA Constitution Article IV, Section 3, "Secretary" states "It shall be the responsibility of the Secretary to take and report minutes of all meetings of the Common Council and the Town Meeting, to maintain the archives of RIRA, ..." and creating non- published reports would a change in the constitution by requiring the Secretary to keep two kinds of archives: one for publicly available documents that reached the 2/3 criteria of the said censorship motion, and another archive for non-public documents that did not achieve the 2/3 criteria of the said censorship motion;

Whereas RIRA Constitution mandates the use of the current edition of Roberts Rules of Order that requires a two-thirds vote to "Amend or Rescind constitution, bylaws, or rules of order" and the 17-12 tally did not achieve the two-thirds criteria;

Whereas RIRA Constitution Article X mandates a Constitutional Amendment process for such changes, and this amendment process had not been performed;

Therefore, RIRA did not operate according to its Constitution, Rules of Order, and Constitutional Amendment Process;

And Therefore, the January 5, 2011 censorship motion is null and void.

2. At the January 5, 2011 RIRA Common Council meeting, the Common Council reacted to two poorly drafted committee reports. One report from the RIRA Housing Committee contained bigoted and divisive language. The other report from the RIRA Public Safety Committee contained unsubstantiated criticism of an NYPD police officer and baseless criticism of an Island youth services organization (which seems out of scope of the RIRA Public Safety Committee).

3. In my experience as a RIRA Common Council member for 15 years, I don't recall seeing a committee report as inflammatory as the Housing Report. I don't recall seeing a committee report having such baseless claims as the recent Public Safety Report.

4. These unsubstantiated complaints against the NYPD officer were communicated to supervisors at the 114th Precinct, which might cause the loss of the Island's sole NYPD presence.

5. The reports were forwarded to the broad Roosevelt Island community through various people, including the RIRA President.

6. After distribution, it was discovered that the reports contained embarrassing information (the misguided thinking of the RIRA Housing Committee Chair) and inappropriate identifying information (the NYPD officer's name was revealed, which might compromise his work). In one case, the information was posted on one of the Island's blogs, Rick O'Conor's "Roosevelt Islander". Several RIRA Common Council members contacted Mr. O'Conor to have the documents taken down. Mr. O'Conor said that he obtained the information through the normal channels (the RIRA President, as he did for years previously).

7. I and others asked Mr. O'Conor to redact the officer's name in the report, which he did. It is important to note that (1) redacting the name of the officer was appropriate because it was later discovered that the accusations in the reports were unsubstantiated (not known at the time of distribution or posting), (2) the reports were intended for the public (all Common Council reports have been posted publicly previously).

8. It is unfortunate that the Main Street WIRE weighed in on this topic and it was wrong on several counts. It blames the problem on irresponsible journalism when in fact the WIRE has the same policies of publication. For example, the WIRE reported the PSD officer's name in the May 30, 2009 faulty arrest of a parent at a Little League game (just like the Roosevelt Island blog did for the RIRA Public Safety Committee report). This dustup is most likely aggravated by the WIRE now perceiving the Roosevelt Islander blog as a competitor. An ugly competition it's been with the WIRE encouraging RIOC and RIRA officials to prohibit their biweekly status reports from being published in any place other than the WIRE (e.g., not on Rick's blog). The WIRE's position is that publishing in more than place would transmogrify the status reports into a mere press release that it says it doesn't publish, but recently the WIRE publishes PSD's press releases verbatim, i.e., a publishing policy no different than Roosevelt Islander blog on the RIRA report.

9. We are a country of a free press, which means that public officials (e.g., members of Congress) who make embarrassing remarks (e.g., statements that reveal their bigotry) are unable to censor their publication. I think Rick O'Conor had it right: it is newsworthy, to all Island residents to report that the RIRA Housing Committee Chair has such bigoted views. Likewise, it is important understand the low quality of reporting that we the RIRA Common Council are receiving from the RIRA Public Safety Committee Chair, whose reporting includes unsubstantiated complaints (gratuitous bashing) against our only NYPD presence (which we will now likely lose) and against Island youth service organizations (her committee suggests RIOC Board members initiate punitive audits).

10. By shedding light on these actions, we can hold the persons and their organizations accountable. In other words, we gauge RIRA by its own reactions towards these kinds of things. RIRA has performed poorly: rather than the primary focus on better committee reports, the RIRA discussion focused on censoring reports (unless a 2/3 majority approves their release). The RIRA discussion was about an artificial worry about "sensitive information" being published, i.e., the misguided belief that NYPD's officer's name should not have been published because it was "sensitive information". The real problem was the unsubstantiated complaints and gratuitous bashing in the RIRA Public Safety Committee Report. In other words, had the complaints in the report been substantiated, it would have been acceptable to publish the officer's name (no different than the WIRE's publication of the PSD officer's name in 2009).

11. RIRA is a public organization and it is disappointing that all four RIRA executive officers (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer) voted in favor of this censorship motion. Residents of Roosevelt Island are members of RIRA and have a right to attend and participate in every meeting, i.e., essentially all our business is conducted in public and is fair game for reporting by members themselves or the public attending the meeting. For RIRA Common Council members, the remedy to poor verbal and written statements is *to speak and write better, not to censor*.

12. Although RIRA is a public organization, there are times when matters (hopefully few of them) must be held in private and the RIRA Constitution permits this via Executive Session. However, participation in such a private meeting is not the same as deciding what information can be distributed. For the past 15 years, I have encountered "sensitive information" in only three areas: (1) the personal contact information for the RIRA Common Council members, (2) the access codes and credentials of operations (bank accounts, web sites, etc.), and (3) the proprietary information we were entrusted to hold by external organizations (e.g., Howard Polivy, Matt Katz, and I signed non-disclosure agreements with RIOC to review their emergency planning). The RIRA Common Council and RIRA committees should have a policy on which kinds of information they believe are sensitive and they cannot include information that is essential to the transparency, governance, and Island-wide participation of RIRA, i.e., minutes and committee reports can never be considered sensitive information.

Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Has A New Website - RIRA Communciations Committee Votes Not To Censor Their Meetings, Government Relations Committee Votes To Censor Information Available To The Public

Image Of January 2011 RIRA Common Council Meeting

The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) has a new website. According to Vini Fortuna, co-chair of RIRA's Communications Committee:

The RIRA Communications Committee has the pleasure to announce that we now have a website! You should be able to find information about RIRA, updates from the president, calendar of events, ongoing projects, and much more! Not only that, but you can now also follow us on Facebook and Twitter!...

RIRA's next monthly meeting will be held 8 PM on Wednesday, February 2 at the Legacy High School  gymnasium (566 Man Street).

Good job by the RIRA Communications Committee led by Co-Chairs Ava Dawson and Vini Fortuna in accomplishing one of their goals.

During a committee meeting last week, the Communications Committee also voted to repudiate (my characterization) the RIRA Censorship resolution passed during the January 2011 Common Council Meeting by continuing the long standing practice of allowing their Committee Reports and Committee discussions to be publicly reported on unlike the RIRA Government Relations Committee which voted to keep some of their discussions held during a January public meetings secret from the Roosevelt Islands public.

I don't know yet whether other RIRA Committees have decided to keep their meeting discussions and reports secret from the public.

Old Roosevelt Island Print Media Attacks New Media Roosevelt Island Blog And Distorts Story On RIRA Censorship Motion - Does Email Count As Letter To The Editor?

Image of Printing Press From Compass Rose via Library Of Congress

 Roosevelt Island's local newspaper, the Main Street WIRE, reappears after more than a month's absence this weekend with an article (sorry, only a PDF File of the January 15 issue of the entire paper is available online) involving this blog which is full of material omissions, inacuracies and distortions.The WIRE article concerns the recent Roosevelt Island Resident's Association (RIRA) resolution, reported earlier here, censoring RIRA Committe Reports from being made available to the Roosevelt Island community at the same time that they are presented to the full RIRA Common Council, as has been the practice for almost the last two years, unless a 2/3 majority vote of that committee permit the Report to be made public.

Briefly, here is how the whole mess got started.

• I received the January 2011 RIRA Common Council Package, including Agenda and Committee Reports from RIRA President Matt Katz and then published them. I have been receiving and publishing these materials for almost two years without any objections. 
• RIRA Delegate Joyce Mincheff and then Matt Katz asked me to delete the Public Safety Committee Report from Blog. I refused for reasons stated below.
• Public Safety Committee Chief Keith Guerra asked me to remove paragraph about Officer. Instead I offered to redact name. I believed him to be satisfied with my response.
• At Ms. Mincheff's request, RIRA Passes Censorship Resolution by a vote of 17-12 failing to distinguish between Committee Reports, Work Product and Preliminary Minutes.
• Publish Housing Committee Report And RIRA Southtown RIRA Representative's response.
• Main Street WIRE publishes (PDF File) misleading report on incident.

Earlier this morning, after reading the WIRE's description of the events leading up to the RIRA censorship resolution, I sent the following email message to the WIRE's editor:

I just read your January 15 WIRE article on the RIRA Censorship resolution and quite frankly I am saddened and disappointed with your lack of balance, blatant partiality and disregard of significant facts known to you.

Your failure to state in this so-called "news article" the fact that what I published were final RIRA Committee Reports from both the Public Safety and Housing Committee Chairs submitted to the RIRA Common Council in the ordinary course of their procedures and not what you label as 'working papers" or "minutes" (page 1 para 3) makes a mockery of your editorial claims in the same issue as holding some sort of exclusive "responsibility" and "good-sense judgment" in Roosevelt Island reporting for your newspaper and you as a "seasoned professional".

Your failure to include the below statement from Ms. Mincheff, which you had a copy of, thanking me for the way in which I handled the Public Safety information demonstrates the intent of this article, together with your editorial, was really designed to be a personal attack against me as a competitive news outlet on Roosevelt Island

If he's okay with redacting his name- it works for me. Keep in mind, there may be responses you've received that mention his name as well.


Thanks for dealing with the problem in a humane manner.


Joyce

You also failed to mention that the Public Safety and Housing Committee reports were provided to me by RIRA President Matt Katz and that the Public Safety Committee Chair Erin Feely-Nahem told me that she had no problem with my publishing the material. She did have a problem that Matt Katz failed to forward a subsequent report that provided additional context to the published Public Safety Report which had it been sent, I would have added to the post. Did you not think that was an important part of the story or did it not fit into your personal agenda of attacking me?

You asked me to comment on this situation and I provided a full response expecting you to be fair and accurate. By failing to correctly represent my side of this story, you have badly misinformed the Roosevelt Island community.

Also, the condescending tone of your article and editorial, including these remarks:

... The technologies of the 21st century have put those megaphones into inexperienced and irresponsible hands. It’s no longer a news organization’s community of professionals making a disciplined, careful decision about what gets re- peated by publication. Now, it can be just one person, answerable only to himself, free of traditional constraints, with no particular responsibility to standards of right and reason...

is self serving and just plain wrong. I may not be a member of what you consider to be the journalism profession but will put the Roosevelt Islander Blog's news judgement and ethics besides the WIRE's any day of the week and come out ahead. I strive to be fair, accurate and provide as many different sides of a story that exist without claiming my own personal opinion to be a fact. When I do give my personal opinion it is stated to be so and not disguised as fact as you have done in this article in an attempt to discredit your competition in the world of Roosevelt Island news and information. I believe you have only hurt yourself and the WIRE.

Again, I am very disappointed that you have chosen this path.

The Editor's response to me was to write a letter to the editor - which I thought I just did - unless the WIRE editor meant for me to send an actual physical letter in an envelope with a stamp through the mail and that an email message somehow does not count.

Here's how the latest in the ongoing saga of the Roosevelt Island media wars began. Earlier in the week, the WIRE Editor contacted me and asked if I wanted to comment on the RIRA resolution restricting media access. I asked the WIRE Editor:

Are there specific questions or charges involving me or are you looking  for general policy comment.

The WIRE Editor replied that I might want to respond to the charge that I was irresponsible in publishing the RIRA Report and a general policy comment as well.

I responded:

OK, I will have a full response for you tomorrow.

If you have not done so already, you may want to consider asking Vini Fortuna, Ava Dawson, Frank Farance and other members of RIRA who opposed this resolution for their views on subject.

FYI - In regard to redacting the Police Officer's name, I never refused to do that but, in fact, I suggested redacting the officer's name to Keith Guerra and he was satisfied with my offer. Ask Keith about that.  I did refuse to delete post from Roosevelt Islander Blog when asked to by Joyce Mincheff, Matt Katz and Chief Guerra.

RIRA Common Council Packages have been sent to me and posted on the blog prior to RIRA Monthly Meetings many times before without any objection. To be clear, none of the material sent to me or posted was "work product" or "preliminary minutes" but were the RIRA Committee reports submitted to the Common Council in the regular course of RIRA business and similar Committee Reports have been posted many times in the past.

Below are two emails I sent to Joyce Mincheff and Matt Katz on January 5 in response to their emails asking me to remove the post of the RIRA Common Council  Package sent to me by Matt. You have my permission to print these emails in full if you wish. First

Joyce & Matt,

I understand your concern but this is news obtained lawfully and is not defamatory towards anyone.

I do not intend on deleting the material.

I think there has been much criticism in the past of RIOC's lack of transparency and keeping information from the public. I don't think it is wise for the Roosevelt Island Residents Association to follow down that path which seems to be the suggestion. It is the right thing to do for RIRA Committee reports to be made available to the public and not just for the select few in the know.

If anyone feels that Officer {Name Redacted} has been unfairly criticized, the solution is not to delete information but rather to add more information explaining why the criticism is wrong or incomplete which I am always willing to do.

I am happy to discuss this with any of you further if you wish.

Regards,

Rick

and second:

Joyce

I just got off the phone with Keith Guerra and I think he is satisfied with my redacting the officer's name but leaving the rest of the post. I also told Keith that I am happy to post additional information that counters the view expressed about the Officer.

I am not going to delete the post.

Rick

Joyce responded later that same day.

If he's okay with redacting his name- it works for me. Keep in mind, there may be responses you've received that mention his name as well.

Thanks for dealing with the problem in a humane manner.

Joyce

Dick, If you wish to print Joyce's response, you should ask her permission to do so. I will have a chronological statement of the events for you tomorrow. I think that the above emails I am sharing with you provide the context for what occurred.

Also, Erin Feely-Nahem who wrote the Public Safety Committee report told me that she had no problem with my publishing the report. In addition to the Public Safety Report controversy, some RIRA members were embarrassed by the contents of the Housing Committee report submitted and want to prevent similar embarrassments from occurring again by prohibiting the distribution of these reports.

I am happy to respond to any specific follow up questions you may have.

The next day, I sent these comments to the WIRE Editor most of which were ignored and left out of the article.

Since April, 2009, the Roosevelt Islander Blog has been regularly publishing the RIRA monthly meeting Agenda and those Committee Reports provided by RIRA representatives, unedited and in their entirety, without any objections.  In fact, the material was made available with RIRA official's approval and encouragement.

Last week, continuing such practice, RIRA President Matt Katz provided me with the Agenda and Committee Reports for the January 2011 RIRA Common Council Meeting, which the Roosevelt Islander Blog published in full in the ordinary course, as was customary. The next day, I received an email message from Joyce Mincheff and Matt Katz, requesting that I remove from the Blog, the post which contained RIRA’s Public Safety Committee report about the NYPD officer assigned to Roosevelt Island because of certain critical comments made about the officer in the Committee Report.

I declined such request to remove this post, for the following reasons which were provided to Ms. Mincheff and Mr. Katz in an email:

“I understand your concern but this is news obtained lawfully and is not defamatory towards anyone.

I do not intend on deleting the material.

I think there has been much criticism in the past of RIOC's lack of transparency and keeping information from the public. I don't think it is wise for the Roosevelt Island Residents Association to follow down that path which seems to be the suggestion. It is the right thing to do for RIRA Committee reports to be made available to the public and not just for the select few in the know.

If anyone feels that {Name Redacted} has been unfairly criticized, the solution is not to delete information but rather to add more information explaining why the criticism is wrong or incomplete which I am always willing to do.

I am happy to discuss this with any of you further if you wish.”

Later that day, Public Safety Director, Keith Guerra, called me and also requested that the post be removed. He explained that criticism of the NYPD officer would make it difficult for the officer to do his job effectively, and that if the officer was removed from Roosevelt Island by his superiors, another officer probably would not be assigned to Roosevelt Island. I told Mr. Guerra that I would not remove the post for the reasons stated above but offered to redact the officer's name from the post. Mr. Guerra understood the reasons why I would not remove the post, and was satisfied with my redacting the officer's name.

The information published on the Roosevelt Islander Blog, which some RIRA members are now objecting to, was contained within formal RIRA Committee reports submitted by such Committees to the RIRA Common Council in the ordinary course of their business. These Committee reports were not "work product", " preliminary notes" or "unofficial minutes".

RIRA should not be preventing the Roosevelt Island public from reading the same Committee reports that are available to the Common Council Delegates which represent them.  These Common Council Delegates were elected to serve all Roosevelt Island residents, in a responsible and transparent manner, not behind an opaque and arbitrary wall preventing the free exchange of information to the public.

The effort by a majority of RIRA members to censor these Committee reports is an attempt to prevent individual members and the Council itself from being embarrassed or looking foolish. In my opinion, that is not a reason to censor information from the Roosevelt Island public."

After I read the WIRE article this morning, I called Roosevelt Island Public Safety Director Keith Guerra to inquire if I misrepresented his position. Mr. Guerra replied that he did not say he was "satisfied" with my redacting the officer's name but that he was "OK" with it. To my mind, there is not much difference between being "satisfied" and "OK". Mr. Guerra did repeat that he would have preferred the entire paragraph concerning the officer be removed but fully understood my position of reporting a news story.

In my opinion, it's too bad the WIRE Editor, in this case and for his own particular reasons, does not understand the difference between a news story and a hatchet job. The WIRE Editor is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts!!!!!!

RIRA Rep Defends Southtown From RIRA Housing Committee Report Alleging Affluent Exclusiveness & Gives Walking Tour Of Northtown - RIRA Common Council Responds To Report By Censoring Future Distribution Of Information

Image Of RIRA Southtown Resident Aaron Hamburger Defending Southtown

The Public Safety Committee Report presented to the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) January 2011 Common Council Meeting was not the only controversial submission that resulted in a majority of RIRA Council members approving a Resolution censoring future reports for distribution to the Roosevelt Island community. The Housing Committee submitted a report which elicited a fierce, yet humorous, defense and response from Southtown Common Council Delegate Aaron Hamburger. Fortunately, we have a video of Mr. Hamburger's response provided by Roosevelt Island resident Trevre Andrews as well as the text of the remarks below.

You Tube Video Of January RIRA Meeting

RESPONSE TO RIRA’S HOUSING COMMITTEE REPORT TO THE 1/5/11 COMMON COUNCIL MEETING

In an outrageous attack on Southtown residents, the Housing Committee report charged that:

“We now have the phenomenon of a nearly complete lack of contact between the populations of Southtown and Northtown, leading to community conflict and the tarnishing of its reputation as an inclusive, caring place to live. Day and night, the million- dollar apartments of Southtown telegraph the message to the people of Northtown: We have money, you don’t; we do not need to know you much less lay eyes on you; ....... Southtown is where the money is; that’s why Southtown residents never set foot in Northtown and definitely do not care to interact in any way with Northtown residents”.

I first pointed out that if Southtown folks want no contact with Northtown people, why is over 21% of the Common Council composed of representatives from Southtown? Then I addressed the issue of Southtown residents not venturing into Northtown. Basically, few of us go to Northtown because there’s little there to attract us. Yes, many go to the Farmer Market, but that’s only once a week. My walk to Gristedes on Wednesday morning (1/ 5/11), illustrates the real problem. Leaving Southtown, the first thing I saw in Northtown was the Thrift Store. A terrible introduction to Main St. The front display window showed a disorganized and haphazard collection of items. The window was covered with pieces of tape and bits of paper and was probably the dirtiest window in all of Roosevelt Island. Then, if you go in to make a donation, they refuse to give you a receipt (the only thrift store I know doing this). So, many of us are now donating off-island to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Across the street is a chiropractor, who hasn’t been in business for about a year. Hidden in the basement of Rivercross are two excellent doctors and a fine dental practice. Many of us use these doctors, but that doesn’t get us very far into Northtown.

Continuing my walk, I next pass the Public Library. This library has a fair collection of reference books, children’s books, DVD’s and periodicals, but their general book collection is very limited. About 20% of the book shelves are empty. Usually, if you want a book, it has to be ordered from another library and that takes anywhere from one week to a month to arrive on Roosevelt Island. Oh, there’s no bathroom. Actually, there is a bathroom, but it’s kept locked for use by the staff only! Across the street is a nail salon, but we have a nail place in Southtown. Then, it’s the Trellis, which a number of us patronize especially on live music nights. Next is a dry cleaner, but again we have a good dry cleaner in Southtown.

Now I’m passing the Senior Center, where I have to maneuver around a large group of Northtown seniors waiting to get on the Shoppers Bus which will take them off-island to shop. This is while I’m going to Gristedes to spend my money on-island (and where I get a 10% senior discount on Tuesday and Wednesday and free delivery if I want). Is there something wrong with this picture?

Across the street is the deli, but we have a better deli in Southtown. Oh, I’ve already passed the closed fish store and soon pass the closed flower shop where many of us used to get our flowers. Then another nail place. Does Roosevelt Island really need 3 nail salons? In the final stretch of Main St, there’s the closed liquor store which a number of us routinely patronized, then China 1 where a number of us order take-out, and a new bank. The old bank closed forcing most of us to open accounts and get credit cards elsewhere - I transferred to Chase. Now nicely established at Chase, it’s not worth the hassle to come back to Roosevelt Island.

Finally, before I enter Gristedes, I go to the post office. This is the most customer- friendly, helpful branch post office I’ve ever encountered. So, I end my walk with a happy experience. On to buying my groceries at Gristedes.

To repeat, Southtown people don’t venture very often to Northtown because there is little there to attract them. We badly need more and better stores.

There’s a positive ending to the story of the Housing Committee report. After a bit of discussion, the RIRA Common Council voted to reject the report and asked the Housing Committee to rewrite and resubmit the report to the next Common Council meeting on 2/2/ 11.

Aaron Hamburger, Chair – RIRA’s Island Services Committee

Below is the RIRA Housing Committee Report submitted for the January 2011 RIRA meeting.This is the type of report that the majority of members of the RIRA Common Council do not want you to see in the future. For the record, this report was not preliminary, or mere work product waiting further refinement but was intended to be the official report of the RIRA Housing Committee to the full RIRA Common Council.

From the RIRA Housing Committee Report to the January 2011 Common Council Meeting.

Our Committee met to consider the three questions on the Agenda:

1. Section 8 tenants in Eastwood that eventually exceed the Section 8 income guidelines are not then automatically transferred to the LAP Program; this violates the exit agreement whereby all of the tenants of Eastwood were to be protected upon exit from Mitchell Lama.

2. Southtown is not in compliance with the guidelines set forth in the General Development Plan, as it was not developed inclusively and does not provide low-income or affordable housing, a vital component of the General Development Plan, which is still in effect. Unfortunately, the lack of affordable housing at Southtown and the sense that Southtown is an enclave has exacerbated social tension and resentment on RI. Whereas RI was previously an oasis where the socioeconomic mix provided opportunities for building bridges and friendships across the ethnic, economic, social spectrum, we now have the phenomenon of a nearly complete lack of contact between the populations of Southtown and Northtown, leading to community conflict and the tarnishing of its reputation as an inclusive, caring place to live. The divisions of NYC, which were previously absent on RI, have now arrived on RI. Day and night, the million-dollar apartments of Southtown telegraph the message to the people of Northtown: We have money, you don’t; we do not need to know you much less lay eyes on you; Northtown residents don’t count because they can’t afford million-dollar apartments; Southtown is where the money is; that’s why Southtown residents never set foot in Northtown and definitely do not care to interact in any way with Northtown residents. Buildings 7, 8, 9 should be developed as truly affordable Rent Stabilized housing open to tenants with fixed incomes, moderate incomes, and those receiving Section 8 subsidies– this would help rebalance the socioeconomic mix on RI.

3. The RIRA Housing Committee would be happy to assist and support efforts in any of the complexes on RI; however, we can only assist at the request of the building associations. If a building or complex does not have a building committee or association, the Housing Committee has no-one with whom to coordinate efforts within a particular building. Landlord intimidation may be a factor preventing tenants from organizing building committees in some buildings.

The attendees had a thorough discussion about the lingering issue of the Section 8 tenants of Eastwood, who, because of economic circumstances such as families doubling up due to rampant unemployment, children becoming adults, managing to get jobs but still not being in the position to move out because of high rents, or Section 8 tenants slowly getting pay increases through the years so that eventually their income may exceed the Section 8 guidelines, and many more possible situations whereby a household may no longer qualify for the Section 8 subsidy, these families are suddenly exposed to the excessive
market rate rents being charged by Urban American, and because of this unjust economic circumstance, are usually then forced to face the harm of having to give up their apartments. This represents an unfair displacement since the other tenants that were in place at the time the building exited Mitchell-Lama in 2005, those that did not qualify for Section 8 subsidies are permanently protected from excessive market rate rents by having been placed in the LAP Program. Yet all Eastwood tenants at the time of exit from Mitchell Lama were promised they would be forever protected from market rate rents. The Committee agreed there is unfairness with the above scenario – the loophole whereby the landlord can prey on Section 8 tenants that may wind up even slightly exceeding the Section 8 income guidelines
by suddenly imposing excessive rents on those tenants -- and considered how the situation can be corrected.

First, we must find out how many Section 8 tenants are vulnerable to displacement as outlined above. We agreed that many Section 8 tenants, those on fixed incomes for example retirees or disabled, would likely not exceed the income guidelines, but that many other Section 8 tenants, those whose children have grown up and gone to work but cannot afford to leave home, or other families that may have taken in a grown child or relative that may be down on their luck but eventually may earn some income, may be affected. It is possible that this data may be available from the DHCR so that we could have an idea of the size of the problem. If in the end it turns out that the number of households in danger of displacement is in the range of 300-400, then the issue is a major problem with the risk of displacement affecting hundreds of residents. We would like to have this data before proceeding with next steps such as having meetings with RIOC, Urban American, elected representatives, etc., to plead that the
exit agreement and the agreement worked out with the tenants and the new owner upon exit could be amended to extend LAP protection to Section 8 tenants that may eventually exceed the Section 8 income guidelines. We need to find a way to keep people in their homes especially in these times of high unemployment and high rents.

We recognize that the Tenants Association of Eastwood/Roosevelt Landings is currently fighting the landlord over electrical sub metering, that is, electrical sub metering the way the landlord wishes to carry it out –making electrical bills a lucrative source of income as well as providing another way to evict tenants that may be unable to pay grossly inflated electrical bills, by considering the non-payment of inflated electrical bills as equivalent to the non-payment of rent, and extending to the landlord the power to evict tenants even if the tenant can afford to pay the rent but cannot afford the unjustly inflated electrical bill. As the Tenants Association is currently focused on this problem which threatens the future of all Eastwood tenants, the issue of Section 8 tenants exceeding income guidelines and not being transferred into the LAP Program, may not be immediately addressed. Also, the above possible steps can only be carried out under the auspices of, and as an effort by, the Eastwood tenants and their organization. We discussed that it is vital for Section 8 tenants of Eastwood to become active and involved in the Tenants Association. If requested by the Tenants Association the Housing Committee is happy to lend support and help with these issues.

Preventing embarrassment to RIRA and controversy is not a good reason to restrict information made available to the Roosevelt Island community by their own elected representatives. Does Roosevelt Island need our own unique version of Wikileaks?

UPDATE 1/10 - Click here for the two RIRA resolutions and for spreadsheet showing how RIRA Common Council Delegates Voted.