The Common Council, led by Frank Farance, launched an unbridled attack on the Carter Burden Network as well as this newspaper yesterday. The Roosevelt Islander blog firmly stood by the attacks, allowing a misleading, falsehood laden screed to be distributed online. Publisher Rick O’Conor rejected requests that the attack be removed because of numerous falsehoods.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
A Rejection the Common Council Can’t Get Over
Scarcely more than a shadow of its once respected role as community advocate, the Common Council suffered a stinging rebuke last fall when, following a RIOC ethicists revue, it was kicked out of its role in distributing Public Purpose Funds.
This hurt because it was about the only thing left on their plate besides sitting around once a month and chatting. None of it was impactful nor do residents expect much from the group, these days.
But observers saw it coming as, paired up with RIOC, a Common Council committee recommended a bizarre set of grants for the third straight year. And once again, RIOC executives had to revise them, but this time, they went farther.
Among the strange recommendations, the committee approved a five figure grant for a traveling tango company. In what appeared as potential fraud, the group was bizarrely identified as part of the New York Foundation for the Arts. NYFA is itself a granting organization supported by corporate partnerships.
At the same time, multiple local nonprofits saw slashing cuts in their funding. The Common Council/RIOC logic was impenetrable, if it existed at all.
In the end, the tango funding was removed and so was the Common Council.
A Fresh Start
An ethicist recruited by RIOC recommended bringing sanity along with fairness into what had become a clown show. A new contract moved the entire PPF process to the New York Community Trust, a group with over a century of experience and a respected reputation.
Since then, the Common Council and especially Farance has been unable to forgive The Daily for exposing the issues nor the Carter Burden Network for successfully appealing results.
The Common Council Attack
Even though the NYCT contract has been in place for six months, the Common Council launched multiple reality-challenged assaults on it. Understanding that is easy. What else have they got? But yesterday, led by Farance, they escalated in a take no prisoners assault on the Carter Burden Network and me personally.
Farance penned an attack letter to RIOC, its board, every elected official he could think of and a few others. Then, he posted the entire screed on the Roosevelt Islander blog. Citing multiple falsehoods, we asked publisher Rick O’Conor to remove the posting. He refused, claiming it was all just Farance’s “opinions.”
One so-called opinion: “David Stone fails journalism with false statements, he’s caught in multiple lies.” Of course, Farance failed to identify even one, and challenged, O’Conor could not either. But he still refused to remove the statement.
I will let my reporting speak for itself.
Attacking the Carter Burden Network
By far, the potentially most damaging of Farance’s Common Council assaults hit the Carter Burden Network. He objects fiercely to the highly respected nonprofit’s appealing unfair grant recommendations he took part in. He describes them as “political” and forcing RIOC to knuckle under. None of the other nonprofits objecting to the Common Council’s bizarre recommendations gets a mention.
Underlying all this is the fact that CBN was brought in to rescue the Roosevelt Island Senior Center after a local group, then managing, was kicked out when the city’s Department of Investigations uncovered hundreds of thousands in stolen funds. The Roosevelt Island Senior Association’s top manager pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including a felony.
This mess was widely mischaracterized, including in the Roosevelt Islander blog, as an outside organization stealing a contract from an innocent local group. Only The Daily followed the case to the end and corrected the record.
Do good deeds go unpunished? Not on Roosevelt Island it seems. Farance and the Common Council smeared me by name to numerous public officials as well as the Carter Burden Network, getting a distribution assist from Rick O’Conor and his Roosevelt Islander blog. Neither will ever make a retraction or apologize to anyone.
More from the Roosevelt Island Daily News
- Tuesday’s PSD blotter: noise calls, a harassment reportRIOC’s Nov. 10 PSD blotter lists 15 incidents, all on Main Street, including four noise complaints, a harassment report and one hospital transport.
- Queens Public Library Ransomware Attack: Digital Services Still DisruptedThe Queens Public Library ransomware attack continues to disrupt public computers, digital books and online services, with no confirmed restoration date.
- A new RIOC appeals officer denied records on how its general counsel was hiredA different RIOC appeals officer denied records on how RIOC hired general counsel Lance Polivy. RIOC’s internal deliberations on the hire stay withheld.
- Monday’s PSD blotter: two hospital transports, two disputesRIOC’s Nov. 9 PSD blotter lists 14 incidents, including four aided calls with two hospital transports and a verbal dispute at 750 Main Street that drew FDNY.
- Flushing Spa Murder: Man Charged After Woman Found Stabbed to DeathFlushing spa murder investigation leads to a murder charge against a 54-year-old man after a woman was found fatally stabbed in a Queens storefront.
The Steam Tunnel Repair That Disappeared
Capital projects change. Costs rise, engineering evolves, funding moves and questions of ownership can complicate even urgent work. But the Roosevelt Island Steam Tunnel was not a speculative improvement that simply slipped down a priority list. RIOC’s own records describe an infrastructure problem known for decades.
1 COMMENTS