A greater gap between RIOC and Roosevelt Islanders is not what elected officials expected when they grilled board chair RuthAnne Visnauskas earlier this year. Visnauskas assured Senator Liz Krueger and Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright that she’d increase community engagement. But the opposite happened and, as of this week, has accelerated.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
RIOC’s Visnauskas-inspired response was never robust. Executives remained hidden from public exposure, except for board meetings where they failed to interact with community members present.
The only effective acts of engagement were lightly attended, carefully controlled meetings with Public Safety Chief Kevin Brown. Brown mumbled through unreliable statements about his department’s effectiveness, and representatives from the 114th Precinct pitched in.
Secrets remained secret, transparency the equivalent of a windshield without wipers in a rainstorm.
Yet as of this week, RIOC under Visnauskas’s watchful eye got worse.
Making a Greater Gap
Please be advised that our PSD Community Engagement Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, December 12th has been postponed. Our next meeting will now be held on Tuesday, January 9th, 2024, and will follow an every-other-month cadence thereafter.
RIOC Advisory, December 6th, 2023
That dribble of engagement shrinks by half. Sweetening the deal, neither RIOC nor PSD offered the slightest hint of a reason. It was more of a because-we-feel-like-it move but strangely during a period of increasing crime on Main Street.
Adding to the sense of alienation from the community they allegedly serve, without releasing a notice or an agenda, RIOC quietly shifted its December board meeting to a new day and location.
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that a meeting of the RIOC Board of Directors previously scheduled for
Posting on RIOC’s Website.
Thursday, December 14, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. at the Cultural Center Theater, 548 Main Street,
Roosevelt Island, New York 10044, is being rescheduled to Wednesday, December 13, 2023, at
5:30 p.m, at the Good Shepherd Community Center, 543 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, New
York 10044.
Of course, no advisory accompanied the change nor any explanation. This violates the intent of public meetings law; so, what’s new?
Such practices were not common in prior administrations.
Will Board Chair Visnauskas Attend?
With lawsuits and investigations accumulating like bubbles in a pan about to boil over, the chair showed up for the last meeting. That was an October meeting that was held in November, again without explanation or notice.
Her apparent purpose was to soothe President/CEO Shelton Haynes and Chief Counsel Gretchen Robinson who recently sued her while condemning numerous individuals as participants in a “racist backlash” against them.
Visnauskas may or may not appear – she rarely does, but we can quash one rumor right now.
There is no evidence that Visnauskas will serve cookies and milk to any RIOC executive present. Comfort snacks are unlikely, although not forbidden.
Speaking of Greater Gaps
Quietly and, of course, without public notice, RIOC’s Audit Committee meets before the full board meeting. “Discussion of the Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2024-25” is the only item on their agenda.
That’s critical because it sets the stage for approval by the full board – which if the proposed budget belatedly presented in November forms the basis is appalling.
The state Budget Director, who sits on the board, must approve the budget, as he has every year, okaying toothachingly horrible assumptions.
The worst?
Every year, without fail, RIOC budgets for 10 more Public Safety positions than it ever has on its payroll. So, where does the money go for the missing PSOs, worth roughly three-quarters of a million dollars? And why would a state official, let alone RIOC’s board, okay it, year after year?
But there’s a greater gap in this year’s budget that should make any responsible public official cringe or blush, depending on responsibility.
Balancing the budget, RIOC relies critically on increasing Tram revenues by over 50%, not from fare increases, according to their own narrative, but from cramming even more passengers into already overcrowded cabins.
That’s as much fantasy as irresponsible. Who, if anyone, is going to grow a pair and stop the craziness?
Is there a single responsible board member willing to challenge this nonsense?
But why should they when they can just dig deeper into Roosevelt Islanders’ wallets when the bills come due?
The Other End of the Leash
The first thing winter reveals when it loosens its grip is not green grass. It is honesty.
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