In filings against New York State officials and representatives, charges of racism by RIOC President/CEO Shelton Haynes are plentiful. Chief Counsel Gretchen Robinson echoes his accusations. But other than flimsy, unsupportable data, neither has come up with any firm evidence against anyone. That is not true however of multiple people who say Haynes is the real racist. Now, a new voice joins in.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Set the Scene
It’s January 25th, 2018 and over a hundred Roosevelt Islanders gathered for a RIOC community meeting where management of the Youth Center would be decided. But after a majority spoke out in favor of retaining the Roosevelt Island Youth Center, board chair Alex Valella booked, yanking on his overcoat as he ran for the door.
A stunned audience remained, concerned over what would come next
RIYP, mostly under Charlie DeFino’s leadership, served local youth for decades. It was popular with after school activities as well as a soccer league in the fall.
But Haynes along with other RIOC executives wanted it taken down. Battles raged, and it was at this time that DeFino says, Haynes called him a “white motherfucker.”
DeFino was doing a presentation, fighting for his program, and Haynes was talking with Communications Director Erica Spencer-EL, an ally joining him in opposing RIYP’s continuance.
RIOC sources say that Haynes denies making this comment.
The process of getting rid of the community-based program and turning it over to RIOC appeared clearly rigged. Even then, a still rational David Kraut weighed in.
The Charges of Racism Again
Ultimately, the Roosevelt Island Youth Program was destroyed by RIOC, led by Haynes and Spencer-EL after a Request for Proposals ran aground with a tainted evaluation spotlighted by Haynes’s “adjusted” score.
In the final vote, three supporting board members – Kraut, Howard Polivy and Margie Smith – were nullified by just two resident board members – Fay Christian, now a staunch Haynes ally, and Michael Shinozaki – and two state officials with no local connections.
Ugly as that was, according to DeFino, Haynes made it worse.
Haynes came to the Youth Center on “the Friday we were closing. He ostensibly came looking for someone else but again called DeFino “a white motherfucker.”
“He was trying to goad me into a confrontation,” DeFino said, as if permanently wrecking the Roosevelt Island Youth Program wasn’t enough.
If using the “N” word benignly was enough to get rid of Rosenthal, isn’t this enough to send Haynes packing?
Other Links in the Fence
As early as 2020, around the time he participated in deposing Susan Rosenthal and claiming the CEO position for himself, suspicions of racial cleansing rose around Haynes. It wasn’t just about Rosenthal, but other Caucasian managers with strong experience and track records were fired or otherwise forced out the door.
After Assistant Vice President Jonna Carmona-Graf disappeared without explanation, Haynes promoted his totally unqualified, longtime pal Altheria Jackson to Chief Operating Officer.
Nearly as peculiar was his making working conditions for veteran government public relations officer Terrence McCauley impossible by naming Spencer-EL as his supervisor. McCauley got the message and left.
Each of those moves involved replacing a Caucasian expert with a not so hot African-American replacement. Others followed Smith, Cerone, Eliav, O’Reilly, etc.
History Catches Up
Although concurrent with the above, we did not discover Haynes’s involvement in getting Rosenthal fired on Juneteenth, making way for his stepping into her job.
Haynes and Rosenthal were close with Rosenthal guiding Haynes’s development as his mentor. But little did she know that he was recording their supposedly private conversations. In one unguarded moment, she used the “n” word as an example of how bigotry against people of color worked
According to several people, including Karline Jean in her lawsuit against Haynes, Haynes played his recordings back, strictly for African-American employees, undermining and embarrassing Rosenthal.
He then played it back for a state investigator who used it in the case for firing his friend and mentor.
Charges of Racism Hit Reverse and Divide the Community
At least in the case of this newspaper, Haynes did not call “racism” until later on. He first started with a preposterous claim that this writer posted photos of his underage children online. He was aghast over this offense.
But he never explained how I could’ve gotten the photos. In reality, Haynes posted the photos of his sons playing basketball on Twitter. All I did was retweet them as a pat on the back to an active, supportive father.
The racism claims followed, months later, but the absence of any objection to any article nor any request for correction undermine those claims. Instead, Haynes bunkered, never objecting publicly – never to me – until his Hail Mary effort to save his job.
Doing this, without any valid evidence presented, Haynes tore the community fabric. Either you buy into his unsubstantiated claims or you too are a racist.
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