Bunker mode, a juvenile RIOC defense mechanism, was first cited by activist Frank Farance. Under pressure, the state agency retreats like a frightened turtle into silence. Briefly, we thought it dropped the tactic, but now, it’s back.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Nothing brings out bunker mode at RIOC more reliably than a fresh Public Safety Department screwup. This one was a doozy, rankling an older adult resident who sought assistance for a simple Lost & Found incident.
According to PSD’s reports, Lost & Found is a core activity, occupying a large chunk of their time. The department should be expert at it, handling routine matters like a greased machine.
A Lost Item, PSD Misconduct and Bunker Mode
What happened?
Last Thursday afternoon, a Roosevelt Islander made a mistake almost all of us make now and then.
“I left a red bus packed with tourists, leaving my beautiful, impeccable backpack full of IDs, cash, objects, and a treasured photo of my daughter,” the Roosevelt Islander admitted.
(I once left a bag of fresh fish behind after a day of shopping with my wife. It happens.)
The longtime resident did what many of us do. She tried reaching RIOC’s most popular and soon-to-depart manager, Cy Opperman. Cy runs the buses and earned a reputation for responsiveness and kindness.
“Public Safety,” she said, “did not feel like giving me Cy’s phone number.
“Later,” she continued, “a very nice lady in PSD took note of my list of documents lost.”
Then, it gets complicated…
Lost & Found is a simple operation, or it should be. But when this lady followed up in hopes of retrieving her personally valued items, she got something else.
“Since then, I have been (back to PSD) to ask for news”
Instead, she encountered a “Lieutenant Hazelnut (probably Barry Hazelwood) talking down to me, or some kind of officer called Fonseca (Luis), nice, but having no information whatsoever.
“Today, no news about my backpack.”
Another longtime resident commented wryly, “Barry Hazelwood has been promoted a few times and now is way too full of himself and needs to be knocked down a notch or two — ‘Hazelnut’ is a good description… If the shoe fits…”
Bad goes to worse…
“When I asked for a copy of their report,” the resident continued, “a huge woman proceeded to scream at me from the other corner of the room that their office does not fill reports, that I have to go online and file a FOIL request with their legal department.”
That’s the worst of PSD, but the worst of RIOC was yet to come.
In case you’re wondering, she went to the local NYPD precinct in Queens where the officers were “polite and normal.” A woman there treated her to coffee and a French pastry.
Finally, the Worst of RIOC Appears
Needless to say, no one should be treated as this woman was treated, young or older, male or female, resident or visitor. Neither, it should be clear, should anyone feel the need to contact the media for redress.
But that’s where we are now with Public Safety and, sadly, RIOC’s interim management.
Trusting their goodwill and responsibility, before reporting, I shared the verbatim report with Deputy Chief Counsel Gerrald Ellis, Acting Chief Operating Officer Mary Cunneen and Chief Financial Officer Dhruvika Amin. Because it was a weekend, I promised not to report until after Monday, giving them time to develop a response.
They chose silence: Bunker Mode, a return to bad RIOC we hoped we’d seen the last of.
That, in the big picture, is more significant than another instance of PSD misconduct. It signals a state agency lost in itself, absent leadership, transparency and accountability.
The Committee Man
Committees are supposed to be where outcomes are shaped. They are meant to be the place where questions slow decisions down, where competing interests surface, and where public responsibility is exercised before anything reaches a formal vote.
