When chair Lydia Tang gathered RIOC’s Governance Committee on Wednesday afternoon, it was a Roosevelt Island moment. No one in decades challenged state authority like this, seeking to upend years of ordered stagnation and misconduct.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
A Milestone Meeting of the Governance Committee
The Governance Committee meeting was a landmark in several ways, starting with Tang’s installing residents as members. Neither Margie Smith nor Audrey Tannen are board members, but Tang relied on their expertise along with that of David Kraut. Kraut is a board member, and he along with Smith headed the committee before Governor Cuomo let it dissolve. Both added insights.
Tang came loaded with an agenda sure to spark change. Whether the work of the committee changes the temper of the full board is an unknown, but it emerged as a powerful force ready and willing to challenge Governor Hochul’s surrogates.
Details
In a move toward effective action, Smith immediately suggested that the committee start out with smaller groups working on specific issues. Once worked out, these would meld into the full committee for consensus.
But before any action could be taken on that, the thorny issue of quorum stalled it. Then, tensions simmering beneath the surface – and sometimes over it – came out.
The quorum problem
Because RIOC bylaws define a quorum as a majority, two members can’t meet or discuss business in any way without establishing a public meeting. Committees have no more than four members, making two a quorum and blocking casual discussions in private, even if meeting by chance at the Farmers Market.
It’s ridiculous on the surface, and the committee struggled with a solution. Fhala suggested using emails, for example, or redefining the bylaws to define three members as a quorum.
Here, longstanding tensions came out. Fhala criticized how committee memberships were distributed, with Hochul’s surrogates willy-nilly assigning members to committees.
“We had to fight to have a governance committee for a year,” Fhala said, recalling board meetings where the hard right flank resisted resurrecting a committee mandated by law. Tang joined him in describing a series of bad experiences suffered while working to cure the full board’s shortcomings.
Then, pointing at Megan Anderson, he added, “I don’t want you deciding who gets on a committee.”
But the ‘you” is broader than Anderson. She sits as a surrogate for chair RuthAnne Visnauskas who heads up the Department of Homes and Community Renewal (HCR). Visnauskas, in turn, is a Hochul enforcer.
Enter the Supreme Court
No, not that one. The unofficial Supreme Court of Roosevelt Island has a single member: RIOC Associate Counsel Lada Stasko. As this meeting ran on, Stasko was called to the microphone so frequently, her trips from the audience constituted the requirements of a daily gym workout for most of us.
Several of her trips were unsolicited as she jumped in, clarifying legal issues.
Within RIOC, Stasko is an unsung hero, taking on hefty volumes of work as the Legal Department of three whittled down to just her. The respect she’s earned internally carried over to the public spaces of the Governance Committee.
Because of severe audio issues, her points were not clear for audience members – like us – but she repeatedly calmed discussions with clearheaded explanations of the laws.
Of salaries and wages…
Fhala proposed an agreement that essentially restores the board’s statutory role in overseeing salaries and raises. For years, the board waved through promotions and salary increases that exceeded any rational explanation. Currently, the state agency overseeing this little island sports twenty-five staffers pulling down six-figure annual salaries, four of them over $200K.
Although the current administration sent salaries rocketing into extraterrestrial realms, with dozens of employees paid more than the nation’s governors, Fhala got pushback from Anderson. But soon, Stasko stepped in and settled things. Clearly, the board holds statutory authority over salaries and promotions.
In the final resolve, a general consensus arrived that the board should approve the compensation of all executives and managers down to a yet to be determined level as well as raises above the annual COLA allowance.
The Governance Committee Tackles Hiring and Firing
Long a point of contention with stronger board members – and another example of irresponsibility for others – Smith led the argument for taking control of hiring and firing staff, especially executives.
Going back to 2016, Smith – then a board member – resisted the idea of the governor appointing RIOC executives without board involvement. She lost that fight, and the board approved the hiring of Shelton J. Haynes as Vice President, Operations.
Later, after she resigned from the board, stating the need for new voices – a strategy that failed because all RIOC got was a fresh parade of bobbleheads – the single most disgraceful move in RIOC’s messy history occurred. In June, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo shoved then-CEO Susan Rosenthal aside, publicly attacking her with undocumented charges. The board stepped out of his way, abandoning its responsibilities, not giving Rosenthal even a minute to defend herself.
Several still sitting board members – Kraut, Conway Ekpo and Howard Polivy – sat through that without complaint. Kraut even cheerfully supported the elevation of Haynes as her replacement.
Margie Smith wanted none of that, arguing firmly – not for the first time – that the board must exercise its legal authority. That inspired a stunning claim by Anderson, Governor Hochul’s surrogate.
“it’s the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation of the State of New York,” she said. “The governor is the state,” she added, invoking a Trump-like imperial governorship.
“We’re the state too,” Smith reacted.
Then, once again, Stasko hustled up to the microphone. Loud and clear, she pointed out that, under the law, the governor can appoint and remove board members but has no such authority over the staff.
To Be Continued: The Governance Committee
Contentious though it was – and probably must be – Tang along with Fhala breathed new life into a moribund board operation. Her committee ran out of time after covering only one-third of her agenda. Future shake ups are certain.
The lingering question is whether the newer board contingent can break through the hard wall of conservative residents on the board paired with Hochul’s permanent appointees. The odds are against them where a hard right coalition of at least five members overwhelms three reformists. Nonetheless, the minority is forcing issues long-neglected and shining a light on a board that can only gain by getting more of it.
On naming, neglect, and the quiet work that keeps things standing
About twenty years ago, there was Harbor Police activity near the water, just south of the subway entrance. At the time, no one really thought of it as a pier, though technically there was a small boardwalk there. Of course it wasn’t a pier. A pier implies intention.
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