Lack of commitment and continuity brought RIOC broken finances. Mix in inexperienced management and an inactive board, and you’ve got the perfect fiscal storm. Let’s fix it.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Over the years, RIOC’s budget grew as a convoluted, not necessarily logical congestion of numbers and political choices. Its board, charged with oversight, acted like a virgin at the audit, afraid of butting in. The worst offender was probably the State Budget Director. Instead of demanding fiscal sense, the director waived budgets through like a Trader Joe’s traffic director. You got a basketful of stuff, you go, no questions asked.
The good news is that, some of it is so ridiculously bad, it stands out as if mistakenly proud. That makes for easy fixes for the broken finances if RIOC wants to get straight.
Fixing the Broken Finances
One: Sportspark
After years of flubs and false starts, CEO Shelton J. Haynes finally dragged the refurbishing of Sportspark across the finish line. The jumbled project cost way too much, but it was done and ready for use again.
Residents were elated and fast growing membership lists showed it. But there was a problem, a big one. From opening day, Sportspark leaked cash in a river of losses.
Part of the problem was miscalculation. Haynes demanded a facility with bells and whistles that the community never asked for. He then set up a membership pricing structure that few residents could afford. Angry protests reached the offices of elected officials who pressured Haynes into lower rates.
Maybe the membership prices were necessary for financially supporting the facility or inflated for profits to be applied elsewhere. Or maybe they were just pulled out of you know where. But Haynes’s reaction to the complaints was catastrophic. Instead of cutting prices in half or by a third, he knocked them down by a whopping 80%.
Sportspark needs prices increases. We can’t estimate how much because, after months of waiting for answers, we’re left with the standard RIOC result. That is, they won’t tell us the size of the shortfall in Sportspark.
Two: Motorgate
As reported earlier, parking garage rates are roughly 60% lower than others nearby. No rationale explains it, but history is informative.
This part of RIOC’s broken finances goes back a ways. RIOC built Motorgate largely to keep car traffic off the Island. Two hospitals, Coler and Goldwater, were not under its control. Employees and visitors had lots for parking, but otherwise, Main Street was parking free. That changed later as car culture bullied its way through the gates.
As for Motorgate, Manhattan Park’s owners constructed and still maintain the north half of the facility. A joint contract with RIOC allows an independent operator to run it and collect fees.
One fact is not well-known. Over the years, RIOC began assigning Motorgate profits into budget support of the Red Bus system. Plain and simple, those extremely low rates account for underfunding of the Red Bus system, resulting in its near collapse.
The evidence is clear. Apart from the immorality and possible illegality of subsidizing cars over mass transit, the rates must go up for financial reasons. Manhattan Park, RIOC’s partner, wants the fees raised, but for reasons unknown, RIOC has resisted. The only beneficiaries of this inexplicable folly are car owners, a distinct minority among residents.
Car owners ought to pay the going rate. It’s consistent with Island values and fair.
THREE: PSD
Instead of increases raising revenue, we suggest trimming excess payroll and reducing bloated salaries.
In perspective, there is very little that RIOC’s Public Safety Department does – or says it does – that’s not already covered in our city and state taxes. The perception that Roosevelt Island is remote and in need of special protection vanished years ago. Roosevelt Island now flourishes with commuters and tourists keeping it a highly recognized city neighborhood. It’s uniquely attractive but far from remote, these days.
Aside from running a Lost and Found (poorly) there’s is no unique role or need for this department. Where officers could add value in traffic control, they are consistently absent. Mopeds and E-bikes run free, speeding, ignoring stop signs and crosswalks, etc.
And even with as many as 50 staffers, PSD’s idleness is clear. You’d think the most difficult management task is hiding all those officers. Most of them are underpaid and underused, although most are polite and courteous. Few of us have had negative interactions with them, but a few glaring acts of excess aggression have been reported.
Bloating the excess salaries are two “Inspectors” and two “Detectives.” Because nothing happening on Roosevelt Island demands either title, they do things other than inspect or detect. Both Inspectors earn six figure incomes. They fill clerical roles like facility permitting. This has no business in public safety to begin with.
Cutting staffing down to 20 and reducing management would not result in any losses for residents. Potential savings come to around $3 million per year.
BROKEN FINANCES WRAP UP
RIOC has done so little to control its finances. Its willingness to do what it takes to cure its broken finances is in question. The insiders will not self-correct, and until new leadership is in place, nothing much will change.
Our hope is that when change does come – as it must – new management can look at the state agency clearly. They should also have a taste for breaking the bad habits that have led to consistently broken finances.
With Governor Hochul dithering on many fronts, we can’t predict when new leadership will arrive on Roosevelt Island. She ultimately controls RIOC. We also can’t predict if it will be better than what residents have suffered with in the past.
You Can FOIL* It
On April 15, at the Steam Plant Demolition Town Hall, a simple exchange revealed something far more consequential than anything formally presented that evening.
