Let’s be clear. By elbowing and punching Ben Fhala out the door, RIOC’s board of directors made itself irrelevant. The beast can’t tolerate opposition. Now, it returns to its past as a limping sack of acquiescence, the leaky filter through which patronage and favor pass through.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
A recent article in The Center Square reports on a Siena College poll. It shows Governor Kathy Hochul with a lower favorable rating than Donald Trump. This comes as no surprise to Roosevelt Islanders. Punching Ben Fhala until he quit the board is only the latest of her countless mistakes here. Hochul wasn’t the puncher, but her surrogates and flunkies were.
I’ve compared RIOC’s board as a cephalopod before, conceding it was probably unfair to the octopuses. But after reviewing the above video of octopuses punching fish for no good reason, I think I was hasty. Eight arms striking out from a central head at a single fish. It’s just so RIOC.
Now, there’s little reason for wasting time with the board anymore. We know what comes next. It doesn’t bode well the next RIOC President/CEO. We’ve seen it enough times already. We’ve also seen a committed, highly qualified candidate, Gerrald Ellis, take his talents elsewhere when Hochul could easily have grabbed him. The board will find another executive they will eventually scapegoat as they did with Susan Rosenthal and Shelton Haynes.
The board never takes any blame on itself, even with the avalanche of recent failures. Never.
Hochul appoints every board member, including the statutory president and the state budget director. In other words, it’s her ballgame, win or lose. She’s on a streak that relieves the Chicago White Sox of the title “Worst in the World.”
The Original Sin
Well, it wasn’t the original. Plenty of RIOC sins preceded it, but sacking Susan Rosenthal was a bellwether. It was like KellyAnne Conway discounting facts in favor of Sean Spicer’s “alternative facts.” It was about crowd size at Trump’s inauguration, then. The lie set a trend.
With Rosenthal gone, everything changed. The board never debated again, and always said “Yes” to everything Team Hochul sent spinning down the Hudson from Albany. Until Ben Fhala showed up. The creaky old board hated Fhala from day one. Tipping over the apple cart disturbed their self-satisfied slumber.
Setting the Stage for Punching Ben Fhala
With COVID sweeping the city, RIOC board meetings were, of necessity, remote and tightly controlled. No surprises. No objections. It was a love fest, but the audience was limited.
Residents weren’t as satisfied, but COVID made everything else small.
Trouble was, once COVID passed, the bobblehead routine stayed. Everything was peachy with the board, although objective observation saw RIOC in crisis, especially financial crisis.hen the boo birds flew in.
Let Punching Ben Fhala Begin
When Fhala stepped into the arena, it was the first time any public board member confronted management meaningfully. It was actually the first time there was discussion of any kind since Rosenthal. He was joined by fellow newcomers Dr. Michal Melamed and Lydia Tang. While Tang was recommended by Mayor Eric Adams, Senator Liz Krueger recruited all three reformers. She’d heard enough after only a few months representing Roosevelt Island to know that change was imperative.
Motivated by how loosely RIOC spent money and the threats it posed, Fhala got after the purchasing guidelines first. Anyone would welcome tightening up the money flow, wouldn’t they? Not the board. It was an early sign that something was amiss. This is what boards are supposed to do, after all.
We finally had some rowdy board meetings. It was about time because RIOC was a train wreck from every angle but smugly self-satisfied. Flaccid is not a condition under which necessary change takes place. It wouldn’t be for the next year.
Resistance
Following the battles wasn’t easy. Verbal bombs were lobbed, and it was clear that the old-timers resented being challenged. Chutzpah can be many things. One of them is: Not fun to watch.
After raising issues about purchasing and contracting, Fhala and the other new resident board members forced the issue. The board did not have a legally mandatory Governance Committee for over ten years. How negligent was that and how in need of a fix?
Cuomo, then Hochul flunky RuthAnne Visnauskas chairs the board. Her position is statutory as the Commissioner of Homes and Community Renewal.
Board Chair Responsibilities:
Legal Compliance: Ensuring the organization’s compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
You don’t even have to do the math. She shirked a key responsibility. If you have even a little class, you admit an error. Then, you fix it.
Instead, Visnauskas along with board loyalists started punching Ben Fhala. Fhala, though, did not budge. Through multiple sessions with David Kraut screaming at him over a remote monitor, he stood his ground. As summer rolled around, he and Tang spent many hours revising the corporate bylaws. They had help from staff and residents Margie Smith, Audrey Tannen, and Conway Ekpo.
When they brought the changes to the full board in September, they corrected 14 years of negligence. They were met with applause and appreciation. Kidding!
Abuse and Objections
The entrenched board members did not appreciate the new members doing the work they neglected. This neglect dated back to President Obama’s first years in office. They also lashed out. Fay Christian accused Tang, who worked all summer on the repairs, of “rushing.” Maybe another 14 years were necessary.
Kraut shouted incoherently over a speaker attached to his monitor. Polivy mostly pouted. Fhala called him out for allegedly misusing his role as board liaison with the staff. He was also called out for misusing his role with state officials.
Adults should step in and provide sensible relief. Visnauskas’s surrogate, Meghan Anderson, snarled. Budget Office surrogate, Morris Peters, picked apart “the process.” Over protests from CFO Dhru Patel, Peters insisted that RIOC bring in yet another expensive outside attorney. This attorney was to review Tang’s results. After all, it’s not his money. So, why not?
After the ugly public session, the board went into executive session with media and audience ordered out. There, the hard right majority attacked Fhala. Reportedly they introduced a resolution in favor of removing him from the board.
No rockin’ the boat allowed.
Rather than let himself be the issue as the majority wished, he stepped resigned. I’ll bet his blood pressure appreciated it.
So, now, without anyone as willing to take the punches as Fhala was, nobody is taking the punches. The even greater majority will sail along in slumber as before. Why watch? We know what’s coming because it’s a rerun. We’ve seen it all before.
The Meeting That Moved On Without Her
The smoke had thinned by November seventeenth, but it still clung to my coat and the back of my throat. Two nights earlier, fire trucks had crowded the rear of the Landings, their lights bouncing off brick and glass. The flames were gone. The smell remained.
If only we could get enough Roosevelt Islanders to rise up and demand better. 😏
Sure, but who would we demand it to? The people creating the problem, from Hochul on down, are the only ones who can change it, and history shows us that they won’t.
Hopefully some other Democrat will run against her so that we have someone else to vote for who isn’t a Republican.
We can always hope.