Like the national election, the RIRA election is now just one month away.

RIRA's Nominations Committee is in search of the thirty-some who will run to be elected (or re-elected) to serve Roosevelt Island residents, as volunteers, on its Common Council.  If ever, this is the time to search your sense of self and ask whether you have the interest and time to become genuinely involved in your community in this particular way.

RIRA's Common Councilors serve with various levels of involvement, ranging from the few who rarely show up for meetings to some who dedicate much of their time to the community's needs.  In the spectrum between are the few who work hard and smart at things that matter to the community.

RIRA needs more Councilors in the active categories.

Each new RIRA election is a fresh start.  November 7 will be another.  There will be the continuity of those who are re-elected.  But there will also be the very welcome new faces present to add their energies to the mass.

It's time, then, to think about whether you might serve your community this way.

Unfortunately...

RIRA's effectiveness is severely limited by total absence of any meaningful say in the way Roosevelt Island is managed.  The decisions are made by appointees of the Governor, ranging from RIOC President Robert Ryan, who holds the reins day to day, through the members of the RIOC Board, most of whom meet just once a month to ratify staff work.

Those appointees have all the direct power over the day-to-day life of the Island.  Most don't live here.  A majority visit the Island only for the short monthly sessions.  (The next one is Thursday at 10:30 a.m.) They are not required to heed the RIRA Common Council because RIOC is a creature of the mighty State government, and RIRA merely the democratically-elected representatives of Island residents.

That sounds a little odd in democratic America, doesn't it?

Yet attempts to give residents more say in Island affairs have failed, and it even appears the RIRA Common Council may not give residents a chance, on November 7, to express their preference for more democracy.  Whether the ballot carries a referendum question allowing residents to express their preference for a mostly local, mostly democratically-elected RIOC Board of Directors could be decided this coming Wednesday night at the RIRA Council meeting.

At present, it appears most will follow the lead of RIRA President Patrick Stewart and vote down the referendum question, thus accomplishing the unthinkable – keeping residents from democratically expressing a preference for democracy.

If that happens, it will leave 1998's 92% vote intact – an election in which the vast majority of voters asked for more locally-elected control over Island affairs.

What the next RIRA does with that 92% vote, or with any expressed preference for democracy, is likely to depend on who's elected on November 7 to RIRA's Council and executive spots.

Think about it.  There's a lot at stake.