The vote was the last procedural step in changing the constitution after a quorum of 100 residents failed to materialize at a town meeting Tuesday night. About 80 attended the 7:30 session; fewer than 80 were present when the quorum count was taken at 8:30.

The updated constitution makes good on a campaign promise made in 2000 by now-outgoing RIRA President Matthew Katz, who ran in 2000 and 2002 on a platform that included streamlining of the constitution. The changes were summarized in the September 25 WIRE, available on line at nyc10044.com/wire/2502/wire2502.html.

Thursday morning, Katz told The WIRE, "This is an idea whose time has come, and the Common Council endorsed what the Island has desperately needed." Katz also discusses the changes in his column in this issue (page 3).

Before the Wednesday night vote, Council member Karen Stewart, representing the Roosevelt Island Council of Organizations, opposed passage on procedural grounds. Faith Christian agreed, adding a recommendation that constitutional revision be restarted from scratch after the November election brings a new Common Council and President to RIRA. Dierdre Breslin also voted no. All other Council members present voted yes, including Patrick Stewart, who had spoken in opposition to the constitutional change at Tuesday night's Town Meeting.

Once the constitution was voted, the revised constitution became the Residents Association's ruling document, and the balance of Wednesday night's meeting was conducted according to its changed voting rules.

The change makes the Common Council an all-elected body, eliminating non-elected seats for RIOC Board members, local school-board members, and the mostly inactive Roosevelt Island Council of Organizations (RICO). The sole exception to the all-elected Council membership is the position of Treasurer, which may be filled by a non-elected appointee if no council member is qualified for the post, a provision that survives from the old constitution.

The new constitution also moves much procedural language to a set of bylaws that can be changed by the Common Council without a mandatory Town Meeting; that change means the Council can act to add seats for new buildings and make other revisions of its procedures.

The document also met an immediate need for representation for the two new buildings in Southtown, 465 and 475 Main Street, but also provides for Council action to provide representation for new buildings as they go up, eliminating a requirement of the old constitution that a town meeting be convened to amend the constitution each time.

The Common Council also voted to include several advisory referendum questions on the November 2 ballot in the RIRA election (see separate story, page 1).