Damn!
Shot Down Again

The WIRE barely had a chance to report that there was self-governance legislation being presented in Albany (last issue) before finding (this issue) that the Albany machine had killed it (lead story, page 1).

We have to give Assemblymember Pete Grannis a pat on the back for giving it a try, once again.

But the most important effect of Grannis’s re-introduction of the idea of democracy for Roosevelt Island is that the bill is there, largely in final form though possibly subject to a few technical corrections, for consideration after the November elections when it’s reasonable to believe Albany will have a new – and better – administration running things from the Governor’s office. (Actually, there’s a very small chance it could be considered again before the current Legislature folds its tent.)

If you’ve been in hibernation or you’re a fireworks visitor (welcome!) or otherwise new to the Island, the background facts are these: a residential Roosevelt Island has always been run by a State agency (not the City) and always by appointees of the Governor. The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation’s Board of Directors consists of appointees, including a number of residents – increased to a majority of five (out of nine) a couple of years ago. They serve without pay and quite selflessly but, beholden to the Governor for those positions, they’ve traditionally given the Governor whatever he’s wanted.

So when the Governor sent his first appointee as RIOC President to us, the man turned out to be an uncommunicative patronage lifer who gave "unqualified" a bad name. He left after three years, clearing out his desk in a quick afternoon escape after – we are told – at least one earlier episode of telling the Governor’s staffers that, no, they couldn’t fire him, for he was a pal of Al D’Amato, who at the time was pretty much running the State Republican Party and calling the shots in Albany. Next up as RIOC President was a former Pataki campaign manager. He, too, lasted three years, leaving when the RIOC Board was forced to fire him because he’d found a way to tap the till for more than his pay grade called for. (Why in the world would anybody making over $100,000 feel a need to milk the State, or this Island, for more?)

Things are a little better now, but RIOC still consists of political appointees in all the top jobs. The latest bunch seems to have been chosen with competence somewhere on the list of qualifications, but they’re still political appointees who don’t really answer to the residents of this community; they answer, instead, to the Governor and the mutually supportive political and real-estate forces of New York State.

So it’s high time Roosevelt Island got a little democracy. It’s messy, it’s true, but it belongs to the people and, in the long run, it works to let the governed control those who govern. And after a long, long wait – twelve years under George Pataki – we’re yearning to breathe free here – to have something to say about the way Roosevelt Island is managed.

So the legislation calls for a Board (excepting two State officials and two mayoral appointees) elected by residents – one empowered to hire (and fire) a well-qualified community manager. It works all over the country.

Why not here?

DL