David Bauer, who formed the Maple Tree Group ten years ago, as he chaired Monday’s meeting.

A subcommittee of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) has been working through the question of just how Island voters will "pre-elect" appointees to the Board of Directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC).

The effort stems from a suggestion by RIOC President Steve Shane to RIRA President Matthew Katz, made at the April 12 RIOC Board meeting in which Shane was hired. "Those seven non-statutory positions can be filled and should be filled, in my view, from Island people," Shane said, referring to all but the two Board seats that are filled by State officials. He said the indirect process is more readily workable than trying to change the law. RIOC Board Chair Deborah VanAmerongen was in synch with Shane on the idea, as reported in the April 21 WIRE.

Devising a process is made difficult by timing, and by the fact that it would initiate an indirect sequence of events in which residents would vote on a list of nominee-candidates, which would then be presented to the Governor. But that election would be preceded by candidates declaring themselves by presenting a nominating petition and completing a multi-page State-mandated disclosure form required of appointees to State public-benefit corporations and authorities. After an election, the Governor would then presumably appoint the top winners who passed muster. Those appointments would then be subject to acceptance by the State Senate.

During the twelve years of Governor George Pataki’s tenure, such appointments were routinely approved by the Republican-controlled Senate, but there’s no past standard by which to judge how the Senate might view the Roosevelt Island process, or Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer’s appointees coming out of it.

There is also a question of the State Senate’s session schedule, which could result in months of delay.

(RIRA President Matthew Katz discusses the process in The RIRA Column in this issue; see page 3.)

The RIRA subcommittee working on the process is the Maple Tree Group (MTG), formed in 1997 in response to resident feelings that RIOC was doing a poor job of maintaining the Island, managing Island resources like retail storefronts, and providing services for residents. MTG ultimately concluded that the problem was systemic, and drafted a revision of the legislation that established and governs RIOC. That draft called for direct election of resident Board members, with the Board fully empowered to hire and fire the President of RIOC – a power the Board already has, though it has always accepted the Governor’s choice, as in the case of Shane.

MTG’s efforts, through RIRA, ultimately led to a compromise in which Pataki accepted an increase in the number of residents on the RIOC Board. Resident seats now comprise a majority of the nine-member Board but, under the plan envisioned in the remarks by Shane and VanAmerongen, the only non-residents on the Board would be those required by the RIOC statute – the Chair, who is the Commissioner of the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), currently VanAmerongen, and a representative of the State Budget Office.

While the City’s mayor has the right to propose two names for the Board, one of whom must be a resident, the presumption is that he or she would agree to put forward the name of someone pre-elected by residents.

An election of Board members, whether held in June or after, could produce considerable change if it fills all the terms that are currently expired or soon will expire. They include, with term-end dates as supplied by RIOC:

• David Kraut – June, 1995

• Patrick Stewart – July, 2001

• John Mannix (non-resident) – June, 2005

• Mark Ponton – May, 2006

• Alberteen Anderson – June 10, 2007

• Michael Shinozaki – December 27, 2007

The term of Charlee Miller, the most recent appointee, is listed by RIOC as expiring in June of 2009, though the law specifies four-year terms. (Deborah Beck, who was dismissed from the Board by then Governor Pataki when Miller was appointed, did not serve a full four years.)

RIOC Board members whose terms have expired serve until replaced.

MTG will meet again Monday evening to further refine its draft plan, which will be presented to the RIRA Common Council at its meeting on Wednesday (May 9) at 8:00 p.m. in the Good Shepherd Community Center (lower level). The MTG meeting on Monday night (May 7), like the RIRA meeting, will be open to the public. It will be held in the lower community room at Westview (595 Main Street) at 7:30 p.m. Whatever the RIRA Council approves would then be subject to further discussion with Shane and, possibly, acceptance by the RIOC Board of Directors.

In its draft form as of The WIRE’s Thursday night press deadline, the MTG proposal envisions an election on Tuesday, June 26. (It was deemed unworkable to attempt to have the election coincide with the June 5 special election to fill the State Assembly seat vacated when Pete Grannis resigned to become Commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Protection.) That date would be preceded by a storm of activity: Nominating papers and petitions, the State background questionnaire, and a campaign with public Q&A sessions.

As the plan is envisioned, all Island residents 18 and older would be able to vote, regardless of national citizenship, though each voter would be required to present evidence of Island residency, such as a driver’s license or other official document showing age and address. (Building tenant lists might also be used.)

After the election, there would be State follow-up – inquiries to confirm candidate suitability under State regulations, then gubernatorial appointment, and State Senate approval.

Under the plan, residents would vote Island-wide on all nominees. Ways of achieving some sort of proportional representation for each Island building were set aside in favor of a method of getting the best possible list of nominees, no matter the buildings in which they live. MTG members commented that running RIOC is concerned with the Island as a whole, and has little to do with individual buildings, which have their own management structures.

The plan drafted by MTG – subject to acceptance by the RIRA Common Council and then by RIOC President Shane and, possibly, by the RIOC Board – envisions subsequent elections being held at the same time as elections for the Residents Association Common Council, which falls on the November election day in even-numbered years. It also contemplates asking for a moratorium on replacing any Board members until an election can be held.