This is a partial transcript of the Roosevelt Island Town Hall Meeting held March 27, 1997, at PS/IS 217, arranged by City Councilman Gifford Miller, with an appearance by Dr. Jerome Blue, President of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC). Portions of the tape are unintelligible or difficult to understand.

Al Weinstein (Chair, RIRA Common Council Transportation Committee):
There is a long-scheduled plan to shut down the Tram this August for 2 or 3 weeks to effect a critically needed safety repair commonly referred as "replacement of the profiles." The cost is estimated at around $160,000-plus. Since this is federally-mandated, will you be prepared to carry out that critically-needed repair?

Jerome Blue:
Thank you for asking, Mr. Weinstein. As part of the financial plan, approved by the agency, in the Fall of 1996, we provided funds enough to cover that repair. We expect to work with, and will continue to work with, Intefac, the contractors, concerning the purchase or acquisition.

Councilman Gifford Miller:
So the answer to that is 'Yes, you are purchasing the equipment and you plan to have the Tram [repaired].'

Blue:
No, the answer to that is that we will continue to work with them and explore that. The, uh... [SHOUTS FROM THE AUDIENCE, quieted by Miller] The answer to that in a general sense is yes, we met with them, we discussed it. OK, some details. I think the first estimate for the work was $275,000. We are very happy that now it it's $160,000. So it's nothing that we can just iron out... It's very complex...

Weinstein:
Dr. Blue, this is one of the most critical questions on the Island today, and this has to do with the elevator at the Tram plaza. [APPLAUSE] I think you know that it is in critical need of permanent repair or, you might even say after all these years, a new elevator. This elevator is 20 years old, and as you know the last two days it's virtually been shut down, and the repair people have been around four times now, with very little success. So if anyone hasn't ridden it, please take it, because it is a very frightening experience. It is an accident, waiting to happen. So, I would say, Dr. Blue, that some drastic action must be taken. People are already talking about demonstrations, capital money is needed, Dr. Blue, and after all, I think it's even federally mandated under the disabled act because, unlike any other elevator, this is an elevator that services seniors, peopole with disabilities, women with baby carriages, and others who need that elevator, and therefore, it seems to us that some real solution to this ongoing critical situation must take place. And I'm going to add what the committee told me to add, and I hope I'm not disrespectful, but if this elevator isn't taken care of in a reasonable time, we are going to get a show-cause order, or go right to the federal government. [APPLAUSE]

Blue:
Thank you, Mr. Weinstein. We are in the process of repairing the elevator.

From the audience:
When is it going to be fixed?

Blue:
We are in the process of repairing the elevator. Mr. Weinstein, if you can check with us in a few days... Part of the process is to find the most effective and cost-effective means...

From the audience:
...it keeps breaking down. Somebody at RIOC is putting money in their pockets that we paid! We paid!

Blue:
We have to go through the process...

From the audience:
No, you don't have to go through a process of always choosing the lowest bid, it hasn't worked for months. The thing doesn't work! [SHOUTS AND APPLAUSE FROM THE AUDIENCE AS BLUE TRIES TO SPEAK]

Miller:
...Would you say that it would be two months, two weeks, before you choose the lowest bidder?

Blue:
I doubt that it will be two months. I doubt that it will be a month. As I said, in a few days we can get a much better idea...

Miller:
I assume that you had to have an RFP... So my office will get a copy of your RFP...

Lou Carbonetti:
I read in today's newspaper what you are doing to the Roosevelt Island Little League. [APPLAUSE] I want to give you a short history of how the Little League started. On this site over here, across the street, the residents built it. Not UDC, not RIOC. [APPLAUSE] There is a reason why it is called Tony Capobianco Field. There is a reason for that. People gave their sweat, blood... We build two fields, then we built the third field... Not UDC, the residents. Now you are telling us that not only will we have to pay something like 6 or 7 thousand dollars, but in excess, about $7,000 more, but on top of that we don't have first preference, and we will be told to get off the field if an outside source comes over and wants it. Mr. Blue, we did this, we fought UDC when UDC said there shouldn't be any fields on the Island, because we knew that our children would be the adults of the future on this Island. I have four children. All four of them were members of the Little League. All four of them are adults right now. We consider that there are two ways we can do this. We can come to meetings, we can argue with you, we can embarrass you, we can insult you, or we can sit down with you, and work out a way of doing it. And there is a way of doing it. You just have to use your imagination a little. The job was given to you not to just call up Pataki and say, "What do I do now? Where can I cut now?" You made a comment before that your budget was in on time. It's a zero budget! [APPLAUSE] [So, with regard to the Youth Center,] Don't cut us, because you right now, need to get developers to build Southtown. We'll embarrass you in the sense that there won't be one person that will be willing to come to this Island and spend one dollar. [LENGTHY APPLAUSE]

Blue:
Not because you embarrass me, but because I would like to work with the community, I invite you to sit down with me... If you'd like to do it tomorrow morning, I'll see you tomorrow morning.

Miller:
So you are saying that you are at least willing to consider reconsidering the charges to the Youth Center.

Carbonetti:
I'd like to show you how it can be done for a reasonable amount of money. Will you then follow through?

Blue:
Will I listen? Absolutely. [HOOTS] I will have to see the details of what you have.

Miller:
I fought very hard and arranged for the Youth Program to receive $20,000, and obviously it's of great concern to me that when I appropriate this money that the kids be able to play a certain number of times, and now, instead, what it ends up doing is just getting more money to the RIOC bottom line, and I would say that's a great concern to me... We have a very very large budget, and this is important to the community, and we have an offer from our State Assemblyman that he is willing to go out there and get some money to support the budget in addition. So I hope that as part of that you would be willing to consider... we need $10,000 or whatever it is you would be getting from the Youth Program, then I would say why doesn't the state assembly, Assemblyman Grannis has offered to restore $600,000 in the State budget... so maybe... we could get $20,000, $10,000, something to support this.

Blue:
As I said, I will be more than happy to look at it and I'll sit down and chat with you... [UNINTELLIGIBLE] ...were collected even when the budget was $7 million, so... It's not as if these fees were imposed solely for this purpose [of helping the RIOC budget].

Judith Berdy:
Dr. Blue, I spoke to you in September/October when you first came to the Town Hall meeting, and you told us many things. I don't think you're building Southtown within the next three months, are you? We still have no carnival site, we have no fair this year; we're losing all that revenue. Secondly, are you talking to the city about saving AVAC, or are you leaving it to our politicians?

Blue:
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]

Berdy:
What about the AVAC?

Blue:
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]

Berdy:
In reference to interconnecting Trams and buses, why not the Tram and the bus. You should be out there fighting for our Tram to get the appropriation needed... [APPLAUSE] You are the head of our public benefit corporation. Why do we have to come here to beg you to take care of our island? [APPLAUSE] You are supposed to be taking care of it and to come here informed and advised, to be able to discuss it. It's very nice for you to invite people to come to your office tomorrow, but you're the President of RIOC. You should have your thumb in every pie. Why do 250 or 300 people have to show up here to beg you to take care of our island? [APPLAUSE AND CHEERING AT LENGTH]

Blue:
I get the message very, very, very, very loud and clear. However, let me just ask you one thing. You said "Why wouldn't we fight for the Tram, couldn't we use the Tram and then the subway... When I mentioned that I'm discussing and following up with regard to the Tram, many of those issues could be part of that. One of the sixty organizations on the Island passed a resolution telling me "don't do anything like that with the MTA." You've seen the resolution. So I'm saying that it's a part of trying [UNINTELLIGIBLE]...

Miller:
[DISCUSSION OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STATEN ISLAND FERRY AND THE TRAM]

Joan Christianson:
Dr. Blue, you just said you got a resolution from "one of 60 organizations on the Island." What you got was a resolution from the only organization on this Island that represents every resident and that is the Roosevelt Island Residents Association. [APPLAUSE] And that is the only organization that you should really be listening to, because we speak for the concerns of every resident on the Island. I'm a member of the Common Council. The Roosevelt Island Residents Association was elected by the residents of this Island.

Nneka Pope:
I have not at any time living on this Island witnessed the sheer depth of anger, frustration, despair and confusion of R.I. residents toward the RIOC President. Frankly, I think Governor Pataki is more well-liked on Roosevelt Island than you are, Dr. Blue. Residents feel that your answers to their questions have been less than honest, that they lack any kind of substance or clarity. [From the audience: Right!] I am not sure what residents dislike most: The condescending nature of the answers, or the sheer arrogance of giving answers that contain no information. [APPLAUSE] I am deeply disturbed and very distressed by what residents of this Island are thinking and feeling, and also the real tragedy may be the injection by one or two people of racial overtones into this fight for our community. My question is, and I'm sure that you are aware as to how we feel on R.I. by what's been taking place in this meeting thus far, are you concerned about any of the issues that I have raised and can you talk to us about how you plan to address some of what these residents are feeling? [APPLAUSE]

[UNINTELLIGIBLE SECTION]

Pope:
How do you plan to address the negative feelings that residents are having now?

Blue:
What particular negative feeling are you having now?

From the audience:
She just told you.
Not answering questions.
[And various other comments.]

Linda Miller:
I've been sitting here listening to you use a word over and over again that says to me that you don't understand your job. You keep saying "the agency." Well, I thought were head of a corporation, a public purpose corporation, that is a corporation that we live under. We don't live under an agency, we live under a corporation. You keep calling it an agency, well, maybe that's where your head is at, Dr. Blue. We think that, frankly, you should understand your job a little bit better. Corporation? We pay the bills for that corporation. It's a public purpose corporation, start acting like it. Talk to us. You are responsible to us, the residents. We pay the bills. Now, we need you to respond to us not as though we are idiot little children. We are not. We're tired of your condescension, we are tired of the lack of informatikon. We are tired of seeing you respond to people like Pete Grannis who knows what we are, and offers to get the money we need just to keep the Island running, and you say, "Thank you, but no thank you. We don't need your money." That, to me, says you don't understand this Island, you don't understand your job, and you don't understand what this whole Island has always been about. [APPLAUSE]

Councilman Miller:
The qusetion is, with regard to the letter that Assemblyman Grannis has sent you, and your response, and the offer to get $600,000... Why is it that the corporation wouldn't want $600,000 to do more for the Island?

Blue:
The first I've heard of that was this evening.

[CRIES OF INCREDULITY FROM THE AUDIENCE]

Blue:
My letter does not say that the corporation would not accept $600,000... [UNINTELLIGIBLE SECTION; SEVERAL PEOPLE TALKING] The question was about the financial plan... was passed in the Fall of 1996, and that plan did not include a request for additional State subsidies.

Audience member:
Why not?

Blue:
The Little League were charged fees prior to my ever being...

Audience members:
No, they were not. It was $5 and it was taken out in... [UNINTELLIGIBLE] It was community service, it was bartered. It was community service rather than money that was paid for the use of that field. The children went and picked up rocks, they did community service. There was never money exchanged for those fields.

Audience member:
Why did you propose that?

Blue:
I just told you. This is the first that I have heard of a bartering program.

Audience member:
That's not true. Charlie DeFino told you about that. You didn't do your homework. You didn't do your homework if you didn't know that.

Blue:
... have a copy of that. You will see that prior to my joining the island there were charges for those groups. Now if you're saying [UNINTELLIGIBLE] ...when it was listed on the agency's records as a cost, and a charge, then how am I supposed to know that?

Audience member:
Because Charlie DeFino told you that.

[UNINTELLIGIBLE, heavily accented, angry male voice] [APPLAUSE]

Patrick Stewart:
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Patrick Stewart, President of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association [APPLAUSE]. There are just a couple of things that I want to ask, and to say, with regard to this glorious Island that we call home. Governor Pataki was quoted a couple of weeks ago, in the New York Times, as saying, and I quote, "I believe the very act of government [UNINTELLIGIBLE]... has a very limited role, and that role is to fix, to create the climate for [UNINTELLIGIBLE] that can be fixed... [UNINTELLIGIBLE] and to create the climate for things to be enhanced." As I walk around Roosevelt Island, I see many things that are broken, that are not being fixed. I see many things that aren't broken that aren't being maintained. And I see absolutely no enhancement of either the quality of life or the infrastructure of this Island. [APPLAUSE] And I haven't seen it for a very long time. My question is: What are you doing on this Island? What are you doing about fixing what's broken? What are you doing about maintaining that which isn't broken? What are you doing about enhancing the quality of life and the infrastructure of this Island? Let me say to you, sir, that, last time I looked at your budget I saw a figure was, I think, in excess of $3,800,000, payable to RIOC. That is taxpayer's money, that $3,800,000. It is money that we pay, for which we are getting no services. For which we are getting zero. The last time this happened in this country as in the 18th Century and there was a war fought over it. And that is taxation without representation. [APPLAUSE] Very simply this, to you, sir, I would ask, what in the hell are you doing here?

[Various comments from the audience.]

Blue:
[ATTEMPTS TO SPEAK, IS INTERRUPTED BY AUDIENCE] [UNINTELLIGIBLE RESPONSE FROM BLUE, WITH AUDIENCE OVERTALK]

Unknown:
Since we are a corporation... I think it would be fair if we had representation in voting on the budget.

Blue:
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]

Unknown:
Going forward, can we have a session where we go over the budget, line by line?

Blue:
The legislation for the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation of the State of New York does not include that. However...

[UNINTELLIGIBLE, AUDIENCE ANGER]

Linda Pickett:
I talked with Dr. Blue last July when he first came aboard and he asked me to send him a letter with my concerns. I sent him that letter in August of 1996 and he wrote back and said "Your comments and suggestions are appreciated and will be taken into consideration." Just to refresh your memory, I asked you about Public Safety and the fact that Mr. Norwood was doing a good job, but maybe some of his officers didn't understand the rules and regulations they are supposed to enforce. And some of the things I also mentioned were the blasting of radios, the wheelchair for the teens from the apartment windows [?], blocking sidewalks, and not moving, and making pedestrians walk into the street, cars racing around buses when they stop to discharge or receive passengers, and not stopping at stop signs, speeding cars coming onto the Island, [UNINTELLIGIBLE] ...paying attention to any signs, U-turns in the middle of the street. I also mentioned the fact that RICO had a report that came out which I left with you about a social services task force. $325,000 was spent on that program or that person. We have nothing. We didn't have any records. And nothing to tell us what the needs were on the Island. And I also mentioned in that letter that we need to do more for... Now what have you done about any of those things since I wrote you?

Blue:
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]

Sharon Bermon:
Dr. Blue, I'm Sharon Bermon, a member of the editorial staff of the WIRE, the community newspaper. Now, you have a communiactions problem, we have an offer for you. We have offered you the opportunity to write a column, as Patrick Stewart writes for every issue. We would like to repeat that offer. A real column, not just repeat something that's in something else. You can do anything you want, questions and answers. We're offering you this opportunity right now...

Blue:
The first time the offer was made to me by the WIRE, I accepted, and gave the material, and I never saw it printed.

Audience member:
What?

Blue:
I'm just telling you the way that it was.

Dick Lutz (Associate Editor of The Main Street WIRE):
Dr. Blue, that's not the way it was. We sent you an offer, that you could write a column for the WIRE, and you responded with a suggestion that we simply reprint your RIOC newsletter, and we declined that opportunity. [SMATTERING OF APPLAUSE]

[UNINTELLIGIBLE]

[MTA question]

Gene Shapiro:
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]

Audience member:
What about that $600,000?

Blue:
There are several budget cycles. The budget for RIOC was passed last Fall. [UNINTELLIGIBLE]

Debra Mount Cornet (member, RIRA Common Council and WIRE reporter):
My name is Debra Mount Cornet, and you just then said and you referred back to your budget when the $600,000 question was asked of you. That is not relevant. [UNINTELLIGIBLE] You told me in an interview last month, no way would we be breaking ground... Tell uls the truth!

Blue:
There's obviously some confusion on that matter. That had to do with "starting Southtown." "Starting," it was started in 19...uh...

Audience member:
Groundbreaking!

Blue:
And then you refer to groundbreaking, and that isn't quite the same thing as "starting."

Audience member:
Groundbreaking. Now answer the question.

Blue:
Groundbreaking? [UNINTELLIGIBLE]

[End of partial transcript]