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 March 28, 1997 |
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Blue Appears at Town Meeting, Catches Hell from Residents by Dick Lutz |
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| The community gave Jerry Blue hell last night. |  | ||||||||||
Miller |
At a Town Meeting called by
City Councilmember Gifford
Miller, some 150 residents gave
Dr. Blue, the President of the
Roosevelt Island Operating
Corporation (RIOC) a piece of
their collective minds, by asking
hostile questions or by
criticizing his operating style
and substance. Most of those who
didn't stand to speak jeered,
expressed vocal disgust at his
responses to questions, or gave
him "attitude" in other ways. Click for partial transcript |
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| Blue's answers were formula, for the most part: "I'll be happy to sit down with you in my office..." His protestations of innocence on various matters generally took the form, "I didn't know anything about that until..." |  | ||||||||||
 Miller, Berdy, Blue |
Judith Berdy, President of the Synagogue and an officer of the Historical Society, asked the toughest question of the evening: "Dr. Blue, why do we have to beg you to take care of our Island? That's your job. You should come here informed and advised. It's very nice that you invite people to come to your office tomorrow. That's your job. Why do people have to come here and beg you to take care of our island?" | ||||||||||
| The question drew standing applause from half the audience. | |||||||||||
| Blue has seen increasing hostility from the community since his arrival on the Island just over eight months ago, seen as a weak or devious administrator for his failure to press Governor George Pataki for funds to maintain Roosevelt Island's infrastructure, improve services, or cooperate with the community's organizations and elected Common Council representatives. Many feel his focus has been too laser-like on getting the Southtown development project under way; some suspect his motives, citing a past association with Senator Al D'Amato and D'Amato's sway over Pataki. | |||||||||||
| Nneka Pope, a former President of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association, read a prepared question whose preamble was a dissection of her view of Blue's relationship with residents -- an assessment largely shared with her fellow residents, |  | ||||||||||
| "I am amazed," said Pope, "at the sheer depth of anger, frustration, and despair of residents toward you as RIOC President. I venture to say Governor Pataki is more well-liked on the Island that you are. Residents feel that your answers to their questions have been less than honest, and lack any kind of substance or clarity. I'm not sure what residents dislike most... the patronizing feel of your answers, or the arrogance of giving answers that contain no information. 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 debate, into this fight for our community. My question is, and I'm sure you are aware of how we feel by what's been taking place int his meeting so far... Are you concerned about any of the issues that have been raised so far? Can you tell me how you plan to address some of the things these residents are feeling?" | |||||||||||
| Blue started to respond, "Ms.
Pope..." He was interrupted by loud applause
from the audience, then continued, "If
you'd like to come by the office and
talk about it... I am concerned about
it. If you have a question I'd be
happy to..."
At that point, someone in the audience yelled, "Now!" Pope restated: "Can you talk to us specifically about some... How do you plan to address the negative feelings that the residents have now?" Blue: "What are the negative feelings you have now?" This was greeted by hoots from the audience. Councilmember Miller restored order by proposing to take the next question from the audience. |
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Carbonetti |
Lou Carbonetti, a longtime Island resident with a long continuity of interest in the Island's Youth Center, issued a plea to Blue regarding RIOC's imposition of greatly increased fees for use of Island Playing fields, an increase that some feel could mean the death of Little League next year. (A deal was cut to get Little League under way on schedule this year.) "We built those fields," Carbonetti said. "Those fields exist because we saw a need for them, cleared them, and created them for the kids. Now you want to charge us to use them? And we don't even get first choice of playing times!" [Click for related editorial cartoon. Click your browser's back button to return here.] | ||||||||||
| Blue responded, "Will I
listen? Yes. Will I promise a change? I can't
until
I hear from you what you have in mind."
In response to interruptions, he then
added "I will be more than happy to
look at it. It's not as if these fees
were im"1posed solely for this purpose,
so I will be happy to sit down and talk
about it."
Carbonetti extracted a time for a meeting, 10AM next day (Friday, March 28), at which Blue requested more information, and promised an answer within days. Another resident went after Blue on questions of language and style: "I've been sitting here and listening to you use a word over and over again... you keep saying 'the agency,' I thought you worked for the public benefit corporation that we live under. We don't live under an agency, it's a corporation... maybe that's where your head is at. We think that frankly you should understand your job a little better. You haven't asked the Governor for any money... You are responsible to us. You are President of the corporation. We pay the bills. We need you to respond to us, not as though e are little children. We are tired of your patronizing attitude," The speaker went on, referring to Blue's recent turndown of an offer of assistance from State Representative Pete Grannis, who offered to help Blue secure a $600,000 appropriation for Island services: "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 island has always been about." Gifford Miller then interjected a question: "Why is it that the corporation wouldn't want $600,000 to do more for this island?" |
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| "The first I hear or learned of that
was this evening," Blue said. There
followed a brief argument over
terminology, "need" vs "want," Blue
claiming "The letter [to Grannis]
doesn't say that the public benefit
corporation wouldn't accept $600,000."
"But you responded that you didn't need it. And now you want to increase fees for use of the fields." "The question was about the financial plan for this agency... The budget plan was done in the fall of 1996 and that financial plan did not include a request for additional state subsidies." "Why not?" "Due to the... The records [on fields] show that payment was charged before I came here." "There was never money exchanged." "If you can't make it tomorrow..." "Do your homework!" |
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