The WIRE's 20th year

December 19, 1998

State Senator Mendez To Back Self-Governance

"That is a good idea."

So spoke Olga Mendez, Roosevelt Island's delegate to the New York State Senate, Monday night at a working session of the Maple Tree Group (MTG). She was responding to a description of MTG draft legislation that targets replacement of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) with a locally-elected Board of Residents empowered to hire professional community management.
Senator Olga Mendez listened Monday night as a member of the Maple Tree Group described draft legislation calling for Island self-governance.
Residents endorsed the self-governance concept with a 92 percent vote on a ballot question in the Residents Association election last month.

Mendez pledged her cooperation in fine-tuning the draft legislation and coordinating its provisions with Governor George Pataki, whose November reelection she supported.

"I am game," Mendez said. "I have become a pragmatic politician. I want to help the people who elect me. I am game to do whatever I can to help the Island... I want to do some real studying and discussion with you to put together something that can go through."

Mendez, who was invited to the meeting by Ron Vass, Chair of the Drive for Democracy, to help the group work on the specifics of its legislation and the strategy necessary to move it through the legislative process, was accompanied by her Legislative Counsel, Jorge Vidro. Vidro said he has been reading the regular weekly reports of MTG activity supplied by the group's founder, David Bauer. He told the group, "This is do-able. We have to make sure we're coming from a position of strength." He promised an effort to find parallels with other State-supported housing operations.

Mendez had foreseen the need for greater Island self-governance just over a decade ago in a legislative package she put before the State Senate. It read, in part, "The corporation (RIOC) shall develop proposals regarding increased representation in the operation and management of such Island by the residents thereof as state subsidies to such Island are eliminated, development pursuant to the development plan is completed, and the financing of the Island's development, operation, and management becomes self-sustaining."

On Monday night, the Senator said, "The goal is self-government, and there will be some obstacles to that final goal. We will need to find a formula that will pass both the Assembly and the Senate, and then get the signature of the Governor. We should keep in mind that it might be done in a series of steps."

The Senator praised both the Roosevelt Island concept - a community that is mixed economically and racially, with elderly residents and handicapped residents - and the strong community spirit she says has always been evident on Roosevelt Island. That prompted a comment from Residents Association President Patrick Stewart that the Island spirit has been sapped in the past two and a half years by an unwillingness of the RIOC administration of Dr. Jerome Blue to work with residents through the elected Common Council of RIRA, the Residents Association.

Stewart also discussed his concerns over lack of maintenance on the Island, while Lee Edelman suggested that a claimed million-dollar budget surplus at RIOC is probably due to the neglect of maintenance. Edelman discussed the need for a full engineering survey as part of a changeover in Island management. Funds for such a survey, estimated to cost $250,000 to $500,000, are to be the subject of a revision of the draft legislation.

The Maple Tree Group holds open meetings Monday nights at 7:30 in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd; the next meeting is scheduled for January 4.