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 September 9, 2000 |
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The Grannis-Mendez Feud: This Legislative Session, the Impact on Roosevelt Island Was a Failure, Again, to Pass a Self-Governance Bill
by John Dyer Most residents of Roosevelt Island don't like the government of their little town, which is run like a colony of the State of New York. But the two people who hold the keys to the Island's future, Assemblyman Pete Grannis and State Senator Olga Mendez, can't seem to stop finger-pointing to lift the Island out of limbo. For the last two years, both Democratic legislators have sponsored bills that would radically alter the makeup of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC), the State agency that oversees the area. Bickering between the two politicians has twice sunk passage of the bills, however. 
Grannis and Mendez have both accused each other of delaying the overhaul of RIOC. Mendez has accused Grannis of political posturing. She says he's crafted "one-house bills" that the State Assembly will pass to make him look good, knowing all the while the Governor and State Senate won't approve them. On Grannis's side, Mendez has been charged with carrying water for the Republican majority of the State Senate and for Governor George Pataki. Roosevelt Island is City property, but in 1969 the State leased the land in order to develop a planned community there. Initially the Island was supposed to be a hamlet of 16,000 people. The State developed only half the land, however, leaving the community with its current population of 8,000. Also never fully ironed out was the way the Island should be managed. A year ago, a collection of Islanders called The Maple Tree Group began a movement to change the nine-member board of RIOC, whose members are appointed by the Governor and Mayor. Currently, only four members of the board have to be Island residents. The MTG wants to make the board an elected body composed only of residents. [Editor's note: The Maple Tree Group was formed three years ago, in 1997. Also, MTG's current drive is for legislation that would require election of a majority of the RIOC Board members, leaving at least two State officials serving by virtue of their positions as head of the State budget office and of DHCR, the State Department of Housing and Community Renewal.] "If citizens want something done, they have no elected officials to turn to. The City Council doesn't have much weight with the State," says Dick Lutz, editor of The WIRE, the Roosevelt Island local paper and a member of Maple Tree. The group believes RIOC is not only undemocratic, but also economically irresponsible. "We think the RIOC as it exists now has put all of its eggs in the basket of development," says Matthew Katz, also a member of Maple Tree. During the last legislative session, Grannis and Mendez heeded the call of their constituents and moved to change RIOC into an Islander-controlled agency. They both crafted bills that would make seven of the nine board members residents, all of whom would be elected. Grannis spokesperson Tony Morenzi says that by the end of the session, Mendez, who supported the Governor's election campaigns and who had been negotiating with Pataki and Senate leaders over the issue, changed her bill to lift the financial obligations the State has to the Island. While the State no longer subsidizes RIOC, which raises money off leased real estate, Mendez's bill would have made RIOC, and not the State, liable for any new expenses that RIOC might incur in the future. Given that Roosevelt Island has a deteriorating infrastructure, which will need to be improved in the future - including a sea wall that requires over $6 million in repairs - Grannis could not support Mendez's bill, according to Morenzi. And so it died. "When we found out about it, there was no way," says Morenzi. "Olga's the one who's friends with the Governor. She doesn't want to say she's all for the Governor, but she drags her heels on a bill the Governor wants to drag her heels on. If Mendez really wanted something to happen on this bill, she could have made it happen." This session's failed bill falls on Grannis's lap, claims Mendez. She argues that since she is in the Senate minority, she has to be friends with Republicans if she wants to accomplish anything. She says Grannis could have participated in her negotiations with Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and the Governor last year, but refused. As a result, she got burned. Grannis rushed his bill though committees in the Assembly, which would have passed his one-sided version, making it look as if she wasn't in support of the legislation. This year, Mendez decided she would take a new bill seriously only if Speaker Sheldon Silver announced that it was one of his priorities. "I said, 'You get the commitment, Pete, and then I'll move and call people,'" says Mendez. As it stands now, she says Grannis wants to work on the legislation in special session, which rarely happens unless a bill is at the top of Albany's agenda. Nobody expects action on the bill this year. Grannis's View: No Attention in the Senate (from Assemblymember Grannis's constituent newsletter) Self-Governance Legislation Moves in Assembly 
Self-governance has long been a priority of many Roosevelt Island residents and of mine. It is widely accepted that the current management structure of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) ill serves the Island community. Working with the support of the Island's Maple Tree Group and others, I carried a bill this year with Senator Mendez to transform RIOC into a public benefit corporation controlled by duly-elected Island residents which incorporates provisions that will protect both the Island's long-term interests and the pocketbooks of its residents. The bill was reported favorably by three key Assembly Committees to the Assembly floor, where its final approval was never in question. Unfortunately, as the session drew to a close, the bill received no attention in the Senate. In fact, throughout the session there was never any indication from the Senate leaders or the Governor that they had any interest in transferring control of the Island's destiny to its residents. Complicating a move to self-governance is the fact that RIOC has no authority to raise funds for dealing with the Island's capital needs, which are substantial. These include repairing the Island's vital perimeter seawall, which the Army Corps of Engineers figures conservatively will cost $6 million, and extensive work needed at the Good Shepherd Chapel, Blackwell House, and the Octagon Building. Despite assurances from some quarters that money for these and other projects could be found in RIOC's current and future budgets without the State assistance eliminated by Governor Pataki over the past several years, I was skeptical. Budget figures released by RIOC in May showed a surplus of only $19,243 for the past fiscal year and a project surplus of only $35,000 for the upcoming year. The legislation sets out the State's responsibility for identifying, repairing and maintaining these and other aspects of the Island's physical infrastructure which has suffered under the Pataki administration as well as its responsibility for sharing in future capital expenditures. I care deeply about the well-being of the Island community and am fully committed to the concept of self-governance. I will continue to do all I can to push for a meaningful, responsible self-governance structure to guide the Island's future. Strengthening the Seawall Legislation to place Roosevelt Island's seawall under the jurisdiction of the DEC was recently signed by the Governor. Authorizing DEC stewardship of seawall erosion prevention efforts will mean that future Island seawall projects will be eligible for the same funding consideration as are projects on the other coastlines of New York State already named in the law. While this will certainly help, RIOC will still be responsible for sharing part of the cost for any seawall projects. Preserving Good Shepherd Chapel The Chapel is an important Island resource, serving both the religious and community needs of residents. In this year's budget, I am pleased to report that I secured an additional grant of $50,000 for repairs needed to protect this historic structure. This brings the total funding I have secured for this project over the past few years to $250,000. I am hopeful that the work needed on the roof, masonry, drainage system, leaded windows and exterior doors, which is being done under the auspices of the New York Landmarks Conservancy's Sacred Sites Program, will finally begin this fall. Unfortunately, the commencement of this project has been delayed by the inability of RIOC and the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to agree on the terms of the contract.
Mendez's View: No Feud, No Coordination by State Senator Olga Mendez 
I have been reading with great interest the rhetoric regarding the issue of self-governance for Roosevelt Island. As most who know me can attest, I have never engaged in rhetoric nor have I taken a stand for the sake of "appearing" to do so. In an article appearing in the New York Resident it was reported that a feud between myself and Assemblymember Grannis has left the issue of self-governance "in a state of suspended animation." Furthermore, in his "end of session report," not only does Assemblymember Grannis place the inaction on self-governance at my feet; he takes full credit for passage of the "seawall" bill which his own staff, through Mr. Morenzi, categorized as a bill that would do absolutely nothing nor provide any funds for Roosevelt Island. For the record, I am not, nor do I have a reason to be, in a feud with Assemblymember Grannis. What I did make clear, as I consistently state, was that I would leave to Assemblymember Grannis the leadership for drafting a bill (which he did) that I would wholeheartedly support (which I did), but I stressed that, since he is in the majority in his house and has leadership there, the only way to get action in the Senate (or at least to have the issue taken seriously) was for him to get the Speaker of the Assembly to make self-governance a priority/must-do bill in the Assembly. Those are not fighting words. That is strategy - working together to achieve a legitimate goal. Two years ago, when I drafted a bill on self-governance that Assemblymember Grannis did not support, the fact that he did not participate in negotiating the bill along with me was his prerogative. According to Mr. Grannis, he did not want to sit down with the Governor's people. Contrary to what people want to interpret, I do not take that as his having a problem with me. I take it for what he said, that he does not want to sit down with the Governor's people. Mr. Grannis, or Mr. Morenzi, as reported in the New York Resident, can categorize me any way they want; that I am a good friend of Mr. Pataki, good friends of the Republican majority in the Senate, or that I, as unbelievable as it was for me when I read it, "drags her heels on a bill the Governor wants to drag her heels on (sic)." The bottom line is this: my willingness to sit down and negotiate is not dictated by Mr. Grannis's unwillingness to do so. It is dictated by my desire to advocate for the desires and needs of my constituents. With regard to Mr. Grannis's "end of session report," where he writes about the "seawall" bill, I would give credit where credit is due. Mr. Grannis sponsored the bill in the Assembly and it was passed there first, but, had I not approached the Majority Leader himself and asked that he allow the bill to come out of committee and onto the floor of the Senate (on the last day of session), that bill would never have passed both houses and gone to the Governor for signature. That bill had been pre-negotiated and drafted by the Governor's program office, so that both houses agreed on the same version and, because it had the Governor's input, its passage and signing were not in doubt. This is an example of what needs to be done on the issue of self-governance. I want to take this opportunity to issue a challenge to Assemblymember Grannis. It is this: Let us stop this whole nonsense of finger-pointing. I am tired of it and more I am tired of fighting it out in the press. We both know the legislative process well enough not to attempt to insult the intelligence of our constituents and make them believe that in a divided Legislature negotiating and horse-trading are not required on any piece of legislation, and especially one as controversial and emotionally charged as self-governance. I don't owe anything to, nor have anything against Assemblymember Grannis, except to expect (and he expect from me as well) that when our mutual constituents have an issue of great importance, we work together on their behalf. I serve in a Republican-controlled house and am consistently criticized as working too much with the Republicans. All that I have to say about that is that I work hard for my district, and negotiating with Republicans helps me to accomplish what I need to for my constituents. I do not compromise my district for the sake of partisanship and then blame others for my unwillingness to negotiate. My commitment to Roosevelt Island residents is to take the higher road, accept whatever responsibility may be mine for whatever reasons self-governance has not been successful, work in a bipartisan way to make it a reality, and ask my good friend Assemblymember Grannis to do the same and join me in finally getting something done.
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