The campaign is down to its last few days. The debate between Presidential and First Vice-Presidential candidates is behind us and the contestants have given their final statements at Candidates' Night. I've spoken to many of you in community rooms all over the Island, on the street and at get-togethers in your homes. Our campaign literature, flyers and posters have sought your attention in a variety of colorful ways. Some of us will take advantage of The Main Street WIRE's offer to speak once again to the entire community in this issue. Some will not. I intend to avail myself of the chance to correct some misconceptions and erroneous information put forth by my opponent and to tell you why Byron Gaspard and I have joined forces to take on the task of leading RIRA.

Stewart and Christianson have told you at the debate and in their posted material why change is impossible, unwise, risky. They have focused on opposing us rather than listing their hopes and goals for the next two-year Common Council term. Byron and I would rather light a candle than curse the darkness. Read our posters and you will see plans for a more productive, more responsive RIRA without any mention of our opponents.

We want your Common Council to reflect the diversity of the Island's population, to take on an unresponsive Public Safety Department, and to participate in the lives of our seniors, our disabled and our youth. We want Common Council to participate in Roosevelt Island Day and in other Island events. We want Council votes to mean something and Member resolutions to be carried out. When a Council Committee responded to the Eastwood fire with the idea of holding an insurance fair, to inform residents of the benefits and costs of apartment insurance and to talk about fire prevention, your RIRA president should have made it happen. He didn't. But Byron and I know that to get your support, first we must earn your respect and your trust.

Patrick Stewart tells you that the legislation to give this Island an elected, rather than a politically appointed RIOC Board, is fiscally unsound, but he doesn't mention the financial safeguards, endorsed by both Assemblymember Grannis and Senator Mendez, that protect the Island until such time as we are truly self-sufficient. His flyers discuss conversations disparaging to the Maple Tree Group between myself and Senator Mendez' legislative aide that never took place. He offers lists of RIRA accomplishments that RIRA has never seen or voted on and that were the actions of other groups and other people. The Stewarts, Patrick and Karen, have both sat on the Legal Action Fund Committee and yet, neither has ever seen fit to help pay for the law firm the Common Council voted to hire. Is this leading by example? Bizarrely, Patrick even takes credit for the money provided by Assemblymember John Ravitz to tear down the Manhattan-side tram station stairway, benefiting only the developer whose apartment house now has an empty Tram Plaza leading into his front lobby.

I've heard so many of you say that you are tired of business as usual, of the status quo, and of a Common Council that is never challenged to be better. So many residents are unaware that there even is a Residents Association because it has never impacted on their lives. After three years of effort and advocacy I'm frustrated and ashamed. I know Council Members have given of themselves to make the Common Council a more significant organ of Roosevelt Island life. Patrick Stewart, on the other hand, has used the Common Council as a platform for his own views. I believe that leadership dedicated to making a difference and effecting change can significantly improve RIRA's net value to Roosevelt Island.

The issues are clear. We must vote "Yes" on the referendum question to give us an elected RIOC empowered to hire professional, experienced management. We deserve better than the amateurs sent to us by a Governor who sees Roosevelt Island as a repository for the recipients of political favor. And it's time a new broom swept the Island clean of the fear of change that has characterized Patrick Stewart's reign over a Common Council he has largely ignored. We must use the only organization on Roosevelt Island elected from the community to demand a say in the massive development that will change the quality of our lives forever.

On November 7 please make it your business to vote at our Island school for the national candidates of your choice. And help restore local government to Roosevelt Island by voting for me, Matthew Katz, as your Residents Association President. Remember, there are crucial decisions on the future of our Island that will be made in the next few years. And decisions are made by those who show up.

Joan Christianson

To the Editor:

I am responding to Frank Farance's letter in the last edition of The WIRE. Farance's letter is a perfect example of misinformation and deliberate distortion. It does not surprise me that The WIRE chose to publish his letter while knowing full well that the facts are otherwise.

[Editor's note: WIRE publication of a letter does not constitute an endorsement of its content. Nor does The WIRE know "full well" that "the facts are otherwise." Farance's letter was published because it contained some interesting and thoughtful observations about matters of concern to the community. Different views of the matter, including this letter, are not only welcome here, but are sought.]

The "infestation" of conflicts that Farance lists is ridiculous and have no basis in fact. Firstly, Patrick Stewart sits on the RIOC Board because RIRA Council members implored the Mayor to appoint him when it became apparent that the Governor was not going to do so. Patrick sits on that Board as RIRA President and acts solely on behalf of the residents, as he does in all his activist roles. Farance chooses to believe otherwise, although he has never offered the least shred of evidence to support this "intuitive" belief.

As First Vice President of RIRA, I am the chair of the Legal Action Fund Committee (LAFC) of the Common Council, a committee that Patrick created, by the way, specifically to deal with any parkland development issues that the community might need to fight legally. The committee interviewed several law firms, one of which was DeForest and Duer (D&D).

Yes, Shirley Margolin initially brought this internationally known land-use firm to our attention, because she was aware through other activities that they were already involved in off-Island plans to stop commercial development on Southpoint. D&D showed a willingness to represent the Island residents through RIRA, including an 80% reduction of their normal fees.

Following a thorough evaluation process, the RIRA LAFC recommended unanimously to the Common Council that we hire D&D to represent us. The Common Council then also voted unanimously to do so. The Council was aware that Jeff Glen was married to Rosina Abramson, a former head of RIOC. This was seen by most Council members, as by most sensible people, as an asset, since Mr. Glen was already knowledgeable about Island matters. When RIRSD first came to the Common Council last December with concerns for preserving the soccer/baseball field in the Southtown development everyone believed (including RIRSD) that Blackwell Field was part of the Southtown land as defined by the GDP.

The Common Council voted not to support RIRSD. The developers had agreed to build a new field. As a matter of fact, I was the one who initially insisted that this be a priority in the development.

On the evening of January 5, Karen Stewart brought to me, in my role as LAFC chair, a discovery that demanded immediate attention. With the full voted approval of the Common Council we proceeded to bring the matter to D&D. Each step in this matter from this point forward, no matter how small, was put before the LAFC and the Common Council to be voted upon. In no case did the Council fail to approve, by a wide majority, any step. By the way, The WIRE was present for, and taped, each one of these votes. From the 12th of January, every member of the Common Council was fully aware that Karen Stewart along with me was working with our lawyers, as were RIOC, DHCR and the Southtown developers. These parties' own lawyers were aware of her involvement. By all reports, those same counsels have so far been paid more than half a million dollars for their advice. Not one of these individuals raised a single objection. Presumably, they would have been eager to do so, had there been any possible basis on which they could object. The Common Council formally appointed Karen Stewart to the LAFC by an 18 to 3 margin. (Farance was joined by Linda Heimer and Joyce Mincheff in voting against the appointment.)

Each conversation Karen has had with our lawyers were three-way calls initiated by me. Luckily, I did not have to supervise her work on the Southtown matter, because De Forest and Duer have since estimated that her individual research saved RIRA in excess of $25,000 in legal fees in this suit, keeping RIRA's total legal costs to less than $10,000.

To suggest that somehow Karen is "protecting" Patrick in all this defies any and all logic. She had only to keep her discovery to herself to protect Patrick, had she wished to do so. Instead, she chose to give RIRA the means to sue RIOC within a month of Patrick's appointment to the Board. If this is helping her husband's career advancement, I must be missing something. As President of RIRA, who is doing the suing, and an officer of RIOC, who is being sued, Patrick himself is prohibited from any involvement in this matter on either side, as Farance well knows. With over 20 lawyers involved, and among the 28 Common Councilors, no one has ever suggested there is a problem in how the Stewarts have proceeded for the past 10 months except Farance, Joyce Mincheff and Linda Heimer.

In the Southtown matter, our lawyers advised RIRA not to file our own Article 78 action because of the prohibitive cost and unlikely chance of success. The Common Council voted to follow this advice. Our lawyers also explained that, although GDP compliance was not solely a procedural matter, and therefore not subject to the 120-day filing restriction as was an Article 78, the cheapest way to bring the matter before a court was to intervene on whatever Article 78 was filed by others. Again, the Council sensibly voted to do so. We did not "tag along" or "join" as Farance and others, including The WIRE, suggest. To intervene means to "come between" and intervention would not have been permitted by the Court unless both our evidence and interests were separate and different from those who filed the original cases. The Court in this case did not rule against our intervention, and the Common Council has since voted to file to appeal Judge Tompkins' clearly erroneous procedural decisions (he did not rule on the merits of the GDP case). RIRA's arguments will be heard along with the others, if any are heard. We will not be excluded from any negotiations if and when negotiations happen.

It was RIRSD's initial filing of their own Article 78 that gave RIOC the excuse they needed not to negotiate with RIRA directly. We have received value for our money, and acted on RIRA's obligation to protect the GDP. And as for the "heavy lifting", it is our argument, RIRA's argument, that is the only argument being brought to appeal by RIRSD, of the more than 25 they filed originally. [Editor's note: According to members of the RIRSD steering committee, its appeal has not yet been "perfected," and therefore the points of appeal are not yet known.]

Farance has accused three respected citizens of underhanded behavior, which is both slanderous and insulting. Shirley Margolin has worked harder and longer and more successfully than most activists for this Island for more than 20 years. Patrick and Karen both work tirelessly in community affairs. The residents have received top quality legal advice and representation for their money. The vast majority of the residents' elected Common Council members agree. It is certainly an indisputable fact that not one penny of Mr. Farance's money was spent on this effort.

By the way, in his first paragraph Farance refers to the "brawl" at the September RIRA meeting. There was no "brawl." I, Joan Christianson, objected to being persistently and rudely interrupted by Joyce Mincheff, and chose to leave the meeting in protest. The topic of the interruptions was entirely irrelevant to me. There was no "brawl" either before or after I left. That the Council once again found itself discussing Ms. Mincheff's behavior is hardly news, no matter what The WIRE thinks.

Hopefully, the next Common Council will be free of this kind of childishness, as was the Council for the first three years of Patrick's administration. It is healthy to ask questions, and to probe and talk things through. It is not healthy to have a Common Council with members who insist that their personal priorities must come before Council business. It is not productive to attempt to browbeat members into changing their point of view. That is the kind of Council conflict we too often now have, almost exclusively because of a minority of people. I hope and pray that this will change this coming Election Day.