Byron Gaspard and I haven't been inducted as First Vice President and President yet, but I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who voted for us as well as everyone who came out to vote on November 7.  If we as Americans have learned anything from this round of national elections, it is that every vote counts.  As I write, it seems likely that the vote differential by which both Byron and I won (some 400 votes each) is greater than the current vote difference between Vice President Gore and Governor Bush for the entire state of Florida that will determine the next U.S. President.  You gave each of us about 59% of the votes cast (with other candidates sharing the remaining 41%), with a clear majority in every residential building on Roosevelt Island, and we take that as a mandate for change.

It is our hope that Patrick Stewart, outgoing RIRA president, will allow us to convene the new Common Council, Class of 2000, at the next regularly scheduled meeting on December 6.  That's how Patrick started off his last two-year term and it will allow the new Council to choose its officers and committee chairs before the holidays.  Patrick is calling for a Town Meeting in December instead and, in fact, our constitution calls for one.  However, there are years of precedent to bypass the December Town Meeting, and after all, we have convened twice as a community in the last three weeks to hold our RIRA Debate and Candidates' Night.  It's not that we don't want to be inducted in front of our friends and neighbors and hear the report of the outgoing president.  It's just that there's too much work to be done to justify the support you gave us on Election Day, and we want to get to it.  As always, the community is encouraged to attend this first Common Council meeting and all subsequent meetings, with time allocated at the top of each agenda for the residents to be heard.  If you believe that the new Class of 2000 should be seated at our December 6 meeting, please let Mr. Stewart and the current Council Members know how you feel.

In future columns, when this is truly a President's Column, I will use this "bully pulpit" to report on meetings of the Common Council as well as my interactions with the Island, City and State officials and organizations that affect our lives.  Will my writing be biased, opinionated and subjective? Y'betcha!  I'll leave the objective news reporting to the front page of The WIRE.  Why?  Because mine is only one vote out of 30.  My function as president is to use the rules available (the RIRA Constitution, Robert's Rules of Order, precedent, courtesy, common sense) plus my powers of persuasion to guide the Common Council toward resolution of the issues you have raised.  Everything we've said and written during six weeks of campaigning has concerned what Byron and I want to accomplish over the next two years.  Our efforts will be rewarded only if we can persuade the Council Members to work with us and to vote with us, and the columns and editorials of The WIRE are forums for persuasion.  We hope to expedite the things we agree on right away, and debate the issues where there is differing opinion.  That's the way deliberative bodies should conduct themselves, and that is how I intend to lead this Common Council.

Congratulations and thanks to the Common Council, Class of 2000, for volunteering to run for office and work for Roosevelt Island.  You all have my respect.  My quotation du jour is, "Decisions are made by those who show up."

Come on down and watch us work.  The Council meets the first Wednesday of each month, at 8:00 p.m., in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd (lower level).  And, oh yeah, wish us luck!