Leo Kayser III, a Manhattan lawyer who joined the RIOC Board this spring, has gained the Board's approval of the first step in a plan that could eventually reshape the govern ance and landscape of the Island.

In meetings with residents, reporters, and officials, Kayser is building a case for cashing in now on facilities and undeveloped land controlled by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) under its long-term lease with the City, which bought the Island in 1828.

RIOC, a State entity, would sell subleases, which are tax-exempt and have a remaining life of 68 years, to the highest bidder or bidders.  The buyers would determine how the properties would be used, subject to public hearings and within the context of existing agreements such as the Island's Lease and General Development Plan (GDP).

"We could realize substantial capital for the island," Kayser said in explaining the proposal at the November 20 RIOC Board meeting.  "We're talking about, potentially, tens of millions of dollars, which could then be used for capital improvement in various areas that are needed on the Island.  We can finance this ourselves through this process."

The first step will be to choose a marketing agent or other real estate professional.  The Board voted unanimously to authorize RIOC President Rob Ryan to begin the search.  He will obtain proposals and the Board will hire a marketing agent based on his recommendations.

The agent will identify properties that can be marketed, and the agent's job after that, according to the resolution, will be to negotiate "the highest and most value for its development subleases."

"What this would entail is a different way of the Corporation's doing business from the way things have been done in the past," Kayser told the Board.  He told The WIRE last week that he expects to receive criticism of his plan, and welcomes scrutiny, and, indeed, some of the initial reaction has been skeptical.

Gifford Miller, who represents Roosevelt Island on the City Council, said he believed that the State, City, and residents first need to agree on "the appropriate level of development" and proceed from there.  Letting developers decide what should be built here, he said, is "yet another example of RIOC's wrongheaded approach to the development of Roosevelt Island."

The Southtown project, which is already going forward, would not be part of the new marketing effort.  But the Octagon Park site, Southpoint, the RIOC-owned power plant, and Sportspark are possibilities.  "In other words, we have a number of places - anything that is not already encumbered, we have a right to sell," Kayser told The WIRE.

What about the Tramway?  Kayser said it could be included in the inventory of properties, but as a practical matter it probably would not be, because it is not currently making a profit.

In essence, Kayser is suggesting a free-market solution to the problem of paying for Island repairs and improvements.  "This would throw open the entire process to competitive bidding," he told the RIOC Board.  Competition and private sector ownership, he argues, will bring more money to the Island, take the politics out of development, and improve the quality of life.

"I would make it all private within the next two or three years if I had my way, except for the city hospitals and so forth," Kayser said in the interview.  Of course, he knows that the clock cannot be dialed back to 1827, when John Adams' son was president.  But Kayser sees no need for the Island's residents to remain, in a political sense, wards of the State forever.  "The overview is to bring the Island back into the City of New York, to [eliminate] this RIOC ultimately, at least as cutting people off from their normal rights as citizens of the city."

Kayser is not advertising his plan as the State's going-out-of-business sale.  But if RIOC succeeds in raising capital for an Island "endowment," reduces its holdings, and reallocates debt, its role could be greatly diminished and the citizens here could forge stronger connections with the City, which - unlike the State - is in the business of providing municipal services.  That's the concept.

The resolution itself caught most of the audience at the RIOC Board meeting by surprise, and only one other Board member, David Kraut, commented on it at the November 20 meeting.  He questioned whether RIOC had to "work through the existing process" with SSJ Development, which has proposed a Marriott hotel on Southpoint, before pursuing a new initiative.

No one took up that question, although the resolution itself may provide an answer by saying that RIOC is seeking appraisals "affecting the value of the waterfront properties on Roosevelt Island, including the value of the several responses received from interested parties."

A resident, Shirley Margolin, touched off the only interaction on the resolution when she read a statement, at the beginning of the meeting, opposing the hotel.  A news item had appeared in The New York Post indicating that the project was moving forward.  She said Southpoint was supposed to be a park.

Kayser responded in his formal presentation:  "If Ms. Margolin has an objection with respect to the current project and she has some ideas as to some other use, she is free to go to the capital markets if your idea has merit, and put in your own bids.

"Test your idea against other ideas in the marketplace of ideas and the marketplace of projects," he said.  "And you will be empowered."

Then it was up to Kraut to spell out one of the subtexts of the discussion:  RIOC is basically broke and hasn't asked its controlling legal authority (Gov. George Pataki) for an allowance lately.

"We lost our State subsidies both in operating and capital areas," Kraut said in explaining his vote in favor of the resolution.  "As a practical matter, therefore, I am in support of developing areas of this Island which can accrue a reasonable financial return to us so that we can continue in our main mandated mission."

But many questions remain.  Tony Morenzi, the district office manager for the Island's Assemblymember, Pete Grannis, attended the RIOC meeting but didn't get a chance to study the resolution until several days later.

"Can they do this?" is a basic question, Morenzi said this week, noting that no RIOC legal opinion was attached to the resolution.  Does the proposal itself fit in with the lease and the GDP?  If different buyers take control of different properties, who is the overseer to enforce the terms of the earlier agreements?  Would a buyer of the Sportspark, for example, have to continue to maintain it as a service to the community?

Morenzi said there may even be some dispute over the resolution's terminology saying that the Island's plan of development may be amended by the mayor and the RIOC president.

He said the State budget line for RIOC is under the sole jurisdiction of the Governor, and the Governor has chosen to leave it blank.  Grannis thus has had to obtain piecemeal funding for Island projects such as repairs to the Chapel, Morenzi said.

His message to Kayser:  "You're going to have to sell it to us."

Miller, the City Council member, expressed a similar sentiment.  Although the lack of development here during the recent real-estate boom is a testament to RIOC's failed leadership, Miller asserted, he described himself as "completely noncommittal" regarding the new approach.  He said he was "not philosophically opposed to a change in status" for the Island, but asked whether it was proper, in effect, to reward the State by relieving it of its obligations simply to let the Governor "drop a political albatross."

Kayser told The WIRE that this is his plan, not the Governor's, but that, in any case, the Governor would listen to all sides, as would he.  "This is a work in progress, and there will be all sorts of modifications coming about based on objections and criticisms," he said.  "That's the democratic process."

For now, Kayser said, he is willing to be a catalyst for change.  "You have to lay it out, let people see the vision, and then get into nuts and bolts."