The Board of Directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) will hold five evening meetings over the next nine months, beginning with a February 15 meeting at 6:00 p.m. The new schedule was agreed to unanimously Thursday morning at the Board's January session.

The Board scheduled evening meetings, all at 6:00 p.m., for February 15, April 12, June 14, September 13, and November 10. Morning meetings are set for the alternative months: March 8, May 10, July 12, and October 11. While the meetings are scheduled for 9:30 a.m., the Board's typical pattern is to meet briefly, then go into executive session, returning to a public session later. The public portion of this week's meeting started at 11:00 a.m., for example.

The Board discussed public interaction in the course of setting the schedule. Leo Kayser, who asked for the increased evening schedule, proposed to continue public sessions after a formal adjournment. "We could then adjourn Board meetings into town hall meetings for the community," he said, to allow for "more frequent give and take between the Board and the community on specific issues." Referring to his desire to move toward a modified privatization of the Island and its possible return to the jurisdiction of the City, Kayser added, "I think we're going to have a lot more subject matter as we enter a more dynamic phase in restructuring." Kayser said that since the expanded public interaction would follow adjournment, Board members would be free to stay or go as their individual preferences or schedules might dictate.

Resident Board member David Kraut raised the question of whether post-meeting public sessions might afford residents a real opportunity to have impact on Board decisions. "I think what the public would like is that before we vote on an issue, the public would have an opportunity to discuss it... and then we would take our decision based on having heard from the public."

In response, Patrick Stewart, another resident Board member, suggested a modification under which public comments would be taken at the beginning of the formal session, but only on scheduled agenda items. Kayser suggested that post-meeting discussions might then be considered in future Board actions.

The Board Chair, Mary Beth Labate of the State Department of Housing and Community Renewal, commented that the Board would be feeling its way on the handling of public comment in the evening meetings. While no formal decision was made on how to handle the public comment or Q&A portions of the meetings, it appeared the Board was favorably disposed toward the Stewart configuration in which comments on agenda matters would be heard near the beginning of Board meetings, with other matters left for an open-ended town-hall-style meeting after adjournment of the formal meeting.