When George W. Bush turns his face outward to the world, he is backed by a unanimity of belief that this country is best represented by one voice.  Even his opponents in Congress understand:  the President speaks for the nation's foreign policy.

There is real power in that unity.

It used to be the same with the Residents Association (RIRA):  In dealing with the foreign (and occupying) power of New York State, the RIRA President had the full backing of this community, including members of its Common Council.

The Residents Association derived its only power from the unanimity of its Common Council in backing its President as the voice of residents.

Patrick Stewart is an example.  During his first three years as President of RIRA, Stewart was a rock-hard opponent of the wrong-headed Island management perpetrated by the State through Dr. Jerome Blue, who was President of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC).

So powerful was united resident opposition to Blue, and clumsy rule from Albany, that in 1998 the community voted by a 92% margin to support legislation for a locally-elected RIOC Board of Directors, and the RIRA Common Council backed it with three separate votes.  Stewart didn't face any real opposition to his leadership of residents until he failed to press the case for democratic government here.  He was later appointed to the RIOC Board, and for his fourth year in the RIRA Presidency, became a passive tagalong with RIOC development plans while residents mounted a Common Council-backed suit against RIOC's plans for Southtown.

Stewart's stand on the legislation demanding locally-elected democratic supervision of professional management of Roosevelt Island, as well as his failure to act as residents' voice on matters that united the Common Council, led to his defeat in the Residents Association's 2000 election.

Matthew Katz captured the post by a nine-to-five margin, based at least in part on his determined advocacy for the self-governance legislation supported by residents and by their representatives in State government, Assemblymember Pete Grannis and Senator Olga Mendez.

Having failed in his re-election bid, Stewart - still a member of the RIOC Board of Directors - now leads "the loyal opposition" - except it isn't so loyal.  According to a source familiar with a plan subscribed to by Stewart's supporters on the Common Council, there will be no unity or unanimity.  Contending that Katz "stole" the election by campaigning too vigorously and failing to suppress the enthusiatic First Amendment-protected (and sometimes costly) efforts of those who favored his election, they intend to make his life as RIRA President (and Chair of the Common Council meetings) so difficult that he will, they hope, simply walk away from the RIRA Presidency.

Judging by the May Common Council meeting, "they" consist of about a third of the elected members of the Council, plus several non-elected delegates who have a Council vote only by virtue of their involvement with other organizations.  Stewart, for example, can vote in Council sessions despite the fact that he failed even to capture a seat representing Island House.  That's only because he is on the RIOC Board.

Thing is, Katz is trying to make good on a campaign promise to update the RIRA constitution - and it's that constitution that gives these unelected people seats at the Common Council table.  So many unelected delegates are provided for in the constitution, in fact - five from the near-defunct Roosevelt Island Council of Organizations, appointees to Community Board 8, and members of the RIOC Board itself - that unelected members of the Common Council could join together to override the will of the elected representatives of residents.

Those presently serving as unelected Common Councilors would presumably be "grandfathered" in - able to keep voting until the 2002 election.  So even they should be willing to entertain debate about the merits of unelected votes on the otherwise democratically-elected Common Council.

In any case, Katz isn't likely to walk away.  There is too much at stake.  In 2000, residents affirmed their desire to unseat the unelected members of the RIOC Board with an 80% vote.  There is discomfort with RIOC's management of the Island's public-safety needs.  There is unhappiness with RIOC's willingness to allow the Island's infrastructure to deteriorate and Main Street to look like a littered slum.  There are worries over RIOC's apparent willingness to entertain any cockamamie development plan that will produce a few dollars for its treasury.

All things considered, there is a serious need for those few Common Councilors who plan to make trouble for Katz in support of Patrick Stewart to reconsider their plan, because...

RIRA's only strength in balancing the power of RIOC is in unity and unanimity.  RIOC could wish for nothing better than for RIRA to be neutralized by the actions of one of its Board members.

DL