There was a brouhaha during the 36 hours prior to the meeting as a flyer opposing the amended constitution made its way around the Island.  Unsigned, it included a list of “signatories” containing the names of at least four, possibly more, Islanders who never gave permission to use their names and others who never got to read the screed beforehand, offering the use of their names based on misinformation and misdirection.

Anyway, the meeting was called for 8:00 p.m.  I waited until 8:10 to call for the required quorum (Robert’s Rules allowing me to “…wait a few minutes before taking the chair.”)
The count was 90, and the quorum call failed.  I was asked to take another count, an action I’m not sure is even legal – you’re supposed to stick with the count you’re stuck with, so to speak.  However, I asked the proctors to recount the house and the count was 93.

Now when people are on “Roosevelt Island time” at Common Council meetings, I can delay the roll call until I’m certain we can conduct business with a quorum.  However, at a Town Meeting, we’re supposed to start when the agenda stipulates and the quorum count is final. Once the count is taken, I’m not at liberty to sit there until hell freezes over or a quorum decides to drift in.  With a count of 93, the meeting was null and void.  I had intended to conduct a lengthy discussion period before any vote, but without a quorum that became impossible.  It was also my intention, regardless of the outcome of the meeting, to ask for questions on any subject from the floor post-adjournment addressed to the attending Council Members, but the decibel level was so high that I just left.

Would I rather have resolved the issue once and for all last Tuesday evening?  You betcha!  I spent the last month posting agendas (as they were ripped down from Main Street kiosks), and the Common Council authorized $500 toward the cost of the four-page spread in the May 15 WIRE that provided due notice of the meeting and copies of the new constitution and bylaws.  I find it remarkable that, during the 30 days leading up to the Town Meeting, neither Steve Marcus nor I were asked a single question regarding these complicated rule changes. It’s not surprising that there was rampant confusion as to what people were to be voting on at the Town Meeting.  But without a quorum at the time the roll was called the issue was decided and we were done.

Since the constitution and bylaws were published in the May 15 WIRE, I’ve heard some interesting comments on our work, often from people unfamiliar with either the old or the improved constitution.  One person at Roosevelt Island Day even called the old one “sacred.”  It’s not; it’s just a tool.  The U.S. Constitution may be called sacred given the freedoms it guarantees, but ours just sets rules of procedure for a membership organization currently at 9,500 members, and a deliberative body, the Common Council.  The changes we made simply were designed to make the work of the two dozen (or so) volunteers who are elected to a two-year term easier to accomplish.  In the almost 30 years since RIRA was formed, the world has changed, Roosevelt Island has changed, and RIRA has changed; the constitution has not.  In fact, no one has taken on the draconian task of getting any amendment passed since 1991.  The basic tenets and guarantees of the old constitution remain virtually intact in the revised version and the bylaws simply allow the Common Council to add and remove committees, to require more seats as we strive to include Southtowners in our civic life, and to set the rules of our biannual elections so as to keep them current.  And the Common Council, I would remind you, is the people who show up to do the work, run the committees, represent their constituents, and provide the services that RIRA has become known for during the last four years.

The most significant change is that the new rules remove any appointees from voting on the Council, making the Common Council totally representative, by election, of the residents. And that is what a Residents Association should do.  The appointees from the Roosevelt Island Council of Organizations (RICO), from Community Board 8, and from RIOC (School District 2 never sent a representative in the eight years I’ve been on the Council) never took part in the life of the organization; they didn’t have to.  Not one of them has so much as offered an hour to sign up blood donors and that has been a RIRA project for years now. With a Council composed entirely of elected district and Island representatives, RIRA’s voice will be clearer, stronger, and more focused.  The old bugaboo about Council Members retaining their seats when they move from one Roosevelt Island building to another is a red herring that I will let others address.

If anything is “sacred” about RIRA, it is our participation through elected representation; the cornerstone of American democracy.  And the value of the Common Council is the flesh and blood people who volunteer their time to make things happen.  The rules are just paper, and when they no longer work, the people who use them scrap the old and invent the new. Remarkable how many people were up in arms about those rules but have never attended a Common Council meeting or volunteered to assist in RIRA programs!

So here’s what’s going to happen: Constitutionally, I should now set a special Common Council meeting to provide the two-thirds majority vote the old constitution requires.  But I would rather have the workings of the constitutional revisions understood and acted upon by the RIRA membership.  I intend to call a special meeting of the Council, but not to ratify the constitution.  Rather, we will discuss convening a new Town Meeting at which the chair of the Constitutional Committee, Steve Marcus, will debate Karen Stewart, architect of Tuesday’s debacle, or anyone willing to take on the task.  Questions will be taken from the audience and, perhaps then, everyone will understand just what it is the Common Council has changed and also, what remains the same.  At the end of a stipulated period and at a specific time to be announced, a count will be taken, once, and if a quorum exists, a vote conducted to ratify the constitution.  That should give everyone ample time and ample warning to get seated and counted, regardless of “Roosevelt Island time.”  If no quorum is obtained, the vote will return to the Common Council (as required by both the old and revised constitutions), and no bellyaching will be accepted.  And that’s all I have to say about that.

On to happier and more interesting subjects: The second Verdant Power RITE (Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy) Project federal hearings were held last week in the community room at 4 River Road.  Verdant Power, you will recall, intends to install a “six-pack” of underwater turbines this summer in the current of the East Channel north of the Roosevelt Island Bridge to create electricity without burning fossil fuels and without creating pollution.  To be licensed to install the final array of 300 turbines, the RITE project must comply with the requirements of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) review.  This requires studies of the impact to fish; water quality; navigation; recreation; cultural, archeological, and historical properties; and rare, threatened, and endangered species.  The agencies involved in these issues will then issue permits and licenses if all goes well.  I will report to you the status of these studies as I receive them.

Roosevelt Island Day.  What a pleasure!  I awoke Saturday morning chilled and feverish after a sleepless night, but my health and disposition quickly improved in the warm sunshine of that June day.  RIRA’s free breakfast quickly ran out of bagels, but Kaie at the Trellis saved the day with a free infusion of pastry.  Thanks, Kaie!  I spent the morning moving what seemed like tons of topsoil in the PS/IS 217 schoolyard for the planting sponsored by Bonnie Sherk and the Living Library project.  Then it was on to the blood drive where Sherie and I shared adjacent gurneys while our veins were tapped.  Great way to lose a couple of pounds!

The evening concert was terrific, but the highlight for me was the opportunity to thank Housing Management General Manager Doryne Isley and Youth Center Executive Director Charlie De Fino for inventing Roosevelt Island Day eight years ago.  They both received plaques with expressions of thanks from the community, and Doryne also was given a beautiful original sculpture by outgoing RIVAA president, Arlene Jacoby.  RIRA voted the funds at our June 2 meeting and managed to keep it secret until the 12th.  I think the surprise was total.  I got to express my thanks to Charlie for the work he has done with thousands of Island kids and to Doryne for her unvarying support of the Residents Association, as well as her tactful navigating through the minefield of Eastwood, Island House, and Westview residents’ interests along with those of the building owners and DHCR.  These folks do tough, often thankless jobs, and the community got to express its thanks with their applause. And Doryne knows how grateful I am for the Westview pool, now running like an 84°F Swiss watch!