RIOC Board Delays RIRA Recommendations For Allocation of Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Funds

Pile of Money Image from KR Connect
The Main Street WIRE email bulletin reported the following:

RIOC Board Delays Action on Public Purpose Fund Awards

The RIOC Board this morning tabled recommendations from the Common Council of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association on awards from a $100,000 Public Purpose Fund. The RIOC Board had, for the second year, delegated the allotment of the funds to the residents organization.

RIOC Board member Fay Christian initially asked for the tabling, then withdrew the motion, requesting that the RIRA recommendations be rejected, but another Board member, Patrick Stewart, also moved for tabling. The vote was 5-4.

During the discussion, RIRA President Frank Farance told RIOC Board members that the RIRA subcommittee of four that produced the recommendation, which was approved near-unanimously by the Common Council, had followed RIOC guidelines. Christian objected that The Child School was passed over on a request for something just under $6,000 in funding, rejecting RIRA’s explanation that The Child School serves few Island residents.

Stewart suggested there had been a conflict of interest in the awards. That contention received the backing of Sara Seiden and Mandi Ridler of the Roosevelt Island Day Nursery. Ridler said that a representative of Island Kids, Nikki Leopold, had been present when she made a presentation to the RIRA subcommittee, and that her questioning seemed to suggest she was a member of the subcommittee. Farance said she was not, and named the four members.

During discussions at the RIRA Common Council meeting earlier this month, one explanation for favoring Island Kids, with a $36,000 award (the full amount requested), over the Day Nursery, which requested $35,000 but received only $4,000, was that more Island children would be served by support of the Island Kids program.

Christian also objected to the non-award to Orphans International, which had requested $15,000.

During the discussion, Stewart proposed that his RIOC Operations Committee meet soon — as early as next week — to consider the matter further, but there was no final resolution of how further decision-making will be scheduled. Farance had made the point that several organizations slated to received funding under the RIRA allocation need information quickly on whether their programs can proceed.

RIOC Board Chair Deborah VanAmerongen told her fellow board members that she was disappointed that the objections and requests for further information about the RIRA recommendation had not been pursued in the ten-day period since the RIOC “board package” was provided to board members. (The board package summarizes items to be discussed, and provides documentation.)

Additional information on the Public Purpose Funds program and the RIRA recommendation is available in the March 7 and March 21 issues of The Main Street WIRE.

I asked RIOC President Steve Shane for comment on what transpired and he replied:

The members of the Board voted 5-4 to table. How RIOC, acting by and through the Board will proceed is not presently known to me and will be at the call of the Chair of the Governance and Ops Cttee.

The web cast of the 3/27 RIOC Board Meeting is not yet available but when it is will be here. I will have more on this later as will the Main Street WIRE’s next issue. – 3/29 – According to RIOC there will be a meeting of the Board of Directors Governance Committee on March 31 to discuss and review the Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Funding. matter.

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that a meeting of the Governance Advisory Committee of the RIOC Board of Directors will be held on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. at the RIOC administrative office, 591 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, New York. The committee will discuss and review the Public Purpose Funds and Public Purpose Funds procedures.