Co-op City Times 04/14/12

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Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2012 Co-op City Times

Vol. 47 No. 15

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Open Board meeting to be held Wednesday in Bartow Community Center BY BILL STUTTIG Riverbay’s Board President Helen Atkins has scheduled an open Board meeting to update the community on the HUD loan guarantee to be held on Wednesday, April 18th at 7 p.m. in Bartow Community Center’s Room 31. All shareholders are urged to attend. Prior to the beginning of the open Board meeting, as is customary with all open Board meetings and management forums, shareholders will be given to chance to meet with Riverbay Department Directors from 6 to 7 p.m. to discuss any specific concerns they have regarding their home, building or general community conditions and have those matters addressed directly by the department directors responsible for those specific concerns raised and, if necessary, schedule follow-up action. At 7 p.m., the Board meeting will be called to order and after the last meeting’s minutes and the posted agenda is approved by a majority of the Board, the 15-member Board will start considering a number of issues. The first part of the meeting will feature a report from a representative of Wells

Fargo who has been actively negotiating a potential refinancing loan guarantee through the federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Leading HUD officials were led on a comprehensive tour of Co-op City last week and the potential for a new cost saving refinancing agreement for the community through the federal agency remains very active. Following the report from Wells Fargo, which will address the specifics of this activity, the Board is expected to vote on an emergency resolution to proceed with the next phase of the process, the preparation of third party reports. The Board will then also consider an emergency resolution to have Riverbay put up financial reward incentives to help in capturing those responsible for a few specific violent crimes that have occurred in the community over the last several months. Following the consideration of the emergency resolutions, the Board will listen to the second readings of a number of resolutions and then consider and debate the potential passage of each (Continued on page 4)

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Official candidates in 2012 Riverbay Board election to be certified next Tuesday BY ROZAAN BOONE The official candidates who will compete for one of the five open seats on the Riverbay Board of Directors will be announced next Tuesday, April 17, at the Candidates’ Meeting which will be held in Room 31 of the Bartow Community Center at 8 p.m. On Monday, March 26, at the conclusion of the petition period to run in this year’s Board election, 12 of the 14 potential candidates who picked up qualifying petitions when they became available on Monday, March 12, returned their petition packages to the Riverbay Legal Department signifying their intention to enter the race to fill five Board seats in the Wednesday, May 16th election, while two potential candidates withdrew from the race. Among the 12 potential candidates are all five incumbent Board Directors running for re-election this year—Khalil Abdul-Wahhab, Othelia Jones, Bill Gordon, Francine Reva Jones and Al Shapiro. The other shareholders who returned their petitions include some who ran for the Board previously, as well as some new candidates. They are Emanuel Armfield, Geraldine Shivers, Herbert Moreira-Brown, Leslie Peterson, Evelyn Turner, Cheryl Simmons-Oliver and

Claudia Sampson. With the petition period over, non-resident Riverbay staff conducted electronic signature verification on each of the signed petitions. This process was supervised by Riverbay’s senior counsel, Michael Munns; Director Eleanor Bailey, Chair of the 2012 Election Committee, and Mary Ahland, Riverbay’s Director of Computer Services. In addition, based on the results of the signature check, and the criminal background check, the 2012 Election Committee also verified that none of the candidates are indebted to the Riverbay Corporation and are up to date in the payment of their maintenance charges before compiling the final list of candidates. The official field of candidates will be announced at next Tuesday’s Candidates’ Meeting on April 17, in Room 31 of the Bartow Community Center at 8 p.m., and the official list of candidates will then be published in next Saturday’s issue of the Co-op City Times. As per the election rules, only candidates or their designee will be allowed access to the Candidates’ meeting on Tuesday. (Continued on page 2)

Management meets with city and state agencies to address ongoing quality of life conditions in community BY ROZAAN BOONE Representatives from a number of city and state agencies met with Riverbay General Manager Vernon Cooper and several Riverbay Department personnel on Wednesday, April 11, to address ongoing quality of life conditions in Co-op City. The meeting was held in Room 28 in the Bartow Community Center and was attended by Commissioner Constance Moran of the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT); George Torres of the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit; Ignazio Terranova of the Department of Sanitation; Effie Ardizzone of Department of Environmental Protection (DEP); Brian Carter of the state DOT; Valerie Davis-O’Neil of the city’s Parks Department; David Bilotti of the state Thruway Authority and Roger Montesano, Bureau of Community Affairs, NYC Fire Department. Ken Kearns, District Manager of Community Board 10 also attended. Assemblyman Michael Benedetto was represented by his Chief of Staff Ben Randazzo and

Councilman Larry Seabrook by his Chief of Staff, Cleveland Beckett. Board President Helen Atkins, and Directors Khalil Abdul-Wahhab and Francine Jones attended the meeting with the city and state agencies. In addition to Cooper, Riverbay was represented by Ombudsman Joe Boiko; Edgar Perez, Director of Restorations; Juanita Net, Director of Cooperator Services Offices (CSO); Michelle Sajous, Director of Community Relations; Luis Salazar, Janitorial Director; Osbourne Pearson from the Grounds Department; Bob Tausch from the Maintenance/PM Shop; Mike Mabry and Debra Smith from Public Safety. Opening the meeting, Cooper said the reason for the meeting was to follow-up on similar meetings held last year to address certain areas in and around Co-op City that were not being properly maintained by the city and state agencies charged with their upkeep and, (Continued on page 4)

The Light of Freedom… Lynn Levine, Executive Director of the Co-op City Jewish

Community Council (left) is joined by Jewish scholar Hillel Valentine and Riverbay Board President Helen Atkins (seated) in lighting the candles to commence JASA’s Annual Co-op City Passover Seder. Levine, Valentine and Atkins were joined by Lenore Greenwald, Toni Kelly and Jennifer Perl in reading the Haggadah to more than 300 seniors in attendance. The ceremony told the story of Passover and the escape of the Jewish people from Egyptian bondage and related it as a celebration of all people throughout history who struggled and overcame oppression and bondage. Following the traditional ceremony, seniors were served a Passover lunch and then treated to the music of the Kittay House Community Choir. Photo by Bill Stuttig


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