Riverbay Election Supplement on pages 31-42 Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community.
Final Candidates’ Forum to be held Monday in Einstein Center
© Copyright 2014 Co-op City Times
Vol. 49 No. 19
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Co-op City already has the zero percent increase de Blasio wants for rest of New York While New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and housing advocates push for a zero percent increase in rent-controlled apartments this year, Co-op City residents already have their housing costs frozen at zero thanks to Riverbay’s new financial stability achieved through tight budgeting and the HUD refinancing. Shareholders here will have their carrying charges remain at the current rates for a full year beginning on Oct. 1 because the state Housing and Community Renewal agency approved Riverbay’s two-year budgets for 2013/14 and 2014/15 last September. At that time, Randall Wilson, an accountant from DHCR, said the agency had reviewed Riverbay’s proposed budgets for the next two years and agreed that the zero percent carrying charge increase in the second year of the budgets was justified. “What we found was that while some items have gone up substantially, other items have been reduced through efficiencies,” said Wilson. “At the end of the day, it appears that approximately one percent [in the first year] will carry you through the BY JIM ROBERTS
next two years.” While New York City landlord operating costs climbed 5.7%, according to a report by the staff of the city Rent Guidelines Board, spending by Riverbay in Co-op City will actually decrease slightly by $500,000 in the upcoming 2014/15 fiscal year, which began April 1. The only way to afford a zero carrying charge increase and maintain a balanced budget is to rein in costs and that’s what the Riverbay budget for next year is projected to accomplish. Total departmental expenses are scheduled to decline by nearly $2 million in the 2014/15 fiscal year to help offset a $1.1 million increase in taxes, water and utility costs. General management costs will be reduced by $300,000. Computer services cost will drop by $724,000 and commercial sales by nearly $500,000 after a large increase in the prior year. The operations budget for the Power Plant will drop by $1.57 million. The new budget includes increases in Grounds ($93,000), Restorations-
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Sign up to speak between 7-7:30 p.m.
The third and final official Candidates’ Forums for the 2014 Riverbay Board of Directors election will be held this Monday, May 12, in Room 45 of the Einstein Community Center at 7:30 p.m. and all certified candidates running in this year’s Board election have been invited to attend. Shareholders who would like to ask questions of the candidates must sign up between 7-7:30 p.m. “The Candidates’ Forum will begin promptly at 7:30 p.m.,” said Board President Bill Gordon, Chair of the 2014 Election Committee. “If anyone would like to ask the candidates a question, please arrive early and sign the BY ROZAAN BOONE
list. I must stress that questions should be contained to issues relevant to the Board election and to each individual’s candidacy.” The 2014 Election rules state that if a candidate cannot attend the forum, he or she can provide the Election Committee with a reason why and, with the permission of the candidate, the Chair of the Election Committee may announce that reason to the attendees of the forum. To publicize the Candidates’ Forums, prominent notices have been placed throughout the community, and also on the Riverbay crawler, as a reminder to shareholders of the events and their (Continued on page 4)
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New emergency notification system for the visually impaired Visually impaired shareholders who cannot read notices posted in buildings and elsewhere related to repairs, programs, events and emergency shutdowns will be notified of these happenings through a new segment of Riverbay’s phone tree system. Ombudsman and Assistant General Manager Joe Boiko said this week that a new segment of the Phone Tree system has been set up which will allow visually impaired people to receive notices about building or communitywide repairs and related service shut downs or programs through either their cell phone or home phone. Many Co-op City residents are already part of the Phone Tree system which regularly provides voice messages to them regarding ongoing work in their building, section, or throughout the community and how it may affect their daily activities. These notices can include something as minor as brief BY BILL STUTTIG
elevator repairs resulting in the loss of the use of one elevator in a building for an hour or two, or something as comprehensive as this week’s 12-hour community-wide hot water shut down due to needed Power Plant maintenance. The bulk of the community receives this flow of information through notices placed in the building, the television crawler, in the newspaper, or a notification system which updates residents through regular e-mails. But, of course, none of these tools serve any practical purpose for the small percentage of the community that is visually impaired, especially those visually impaired people who live by themselves or are alone are great deal of the time and do not have anyone to relay to them the vital information that is regularly communicated through these various notices. The new Phone Tree system for the (Continued on page 2)
New windows for the community centers… Workers for Tindel Replacement Windows, the same firm that installed all new windows in each Co-op City home over the last several years, began the work of replacing the windows in the community centers last week. Work began on the second floor of the Dreiser Community Center and will move over to the Bartow and Einstein Centers in the coming weeks. Project manager Dionisio Cortes said the entire project should take approximately six weeks to complete. The new center windows were manufactured by Northern Window Company, the same firm that manufactured all the new windows previously installed in the community. Photo by Bill Stuttig