Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2014 Co-op City Times
Vol. 49 No. 37
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Progress on many fronts reported at Wednesday’s Open Board meeting Progress reports on a potpourri of new initiatives launched by the Riverbay Board of Directors and its
BY BILL STUTTIG
Approximately 100 shareholders listened and offered additional suggestions for even more improvements – social, financial and physical – during a lively,
Riverbay President Cleve Taylor (c.) addresses shareholders at the outset of Wednesday’s Open Board meeting flanked by Board Secretary Francine Reva Jones (l.) and Riverbay General Counsel Jeffrey Buss. Photo by Bill Stuttig
committees over the past few months was the focus of an Open Board meeting held Wednesday evening in the Dreiser Community Center.
but congenial, gallery session conducted halfway through the meeting.
Favored candidates win in Democratic Primary
The preliminaries are over and now the New York Democratic candidates for elected office will gear up for the general election in November. As expected, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Lt. Governor running mate Kathy Hochul and state Senator Ruth HassellThompson all won handily over their opponents in the Democratic Primary voting held Tuesday, Sept. 6. Voter turnout was the biggest loser in the results as just more than 9% of the state’s 5.8 million registered Democrats bothered to go to the polls and cast ballots. Turnout was even lower than the Democratic Primary in 2002 when then-candidate Cuomo dropped out before election day, leaving only Carl McCall as an active candidate. According to unofficial returns, only 531,205 Democrats voted last week, even less than the 661,296 who voted in 2010, when there was no competitive race for governor. Tuesday’s unofficial totals show BY JIM ROBERTS
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that Gov. Cuomo beat his opponent Zephyr Teachout 330,184 votes to 182,024, a winning margin of 60.15%. Hochul won the lieutenant governor nod on the Democratic line with 303,721 votes vs. 208,713 votes for her opponent Timothy Wu, a winning percentage of 59.85%. Cuomo and Hochul will face off against Republican candidates Rob Astorino, the Westchester County Executive, and Christopher Moss, an upstate New York County Sheriff, in the November General election. State Senator Thompson once again won the Democratic nod for the November ballot by beating her primary opponent Crystal Collins with 9,209 votes vs. 1,731 for Collins, a winning percentage of 84.19%. The last time she ran for election in November 2012, Senator HassellThompson garnered 67,613 votes against her closest competitor, Robert L. Diamond, who received 1,404 votes on the Conservative Party line. There was no Republican challenger.
Executive Session
25¢
Dear fellow shareResolution 85-16, and President’s Message holders, amended by the Board Since June 5th, of Directors Resolution your Riverbay 95-44, Purchase Order Board of Directors agreements under President has conducted 6 $100,000; check supBoard meetings – 3 port review and signaopen and 3 in closed sesture, and signing of sion. I have been workleases, and, on average, ing approximately 30 responding to 15 to 20 hours per week performtelephone calls per day. I ing all of the duties that have also tried to make are encumbered upon me myself available to as President of the corpofellow shareholders and ration under NYS law Riverbay employees. and the bylaws of the Primer on Executive corporation. This has Session involved presiding over The Board entering Board meetings which into Executive Session is have started at 7 p.m. and some have provided by statute so that Board finished after midnight; attending variDirectors can address issues involving ous Board committee meetings (Conattorney-client privilege information struction, Budget, Ad-Hoc for competand matters of a confidential corporate itive bidding), and several Riverbay nature. We are not able to share infordepartmental meetings with managemation discussed in Executive Session ment), as well as coordinating the necwith our fellow cooperators until a essary activities between shareholders, settlement or course of action is business entities, legal matters, and determined. decision making to help insure the During the past 100 days, the Board smooth operation of the corporation has met extensively in Executive during normal business hours. I have Session on several issues that affect also provided Marion Scott manageour operations, employees and future ment with direction on a host of corpodirection of the corporation. One of the rate issues on behalf of the Board of issues we can now briefly discuss with Directors. shareholder is the complex elevator The day also involves contract issue. review and signing as directed under
Cleve Taylor
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Annual Co-op City College, Career & Resource Fair to be held Oct. 4 The annual Co-op City College, Career & Resource Fair organized by Director Evelyn Turner and co-sponsored by the Riverbay Fund, will be held on Saturday, Oct. 4, in the Dreiser Auditorium, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Youth in Grades 3 through high school are encouraged to attend and take advantage of the resources and wealth of information that will be available at the fair. “One of the goals of this event is to encourage children to dream, set goals and high expectations for themselves,” stated Director Turner. Subtitled “It’s Cool to be Smart,” the first session of the College, Career & Resource Fair will commence at 10 a.m. for students in Grades 3, 4, 5 and 6. This session will run until 12 p.m. and all attending youth must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. A special guest, Suzette Clarke, author of I’m Your Teacher Not Your Mother, will share with parents the “real” reasons children fail in school. BY ROZAAN BOONE
Ms. Clarke will provide simple solutions for parents to help get and keep their children on track, Director Turner said. The second session will run from 12-6 p.m. for youth in Grades 7-12. During this time, college and career representatives will be in attendance for the students to interact with. According to Director Turner, a number of colleges have already confirmed their attendance at the Oct. 4th college and career fair. “Presently, over twenty colleges and universities have confirmed,” Director Turner said. “Professionals will also be on site to talk about career opportunities.” Director Turner said that among those colleges and universities that have already confirmed their attendance on Oct. 4th are Temple University, Columbia University School of Nursing, Medgar Evers College, College of New Rochelle, Howard University, College (Continued on page 14)