a Easter and Passover greetings to all our readers! a
Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2015 Co-op City Times
Vol. 50 No. 14
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Petition period ends this Monday, April 6 Twelve shareholders have picked up petitions for 2015 Riverbay Board Election
BY ROZAAN BOONE As of Friday, April 3, twelve shareholders had picked up qualifying petitions indicating their intention to run for a seat on the 2015 Riverbay Board of Directors. The Riverbay Board of Directors election will be held on Wednesday, May 20. Shareholders will vote to fill five seats on the Riverbay Board as the terms of Directors Khalil Abdul-Wahhab, Francine Reva Jones, Othelia Jones, Al Shapiro and Evelyn Turner are expiring. There will be one vote per unit by residents who are shareholders of record as of April 6, 2015. Two of the five incumbent Board Directors — Evelyn Turner and Francine Reva Jones — have picked up their petition packages. Ten other shareholders, some of whom have served on the Riverbay Board before, some who have run for the Board in previous years, and some who are running for the first time, also picked up petitions since they became available on Monday, March 23. They include Katrina Asante, Sonia Feliciano, Junius Williams, Rodney Saunders, Stanley Frere, Deborah Jenkins, Gail Sharbaan, Tony Illis, Peggy Diaz and Jorge Vargas. Any shareholder in good financial standing can run for a three-year term on
the Board. Seventy-five valid cooperators’ signatures are needed on candidates’ petitions in order for them to qualify to run for the Board. Throughout this weekend, petitions are available from the Public Safety window in the Bartow Center, however, these packages will not include the qualifying petitions and the prospective candidates will have to return on Monday, April 6, so that their financial eligibility can be determined by the Finance Department before they are given the petitions which must be signed by at least 75 shareholders to be eligible to participate in the election. All signed petitions must be returned to the Legal Department no later than 5 p.m. this Monday, April 6. After the petitions are returned on Monday, the signatures on each candidate’s petitions will be certified against the signatures of shareholders of record of each apartment on the petitions. Mary Ahland, Director of Riverbay’s Computer Services Department, said that her office enlists the assistance of a group of Riverbay employees who are not residents of Co-op City to check the signatures on the petitions against the signature database, which is maintained by the
Board adopts first-ever Mission Statement
For the first time in its history, the Riverbay Board of Directors, under the leadership of Board President Cleve Taylor, has adopted a Mission Statement: “The mission of the Board of Directors of Riverbay Corporation is to preserve affordable housing while maintaining an environment that provides and sustains a high quality of life standard for all cooperators. “The Board of Directors will apply special focus on fostering an environment of cooperative living that supports
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a sense of community and that encourages shareholder participation in the overall governance of the residency. “The Board will endeavor to always utilize responsible financial management that is transparent, of the highest standards of integrity, and is dedicated to providing effective business handling. The Board will conduct business on behalf of the corporation in compliance with the Riverbay By-laws, HUD/HCR Rules and Regulations, and all applicable federal, state and city laws.”
Riverbay management meets with Borough President Diaz
BY JIM ROBERTS
Establishing an open line of communication to address the needs of Co-op City with local elected officials has been the goal of Riverbay’s interim management team. And that mission moved another step forward last week by sitting down with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. to discuss a wide range of issues that affect shareholders “A few of the things we talked about included traffic, of course, related to Bay Plaza,” said Interim Co-General Manager Noel Ellison. “We also spoke a little bit
about our Public Safety Department and our concerns regarding asbestos removal during flooring replacements. The Borough President asked about our Power Plant and what we are doing regarding the delivery of the boiler which is expected in a few months.” The meeting, held on Tuesday, March 24 at the Borough President’s office, included members of his staff and Peter Merola, Riverbay co-Interim General Manager, and Michelle Sajous, Riverbay’s (Continued on page 4)
Code of Ethics
25¢
Dear cooperators, has fallen. This can President’s Message May God Bless happen anywhere, America! This is a including here in great country we live Co-op City if we President in and the greatest allow it. The silent city in the world. majority can essThe rights granted by entially be overturned in a the First Amendment of heartbeat and Co-op City can the Constitution gives us easily be turned into a very the right to “Freedom of undesirable place to live, Speech” in the public much less raise our families. sector. Those rights are Sensible cooperators have somewhat preserved in a read Directors’ Viewpoints Corporate Business setadvocating throwing fellow ting. Being a Board Directors off the Board and Director is not a right, it is a privicutting the budget by 20% without providing any detailed analysis to lege granted by the cooperators of the community. I am sure by now Co-op City. the true characters of these folks However, there are guidelines have emerged and their writings are that the Board of Directors and our in plain view. You can clearly see Legal Department have set up to protect Co-op City and our Riverbay what we are dealing with, not what Corporation from dissenting Board you were presented when they Directors. These guidelines were put sought your support to represent you in place in the early days of Co-op on the Board of Directors. City by some of our first Board of Is this truly what you expected or Directors, our founding fathers, so to want — or even further — deserve? speak. These are well thought out With the 2015 Riverbay Board election upon us, I urge you all to be and well written resolutions that very careful how you decide on who have stood, and continue to stand, you would like to represent you on the test of time in Co-op City. this Board. We are all aware how radicalization has spread terror through the (Continued on page 2) Mid-East as country after country
Cleve Taylor
DOT to present their traffic plan to Co-op City residents in the near future BY BILL STUTTIG
In an apparent change of heart, Community Board 10 informed Riverbay management this week that DOT engineers and administrators would like to officially present their traffic calming plan for Bartow Avenue and the Bay Plaza vicinity at a meeting of the Community Board’s Municipal Services Committee to be hosted by Co-op City with Co-op City residents in attendance. The meeting will provide the opportunity for residents to comment after the presentation is made. In a Wednesday e-mail to Riverbay’s Joe Boiko from Ken Kearns, District Manager of Community Board 10, Mr. Kearns formally requested that Riverbay set aside a space for the meeting later this month in the Dreiser auditorium so Co-op City residents can be in attendance and hear the plan first-hand for themselves before making a judgment as to the plan’s potential effectiveness for reducing traffic
congestion in the overall Co-op City, Bay Plaza area. The city’s Department of Transportation originally was set to unveil their traffic calming plan to a meeting of the CB 10 Municipal Services Committee on the evening of April 14 at the CB 10 offices at 3165 East Tremont Avenue in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx. When it became known that DOT planned to officially present their traffic plans for the Co-op City area at the CB 10 office, Co-op City community leaders, including Riverbay’s Boiko and Community Relations Director Michelle Sajous and Cooperators United President Sonja Maxwell, immediately began making arrangements to have buses and vans transport interested Co-op City residents to the CB 10 offices that evening to attend the meeting and voice their concerns if they had any after officially hearing the (Continued on page 3)