March is Women’s History Month!
Vol. 58 No. 12
Saturday, March 25, 2023
Capacity Crowd Attend March 22 Open Board Meeting in Einstein Center BY ROZAAN BOONE
Shareholders filled Room 45 in the Einstein Center on Wednesday evening, March 22, for an Open Board meeting that was highlighted by a spirited Gallery Session. More than 30 shareholders signed up to address the Riverbay Board and Management with questions and comments about a wide range of topics, including convectors, homeowners’ insurance, brown water, cleanliness of the community, electric bikes, finances, transportation, and other topics. The Board amended the agenda to move the business portion of the meeting to the ending of evening. And, after hearing from shareholders during a Gallery Session that lasted approximately 2½ hours, the Board approved two resolutions, 23-16 for replacement of eight substation transformers, and 23-17, a lease with Westside Wings Co-op City LL, at 2059 Bartow Avenue. The first shareholder to address the Board was Glenn Acosta, a 50-year resident of Co-op City, who grew up in the community. He said his mom passed away in January and he had no idea that he had succession rights to the apartment until after she passed. He asked for shareholders to be informed of the process so as to prepare in advance. Succession rights is published periodically in the Co-op City Times. Succession rights is also available on the official Co-op City website, coopcity.com, on the Resources page under (Continued on page 24)
Management Report to the Community This past Wednesday, Management Report March 22, the Board of Directors held an Open Board meeting at the Einstein Community Center. Due to time constraints, I was unable to provide a Management Report to Board meeting in October, the community. Before I get to this, however, I followed that up with a would like to once again address questions about presentation produced for the corporation’s finances. our public access channel A comment was made by a resident which and that is still available repeated a false narrative concerning how the coron our YouTube channel poration’s funds have been used in the last five at https://bit.ly/3h6CrF7. years. Once again, I have repeatedly addressed this Finally, please go to our website at coopcity.com issue starting with my presentation at the last Open and read the March 11th (Continued on page 2)
Bob Klehammer
2023 Riverbay Board Election Candidates to be Certified Friday, March 31 First Election Supplement to be published Saturday, April 15
BY ROZAAN BOONE
Certification of the candidates eligible to run in the 2023 Riverbay Board of Directors election will take place next Friday, March 31. Executed election packages were due to be returned to the 2023 Riverbay Board Election Committee on Friday, March 24. As of press time yesterday, five potential candidates had submitted their Statement of Intent and other required documents indicating their interest to participate in the election for a seat on the Riverbay Board of Directors. “Thank you to the potential candidates who have applied for the Board of Directors. The community looks forward to seeing your vision for Co-op City, identifying its strengths, and your proposals for resolving areas of improvement,” said Director Lynette Wright, chair of the 2023 Election Committee. (Continued on page 4)
• Participatory Budgeting Process Begins Today • MTA Metro North Penn Station Access Plan 2027 Completion (See page 3)
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March 22 Gallery Session Follow-Up President’s Report
Sonia Feliciano Dear fellow shareholders, Hope everyone is doing well. On Wednesday, March 22, we held our Open Board meeting at the Einstein Community Center. It was a well-attended meeting. We apologize for the delay in getting the meeting started. Under normal circumstances, we would have started on time with a President’s and Management Reports, followed by the two resolutions and the Gallery Session. Unfortunately, we had to change the schedule around to accommodate the Gallery Session first missing other parts of the President’s and Management Report. The Gallery Session registered 34 shareholders who spoke on concerns personal to them and on some that were community-related. We thank all who attended and are committed to having more of these Gallery Sessions. I misspoke when I said we are getting a new class of officers in 2023. This is not accurate. We have the plan to include a new class of CCPD recruits in the 2024/2025 year. It has been a demanding 8 months for the Board. We had to deal with a carrying charge increase that was not popular with many, but necessary to ensure that we kept our corporation running efficiently to continue to provide the goods and services without any interruptions. We welcomed two new Board members who have hit the ground running, getting familiar with all the aspects of Riverbay’s Management. Our General Manager Noel Ellison retired on January 31st and our Executive General Manager Bob Klehammer is retiring on or about May 12th. We started exploring candidates for the executive general manager position and after months of searching for a successor for Mr. Klehammer, we have chosen the person from a small pool of candidates who will run Riverbay for the next years to come. I congratulate our Board for working together to make this challenging process a smooth one. Our candidate will be transitioning from their current position; therefore, we will not name the individual until allowed to do so. We expect the onboarding process to be successful and we hope to have our new executive general manager by the middle of April. This will be an exciting time for the community as we move forward with moving the corporation forward. Late last week, about 100 or more shareholders suffered a flooding condition in their homes. We are still assessing the situation and more information will be forthcoming as to the cause and remediation steps. This was a great pain point in the lives of our shareholders. Our Management team is working on ensuring that all our affected shareholders are taken care of quickly.
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