Following the abrupt departures of the last two leaders of the state authority that runs Roosevelt Island, residents are calling for more of a say in what goes on in the quiet, mostly residential strip of land on the East River.
Roosevelt Island, technically part of Manhattan and home to roughly 12,000 people, has an unusual power structure: it’s owned by the city, leased to the state and managed by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, a public entity whose board members are appointed by the governor.
But turmoil has come to the quiet island: In 2020, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo terminated then-president Susan Rosenthal after a state investigation found she had used racist and sexually offensive language to speak to subordinates.
Then, in January 2024, the corporation announced that its board of directors had placed Rosenthal’s successor, CEO Shelton Haynes, and general counsel Gretchen Robinson on administrative paid leave citing “employee concerns about the RIOC workplace” while an outside investigation takes place.
Haynes and Robinson had sued the RIOC and members of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration in federal court last September alleging racial discrimination and unwarranted investigations — and also alleging that Hochul administration officials improperly intervened in their management.
Dhruvika Patel Amin, the chief financial officer, and Assistant Vice President Gerrald Ellis make up the interim leadership.
A corporation spokesperson, Bryant Daniels, said that RIOC could not comment on who is conducting the review of Haynes and Robnson’s tenure nor the pending litigation.
“The RIOC interim leadership team has been working hard to operate in a more open and transparent manner, and has taken great care to engage more with the community,” Daniels said. “Reaction so far has been positive.”
The suspended officials asserted in their federal lawsuit that the board’s audit committee hired a law firm to review corporation management and that “The first draft of the report cleared Haynes and Robinson of wrongdoing.”
They said the Hochul officials delayed publication of a draft “to sanitize” it of findings that supported their assertions of racial discrimination.
The serial management shakeups and other lawsuits from former employees alleging discrimination and mismanagement have prompted the residents’ calls for change. A petition that was started before Haynes was placed on leave states: “The current administration is not functioning” and asks for RIOC board members to be elected by island residents has so far garnered just over 1,000 signatures.
Paul Krikler, who moved to the island in 2020, created the petition last October. He told THE CITY he decided to launch the petition amid frustrations over the way RIOC responded to service cuts to the F train, the only line that serves the island, due to trackwork that is expected to last through April.
The MTA is running a shuttle train every 20 minutes connecting to the 63rd Street stop on the Upper East Side on one side of the island to the Queensbridge Station on the other. Meanwhile, the long, tourist-filled lines for the Roosevelt Island Tramway have residents impatient.
Krikler said that while he finds the interim management much more visible and collaborative than Haynes’, it’s important for there to be changes that’ll lead to wider oversight.
“Even If we have good management now, which we do, the wise thing to do would be to think ahead — it could change again,” he said. “There’s been decades of mistreatment of people on the island. And let’s not just say it’s all fine and good now, just because we have some good management now in place.”
‘Systematic Denial of Basic Access’
The RIOC board consists of nine members, with the commissioner of the state’s Department of Housing and Community Renewal, currently RuthAnne Visnauskas, serving as the chair. The state’s director of budget also has a seat and the mayor recommends two members, one of whom must be an island resident. The four other members, appointed by Hochul must also be Roosevelt Island residents. One seat is currently vacant.
Ben Fhala, a recently appointed RIOC board member, said at a Manhattan Community Board 8 Zoom meeting last month that RIOC has mostly ignored the public, leading to a lack of outside involvement in the governance.
“I think the new administration has been doing an incredible job, but they’re just temporary and we don’t know that they’re going to be there tomorrow morning because it’s not even up to us,” Fhala said of the interim management at the meeting.
Board member Lydia Tang, a resident recently nominated by Mayor Eric Adams, complained at a recent board meeting that “systematic denial of basic access for oversight persisted for over seven months” under Haynes’ leadership, the Roosevelt Islander reported.
Both Fhala and Tang are referenced in the federal lawsuit filed by Haynes and Robinson, who allege that the two were put on the board by Hochul’s office at the recommendation of elected officials without consulting the CEO and counsel, “a departure from prior practice.”
In a statement to THE CITY, Assemblymember Rebecca Seawright (D-Manhattan) said the response from the island administration has been disappointing at times and that she supports board members being elected by island residents. She pointed to legislation she introduced that mandates the CEO live on the island.
“The community must have a say in the decision-making process of how the island is governed, there should be no taxation without representation,” she said.
Tram Waits
Once called Blackwell’s Island and commonly referred to as Welfare Island because of the prisons and insane asylums there, Roosevelt Island has had more than its share of controversies and coups since its dramatic rebirth as a largely residential, mixed-income neighborhood in the 1970s.
Haynes was the target of staff complaints to the state inspector general and comptroller, as detailed in a lawsuit filed by three former employees in early 2023 in Manhattan state Supreme Court against alleging retaliation against them as whistleblowers. The ex-workers alleged “an increasingly reckless pattern of corruption, unethical conduct, and dangerous behavior,” in connection with a COVID testing site contract and a drowning death in the island’s swimming pool. Haynes, Robinson and two other executives named in the suit adamantly denied the allegations.
In their federal racial discrimination complaint, Haynes and Robinson alleged that the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation and Hochul’s office had subjected them to “frequent unwarranted investigations.”
“Haynes and other African American RIOC executives, including Robinson, have received an unprecedented level of scrutiny and hostility because of their race,” the lawsuit alleges, accusing local elected officials and an island blogger of “racist backlash.” They also allege that chair Visnauskas and the state housing agency’s general counsel called to demand they back off a countersuit they had filed against the three employees and also demanded they not speak with board members without the chair or counsel present.
In an email to THE CITY, Haynes and Robinson’s attorney Milt Williams pointed to a press release he issued last month asserting that Haynes and Robinson have been “subjected to the kind of vile racist discrimination that the government should be fighting, not actively participating in.”
Williams also said of claims that RIOC was not responsive or transparent under Haynes’ leadership: “that’s absolutely not true.”
Meanwhile, the stress of getting on and off the island while subway construction continues is front and center for many residents. With tourists flocking to the Roosevelt Island Tramway for the spectacular ride from the Upper East Side, residents are facing frustratingly long waits to board. Resident demands for a VIP line have been met with refusal by the corporation, which says that giving locals priority would violate state law.
Judith Berdy, the president of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society has lived there for 46 years — since about the time when the first apartment buildings went up. She said she’s fed up with all the management controversy, as well as the moaning and groaning from some residents.
She urged patience, especially when dealing with transit, noting: “You live on an island.”
And she pleaded for a more constructive and collaborative approach to managing the island.
“I think people have to be more diplomatic, they have to understand that some of the top administrations in the past have been obnoxious,” she said. “They were here for themselves. And those people hopefully are permanently gone.”
She added: “We want to become a community again, not we against them, not RIOC and the administration against the residents.”