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President’s Report
Co-op City Times / December 6, 2014 (Continued from page 1)
Rochdale Village Inc. 165-47 Baisley Blvd. Jamaica, NY 11434 NYS Mitchell-Lama – 5860 Units/ 120 acres
find it easy not to apply God’s rule to the way they conduct business. Also, 1 John Chapter 3 4-10 4: Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. 5: you know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6: one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him. 7: Children, let no one deceive. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8: Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil. 9: No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God. 10: in this way, the children of God and the children of the devil are made plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother. Stealing from Riverbay is a sin, in my book. It is an act of lawlessness and if you do it year after year, you are connected to the devil and must be removed from Co-op City. This is the moral fabric that God has instilled in me, and that I stand by, and I will not allow others to corrupt me into doing business with the devil. “Thou shall not steal;” there are all different kinds of stealing. For example: Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri takes a few cigars from a convenience store and is murdered for it by a white police officer. The police officer is released by a white grand jury. Then there is Corporate stealing of service done by men in suits, cuff links, and silk ties, using corporate employees’ computers, telephones, corporate email accounts and corporate vendors for their own private benefit. In my opinion, this conduct is wrong, and a sin. Recently, documents have come to light which show that individuals employed by Riverbay have been used to negotiate and obtain services which benefit MSI and other properties managed by MSI. These documents were inadvertently, or perhaps by the hand of God, accidently disclosed by MSI. These emails, and other documents recently obtained, show a Riverbay employee communicating during the work day with an insurance broker to negotiate and obtain multiple lines of insurance costing millions of dollars, on properties at:
These matters are under investigation. However, when asked by General Counsel to explain what was going on, MSI first responded by saying, “MSI does not use Riverbay employees working on Riverbay time to provide services for MSI or other housing companies. Simply another bogus story to discredit and get even for what I don’t know.” This response directly ignores the emails which apparently show a Riverbay employee working on Riverbay time to provide services for the benefit of MSI, Rochdale, 1199 Housing Corporation and Jimerson Housing. When Counsel pressed for a factual answer since the email trail appear to directly contradict MSI’s answer, MSI continued to avoid a direct answer, stating, “I think you misread my response this morning since I did not deny the fact that MSI always attempts to take advantage of size for the benefit of the housing company which we have routinely done with regard to insurance and we have nothing to hide in this regard including the role of” [a Riverbay employee]. All of these other properties’ multimillion dollar insurance policies were being negotiated by a Riverbay employee on Riverbay work time, using the tremendous amount of Co-op City leverage power we have. In my opinion, this is wrong. Riverbay employees, and Riverbay’s size should be used to benefit Riverbay, not someone else. When we interviewed the broker’s Vice President, he admitted that the emails were sent and received. He also found it quite strange that his Company was never invited to present their proposal to the Riverbay Board of Directors as is customary in other co-ops. I know that HUD, Wells Fargo and DHCR would never permit an employee
crawler and your building for flyers with further information as it becomes available. For those who would like to get on the bus, there is a $35 per person charge to help defray the cost of the charter. All payments must be received by the Riverbay Fund no later than Wednesday, December 10. Please enclose your payment of $35 cash, check or money order made payable to
the “Riverbay Fund” in a sealed envelope, along with your name, address and phone number, and deliver it to the Riverbay Reception Office, 2049 Bartow Avenue, by Wednesday, Dec. 10. Envelopes can be left with Public Safety after 5 p.m. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” —Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
National March
1199 Housing Corporations A.k.a. East River Landing 425 East 110th Street New York, NY NYS Mitchell-Lama - 1,594 Units Earl W. Jimerson Housing 1407 Linden Boulevard Brooklyn, NY 11212 NYS Mitchell-Lama - 422 Units
to do work for another company while at work for them. While erring on the side of caution is prudent, sleeping with the Devil is not acceptable. I would hope that one day the individuals who represent these institutions would raise their moral value and not side with people who would steal the services of the poor for their own benefit. 3 Men in a Basement For the past ten years, the Riverbay Director of Risk Management and MSI have been negotiating and signing contracts for Health, Workers Compensation, General Liability, Director and Officers, Boiler, Auto, and other insurance policies without bringing the proposals, or the contracts, to the Board of Directors for review and approval, and without submitting them to the NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal. We are told that the contracts for last year alone totaled $8.3M. Previously, insurance contract were brought to the Board, just like any other contract. How did “3 men in a basement” come to acceptable corporate policy for Riverbay? Since when is it acceptable to ignore the Corporation’s Board of Directors? This evidently was done right under the noses of the old Board of Directors and the supervising employees at the Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
Thank You From the day the evidence first presented itself in an electronic correspondence on the Riverbay computer network, to the interview held at York Insurance Company, to investigation with staff, to preserving the electronic evidence, the law firm of Smith, Buss and Jacobs has stood true to the values of honesty and justice. On behalf of the residents of Co-op City, I advised our General Counsel, “I do not do business with people or companies that steal from Co-op City.” General Counsel stated, “Cleve, I will do my very best to defend the Riverbay Corporation and its Shareholders.” General Counsel has since spent numerous hours documenting and investigating the facts in writing, collecting evidence, interviewing witnesses and countless hours on the telephone with the powers that be, explaining the multitude of missteps uncovered. Without their support, these practices would have continued. So, I would like to share all of the thank you’s and congratulations I have received with our General Counsel, Jeffrey Buss, and his professional team of attorneys, investigators and paralegals for their help! Riverbay can finally move forward with the rebuilding of our Corporation. Thank you, Cleve Taylor President
DR. LEWIS WOLSTEIN Podiatrist — Foot Specialist • Practicing in Co-op City since 1975 • Board Certified in Foot Surgery • ALL conditions of the foot treated • We
accept most health insurance plans
• Participating in the Medicare Diabetic Shoe Program • Evening and Saturday appointments
Dr. Lewis Wolstein
“Se Habla Español”
(Continued from page 1)
Call:
718.671.7226 100 DeKruif Place
Building 8 • Ground Floor Section 1 • Co-op City • Bronx, NY 10475