Audited 2014 Financial Statements on pages 13-20
Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2015 Co-op City Times
Cooling tower being cleaned and prepped for return to service Vol. 50 No. 4
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Manhattan judge denies MSI’s request for immediate reinstatement as managing agent
BY ROZAAN BOONE
BY BILL STUTTIG
The city’s Department of Health (DOH) continues to monitor the decontamination of the cooling tower at the Co-op City Power Plant as the contractor hired by Riverbay to clean the tower began their massive task this week. The cooling tower was shut down 2 weeks ago immediately after the DOH informed Riverbay officials of the possibility of legionella bacteria in the tower. Since then, Riverbay has been purchasing power from Con Ed at a significant cost to the corporation as the decontamination and disinfection of the cooling tower move forward in order to ensure the health and safety of residents, employees and the community at large. In addition to the DOH, Riverbay’s efforts are being overseen by Dr. Janet Stout, a clinical and environmental microbiologist and world renowned expert on legionella. Dr. Stout is also one of the founders and president and director of Special Pathogens Laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pa. Dr. Stout and Dr. Frank Sidari, a registered professional engineer, board certified environmental engineer and certified construction document technologist, who is
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Paul Wooten on Wednesday denied an injunction filed by attorneys for Marion Scott Real Estate, Inc. (MSI) requesting that the court immediately reinstate the management firm as Co-op City’s managing agent. Thursday’s hearing on the injunction request is part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by MSI on December 24th, 2014 seeking, among other things, payment for services rendered as managing agent during the months of November and December 2014. Board President Cleve Taylor said, “Judge Wooten’s decision on Wednesday afternoon was a clear victory for Riverbay and, most importantly, the 50,000 residents of Co-op City as we continue together
Utilizing boom trucks, the cleaning contractor power washes the exterior of the cooling tower at the Co-op City Power Plant on Bartow Avenue.
(Continued on page 2)
See Board President Cleve Taylor’s address to shareholders regarding the audited 2014 Financial Statements of the Riverbay Corporation on top of page 13.
Board to seek carrying charge, parking increases in 2015 to fund added costs BY JIM ROBERTS
Rejecting a proposed one-time special assessment between $500 to $1,000 per shareholder as too burdensome, the Riverbay Board of Directors intends to propose a carrying charge increase to pay for extraordinary costs that Riverbay Corp. now faces. At its Jan. 21 Board meeting, the Board Directors reached a consensus that the best way to raise the $8 million that Riverbay needs in the first part of
2015 due to a pending legal settlement and costs related to treating the Co-op City Power Plant for possible legionella bacteria is through the normal process of a carrying charge increase. The majority of Board members also accepted the idea of an increase in garage parking fees, which haven’t been hiked since 2008, to help offset the amount of the carrying charge increase. (Continued on page 4)
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as a community to strive to correct and overcome the past management decisions of Marion Scott Real Estate.” MSI was suspended as managing agent of Co-op City on November 17th, 2014. Two days later, at an Open Board meeting on November 19th, the Riverbay Board of Directors, by a vote of 12 to 2, passed Amended Emergency Resolution 14-72 which asked that both the state Division of Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) and Riverbay’s General Counsel, Smith Buss and Jacobs, investigate various allegations against MSI and that HCR terminate MSI as Managing Agent if warranted by the results of the inves(Continued on page 4)
Delivery of the Co-op City Times has returned to the elevator on your floor in the high-rise buildings. Townhouses are not affected.
CCPD begins trial use of body cameras
Beginning this weekend, two Public Safety officers on the 4 p.m. to midnight shift will be wearing body cameras as part of a trial run of the technology that is being increasingly used by police departments throughout the nation. Two types of cameras will be used on an experimental basis, one that is worn on the chest, and the other that is attached to the officer’s lapel to determine which type of camera is most effective. Public Safety Chief Frank Apollo said that specific guidelines for the activation of the cameras have been established. At a meeting on December 15th, the Security Committee approved Public Safety’s limited use of the body cameras on a month-long trial basis. The cameras are being provided to Public Safety for free for the thirty-day period and another firm that sells body cameras has also offered the free use of their products for an additional 30-day period, Chief Apollo said. The trial basis will include using the cameras in different situations on varying shifts to see how they can best be utilized. All officers equipped with the cameras on any given shift have received training in their proper use. Ever since the tragic results of two highly-charged and fatal police encounters this summer — one in Missouri and one on Staten Island — body cameras have increasingly been utilized by local police forces to possibly create a more accurate record of confrontations between the public and police. Chief Apollo added that Public Safety had been researching the use of body cameras well before the tragic events of this summer.