What Happened to $10M Savings?
Residents Forced to Pony Up More as No One Questions Where Millions Went
By Michael Horowitz
BRONX, NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 27- What ever happened to the $10 million in annual savings the Riverbay Corporation was supposed to realize by refinancing the community’s mortgage through Wells Fargo Bank and HUD in 2012?
That’s what Riverbay board member Daryl Johnson and a leading supporter of Co-op City’s privatization were asking this week.
Johnson noted, “It’s clear to me that the answer is that Co-op City will continue to waste whatever money it saves as long as the Riverbay Corporation’s wasteful corporate culture isn’t changed. As long as we continue to approve major extra expenses on contracts after they are agreed to, we’re going to keep spending whatever money that we might save.”
Johnson stressed, “The real losers in all this are the shareholders, who are now being asked to pay another increase in carrying charges, after repeated increases in carrying charges during the time when Marion Scott ran Co-op City’s management.”
Richard Friedman, a real estate professional who continues to strongly support Co-op City’s privatization, stressed, “I have no use for what Riverbay president Cleve Taylor has to say, just as I had no use for what Herbert Freedman and the people with Marion Scott had to say. Mr. Taylor is falling back on the shareholders for more money, when he should, instead, be looking for new ways to increase income, such as through privatization and the development of commercial properties, and looking to cut expenses.”
Friedman stressed, “Raising carrying charges is the easy way out for any management. It’s easier to require that the shareholders pay more than to come up with other ways to maximize income and decrease expenses.”
Friedman concluded, “I watched Cleve Taylor, on TV, as he held court during recent town hall meeting on the proposed 4.5 percent increase in carrying charges. The whole thing literally turned my stomach, because, once again, the shareholders were being hoodwinked into believing that there was no way around the proposed increased increase in carrying charges.”
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