Contract voted down

Electric company here to continue
Installations without board approval

By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 18- The Southside Electric Company, which has been doing work here without having a contract approved by the Riverbay board, will continue to oversee the installation of smoke detectors and GFI receptacles even though the board, last week, rejected a contact for the company.

Riverbay president William Gordon said, this week, that the installation work, which was started without a board-approved contract for the Southside company, will, nevertheless, continue under the electric company’s supervision.

The matter of a board-approved contract for the Southside company was submitted for the consideration of board members after some of them voiced concern that they had been kept out of the process.

Gordon said, this week, “We will continue to use Southside’s license so that the installation work can continue. We’re going to have some of the work done by Southside’s workers and some done by Riverbay workers to see which option works out better.”

Commenting this week, Riverbay board member Daryl Johnson said that it’s outrageous that members of the board, until last Wednesday night, had never discussed a possible contract with the Southside Electric Company.

“We should have been involved in the process in the first place,” Johnson stressed this week. “It’s outrageous that Southside got a contract to do work here without the board’s approval. Having them work here and then having the board consider a contract is as lame as lame can be. It’s putting the cart before the horse. It’s no way to do business, but it is the way the Riverbay Corporation does business.”

The installation of smoke detectors and GFI receptacles in every apartment here is a requirement of Co-op City’s $621.5-million, HUD-insured mortgage.