Content area
Full Text
The embattled leader of the state body that controls Roosevelt Island was placed on administrative leave last month, along with a top associate, over concerns about workplace management.
It's the latest instance of dysfunction that has gripped the organization for months.
Shelton Haynes, the president and CEO of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp., was put on leave after the corporation's board of directors "received notice of several employee concerns about the RIOC workplace," according to a Jan. 16 statement. Haynes will be placed on paid leave along with RIOC's general counsel, Gretchen Robinson, while the board hires an outside investigator to review the unspecified allegations.
The workplace allegations, apparently brought by current RIOC employees, appear distinct from the claims of corruption and mismanagement that three former employees lodged against Haynes and Robinson in a lawsuit last year. Haynes and Robinson, in turn, filed their own lawsuit months later against their own bosses, Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration, alleging that the state had prevented them from responding more forcefully to the claims against them. Both Haynes and Robinson are Black and said they were victims...