GOP calls for more openness
Council members cite large tax breaks, loans as basis for needing more oversight
TROY >> Citing the “large amount” of tax breaks, incentives and loans given out by the city’s Industrial Development Authority and Local Development Corp., the president of the City Council and three other Republican members are calling for that body to have greater oversight over the organizations.
In a Tuesday news release, Carmella Mantello and fellow council members Mark McGrath, Kim Ashe-McPherson and Jim Gulli said they will offer a resolution calling for the agencies to discontinue early-morning meetings and provide reports to the council’s Finance Committee prior to approving any tax breaks, incentives or loans. They also will call, according to the release, for the two agencies to be audited annual by the council’s independent auditor.
“There should be greater oversight and transparency regarding these tax incentives and loans, starting with ending early-morning meetings and greater accountability to public and elected officials,” the four were quoted as saying in the release. “It is our goal and objective to increase accountability and transparency each and every time decisions are made affecting taxpayers.”
However, any legal oversight they may seek could violate the state law under which both bodies were formed. State General Municipal Law gives control of both organizations — as well as similar ones across New York — to the state and specifically says any action by a municipality is superceded by the state statute.
McGrath said, however, that he and his fellow council members are not trying to wrest away control of the agencies, simply that both take voluntary steps to better serve city taxpayers.
“This is just a resolution asking them to open things up,” McGrath said Tuesday.
Mayor Patrick Madden specifically objected to the group of council members going public with their concerns without even approaching officials of the two agencies.
“The Troy Industrial Development Authority and Troy Local Development Corporation are independent city authorities [that] establish their meeting schedules ahead of each calendar year,” Madden said by email Tuesday. “I firmly believe that a conversation rather than a press release would be a more effective method for the City Council leadership to convey their thoughts on next year’s meeting schedule to the TIDA and
TLDC executive boards, including the council representatives who serve as members.”
The two Republican representatives who sit on those boards, councilmen John Donohue, R-District 6, who serves on the board of the Local Development Corp., and Dean Bodnar, R-District 3, a member of the Industrial Development Authority’s board, did not join their fellow party members in endorsing the news release. Donohue said he refused to add his name to either the release or the planned resolution because while he agrees with the need for public oversight and accountability for both groups, the law already includes such power, though not in the hands of the City Council.
“I fail to see the productivity or point of the release, as there are checks and balances and public meeting rules that are already in place with IDA/ LDC,” Donohue said Tuesday. “This doesn’t mean we should not be mindful of always promoting more public accountability, objective monitoring and transparency. However, I do not see how a speculative press release is [the] optimum way to go about business.”
Kevin O’Bryan, board chairman for both groups, said of Mantello’s release that there was “so much wrong there, facts, process, the list goes on.”
“I take great exception to any accusation that we are less than thoroughly transparent,” he said in an emailed statement. “As chairman, and on behalf of the Troy IDA, Troy LDC and Troy [Capital Resource Corp.], we welcome all city officials and members of the general public to all of our meetings, which are held monthly in City Hall.”
Mantello said the Industrial Development Authority has provided millions of dollars in incentives with limited public input and transparency. She specifically pointed to 71 current IDA projects with tax exemptions on properties totaling more than $126 million in assessed value.
“While certain projects are justified, they should only be approved during normal meeting times and with the public being informed of exactly what’s being authorized,” according to the release.
Mantello cited as one example the IDA’s support of the rehabilitation of 26 homes in the city’s Beman Park neighborhood, near Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to be used as student housing. That project was led by Columbia Development, whose president, Joseph Nicolla, was charged last week with conspiring with Alain Kaloyeros, president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, to rig the bidding for construction of a dormitory on the SUNY Poly campus in Albany.
The IDA’s backing for the Beman Park project, Mantello said, included more than $1.7 million in publicly funded incentives and runs counter to the legally defined objective of such agencies to improve “the job opportunities, health, general prosperity and the economic welfare of the people of New York,” according to the state statute.
“This is a questionable use of IDA authority”, Mantello said. “We are also concerned about the volume and size of loans given out by the Troy Local Development Corporation. Once again, this is done in the early [morning] hours, with very little public input and knowledge.”
O’Bryan pointed out, however, that both groups, as well as the Capital Resource Corp., take every step necessary to ensure public transparency and keep to their legally defined objectives.
“We take our responsibility to balance fostering job creation with what is in the best long- and short-term interest of the taxpayers very seriously,” he said. “With respect to projects approved by the Troy IDA, each and every project is publicly considered over the span of several monthly meetings and all details regarding financial assistance is presented at a public hearing at which any member of the public may appear. Likewise, all loans considered and approved by TLDC are publicly discussed over the span of several meetings prior to approval.
“Overall, all three boards operate in a highly transparent manner, and the assistance packages provided have had immeasurable positive impacts on the city at large.”