Land deal indictment
Sale of land embroils Troy city code enforcer
Two face multiple charges in the investigation of a Troy land transaction.
A Rensselaer County grand jury indicted a city code enforcement officer and an unidentified co-defendant Thursday after the state attorney general’s Public Integrity Unit investigated the city’s sale of a wooded lot to a former city engineer.
James E. Lance III, who first faced charges in the matter in September, was indicted on five counts, including tampering with public records, while the unnamed defendant in a sealed indictment faces six counts. Lance was indicted on his 35th birthday.
The indictments arose from documents filed with the city on Sept. 28, 2015, that led to the release of Troy’s hold on the title — a mechanism known as a reverter clause — of 226 Cemetery Road in the Lansingburgh neighborhood. Former city engineer Andrew Donovan had purchased the property for $3,500 during former Mayor Lou Rosamilia’s administration, then put it up for sale for $65,000 after obtaining the clear title to the lot.
One joint count of official misconduct indicates that Lance and his unnamed co-defendant used their city positions to “obtain clear title” to the property.
According to documents filed in
city court when Lance was first charged, he was asked by his direct supervisor — who was not named in the court documents — to write a letter for Donovan that would put the property in compliance with the reverter clause. Lance wrote the letter on Sept. 28, 2015.
Lance was indicted for three felonies — first-degree tampering with public records, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, first-degree falsifying business records — and two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct and fourth-degree criminal facilitation. Lance faces up to seven years in prison if convicted on the top count.
The other defendant was charged in a sealed indictment with six counts. Three of the charges were not disclosed, but the person was charged along with Lance of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, first-degree falsifying business records and official misconduct.
Assistant Attorney General Bridget Holohan Scall of the attorney general’s Public Integrity Unit declined to comment after the indictment was handed up to Rensselaer County Court Judge Debra Young. An arrest warrant was issued for the person named in the sealed indictment.
The indictments came after several weeks in which the grand jury heard testimony about the sale of the 1.85-acre wooded lot.
Rosamilia’s successor, Mayor Patrick Madden, canceled the reverter clause on the deed in 2016, ending the city’s final measure of control over the property. The tract has not yet been sold; Donovan, who claimed to have planned to build a home on the site, now lives in Hawaii.
“The city has fully cooperated with the Attorney General’s investigation
and intends to continue doing so,” Madden’s spokesman John Salka said in a statement.
Thursday’s indictment, Salka added, “is an unfortunate outcome of actions that predate the current administration, and we are committed to preventing similar situations in the future.”
Reverter clauses are used to ensure that the new owner of a former city-controlled lot fulfills pledges to meet city code. Issues have arisen about whether the city code enforcement bureau backed the release of the property when it didn’t meet code.
The attorney general’s office took up the case after City Council Republicans filed a complaint following Times Union stories detailing the sale of 226 Cemetery Road to Donovan.
Rosamilia and Madden are Democrats.
The grand jury — its tenure set to expire Friday — heard testimony from Madden, two former Republican councilmen, a state investigator, code enforcement employees and other city hall staffers.
The city’s decision during former Republican Mayor Harry Tutunjian’s administration to drop the auctioning of taxdelinquent properties and instead sell the parcels through the proposal method has generated complaints and raised issues of how this system works. Instead of awarding the land to the highest bidder, a city committee weighs such factors as residency and plans for redeveloping the property in selecting a purchaser.
The City Council must grant final approval.
“After assuming office in 2016 the administration took a proactive approach, working collaboratively with the council, to update the city’s existing foreclosed property sale procedures to ensure a more robust and thorough review of proposals submitted to the city,” Salka said.