Report suggests halting plans for museum
Total spent on land seen as well above “fair market value”
While Fulton County taxpayers may have gotten a raw deal, county legislators did not commit a crime when they relied on 2016 appraisals to acquire property in September where they want to build a heritage museum, a sheriff ’s office review finds.
Still, the nine-page report, which Sheriff Richard Giardino released earlier this week, raises red flags about the $1.2 million in state and federal COVID-19 relief monies the county Board of Supervisors spent on professional engineering and design work, as well as to purchase the 30-acre tract where The Great Sacandaga History Museum will go on Route 30 in Northampton, south of the Northville Bridge.
The sheriff ’s office initiated the review in response to complaints it received from concerned county residents about possible improprieties, including that the county paid double the fair market value for the property.
The project was funded through federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and State and Local Federal Relief Funds (SLFRF) monies which come with certain stipulations. One is that the project should spur economic development and generate revenue to help revive the local economy without recurring costs to taxpayers.
The county, however, has mentioned the possibility of creating a county department to oversee the museum, which would create an annual cost to taxpayers without a way to generate revenue to offset that fixed cost. A museum is a permitted project because it’s considered infrastructure.
The $600,000 the county paid for the land was based on two appraisals from June 2016, which runs counter to the state comptroller’s office recommendation of getting several current appraisals, and since the price was “substantially more than the fair market value, the county may have failed to comply with its fiduciary responsibilities,” the report indicates
Additionally, the review found that “by rushing through the process to purchase the property, the county may have created the appearance that it failed in its required due diligence.”
Specifically, a feasibility study wasn’t done, county leaders failed to reach out to anyone from local town museums, and there were questions about a prior friendship between one of the co-owners of the property the county bought and a member of the county governing body. The report says the latter is common in small towns and counties and “not indicative of criminal conduct.”
The sheriff ’s office recommends that the county consider hitting the pause button on the project so it can secure multiple appraisals of the property’s value in September 2021, and also to try to “recoup any possible overpayment” if the museum has any recurring costs that taxpayers will have to foot the bill for.