On Friday, January 16, the Newburgh Industrial Development Agency held a special meeting. Board members listened to a memo written by treasurer Michael Curry that described the great difficulties he had encountered in attempting to access the IDA’s own records. Lourdes Zapata, the administrative director of the IDA, indicated to Mr. Curry that he would have to sign a confidentiality agreement to see the records, on the advice of Corporation Counsel Geoffrey Chanin. Ms. Zapata explained to Mr. Curry that the IDA’s records were “intermingled” with City records. Mr. Curry wondered if “intermingled” might mean “cannot be found.”
Mr. Curry and Joshua Smith both stated that neither would sign a confidentiality statement at this time. Mr. Smith pointed out that Mr. Chanin is the city’s attorney, not the IDA’s, and his interests may differ from the IDA’s.
Newburgh IDA is Delinquent
Mr. Curry read an email from Ms. Zapata written upon learning that the IDA board would not fund her “under $1,000″ trip for training to Albany. Through this email board members learned that the Newburgh IDA is actually in delinquency: “The IDA is currently listed as a delinquent Industrial Development Agency by the New York State Authority Budget Office, and, as such, has no authority to offer state tax exemptions,” wrote Ms. Zapata.
“This was, by the way, for the record, news to us,” said Spencer Gulliver.
Mr. Curry continued reading Ms. Zapata’s email: “the IDA has not filed, as far as I can tell, the appropriate documentation with the State for the past two years at least.”
IDA doesn’t know how much money is in its accounts
In explaining why the board turned down Ms. Zapata’s request for training, Mr. Gulliver said there was an online tutorial and training for the reporting system. Mr. Smith brought up the another reason for the refusal: “And when we don’t know how much money we have in our own accounts.”
“That is the second reason why, we don’t know how much we’re spending currently,” said Mr. Gulliver.
“Nor are we granted access…” said Mr. Curry.
“Also, this is the very same person that knew about our delinquency but never informed us,” said Jack Penney. “Why send her away to learn something, we’re not even going to find out what’s going on right now.”
“This is an atrocity to the City of Newburgh, and we’ve been left in an accounting nightmare,” said Mr. Gulliver. “It really is, it’s a disaster.”
“It’s an embarrassment, and an outrage,” said Mr. Curry.
Three motions pass
At the meeting’s conclusion, the board passed three motions:
Motion 1:
The IDA will freeze all financial activity until we are all granted access to information pertaining to the Industrial Development Agency, including financial information and all other information to be requested by the treasurer.
Motion carried unanimously.
Motion 2:
Effective this date, the chairman, vice chairman, secretary and treasurer of the Industrial Development Agency shall be the only authorized signatories on bank accounts of the IDA. Treasurer will sign checks up to $1,000 and all other checks will be countersigned by one other officer of the board. This resolution will be transmitted to the banks immediately.
AYES: Bedrosian, Maldonado, Penney, Gulliver, Smith
ABSTAIN: Curry
Motion 3:
As of this date, all previous signatories are nullified on IDA accounts.
Motion carried unanimously.
Full coverage of the meeting:
Note to community: how many people who ran or work for the IDA ever lived here? What did it take to expose this sham? Residents with a stake in this community. Many people in the private sector are losing their jobs right now. Time to factor in residency in hiring practices, so that outsiders are the exception, not the overwhelming majority.
[...] how much money was in the agency’s bank accounts, and that the accounting situation is “an embarrassment and an outrage.” They pass resolutions to freeze account access and limit disbursement authority to the [...]