Charter Change Needed for Article XIV

Let every eye negotiate for itself / And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch / Against whose charms faith melteth in blood. –Much Ado About Nothing (II, i, 178-180)

I read the following letter at Monday evening’s city council meeting.

Re: Charter Change Needed for Article XIV—Department of Planning  and Development

Dear Mayor, City Council, and City Manager,

On the city’s new website, under “Job Opportunities” there is a listing for the “Director of Business and Industrial Development.”  I object to this position as it does not exist in the city’s charter.  Furthermore, the Planning and Development Department needs to have its powers and duties corrected in the city charter.

I am attaching Article XIV of the city charter, entitled “Department of Planning and Development.”  Please note that this article assigns the duties of managing the Industrial Development Agency, Local Development Corporation, and Community Development Agency to the Director of Planning and Development.  Currently, the IDA has elected to hire its own, independent employee to administer the IDA; no one has administered the LDC in years; and the CDA no longer exists.

Where does this new position fit into the department?  Will you also be hiring a Director of Planning and Development?

Why is it that most of the duties and responsibilities assigned to the “Director of Business and Industrial Development” aren’t handled by the IDA’s executive director?

Whatever you do with this new position, ultimately what is needed is a thorough evaluation of how Planning and Development is performing, whether services overlap or are duplicated with the IDA, recommendations for changes, and finally, a charter update.  In my opinion, the review and charter change should happen before any new hires are made.

Sincerely yours,
A. Jane Johnston

Ignoring the LDC had consequences

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me… Shakespeare, Richard II

If you’ve been reading any Newburgh news that’s been sandwiched between the Hurricane reports the past few days, you know about the audit that was issued by the State Comptroller’s Office this past Thursday.  The document is 31 pages in its entirety, can be downloaded from the link highlighted above, and has been summarized by both the Record and midhudsonnews.com (in both cases, though, relying on the press release and Herbek’s righteous retort.)

For my part, I would like to draw your attention to the LDC.  The State Comptroller points out that the city’s hired CPA firm was unable to complete the 2007 audit because they “lacked the records necessary for the CPA to complete the audit” (page 8.)  A second auditor completed audits for 2008 through 2010, but while “the second CPA was able to complete the audits and express an opinion, the CPA issued a disclaimer that financial information relating to the Local Development Corporation and Industrial Development Agency was not included, as the records were not available.”

Herbek mixes up the public authorities

In his letter of response August 14, Herbek addresses various items he disputes on behalf of the city.  And on the point of the problem with the annual auditors being incapable of rendering an opinion, and/or noting that LDC and IDA records were not available, he offers this recommended revision to the State Comptroller’s audit:

Although the second CPA was able to complete the audits and express an opinion, they issued a “qualified” opinion due to the omission of financial information from the Local Development Corporation (LDC) and Industrial Development Agency (IDA), whose records were not available.  It also should be noted that the City’s request for State legislation to dissolve the LDC has been pending for several years…

Actually, the city government, including the IDA, manager Herbek and city council, have collectively totally ignored the Newburgh Local Development Corporation.  For years the Authorities Budget Office would send a letter to the LDC stating it was out of compliance (no board has officially met as the LDC in years) and it would be promptly ignored by all of the above parties.  Despite the rare statement made by an IDA board member that a meeting of the LDC was in the works, nothing ever happens.  Herbek has simply mistaken the LDC with the NCDA, which was in fact dissolved two days after he wrote his letter, on August 16.

Ignoring the LDC, even though it puts the council and IDA board members at risk of censure, since they are technically still members of the LDC board according to its articles of incorporation, is likely to continue.

 Other thoughts, briefly

  • Newburgh should be ashamed of this audit, with its crazy practices, city council members who admit they don’t understand the financial statements, and no attempt to get the proper training for the Newburgh comptroller and staff as well as the council.  It seems obvious that if a council member is complaining about this to the state comptroller’s office, that he is probably not the only one who can’t read the financial statement, there are others on the council in the same boat and training is needed.  If the council is to avoid being slammed for poor oversight, they need to learn how to give good oversight.  Simply hiring Dwight Hadley as a financial consultant is not sufficient.
  • Re. the Cable Service Franchise Fees: the city should bring back the committee that never was, but that is in our charter, §C15.20. Cable Television Advisory Committee.

 

NCDA officially off the books

Today, August 16, 2012, Governor Cuomo signed into law two bills – A. 10288-A / S.5198-D and A. 8823-A / S. 5227-B – that repealed the statutory authority for 123 public authorities including industrial development agencies, urban renewal agencies, and other local public authorities, including our very own Newburgh Community Development Agency.

In a comment given before the bills were signed into law, the New York State Authorites Budget Office said:

The ABO fully supports enactment of this legislation.  The ABO has spent several years identifying inactive, defunct authorities that should be dissolved in law. The ABO worked with the Legislature to compile this list as well as companion legislation that dissolves inactive authorities authorized by Public Authorities Law.  In fact, the ABO drafted the initial dissolution bill about 4 years ago, which has since been amended and the list of authorities to be dissolved has been refined.

We applaud the passage of this bill and are confident that the Governor will sign it into law.

Full press release from the governor’s office here.