They are separated by only one elevator stop on the top floors of the Michaelian Office Building in White Plains, but the less easily traveled political divide between Westchester County”™s legislative and executive branches has further widened after a recent turf battle over the makeup of the county Industrial Development Agency board.
Seeking to have their own “eyes and ears” on the seven-member IDA board, a bipartisan majority of the county Board of Legislators this spring approved a home-rule request to the state Legislature to allow county legislators to appoint a non-voting member to the IDA board who would be chosen by the chairman of the Democrat-controlled county legislature. IDA board members currently are appointed by the county executive and confirmed by legislators.
Assemblyman Thomas J. Abinanti, D-92nd District, the former Westchester County legislator who sponsored the home-rule bill in the Assembly, said the change would provide greater oversight and accountability for economic development projects and initiatives of the IDA.
The bill was passed by the Democrat-controlled Assembly on June 15. But in the Republican-controlled Senate, the home-rule measure never made it to a floor vote before the recent close of the historic 2011 session.
It stalled in the Senate local government committee, on which Sen. Greg Ball, the Putnam County Republican representing the 40th district, serves. Ball opposed the Westchester home-rule bill. He did so after receiving communications from the ninth-floor offices in White Plains of the Republican administration of Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino.
“He received a personal request from the head of the IDA and a personal request from the county executive to not go through with this (home rule bill) and so he honored their request,” said Allie Skinner, spokeswoman in Ball”™s Albany office. She was referring to Astorino and county IDA Executive Director Eileen Mildenberger, a former Empire State Development Corp. official in the Pataki administration whom Astorino this year appointed to head the IDA following the retirement of Theresa G. Waivada from the agency”™s helm.
County Board of Legislators Chairman Ken W. Jenkins in an open letter to Ball called the request from Mildenberger “both improper and irrelevant.” In an accompanying press release, he said Ball was carrying out the wishes of Astorino to “roadblock” bipartisan legislation “aimed at bringing reform and more independent participation to the IDA.”
Appearing briefly before the county board”™s legislation committee on June 27, Mildenberger in her remarks indicated she thought the home-rule bill would place a county legislator on the IDA board.
Stressing the need for an independent board, she said the non-voting member would have a conflict of interest and could feel compelled to report to the Board of Legislators confidential information from the IDA”™s closed-door sessions to discuss legal matters and negotiations with companies applying for project tax breaks and financial incentives.
Corrected by legislators, Mildenberger said an IDA member appointed by legislators still would be “wearing two hats.”
Legislators questioned why the same alleged conflict of interest and concern over potential breaches of confidentiality did not apply to IDA members appointed by the county executive.
“You mean the ninth floor should have the information, and not the eighth floor?” said Legislator James Maisano, a Republican from New Rochelle. Legislators occupy eighth-floor offices in the Court Street office building.
Thomas Staudter, spokesman for the county board”™s Democratic chairman, said legislators proposed to make the additional IDA seat a non-voting one “to maintain a certain independence of the board.”
“In the same way where the county executive members of the board can relate information back to the county executive, we want someone to be our eyes and ears on the board to relate information back,” he said.
Staudter cited the IDA board”™s recent approval of $1.1 million in sales tax exemptions to Acorda Therapeutics Inc. for the Hawthorne-based biotech company”™s recently announced relocation and expansion project in Ardsley. (See story on page 2) Calling it “sort of a back-room deal” between the county executive and the company that excluded the legislative body that governs the county budget, Staudter said that a large sales-tax waiver might not have been needed to keep Acorda in Westchester.
The Acorda deal, he said, “is another egregious example of why it would be advantageous for the Board of Legislators to at least have their eyes and ears sitting on the board.”
In the county executive”™s office, “They”™ll see it as meddling,” Staudter said of the proposed IDA board change. “We”™ll see it as acting in the best interests of all county residents. When you”™re not working with any transparency, the real losers are the people of Westchester.
“This county executive is someone who”™s decided to ratchet up the secrecy and ratchet up the backroom deals,” said Staudter.
On the ninth floor, “The administration”™s position is that this legislation is extraneous and unnecessary,” said Edwin J. McCormack, Astorino”™s communications director. “It just serves no purpose to add a nonvoting member when you”™re trying to streamline government and promote economic development.”
McCormack noted county legislators historically have sent a representative to attend IDA meetings, which are open to the public. Adding a nonvoting member would cast confusion over the conduct of IDA business, especially regarding binding confidentiality and participation in executive or closed-door sessions, he said.
County Economic Development Director Laurence Gottlieb, whose office includes the county IDA, said administration officials do not want to tamper with “the effectiveness and the fluidity of what has become an extremely successful IDA for Westchester County ”¦ My feeling is that it”™s results that matter and that the IDA at the present time is running on all cylinders ”“ and why do anything to derail that?
“Economic development does not have a political party affiliation,” Gottlieb said.
