On December 29, 2006, after several months of investigating the Geneva Industrial Development Agency (IDA), the Office of the New York State Attorney General (OAG) wrote to the City of Geneva: “The OAG’s investigation has confirmed that the parties involved repeatedly failed to take appropriate steps to avoid conflicts of interests and to ensure that proper disclosures were made to the City Council.” The OAG letter went on to suggest “that the details of the transaction and conflicts of interest be disclosed to the City Council at the next public meeting.” For the full text of the letter, check the Document Library or click this link.
The letter, in fact, raises several issues of concern:
1. The letter is addressed to Thomas A. DeSimon, Esq., of the Harris Beach law firm in Pittsford. We were surprised to learn that the City had been represented in this matter by outside counsel because there had been no prior discussion of that, nor approval or a vote on spending public funds for that purpose. We still are not clear if DeSimon was representing the City generally, or particular staff members that were being questioned by the Attorney General’s office. We also do not know how much he was paid for his service, or why an outside attorney was necessary given that the City Attorney is full time.
2. City Attorney Clark Cannon notified Council of this letter in January and said he intended to bring the matter up at the next Council meeting (February 7). But he did not raise the issue, so Councilor Capraro asked that the discussion be placed on the March agenda as a formal action item, which it was. However, the City Council did not engage in a discussion about the findings, but instead listened to the City Attorney’s admission that Council had not been given the necessary information.
3. The question remains whether the deal negotiated between the IDA and the City is indicative of a larger problem. The IDA is a separate quasi-municipal entity, independent of the city. However, the City Attorney is also the IDA’s Attorney, the head of the City’s Planning Department is the IDA’s Executive Director, and the City Comptroller is the IDA Financial Officer. Many of the IDA projects require attention from staff on ‘city time’, so the IDA provides the City with monies to compensate for that. But the staff people also receive stipends from the IDA in addition to their full time city salaries. This is not a question of the character of the individuals, it is instead a question about the practice of having staff people ‘serving two masters.’ In fact, the Finger Lakes Times just reported (March 9 2007 & March 17 2007) that Seneca County Economic Development Director, Glenn Cooke, resigned his position citing a real conflict of interest in holding that title while also serving as Executive Director of the Seneca IDA. He has since resigned the IDA post as well.
A former City Councilor, who was himself responsible for appointing members of the IDA board, rented space in an IDA-owned building. That same councilor sold a vehicle to the IDA with the understanding that it would be sold, in turn, to the City. This transaction was approved by the IDA and handled by IDA staff. However, the IDA staff did not, in their capacity as City staff, alert City Council to the transaction. It has been argued, by the City Attorney and City Manager that the shared staffing makes it easier to do business. Yes, too easy, according to the Attorney General.
Monday, April 2
Conflicted Interests: City Staff, Geneva IDA, and the Attorney General
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2 comments:
You both know that I did not sell anything to the IDA. Why do you continue to tell these lies? You are both a couple of hipocrits. You continue to make false statements about me, even though the AG did not find any wrong doing on my part. Yet you are well aware of the blatant unethical activity of another councilor who purchased city property. You want people to believe and support you? Start telling the whole story, not just the parts that suit you. Bill
Our regular readers know that we operate on a 'no leaks, no gossip' policy. Our post was not a personal attack, it was an expression of concern about structural conflicts of interest that increase the likelihood that the public interest will not be well served. We included references to, and the text of a publicly available letter (specifically, the Attorney General's letter) that said there was a conflict of interest that needed to be, but was not, disclosed to council and which called for a public discussion about prevention so that missteps might be avoided in the future. Our point was then, and remains, that there is a structural conflict of interest involving some staff who hold dual appointments, one with the City and one with the IDA, resulting in the City Council not being provided important and required briefings prior to critical votes. It would not matter who held the dual appointments. There would still be conflicts inherent in the arrangement. So ours was not a personal attack. Our purpose is not to investigate every suspicion or innuendo, but to stick to the facts and supporting documentation, which is what we've done. To the best of our knowledge, our blog contains no errors in fact. We do, however, welcome, documented, source cited corrections should our readers find that we have been mistaken about a particular item. Of course, our opinions are just that. Our hope is to advance a fact based public discussion about improving government for the City of Geneva.
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