Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

A recent search on the name Suma Mandel, a board member--at least as of 2023--of the Pacific Park Conservancy led me to an article she co-authored last June for Vital City,  Governance in the Time of Congestion . The article was stirred by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's unilateral decision--since modified--to direct the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to pause congestion pricing, but the subheading, "Who do public authorities serve — the public or the politicians who appoint their boards?" is eternally relevant to observers of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. As the authors write: Even to the casual observer, when the governor announced the pause, it was obvious that the MTA leaders were mere bystanders, watching a major policy U-turn and realizing it would create a major funding gap in the agency’s capital program...  Some board members made reference to their fiduciary and legal obligations, asserting that they could not be “directed” by the governor. Yet [MTA Chair and...

Today's reading, from  Urban Politics, New York Style , edited by Jewel Bellush and Dick Netzer, concerning public authorities, an ever-growing phenomenon in New York State, entities that are created by the executive branch to avoid typical checks and balances in legislative processes:  This was published in 1990. In the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park saga, we've certainly seen examples of Empire State Development (aka Empire State Development Corporation aka Urban Development Corporation) exercising myopic oversight and  acting as a rubber stamp .

A press release from the office of Brooklyn Assemblyman Jim Brennan : BRENNAN ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT AS CHAIR OF CORPORATIONS, AUTHORITIES AND COMMISSIONS Assemblymember Jim Brennan (D-Brooklyn) announced that Speaker Silver has appointed him Chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions. Mr. Brennan has served as a member of the committee for 26 years, and served as counsel to his predecessor, who chaired the Subcommittee on Public Power, a subcommittee of the Corporations Committee, for three years prior to his election. Mr. Brennan previously chaired two subcommittees of this 26-member committee – the Subcommittee on Business Corporation Law and the Telecommunications Task Force. “I want to express my thanks to Speaker Silver for appointing me Chair of this committee,” said Mr. Brennan. “I look forward to the challenges ahead on the issues confronting the committee, including mass transit funding, utilities, and the accountability and governance of o...

According to the state Authorities Budget Office (ABO), Public Authorities That Have Failed to File Reports in the Public Authorities Reporting Information System as of January 4, 2011 (embedded below), the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC, aka Urban Development Corporation) and its affiliate, the Job Development Authority (JDA), did not file required budget reports 90 days prior to the start of the fiscal year. I asked the ESDC last week about the reason for the delay and the plans to comply, but haven't heard back. The ABO was beefed up somewhat after reforms strengthening oversight over public authorities, but it can't do its job if agencies don't comply. In July, I reported that the JDA had not filed an annual report; the latest ABO report suggests that it has since done so. I'm waiting for details on that, too. January 2011 Delinquent List

Departing Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, the crusader for public authority reform who focused on the new Yankee Stadium rather than the Atlantic Yards project, has left with a valedictory report warning of the need for further reform, including this common-sense statement, "In an era when government is instructed to behave more like business, the failure to receive value for its investments is a crisis that can no longer be ignored." Unmentioned in the six-page report (embedded below) is Atlantic Yards, nor the state's failure to receive any value for giving away arena naming rights. Indeed, "the massive transfer of public property into private hands... not... accompanied by commensurate public benefits" hints at Yankee Stadium ("publicly funded sports facilities by IDA's") and the Columbia University expansion ("university construction using eminent domain powers") but not the equally controversial Atlantic Yards. But Brodsky, ...

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who not coincidentally is running for election next Tuesday (for the post to which he was appointed in 2007), on October 27 issued a brief report criticizing the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC). The press release was headlined DiNapoli Public Authority Spotlight: Urban Development Corp.: Hundreds of Millions Spent on No-Bid Contracts and High Salaries . News of the high salaries--more than a quarter of staffers earning six figures--actually surfaced in June, in a report from the Authorities Budget Office, and it's hardly surprising that the ESDC (the name under which the agency mainly does business) has awarded no-bid contracts. After all, ubiquitous consultant AKRF has often been chosen, via no-bid contracts, to conduct environmental reviews, such as for Atlantic Yards and the Columbia University expansion. "We also are able to hire people on the basis of a sole source if we can articulate a rationale for why it would be cost ...

As I reported last month , despite the expansion of the Authorities Budget Office (ABO) as part of 2009 public authority reform legislation, corporate governance expert Ira Millstein, who led the development of the law, thought the ABO was woefully understaffed. This week, the Governor’s Task Force on the Implementation of the 2009 Public Authorities Reform Act (PARA), chaired by Millstein, issued a report (embedded below) calling for “substantial increases to the funding and staffing of the ABO.” But it also called for several other reforms, a few of which seemed to be a response to situations like Atlantic Yards. Notably, the Task Force wants: those who appoint board members to face a fiduciary duty (which means they'd owe loyalty, for example, to transit riders rather than real estate developers) board members limit reliance on senior staff (who, in the case of AY, run Empire State Development Corporation policy) boards to implement risk management polices (which might lead the...

The road to reforming public authorities is a long one, but, with the expansion of the Authorities Budget Office (ABO) and the release of a report July 1, New York is moving down that road, right? Yes, and no. It's not merely that the ABO is understaffed, with a cohort so small it "borders on insanity," according to corporate governance expert Ira Millstein . (Working pro bono, noted attorney Millstein with colleagues shaped the contours of the 2009 Public Authorities Reform Act, leading New York to what Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, the legislative sponsor, calls "a grand experiment" in reforming government.) It's that even an expert like Millstein assumes that "you'll never have on the board everybody thinking uniformly." And, for some authorities--I'll point to the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and its quasi-spawn , the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation (BALDC)--that hasn't been true. There's been litt...

It sure looks like State Senator Bill Perkins' concerns about the Job Development Authority (JDA), the shadowy alter ego of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) that was used to create the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation (BALDC) to issue arena debt , deserved--and deserve--attention. In one important official accounting, the JDA--which has no dedicated staff--appears to be a cipher. Nearly alone among state authorities, it didn't submit a mission statement, an annual report, or a budget report, according to the first annual report by the state Authorities Budget Office (ABO). The unusual transaction Last December , Perkins in a letter to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo asked a question that, to my knowledge, has never been answered: In essence, the ESDC crafted an unusual transaction whereby a nearly defunct entity, the Job Development Authority (JDA) was used to form the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Development Corporation (BALDC) which then issued the $...

Remember the big battle last year to get the state legislature to reform the state's myriad public authorities? In Manhattan Media's The Capitol newspaper, a 5/10/10 article headlined New Authorities Budget Office Could Be Swept Away By Lack Of Funding explains: When Gov. David Paterson signed a bill last December to regulate the state’s 700-plus public authorities, the legislation was hailed as one of Albany’s most significant reforms in decades—the beginning of the end for the state’s “Soviet-style bureaucracies” that have amassed $45 billion in public debt. The centerpiece of the dense 25-page bill was the creation of the Independent Authorities Budget Office, which replaced a similarly named office that had existed with limited scope and responsibility since 2006. The new office was given a host of new powers—such as the ability to issue subpoenas and remove authorities’ board member. It also was given a number of responsibilities, including the ability to audit authoriti...

In Why the Atlantic Yards Is Currently a Loser for Everyone, Even Ratner , New York Magazine's Chris Smith points out that the AY resistance should not have been surprising: Ratner blames the delays on those pesky eminent domain lawsuits. It’s true that the legal challenges have slowed Atlantic Yards, but Ratner guaranteed the court fights by doing a politically savvy end run around the public approval process. And the most important issues were never speed or dollars: The fight over Atlantic Yards was about community and democracy. If the legacy of Develop Don’t Destroy is that whatever is finally built on the rest of the site is more in proportion with the brownstone neighborhoods surrounding Ratnerville, the group will have done the city a service. But until then, everyone's going to continue losing: Bruce Ratner is getting an arena he wanted only as a crowd-pleasing tool to divert attention from his lucrative condo towers, and New York gets a soulless billion-dollar basketb...

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, the watchdog of public authorities, leader on public authority reform , fierce after-the-fact critic of the Yankee Stadium deal, and putative Attorney General candidate , has chosen not to look closely at Atlantic Yards (despite occasional swipes at the MTA's failure to fulfill its fiduciary duty), so the below press release is only what Brodsky might have said. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 15, 2010 Assemblyman Richard Brodsky , (D-Westchester), Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, today released a letter to Governor Paterson that insists that the Governor explain the state's willingness to let the Atlantic Yards project proceed without knowledge of the costs or the extent of needed subway tunnel repairs. Brodsky expressed dismay that repairs on damaged subway tunnels around the Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn would be supposedly paid for via a contingency fund in the budget for the arena project. ...

No one has a written statement responding to questions raised by state Senator Bill Perkins about irregularities in the issuance of arena bonds, but the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) yesterday said it expected the Atlantic Yards project to proceed through final approvals today, with the final contracts signed and the eminent domain process to begin in earnest. "We anticipate the Master Closing to happen tomorrow," spokeswoman Elizabeth Mitchell said yesterday in an email message. "It will include the bond closing, deposit of the funds and real estate documents in escrow, and the filing of the condemnation petition. ESDC expects possession of the title on or near February 1st, 2010." "We are going to continue to demand that there is going to be accountability and transparency with this project," Perkins said. "We think it’s clearly in violation of the type of scrutiny that is required by law… I know that a lawsuit is being considered....