The Riverhead Industrial Development Agency’s website does not meet the requirements of the State Public Authorities Law with respect to documents being made available online.
The Riverhead IDA also has not complied with the State Open Meetings Law for committee meetings held by video conferencing, according to the State Authorities Budget Office.
The Authorities Budget Office conducted a review of the Riverhead IDA’s website in October to determine whether the agency complied with online disclosure requirements imposed by state law for the 2023 fiscal year.
The Riverhead IDA’s website came up short in a number of areas, according to a Dec. 19 letter from the ABO to Tracy Stark-James, executive director and CEO of the Riverhead IDA.
A copy of the letter was obtained from the ABO through a Freedom of Information Law request.
Items required to be posted but missing from the Riverhead IDA’s website included, according to the ABO, included:
- A list of all active Riverhead IDA projects, including the current year’s financial assistance (tax exemptions received and PILOT payments made) and existing jobs.
- Assessment of the progress of each active project
- Annual performance evaluation indicating status of performance measures authority schedule of debt (including conduit debt)
- Annual compliance report regarding state sales tax recaptures (ST-62)
- Property disposition policies
- Committee meeting schedule
- Committee meeting notices
- Committee meeting agendas
- Committee meeting packets
Other documents were posted for prior years, but not for 2023, according to the review letter. These included:
- Annual budget report and details of four-year financial plan
- Annual independent certified financial audit
- Independent auditor’s report on internal controls over financial reporting
- Independent audit management letter
- List of real property owned by the authority
- Personal property transactions
- Real property transactions
- Annual investment report – including the investment audit results and management letter, record of investment income, list of fees paid for investment services, and explanation of any amendments to the investment policy. The prior year’s report did not include all of the requirements of section 2925 (6) of the Public Authorities Law, the letter said, and the 2023 report was not found.
In addition, the letter said, “In reviewing the Authority’s website, we were not able to locate committee meeting notices. Therefore, it is unclear if the Authority is complying with OML [Open Meetings Law] when using videoconferencing for its committee meetings, in accordance with Section 103-a and Section 104 (4) of OML.”
The ABO asked the Riverhead IDA to provide “a detailed explanation describing how the Authority is complying with OML for videoconferencing its committee meetings.”
The state office referred the IDA to a number of statutes and guidance documents to assist in bringing the website and committee meeting practices into compliance.
The review letter, signed by ABO Acting Director Ann Malony, asked for the Riverhead IDA’s response by Feb. 10.
A compliance checklist attached to the letter detailed missing items as well as items posted as required.
The Riverhead IDA’s website met requirements for posting of the following: mission statement, enabling statute, by-laws, code of ethics, conflict of interest policy, organization chart, report on operations and accomplishments, list of IDA board members with current employment and biography, list of committees and committee members, executive management team, authority performance measures, board meeting schedules, board meeting notices, board agendas and packets, board meeting minutes, board resolutions, board meeting webcasting and video recordings and committee meeting minutes.
At the Riverhead IDA’s board meeting on Jan. 6, Stark-James reported on the review letter and actions taken by the IDA since receiving the letter.
She said the board was aware of the ABO’s review. “And there were some, I don’t want to say deficiencies, but corrections that needed to be made,” Stark-James said. “Almost all those corrective actions have been taken,” she said. “Some of the issues were attributable to a disconnect between us and the web server. Some were just glitches. Some were misplaced or mistitled documents” she said.
“The project listing was probably the biggest issue for me, and we’re already underway” with a project dashboard, Stark-James told the board. “About half the projects are up, but we are also creating a dashboard which will list and also provide a lot of data points annually on the projects.”
In an email yesterday, Stark-James said, “Importantly, there was no determination suggested by the ABO that the Agency in any form did not fully disclose information critical to the public’s project review process.”
Stark-James said, “Regarding the posting requests from the ABO, some are redundant, as the information is already available on the website but not through individual links. Despite this being more of a stylistic issue, it is the Agency’s intent to make their locations clearer.”
The IDA “will arrange for its committee meetings to be public, and, to the extent permitted by counsel, for the discussions between committee members to be open between them,” Stark-James wrote in the email.
“It is frequently the issue that within some of those meetings, sensitive financial information is reviewed concerning an applicant, which information will require our counsel’s review to determine whether such information may be shared in a public forum,” she wrote.
“With respect to other comments by the ABO, the Agency had already contracted with a firm back in October to create a dashboard for its website and has been updating its website to conform with any other recommendations,” Stark-James wrote. “Most of them have already been addressed.”
She said this was “the first time in 44 years” that the ABO ever commented on the Riverhead IDA’s website or the openness of its committee meetings.
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