Empire Zone board shake up

Changes prompted in part by citizen activist

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — The actions of the board that oversees the Empire Zone program in Sullivan County have frustrated local activist Eileen Haworth Weil for more than a year. Now, Weil is a member of that board, and six of the ten members who used to sit on it are gone.

The board, which is called the Zone Administration Board (ZAB), met with its new members on January 31 at the government center in Monticello. It was clear that some of the practices of the former ZAB and the former zone coordinator still remain to be dealt with. For instance, many records regarding certification of businesses into the zone program simply do not exist. But with Economic Development Commissioner Susan Jaffee now in place as the new zone coordinator, and with county manager David Fanslau in place as chairman of the ZAB, going forward the board will likely more strictly adhere to the regulations set up by the state.

Unquestionably, a large part of the change is due to Weil, who has been regularly attending ZAB meetings for more than a year, and who pressured the board to follow the rules.

When Weil first decided to attend a meeting, she discovered that the board did not inform the public about when meetings would be held as required by law. That was in the fall of 2006. As part of the fallout of that discovery, the contract of the zone coordinator at the time, George Bucci, was not renewed by the legislature.

With an interest in a specific company in the Empire Zone (EZ) program, Weil attempted to get minutes of previous meetings through the state Freedom of Information Law, but discovered that no minutes of the meetings existed. The previous chairman of the ZAB, Robert Ernst, said the minutes might have been destroyed in the fire at the government center in 2005. Weil doesn’t buy that, but in any case, records of the minutes have not been located.

On the other side of the issue, by spring 2007, there were still members of the ZAB who questioned whether the board was a public agency that was subject to the state’s open meetings laws, which require such things as the recording and maintenance of minutes. Assistant county attorney Tom Cawley subsequently researched the matter and said the agency is without question subject to open meeting laws.

Weil investigated further and discovered other irregularities. Ernst was sitting as chair of the ZAB in violation of the county code, which requires that the chair be a member of the county legislator or other county official. In the wake of that revelation, Ernst stepped down as chair and Fanslau moved into the role.

One of Weil’s motivations in researching the EZ program was her belief that the Yukiguni Maitake mushroom factory, which was approved to receive benefits from the program, should be decertified. The factory, which received approval from the planning board to be sited in Mamakating, where Weil lives, has yet to complete certain steps to be able to move forward, and is still locked in a legal battle with a local environmental group.

In October 2002, Yukiguni applied to have an existing zone amended to include 12 acres on which the factory would be sited. In that application, Yukiguni projected that it would create 40 jobs by the end of 2003. In a second application to become certified as a zone project submitted in March 2004, Yukiguni projected it would create 60 jobs within two years of certification.

According to state statute, a company that is in a zone by way of a boundary amendment has 24 months to either create the jobs projected or make improvements to the property in question.

To date, the jobs have not been created for either application and improvements to the property have not been made. Therefore in Weil’s view, the company should be decertified.

Those who support the factory say the delay has been caused by the legal battle brought by environmental advocates, and therefore the company should remain certified because of extenuating circumstances. Weil responded that the first lawsuit was not brought until the two-year deadline for compliance for the first application had already passed.

It’s a matter that will surely be revisited as the ZAB launches a review of all EZ projects in the months ahead. There are 138 EZ projects in Sullivan County, and according to a report from the Fiscal Policy Institute in 2005, the most recent period for which figures were available, in Sullivan County the average benefit received in reduced state and local taxes was $30,000 for each job that was created.

Weil, who with her husband Andrew owns A&E Contracting, Inc. which renovates residential properties, has admittedly ruffled many feathers while pushing to have the board follow the rules. But she has also gained respect from some of those at the highest level of county government.

Fanslau called her tenacious and said, “It’s intriguing the amount of research she does on a volunteer basis…. I think she’s a model of what a citizen activist is meant to be in democratic society.”

Lawmaker Ron Hiatt said, “I support the fact that she spoke out. Now with a seat on the ZAB, she can speak out with authority.”

The makeup of the ZAB

The previous board had ten members, the new board has nine members.

Departing members

Robert Ernst, David Kaufman, Harold Gold, Marc Baez, Alyce Van Etten, Sue Flora

Remaining members

David Fanslau, Steve Drobysh, Guy Jollie, Jim Bertholf

New members

Ted Pilonero, Mike Weiner, Larry Steiger, Eileen Haworth Weil, James Goldfarb