The Rotterdam Industrial Development Agency has retained an outside attorney to ensure its compliance with state public authorities law.
IDA Chairman Angelo Santabarbara learned the IDA was out of compliance with the law earlier this summer when local activist Elmer Bertsch, of Niskayuna, criticized the IDA for not filing required state reports at a meeting of the Schenectady County Legislature.
Now, Santabarbara says those reports, the 2007 annual report and the 2008 budget report, have been properly filed.
On Thursday, July 10, the IDA hired Robert Ryan, of Harris Beach PLLC, an Albany law firm that specializes in economic development and state public authority laws. Ryan’s services will cost the IDA approximately $275 per hour.
Ryan spent about three hours with the IDA on Tuesday, July 29, providing its members with public authorities training and advising the board that it needs to update its Web site and begin work on its 2009 budget report. He also told the IDA that it must appoint a CEO and CFO.
The board took formal action earlier this month to appoint Town Comptroller Patrick Aragosa as its CFO. Santabarbara said the position of CEO is still vacant. The board has yet to discuss if the CEO will receive a salary.
Ryan said the state mandates these positions to create checks and balances on the IDA.
The board serves as an oversight to the CEO and CFO who are in management positions.
According to Ryan, the small size of the Rotterdam IDA makes compliance more difficult. He said the state Public Authorities Accountability Act, which was signed into law in 2006 was primarily set up for large authorities, like the state Canal Corporation and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who have full time management employees. The Rotterdam IDA has no employees at all.
`It’s going to take a little more work to come into compliance but next year will be a little easier because they’ll be up and running,` said Ryan.
In other business, the Rotterdam IDA approved its second round of matching grants for improvements to small businesses in town.
The town will award approximately 10 grants for up to $5,000. Recipients of grants will be required to spend their own funds on the project in an amount twice as much as the grant received. For example, a business would need to spend $10,000 on a project in order to receive $5,000.
The grant money can be used for faCade improvements, increased access for the disabled, signage, lighting, sidewalks and other exterior improvements.
Eligible businesses cannot exceed $1 million in sales per year or employ more than 50 people. Applicants who have been awarded an IDA grant in the past two years are ineligible for funding.
Last year’s grant program made 10 awards of $2,500. Santabarbara said that raising the grant total this year shows the IDA’s commitment to small businesses.
`We’re looking to help businesses that are here and we’re focusing on small businesses,` said Santabarbara. `Twenty-five thousand dollars doesn’t go a long way with the rising costs of fuel and the rising costs of pretty much everything, so we extended the program to 10 grants of $5,000 for larger projects.`
The Rotterdam IDA is funded through its own projects by fees charged to developers and is not funded by town taxpayers. “