RIOC Directors Going to Pubic Authorities School? If So, Maybe They Will Learn If FDR Memorial Site Control Agreement Violates Public Authorities Act

Image of NY State Public Authority Logos from Gotham Gazette

Will members of the Roosevelt Island Board of Directors be going to school soon to learn how better to do their jobs? It looks that way according to this article from the Albany Times Union:

Public Authorities, which are unelected, are responsible for more than $43 billion worth of debt in New York, or about 93 percent of the state’s long term indebtedness (the annual budget, which is different, has to be balanced each year).
And thanks to a bill that was passed in 2005 and took effect two years ago, PA board members are required to get some training on issues like ethics and proper governance.

Scott Fein, a lawyer and partner at Albany’s Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna, has been putting on training sessions for board members for several years.
Now, his training is about to become digitized. The folks at Albany Law school’s Government Law Center will be recording the sessions, such as one planned there for Friday and will eventually post it on their site, said Fein.

Public Authorities have been referred to as a “shadow government,” due to their ubiquity and the fact that their leaders are appointed rather than elected.
Some are well known such as the Thruway Authority, but there are some relatively obscure, regional ones as well such as the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp. or the Thoroughbred Breeding Development Fund....

One of the first lessons the RIOC Board members and management should inform themselves about is whether approving site control for the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute's (FERI) Kahn/FDR memorial during the 9/11 RIOC Board Meeting without a prior Request For Proposal for other park developers was a violation of the NY State Public Authorities Act requiring the revocation of that approval. After all, the reason given by RIOC for the long vacant Main Street stores is that the Public Authorities Act requires the issuance of a RFP prior to their leasing to a tenant. If the Public Authorities Act applies to RIOC controlled Main Street retail stores, should it not also apply to RIOC controlled Southpoint Park?

In a series of email exchanges between myself and RIOC President Steve Shane, which will be posted in full later this week, Mr. Shane asserts that the Public Authorities Act (text here) does not apply to FERI site control of Southpoint Park for the Kahn/FDR Memorial because:

... there is a difference between a private activity (canal land development, stores (even when in the public interest as service stores), tennis facilities, etc.) and a public purpose to be carried out by a not for profit and to be operated by the government....

Mr. Shane offers no basis, other than his own opinion, that the involvement of a non-profit negates the obligation of RIOC to comply with the requirements of the Public Authorities Act. The fact that a non-profit instead of a commercial venture is the recipient of a disposition of RIOC controlled real estate does not remove the appearance of undue political influence in the awarding of site control to FERI by the RIOC Board. As reported by this NY Times article titled "Gifts To Pet Charities Keep Lawmakers Happy":

... In interviews, donors said they were supporting worthy causes, such as scholarships, research and museums. But several also acknowledged that charitable giving was a way to build good will with lawmakers, whose decisions can have a huge effect on their business.

... “It’s a very personal way to curry favor with powerful lawmakers,” said Keith Ashdown, the chief investigator for Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group. “It’s also a lobbying tactic that is not completely understood or even known by the public.”

One of the purposes of The Public Authorities Act was to combat the appearance of impropriety in the disposition of real estate controlled by State corporations such as RIOC. The involvement of a non-profit in such a real estate transaction should not make any difference as it applies to the Public Authorities Act. At the very least, RIOC's lawyers, the State Comptroller's office or some other NY State entity should inquire whether FERI site control for the FDR memorial at Southpoint Park is in compliance with the Public Authorities Act.

Maybe the Public Authorities School at Albany Law has the answer!