ORDA/NYPA Et Al
Today’s Assembly hearing, at which the heads of the Olympic Regional Development Authority and the New York Power Authority testified, ended up focusing largely on the Congressional Winter Challenge - an event that has been held in Lake Placid since 1998, ostensibly to promote the village’s Olympic facilities to Washington, D.C. decision makers in hopes that they’ll provide federal funding.
NYPA President/CEO Tim Carey, whose authority has sponsored the event with $25,000 a year since 2000, said he thinks it should continue - with a few modifications - and said he’s satisfied it has been successful is both raising Lake Placid’s profile and netting ORDA federal dollars.
“You’re talking about an insignificant amount of money, it’s about a penny a year over five years for our customers,” Carey said, referring to the $25,000, which is part of $55,000 NYPA provides annually to ORDA to also fund training programs and efforts to bring disadvantaged kids to the Olympic facilities. “We believe that the rate of return is quite substantial.”
Carey said NYPA gives out $1 million a year to various causes and projects from its $2.5 million annual budget. It’s part of the authority’s mission - if not its legal mandate, he said - to help promote economic development and touristm, and not necessarily restricted to projects related to its various energy generating plants or service areas.
However, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Westchester, questioned the effectiveness of the Winter Challenge, noting that federal funding to ORDA has in fact decreased over the life of the event, dropping from $4.5 million between 1995 and 1999 to $471,000 in 2005.
“It’s a lobbying event, and the first thing that jumps out at you is should the government be using public funds to lobby?” said Brodksy, who insisted that one authority giving another money to run a lobbying event is different that a municipality paying a lobbyist (a routine occurrence) to represent its interests in Albany.
ORDA head Ted Blazer gave the overall cost of the challenge as $27,000, and said his authority pays for the $2,000 NYPA doesn’t cover. Brodsky called that number “fiction,” noting that Blazer himself had admitted it doesn’t factor in the operating costs of the Olympic facilities used by the challenge participants while they’re on site.
In return for its money, which paid for ground transportation, gift bags and dinners, NYPA received the right to place promotional banners at Winter Challenge events and eight free tickets for its staffers (Carey said that should be discontinued).
The U.S. Olympic Committee covered the cost of air travel, Blazer said, and most participants stayed at the training facility in Lake Placid. Some, however, (mostly members of Congress) stayed at the Mirror Lake Inn, a tony hotel owned by an ORDA board member.
Documents subpoenaed from ORDA by Brodsky show that the cost of dinners for the Winter Challenge in 2000 alone came to $11,638.50 (a choice of tenderloin or sea bass one night, filet mignon or chicken the next), and also indicate that NYPA paid separately for the Mirror Lake Inn rooms.
Brodsky, chair of the Assembly Corporations, Authorities and Commissions Committee, also raised a lot of questions about the Congressional Challenge invite list, which has included a number of lobbyists as well as members of Congress and their families, friends and staffers.
Over the years, the list has been heavy on the Republicans, including a number of Pataki aides and former NRCC chairman Tom Davis (it’s unclear if he attended), and light on Democrats, although both the state’s U.S. senators have been invited, and last year aides to both U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid were present.
WNYT News Channel 13 anchor Phil Bayly and his former wife also participated in the Winter Challenge in 2001, documents show, as did a reporter from USA Today (in 2000) and a number of people representing corporations from VISA to Coca Cola and sundry Olympians, whose job it was to give “motivational talks,” Blazer said.
The event started under U.S. Rep. Gerald Solomon with a specific goal - to raise enough money to rebuild the bobsled and luge tracks that had been constructed for the 1980 Winter Olympics but lost their international licenses and thus could no longer be used for major competitions.
That effort was successful, Blazer said, and the program continued.
U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, was elected to replace Solomon in 1998 and inherited the Winter Challenge - a responsibility he appears to have taken on with gusto. Documents show quite a few participants since 1999 were invited at Sweeney’s request.
Sweeney wrote to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in August 2005 for an opinion “as to the propriety” of Congress members and staffers attending the Winter Challenge. He did not ask about lobbyists.
The upshot of Committee’s response was that there was no problem with the event, provided Sweeney himself did not do the inviting. Sweeney Deputy Chief of Staff Melissa Carlson insisted the congressman didn’t invite anyone. Blazer said under oath today that he did.
The Assembly probe into this matter is continuing, Brodsky and Assemblyman Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, who convened the hearing, asked for more documentation from both ORDA and NYPA. Brodsky would not say whether he might ask Sweeney to testify, or seek to compel him to do so via subpoena if he refused to appear voluntarily.
Brodsky did say a legislative committee’s subpoena power applies to people or matters that relate to pending legislation (in this case, authorities reform), but added that it is not affected by “title or position.”
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Yet another reason to vote for Kirsten Gillibrand. I’m looking forward to reading the comments from Sweeney’s campaign staff crying that this is a good use of $25,000 of taxpayer money.
Comment by Steve — July 11, 2006 @ 6:06 pm
Steve, you can look forward all you like to Sweeney’s staff explaining why his Lake Placid junket for current and future lobbyists is a good use of public money, but don’t expect an honest answer.
Especially since, according to sworn testimony today, one of his top staffers lied about an important facet of this junket.
TU reporters should also take notice that Carlson has no credibility and treat anything she says in the future as automatically suspect and deserving of thorough fact-checking.
And that goes for the Miami Mob Leader himself, who evidently thinks it’s OK for his staffers to lie to cover up for the boss.
Comment by devtob — July 11, 2006 @ 6:37 pm
YAWN!
Comment by stogagop — July 12, 2006 @ 12:11 am
State Authorities…
Riffing on state authorities is typically the turf of Jim Ostrowski and FreeBuffalo but, this post over at Capitol Confidential really got my attention today.
Today’s Assembly hearing, at which the heads of the Olympic Regional Development Authority …..
Trackback by BuffaloGeek — July 12, 2006 @ 1:31 am
Nice work if you can get it. Using taxpayer money for a junket that includes lobbyists and campaign contributors.
And I like the part where Sweeney asked the sham Congressional ethics committee what he could do, which by the way is a sham, they told him he couldn’t invite anyone, and then according to the NYPA’s Blazer, he did. Sweeney can’t even be bothered to comply with a sham ethics committee.
Like I said, nice work.
Comment by Lame Man — July 12, 2006 @ 8:41 am
Thanks for your coverage of the hearing. It is long over due. Sweeney’s job is to bring needed funding into the district. He gets paid to do that. (And unlike many of the Americans working in minimum wage jobs who he claims to support, Sweeney gets a handsome raise every single year.)
His job isn’t to waste our money on wining and dining his family, pals and campaign donors on free vacations.
Sweeney talks about his working class roots, but he’s out of touch with the working people of this district. He gives lip service to supporting a wage hike and then he walks out and doesn’t vote for it. Yesterday he voted to stop a wage increase from even coming up for a vote.
Comment by lisam — July 12, 2006 @ 9:46 am
As chair of the Assembly conservation committee brodsky has bought back more land in the adirondack park than any other chair. Brodsky and his liberal downstate supporters would rather that no one live in the adirondack park. He has been starving the local people up there for years.
Comment by C. Cahill — July 12, 2006 @ 10:05 am
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1392447/posts - here’s the Post story on Maurice Hinchey being New York’s “junket junkie”. Let’s see how Sweeney and Hinchey compare.
Comment by nycr — July 12, 2006 @ 10:18 am