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Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency Finance Committee Meeting Minutes December 10, 2019 A Finance Committee meeting of the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency was held on Tuesday, December 10, 2019 at the 333 West Washington Street, Syracuse, New York in the large conference room on the first floor.
Chairperson Victor Ianno called the meeting to order at 8:03 am with the following:
PRESENT:
Victor Ianno Steve Morgan Patrick Hogan
ALSO PRESENT:
Robert M. Petrovich, Executive Director Genevieve A. Suits, Secretary Nate Stevens, Treasurer Karen Doster, Recording Secretary Carolyn Evans-Dean, Economic Development Tony Rivizzigno, Barclay Damon, Damon Law Firm Amanda Mirabito, Barclay Damon Law Firm Jeff Davis, Barclay Damon Law Firm Kevin McAuliffe, Barclay Damon Law Firm Calvin Weaver, Harris Beach Law Firm Fanny Villarreal, OCIDA Board Member Janice Herzog, OCIDA Board Member Susan Stanezyk, OCIDA Board Member Kevin Ryan, OCIDA Board Member Chris Carrick, CNY Regional Planning Board APPROVAL OF FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES — JULY 23, 2019 Upon a motion by Patrick Hogan, seconded by Steve Morgan, the OCIDA Finance Committee approved the Finance Committee meeting minutes of June 12, 2018. Motion was carried.
Upon a motion by Steve Morgan, seconded by Patrick Hogan, the OCIDA Finance Committee approved a resolution to transmit the Finance Committee summary evaluations without comment to the Governance Committee for review and recommendation to the Board. Motion was
carried.
Genevieve Suits stated there are no comments.
Upon a motion by Patrick Hogan, seconded by Steve Morgan, the OCIDA Finance Committee approved a resolution to transmit the Finance Committee Charter without comment to the Governance Committee for review and recommendation to the Board. Motion was carried.
Nate Stevens stated this budget was presented to the Finance Committee in draft form in July and there were no real changes between the July draft and today’s version. He stated essentially same operation as 2019.
Steve Morgan asked if this is the 2020 budget. Nate Stevens stated yes, this is for 2020. He stated the actual operational configuration is not substantively different than 2019. Steve Morgan stated the legal services in 2019 were budgeted at 210,000 and asked if was due to the Trammell Crow project. Nate Stevens stated yes.
Steve Morgan asked if we would see an offset to that with the Agency revenues of about $470,000 over budget on those revenues. Nate Stevens stated yes.
Steve Morgan asked how much of that cost is passed back on to the applicant versus the Agency’s absorption. Robert Petrovich stated in the framework that we were able to come into agreement with Trammell Crow, the Agency fee was negotiated in total to be $2,625,000. He stated of that the Agency was paid $1,000,000 to date. He stated another payment is anticipated on closing which should happen sometime in Q1 of next year for $750,000 of the total amount due. He stated as part of the construct the legal services were paid out of the IDA fee and the technical review was passed on to the applicant. He stated they are taking care of the 2 engineering costs and they have been billed. He stated the amount is commensurate with the legal fees and that takes us up to closing. He stated the number seen is what the Agency has paid counsel out of the $1,000,000 received from Trammell Crow.
Steve Morgan asked what their total legal fee is. Robert Petrovich stated he believes the total legal fee is $337,000. He stated the next $137,000 would take us from the Neg Dec to closing. Steve Morgan stated even if they don’t go through with the project the Agency is covered, Robert Petrovich stated we are more than covered and if they close another $1,625,000 will come in and another $137,000 will go out to cover the legal fee.
Patrick Hogan stated this is the biggest fee the Agency has ever seen and as far as being a participant, this is the biggest project in history in Central New York. He stated there are a lot of legal ramifications involved with that and he understands. He asked if we are low balling our budget for next year for legal fees. Nate Stevens stated it is hard to predict because we don’t know what kinds of deals are going to come in. He stated he believes it’s best to leave it and we have the ability to adjust.
Kevin Ryan stated the Agency application calls for the applicant to pay for the legal fees so if a new project comes in that rivals the TC Syracuse project then we can adjust it on the fly. He stated we would get more revenue coming in from the applicant so we would be revenue neutral on all of this.
Steve Morgan asked why there is a surplus on the Onondaga County Office line. Nate Stevens stated when Onondaga County does their year-end we always have a catch up with the 4" quarter. He stated we always budget the office to be at the high end as if the entire office has a full staff all year long but that doesn’t always happen.
Upon a motion by Steve Morgan, seconded by Patrick Hogan, the OCIDA Finance Committee approved a resolution to transmit the 2020 Agency Budget to the full Board for adoption. Motion was carried.
Genevieve Suits stated there are no comments.
Upon a motion by Patrick Hogan, seconded by Steve Morgan, the OCIDA Finance Committee approved a resolution to transmit the Committee Annual Report without comment to the Governance Committee for review and recommendation to the Board. Motion was carried. Upon a motion by Patrick, seconded by Steve Morgan, the OCIDA Board adjourned the meeting at 8:10 am. Motion was carried.
Nancy Gowery, Secregiry