More Haze Over Long Island City

In September I wrote about the adoption of the NYCERS budget for FY-2014 at the March 14, 2013 NYCERS Board of Trustees meeting. I pointed out the scant reference to the issues surrounding the disaster recovery site at Long Island City (L.I.C.) in the executive director's written presentation on the budget. In a terse sentence she implied that the L.I.C. disaster recovery project was now functioning after an seven year delay.

I was curious whether any of the trustees had any questions at the meeting about this fiasco. So I made a FOIL request of the public minutes of the board meeting where the $52.2M budget was approved. This is the relevant exert form the minutes of the March 14, 2013 NYCERS Board of Trustees regular meeting:

CHAIRPERSON WOLPERT:
All in favor?
(A chorus of "Ayes.")
Any opposed?
Motion carries.
Item 2 on the agenda is a report by the budget committee, of which I am chair, so I will report on that.

I think NYCERS really did an incredible job presenting their budget to us. There was beautiful and substantively informative PowerPoint presentation. All of the really knowledgeable staff was there to answer any questions we had. For me, I think everything was in order.

I don't know if anybody on the budget committee or anybody else has any questions?

MS. O'CONNELL (DC-37):
A comment to echo your comments, Carolyn. I think Diane and staff did an excellent job of keeping the focus on member services, and also moving the institution forward in terms of technology and making progress in that regard. So I thank the executive director and staff for their efforts.

CHAIRPERSON WOLPERT:
With that, a motion to approve the budget?

MS. D"ALESSANDRO(executive director):
...Then we move into the actual proposed budget for fiscal 2014 which is 2B(i) in your packet, and essentially it is the administrative budget for fiscal 2014 with $26,620,635 for PS expenses; $17,951,822 for other than personal expenses; qnd a total budget of $44,575,457 for fiscal 2014. (there is an additional $7.6M in fringe costs)

CHAIRPERSON WOLPERT:
Any questions on this resolution?
Is there a motion to approve?

MS. O'CONNELL:
Motion.

MS. STRYKER(Local 237, Teamsters):
Second.

CHAIRPERSON WOLPERT:
All in favor?
(A chorus of "Ayes.")
Any opposed?
Motion carries.

As you can see from the quoted text above, that there was no substantive discussion about this major expenditure. The text is devoid of any concrete information other than the fact that the regular NYCERS admin budget for FY-2014 will be $44.5M. (actually $52.2M)

One thing that caught my attention was the comment about the "beautiful and substantively informative PowerPoint presentation". I thought that it would be wonderful to read the presentation given to the budget committee. So I made a follow up FOIL request for it. That was on October 18, 2013. I made a second request on November 11, 2013 and on December 3, 2013 I received the following response from NYCERS.

Please be advised that your request under the Freedom of Information Law for NYCERS PowerPoint presentation outlining the FY-2014 administrative budget given to the Trustees budget committee is being denied.

The information you are seeking is considered inter-agency or intra-agency materials. Said materials were not presented to the Board of Trustees or listed as an Agenda Item at any NYCERS Regular/Investment meeting.

If you wish to appeal this denial, please contact Diane D’Alessandro, (Executive Director) of NYCERS.

It is clear to me that this reason for denial is evasive and incorrect. Listed below is the exact wording from the state web site about this specific reason for denying a FOIL request:

(g) are inter-agency or intra-agency communications, except to the extent that such materials consist of:
i. statistical or factual tabulations or data;
ii. instructions to staff that affect the public;
iii. final agency policy or determinations; or
iv. external audits, including but not limited to audits performed by the comptroller and the federal government;

As per the meeting minutes, the Chairperson points to the PowerPoint presentation as the basis of the budget committee's recommendation for approval of the proposed budget.I think it is safe to say the document was the basis of a final agency policy or determination, the adoption of the agency's $52.2M FY-2014 administrative budget.

In addition, I suspect that the Budget Committee falls under the N.Y.S. Open Meetings Law. That means material provided to the committee is public record. I don't think the committee had any reason to conduct its meeting in executive session.

Needless to say, while I will never see this PowerPoint presentation, I am sure that the N.Y.S. Department of Financial Services auditors will demand to see this presentation. They should also demand a physical inspection of the L.I.C. site and observe actual full disaster drill, not some empty "trust me" claim.

You would think that NYCERS management would have been anxious to provide the public a clear picture of the status of the Long Island City disaster recovery site. Now, because of this failure to disclose, it seems reasonable to conclude that the PowerPoint presentation is inaccurate and a poor basis for adopting the FY-2014 budget. Besides the mess at Long Island City what other disasters are the NYCERS management hiding.