WPCNR METER WATCH. By John F. Bailey. May 21, 2004 UPDATED 2:00 A.M. E.D.T.: Eight days after voting to seek private legal counsel to advise them on legal issues on the city plans to dissolve the Parking Authority, the White Plains Parking Authority Board voted 4-0 with one abstention (Timothy Sheehan) to unhire its legal counsel Thursday evening, after an Executive Session. WPCNR has also learned the Parking Authority funds, by the State Parking Authorities Law, cannot be transferred onto the city books until the Parking Authority “ceases to exist.”
THE CITIZENETREPORTER’S LAST SIGHT of the Parking Authority Board seconds after Tim Sheehan, WPPA Board Chair, made a resolution asking for an Executive Session to discuss the Dunphy-Delfino Legal Counsel Hissy Fit last week, declaring the WPPA Board had no right to hire its own legal counsel. Left to right, (not seen) are Michael Amodio, Frank Cantatore, Carolyn Abramowitz, Mr. Sheehan, Al Moronie, Parking Authority Secretary and Carl Perri. Photo by WPCNR News
The resolution was learned to be a prewritten resolution he presented to the Board pretyped because reporters present saw it was typed with Sheehan penciled notations upon it, after it was approved. At 7:20 the media was allowed to reenter the room. Mr. William Holzel who voted for independent legal counsel last week did not attend, no reason given by Mr. Sheehan, and it was learned Paul Zaferiou was taking inventory at Nieman-Marcus. Mr. Moronie and the secretary soon followed reporters out of the room. Seasoned observers of WPPA meetings said Executive Sessions were almost unheard of up until this year, and there have been at least two in a week.
Journal News Editorial Influences the Reversal.
Afterwards, WPCNR asked Mr. Sheehan why the authority reversed itself. Mr. Sheehan said, “In light of the Journal News Editorial this morning, we felt we had to move this issue (of dissolution of the Parking Authority).” Asked if this meant that The Journal News dictated WPPA Board policies, if The Journal News did not like something they did, Sheehan denied this, after just saying they had.
SHEEHAN EXPLAINS IT ALL AGAIN: Mr. Sheehan holds an impromptu Q & A with reporters after the resolution passed 4-0 with him abstaining. Photo by WPCNR News
Sheehan with great dignity, gravely said the board realized the urgency of the matter, and Mayor Delfino’s concern. (Mayor Delfino was reported by The Journal News editorial Thursday as saying he withheld a consultant’s report on the proposal because the WPPA Board had their own legal counsel. Asked if The Journal News was simply manipulated by the case Mayor Delfino made to them, Sheehan defended the Mayor’s act as concern for the delay.
A Tight Timetable.
The Authority will ask Corporation Counsel Edward Dunphy for his legal opinion on the legality of dissolving the Parking Authority and appropriating its fund balance of $5 Million and change, all its revenues, and expenses into a separate city Parking Department. After hearing the Dunphy “take,” their pre-typed resolution (passed out to the Media in attendance) says they will then discuss an independent counsel under Mr. Dunphy’s tutelage, after hearing Mr. Dunphy’s analysis of the legal issues. (See complete resolution at end of this report.)
They also agreed to pay the legal representative retained by Carolyn Abramowitz last Monday afternoon up to $2,000 for whatever research and thinking he has executed so far. Afterwards, Sheehan was asked if the amount owned Sheehan’s law firm might be donated to charity, since it was Sheehan’s law firm, and Sheehan said he could not speak to that.
A Change of Heart. Dunphy’s Opinion Now Counts
Asked why the Board felt so strongly last week that it had to hire independent legal counsel, Carolyn Abramowitz said, she was concerned last week, but felt since she was going away for three weeks because her 37 year old son was being deployed by his National Guard unit, she felt she had to move this issue.
Michael Amodio, the other Board member said the same, saying they felt they had to have legal advice on the issues and now that Dunphy was going to offer opinion, he felt the resolution they passed Thursday evening could always consult legal counsel of their own at a later date. He was not asked why he felt Mr. Dunphy could offer a better opinion now than Dunphy could last week.
1955 Elmira Case Basis for Dunphy Dissolve Mechanism
Mr. Sheehan said that Mr. Dunphy would offer an opinion on whether the city could take the Parking Authority’s assets without the State Legislature officially dissolving the Authority before its life runs out naturally according to the Public Authority’s Law statute in 2010.
Asked where the Agreement between the city and the Parking Authority specifically says the Parking Authority is prohibited from using an independent legal counsel, Sheehan referred WPCNR to a section in the City Charter, but could not produce a copy of that section. City Hall, asked for such a provision, also did not supply it last week.
IMPROMPTU NEWS CONFERENCE: Carolyn Abramowitz, left, Vice Chair of the WPPA Board, and Timothy Sheehan, answering reporters’ questions Thursday evening. Photo by WPCNR News
Expounding generously with complete candor, Mr. Sheehan when queried by reporters as to the reason why the city feels it can dissolve the Parking Authority legally, cited a case in 1955 in the City of Elmira.
Sheehan said in that case the city of Elmira was going to give a sum of money for payments to that city’s Parking Authority to shore up a shortfall. The city was sued saying that Parking Authority could not accept a gift. The court, according to Sheehan, ruled that it was not “a public gift,” “the public was not involved,” and legal, which, in Sheehan’s opinion was very similar to what the city is seeking to do with the Parking Authority. But he was reserving judgment on Mr. Dunphy’s deliberation.
WPCNR asked Sheehan how could this case apply when it is exactly the opposite situation, where the city is twisting the Parking Authority’s arm to take their money. Sheehan said “Even though our situation is left-right, instead of right-left, I believe it is similar. That’s what we’re asking Mr. Dunphy to give an opinion on.”
Just a Minor Timing Problem:City cannot have the Money until Parking Authority no longer exists.
WPCNR asked Mr. Sheehan if he had a copy of the Public Authorties Law covering the agreement under which the Parking Authority was created in 1947.
Mr. Sheehan magnamimously produced a copy and distributed it to reporters covering the event.
Upon examination of the document, WPCNR has discovered that the City of White Plains is prohibited from assimilating the monies of the Parking Authority until the Parking Authority is “ceasing to exist.”
The third from last paragraph of the Public Authorities Law. & 1441 “Termination of the authority and disposition of its properties states:
The authority and its corporate existence shall continue only to the thirtieth day of June, two thousand ten, and thereafter until all its liabilities have been met and its bonds have been paid in full or such liabilities or bonds have otherwise been discharged. Upon its ceasing to exist, all its rights and properties shall pass to the city.
Resolution Not Written Yet: Sheehan
The city is running out of time to get this “dissolution” accomplished by June 30. If the Parking Authority is not dissolved by then, the city cannot carry the $5 Million and change on its books to apply cosmetic fiduciary enhancement to its less than $5 Million fund balance, the ultimate objective of the dissolution of the Parking Authority.
The Public Authorities Law passed by State legislature WPCNR reviewed does not appear to provide a mechanism within it for dissolving the authority prior to the 2010 without introducing legislation to the New York State legislature.
WPCNR is in the process of determining whether efforts have been introduced with Assemblyman Adam Bradley (89th District) or Assemblyperson Amy Paulin (88th District), to rescind the agreement effective June 30, 2004.
Mr. Sheehan said the resolution spelling out how the Parking Authority would absorb into the City of White Plains has not been presented to him yet.
An Uninformed Editorial Mistaken on the Facts.
The Journal News Editorial alluded to by Mr. Sheehan, misstates several conditions as their “informed premise” as to why the Parking Authority should be dissolved:
1. The city does not pay the Parking Authority Debt Service as the editorial states. The city cuts the checks using Parking Authority generated and collected money to pay the debt service, while not (thanks to the existence of the Parking Authority), having to carry the debt on its books, which enhances their bond-rating.
2. The city does not pay the cost of policing and enforcing the Parking Authority facilities and provision of security, the Parking Authority revenues reimburse the city for those costs.
3. The city does not pay the cost of maintenance of the parking authority facilities. Again, Parking Authority revenues reimburse the city for those maintenance expenses, performed by the Department of Public Works.
Mayor Delfino in his impassioned pleas to the Editorial Board, apparently did not explain the subtle distinction between where the money comes from to write the checks on, to the well-meaning and concerned Journal News Editorial Board, or the Operating Agreement of 1997 where this information is contained.
Major Time Sequence Error by the Editorial Board.
The Editorial Board also states that “the lawyer’s hiring also led to the Mayor witholding from the parking board a consultant’s report that makes the case for the proposal.”
This reverses the sequence of events: The consultant report was released to the media on Thursday, May 6. A check with their own reporter would have confirmed that for the Editorial Board.
The Parking Authority met on Wednesday May 12 and that was when they voted to hire their own legal counsel, six days after the report was released to both WPCNR and The Journal News May 6.
In fact, before the WPPA Board had even voted to hire the independent council they had the report.
The Mayor released the report to them Wednesday May 12 because the report was on the table in the WPPA Conference Room when WPCNR covered the meeting in which the Messrs Holzel, Zaferiou, Amodio and Ms. Abramowitz voted to hire the legal counsel. It was in reaction to not knowing what the proposal was that the WPPA Board hired the legal counsel. Ms Abramowitz told WPCNR we just got that report today on May 12, apparently hastily delivered to WPPA Headquarters with hours of the meeting.
Apparently the Editorial Board was not clear on this time sequence after speaking with Mayor Delfino when he held his meeting with them Monday. The story announcing the report May 7 appeared in The Journal News own pages, we believe.
The Resolution Passed by the Parking Authority Board Thursday night.
The resolution passed with Messrs Amodio, Cantatore, and Perri and Ms. Abramowitz voting for, and Mr. Sheehan abstaining and reads:
In recognition of the need to move forward on this issue regarding city’s proposed creation of a City Parking Department and The Board’s response thereto, the WPPA Board authorizes the following actions:
1. Recision of Board’s decision of May 12 to retain outside counsel,
2. Authorization of Board’s Vice Chairman (or her designation of any Board member other than the Chairman) to negotiate with law firm retained pursuant to Board’s May 12 decision to hire outside counsel and solicit an invoice from that firm for any legal work performed to date in a total amount not to exceed $2,000.00 and to assist in submission of the invoice for payment with appropriate City departments,
3. Authorizatin of Board’s chairman to forward this resolution to City administration and request transmission of Corporation Counsel’s formal opinion on the propriety of City’s plans to terminate the Authority’s operating agreement with the City, to create City Department of Parking and transfer of WPPA fund balances over to City,
4. After receipt and study of Corporation Counsel’s opinion, if WPPA Board feels that opinion of outside counsel is needed, the Board will discuss with City’s Corporation Counsel regarding retention of same.
