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January 14, 2010
How ESDC practices ensure that, in cases like Atlantic Yards, the developer's choice of consultants, AKRF, will work for the state
Atlantic Yards Report
Well, thanks to the oversight hearing last week, we finally have a public answer to a question I posed in July 2007, when I queried the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) about guidelines regarding hiring consultants who formerly worked on the projects that they will review.
There are virtually no guidelines. Though there's a paper-thin conflict-of-interest policy, described below, the ESDC's policy encourages the practice, essentially ensuring it will continue, absent legislative action.
If the consultant, namely AKRF, has already been hired by the project applicant--such as Columbia University or Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner--that gives them an advantage, because the knowledge gained gives AKRF a head start and thus provides a more cost-effective product in the ESDC's eyes.
While state Senator Bill Perkins considers the ESDC's policy of hiring AKRF--while it was simultaneously employed by Columbia and after it had done work for FCR--a "glaring conflict," ESDC representatives defended it at the oversight hearing Perkins called January 5.
But their defense was weak, because they claimed AKRF merely provides a factual report, leaving the lay people on the ESDC board--who've been shown to be uninformed--to determine blight.
Posted by lumi at January 14, 2010 6:47 AM