DAILY GAZETTE
Schenectady, NY
February 10, 2004
Regulating district critics see some improvements
New agency director gives staff public relations pointers
By JOE MAHER Gazette Reporter
JOHNSTOWN - The new leadership at the Hudson River Black River Regulating District is doing a better job communicating with stakeholders, speakers at Monday's board meeting said.
Last month the HRBRRD board of directors hired Richard Lefebvre to replace Willard Loveless as executive director of the agency. Loveless resigned after admitting mistakes were made when the board introduced a since-withdrawn plan to increase lake-access permit fees by as much as 1,000 percent.
Lefebvre said Monday that he's been devoting many hours to his new job of running the agency that regulates, among other facilities, the Great Sacandaga Lake.
"The learning curve is huge," he said, but he's "part of the way, if not all the way" up the curve.
After he was hired last month, he said, he toured district facilities and introduced himself to staff. He said he told staff, "Being a regulator is not easy. It's like being a parent: you have to say no."
That, Lefebvre said, is why his message to staff was: "It's not what you say, but how you say it."
The new director also said he's taken other steps to reach out to Great Sacandaga Lake stakeholders, including preparing detailed meeting agendas, having regular meetings with the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform and state lawmakers, and also talking one-onone with some of the district's harshest critics.
"I have worked to establish communications inside and outside the agency," said Lefebvre, who established himself as a good communicator and consensus-builder while leading the Adirondack Park Agency several years ago.
HRBRRD board member Jim Conkling told the approximately 50 people in attendance at the Johnstown Moose Lodge that the board wants to build on the things that Lefebvre has introduced.
He said he'd like to establish a stakeholders' advisory board to work with the regulating district board.
Guy Poulin of Northville, one of those critics, said he was both surprised and impressed with the new leadership and suggested it may be time to "back off a little" and let a Chamber of Commerce-led steering committee work with the regulating district board.
"I think it's quite a change from the past, and I appreciate it," he said.
Henry Hughes, a director of the Great Sacandaga Lake Association, which is working with the chamber and several other lake-area interest groups, applauded the board for working to implement the committee's suggestions.
Those included an independent audit of the access-permit system and the waiver of fees for work permits to fix docks, stairs and shoreline property that suffered from high water levels in 2003.
Hughes said the district has taken "significant beginning steps in establishing and maintaining dialogue with its constituents," and he said the steering committee would continue to work with the new director "to restore the regulating district's credibility."
Peter VanAvery, co-founder of the Batchellerville Bridge Action Committee, still pressed the board for an all-inclusive audit, not just an audit of the permit system.
He also called on the district to work to change its federal license so as to keep the water level closer to historic averages; it was still 11 feet above the target level Monday morning, according to chief engineer Robert Foltan.
But he said that Conkling was "right on" in his comments about improving public relations at the district.
VanAvery said the BBAC plans a letter-writing campaign, a petition drive and a damage registry this year to keep public pressure on the district.
THE RECORDER
Amsterdam, NY
February 10, 2004
Lake changes in the works?
By CRAIG CLARK
Recorder News Staff
JOHNSTOWN - An audit of the system that's used to grant lakefront access privileges on the Great Sacandaga Lake is still in the works, but in the meantime the reservoir's governing authority is dealing with some tough financial issues that could possibly bring about great change around the lake in the next few years.
Members of the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District's board of directors were reminded of some of those financial issues Monday when staff members provided an update on the district's budget and its ongoing legal battle with the Niagara Mohawk and Erie Blvd. power companies.
"There are real costs here," George Scaringe, the district's secretary/treasurer, said Monday, pointing out while any increases in the price of access permits have been put on hold for 2004, the district's bills are not on hold.
Scaringe informed the board Monday the district had just paid its 2004 general tax bills which totaled more than $900,000. Scaringe said that leaves the district with a $265,000 balance in its general fund.
Scaringe said the district also has other funds available, including $380,000 in an assessment stabilization account and about $300,000 in a contingency fund.
Last September in response to skyrocketing legal fees, property taxes and other factors, the district proposed to drastically increase the price of access permits on the Great Sacandaga.
The increases were expected to generate an additional $4.8 million for the district in the course of the 2003-2006 budget, or $1.6 million a year.
Any increase in the access permits has been put on hold pending an audit on the permit system. Board members Monday discussed what the scope of that audit should include. They wish to investigate exactly what costs the permit system should be covering and what those costs are. Board members said they also want to hear a report on the legal foundations of the permit system.
Timothy Foley, the district's attorney, said next month he will be giving a presentation on the legal aspects of the permit system.
Foley said while he is investigating the legal grounds the permit system is based on he said he felt it was important for the district to get moving on segregating out the costs the permit system should be covering.
"I think timing is pretty important with the budgetary process coming upon us again," Foley said.
While the district may have enough money to meet its costs this year, during the next two years an increase in revenue will have to come from somewhere.
District officials have said they will probably have to increase the fees paid by downstream beneficiaries, including the hydro companies and municipalities such as the city of Albany, Green Island and a host of others who pay for the use of water and flood protection.
Currently, the downstream beneficiaries combined pay a total of $2.7 million a year.
While there is talk of increasing the fees paid by the downstream beneficiaries, two of the largest beneficiaries, Niagara-Mohawk and Erie Blvd., have the district in court looking to pay lower fees.
Foley updated the board Monday on the status of that litigation.
He said the district is in the process of interviewing legal experts to represent the district once the litigation with the power companies goes to trial.
Currently that litigation, which has been ongoing for three years now, is in the discovery stage.
The two companies are looking for a decrease in the annual fees they pay the district, as well as a reimbursement for the fees they've paid in the past three years.
Scaringe said in addition to investigating increasing the fees paid by the downstream beneficiaries, the district may also begin to investigate the legal aspects of some of the suggestions outlined in a recent report prepared by an outside consulting firm, the Utica-based Gomez and Sullivan.
That report suggests the possibility of instituting some sort of a fee for boat users, downstream wastewater treatment plants, lakefront property owners and others for the benefits they derive from the Great Sacandaga.
LEADER-HERALD
Gloversville, NY
February 10, 2004
Audit of district's permit system could be completed by summer
By SCOTT DONNELLY, The Leader Herald
JOHNSTOWN - An audit of the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District's access permitting system would be finished by this summer if the district's executive director gets his way.
"One of the things that I want to do is hopefully have an audit completed at a time so we could conduct some public meetings while the summer people are here," said Richard H. Lefebvre, who took over as the district's executive director in early January.
However, there was some question during the district's Monday meeting as to what the audit should do.
"I do not question the motion, but I bring it back to you to question what it is you would like to do," Lefebvre told the board. "I've spoken with some auditing firms, and they understand the history of what brought the motion forward, but they felt there was a need for some information about the motion and what its intent is."
Access permits are sold to property owners along the Great Sacandaga Lake shoreline each year. They give residents exclusive rights to use a portion of the state-owned shoreline.
The audit was requested by various public interest groups and lake residents after a proposed access permit fee increase was presented last September. That increase - up to a 10-fold boost in some cases - was withdrawn after weeks of public outcry.
The proposed audit would be used to ensure fair fees for the permitting system, Lefebvre said.
The motion to begin researching the audit process was forwarded by the board before Lefebvre took over as executive director.
"With all due respect, I'm looking for a little more guidance on what it is you mean to do," Lefebvre told the board.
Board members then clarified that Lefebvre is expected to look at both the laws used to create the permit system and the costs associated with it.
"It may be extremely possible we have misinterpreted some aspects of the law in how we approach our mission," said James Conkling, district second vice chairman. "What is the law and are we in compliance? And second, is there a better way of bringing [the costs to permit holders] down?"
Though the district took no formal action on the audit Monday, the board gave Lefebvre the all -clear to proceed with the process of establishing the scope of the audit and speaking with prospective independent auditing groups.
"What the board is looking for is an independent audit that segregates the costs of the permitting system so that at the end we know what it costs to run it," Lefebvre said after Monday's meeting.
To do that, the auditing firm will look at more than the expense of paper and stamps. It will look also at which employees of the district are involved with the permitting system and how much time they spend on the system relative to other, non-permitting system duties.
The audit would seek to provide a recommendation about what percentage of each such employee's pay should come from access permit revenue.
Once that is known, "those [costs] will be paid by the permittees along the shore, and the rest of the costs [of the district] will be paid by the beneficiaries below the dam," Lefebvre said.
LEADER-HERALD
Gloversville, NY
February 10, 2004
Reaction mixed on district's handling of lake-level issue
By SCOTT DONNELLY, The Leader Herald
JOHNSTOWN - Though emotions ran high during some portions of Monday's meeting of the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District board, overall relations between district leaders and residents seem to have improved.
The lake's historically high water level spurred some contentious discussion. However, some Great Sacandaga Lake property owners stepped up to praise the district's openness since Richard H. Lefebvre took over as executive director in early January.
"I think in some instances it may be time to do some backing off by some people, and it may be time to let the steering committee do some work with you on the board," said Guy Poulin of Northville, a Great Sacandaga Lake property owner.
Lefebvre took over as executive director of the district after his predecessor resigned in the wake of a proposed increase in access permit fees in September. That proposal called for a major fee boost -a 10-fold increases for many residents - but was withdrawn as a result of public outcry.
More recently, some lake residents have been complaining of high water levels in the reservoir, which was created 70 years ago for the purpose of flood control. Though the lake's level has been steadily decreasing in recent months, docks and stairways of some residents have been damaged by ice and erosion.
The lake surface's adjusted height above sea level has fallen from approximately 769 feet to about 760 feet over the last month.
Other residents voiced disapproval of the district's policies regarding water releases from the reservoir. Lake resident Marilyn Sargent questioned Bob Foltan, the district's engineer, about why more water wasn't released last fall, when high water damaged much of the shoreline.
"The power companies get what they want, but our property has been hurt, and we're out money," Sargent said. "There is no reason the water could not have been lowered soon enough to keep from entrapping our docks and stairs."
Foltan later said the release of additional water from the reservoir in the fall would have increased the statistical chance of flooding but "would not have raised water levels to flood stage at various measuring stations."
Foltan defended the district's decisions with regard to water releases and pointed out a recent letter from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission praising the management of the reservoir.
"I believe the system is neither flawed nor faulted," he said. "It's a new system, and it's going to take some time [to know if it works or not). To judge the system based on one year's operation would be not only premature but unwise."