Sept. 27, 2021

Dear NYS Department of State:

This letter pertains to the 2017 Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) in Kingston by which Gov. Cuomo awarded $3.8 million to the Kingstonian luxury housing development and many more millions to nearby projects benefiting the developers and their supporters.

The $10 million DRI grant was to have been allocated by a Local Planning Committee (LPC) made up of local citizens.

Although the names of the Department of State (DoS) handlers appear nowhere in DRI literature listing projects, various LPC members said the DoS personnel controlled the meetings and steered the votes toward the Kingstonian.

They said DoS handlers made it impossible to support the projects they preferred.

If you followed the news about the Moreland Commission, you would know that several members were forced to meet in private and communicate via encrypted messages to evade Cuomo’s spies in the Commission.

Did you know that eight LPC members also met in private because they chafed at being steered toward the Kingstonian by Cuomo’s enforcers in the DoS?

Did you know that some LPC members had a conflict of interest so egregious that it made a mockery of the DRI Code of Conduct?

Did you know that Brad Jordan was appointed to the LPC, even though he was the developer of the Kingstonian and the recipient of the $3.8 million, and left after a few months only because other members raised objections?

Others with conflicts of interest who sat on the LPC were:

• Don Tallerman, whose co-working business is across the street from where the Kingstonian would rise and therefore would benefit from its existence, and who also is rumored to be a direct investor in the project. Tallerman was featured on the developers’ site as a supporter, but the video was switched to private mode after a local citizens’ group complained about the conflict of interest.
• Eleni Loizou, whose Dietz Stadium Diner is across the street from the Louw-Bogardus house as well as Dietz Stadium. Ms. Loizou is the president of the Kingston Uptown Business Association and therefore represents Jordan, Tallerman and and others who have a conflict of interest.
• Karen Clark-Adin, who owns a retail clothing and accessory shop across the street from where the Kingstonian would rise, and therefore would also personally benefit.
• Kate Heidecker, now employed by Ulster County, whose government successfully pressured an economic adviser to change findings that the Kingstonian’s tax break would cause a $3.4 million loss to the community into a $256,000 benefit.
• Dennis Crowley, whose soccer club stood to gain from the grant to the Dietz Stadium.
• Guy Kempe, whose RUPCO employer received $472,500 to restore the Louw-Bogardus ruin.

Why did the Department of State allow people with conflicts of interest to sit on the LPC? Why did the Department of State overrule the majority stakeholders’ desire to not go forward with this project?

And before you answer, did you know that this was going to be built on the taxpayer’s dime? Did you know there was also a $30 million local tax break, plus an extra $3 million in cash grants from the state, plus the Opportunity Zone exemption from capital gains tax? Did you know that the developers and their investors would pocket at least $80 million if they held for ten years, and a good nine figures if they held for longer?

And before you answer, keep in mind that one of the taxing authorities, the school district, voted 6-3 against the $30 million local tax break known as a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT).

So to recap, if you leave out members with a conflict of interest, a local group of local citizens appointed by local officials decided, “We don’t want this.” But Albany said the project had to happen. We know this because an Industrial Development Agency member invoked Cuomo’s support and the developers corroborated it and added that Cuomo was fully aware of the financial – read: tax break — implications. “The governor’s behind this, right?” asked IDA member Orlando Reece during a July 8, 2020 presentation by the developers. “Yes,” replied developer Joe Bonura, Jr. “The governor’s office understood all of this economics when we presented as part of the DRI application.”

So the first question is, Why did you overrule the local citizens?

The next question is, What do you have to say about a school board 6-3 NO vote that confirmed what the community at large had to say before your DoS henchmen suppressed their opinion?

Did you know that for many years Deputy County Executive John Milgrim worked for Cuomo? Did you know that Milgrim told school board members that their vote would be respected, but that the IDA and the county – and specifically Milgrim himself — broke that promise? Did you know that after the School Board voted down the tax break, the developers tried to unseat those members during trustee elections a few months later? Did you know that despite his promise, Milgrim fielded his wife to run against incumbents who had voted no on the tax break? Do you find it laughable that one of Milgrim’s earliest jobs in government was for the ethics-challenged JCOPE, a commission that is supposed to be an ethics watchdog?

Did you know that a local family court judge signed the petition for Milgrim’s wife – and she’s married to a tenant of the developer, and that tenant sits on the IDA and was allowed to vote for the PILOT? That tenant complained that only two candidates could be found to unseat the trustees who were tax break opponents. Kingston Mayor Steve Noble posted on his Facebook page that he supported those two challengers. To recap, Kingston’s mayor, who is the president the KLDC, signed the petition, even though the KLDC’s bylaws forbid involvement in political campaigns. This took place at a time when the KLDC was debating whether to give City land to the Kingstonian. (It did.)

Would you please answer why, when LPC members inquired about green construction at the Kingstonian, the DoS handlers replied that the developers weren’t that far along in their plans and that the LPC had to vote on what was in front of them. The environmental details would be worked out later, the DoS handlers said.

Yet when the proposed project of the Kingston Fire Department museum was up for discussion, the DoS handlers said the museum wasn’t that far along in its plans and that therefore the museum wouldn’t qualify for a grant.

Why was the lack of progress in planning okay for the Kingstonian, but not for the Fire Department museum?

Given that Cuomo in 2019 signed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act; that County Executive Pat Ryan has called for a Green New Deal; that Mayor Noble ran on his green credentials; that Kingston’s Comprehensive Plan mentions the word “green” 44 times, and lastly, that a local environmental group called Transition wrote a letter spelling out its environmental concerns about the project, why did you sweep that aspect under the rug? The developer’s only concession to environmentalism is to install minisplit heat pumps, although he touted his green credentials by inviting tenants to buy electricity from a provider of renewable energy, which of course is a choice available to everyone anyway.

How do you explain the local people saying no, a school district saying no, but then, Albany saying yes and the trickle down connections to Cuomo’s loyalists and those who feared crossing him,all doing what they did behind the scenes, and you, in the Department of State, because you work for him?

And if I FOIL for the votes, will you drag your feet releasing them, the way you did in Schenectady? And will the tally even be accurate?

It is DoS policy for the Press Office to speak on behalf of DoS employees, and like all state employees, you were either in the service of Cuomo or in fear of Cuomo. The last time I emailed, you replied with a statement from a brochure and dared not even sign a name.

I understand, nor do I wish to jeopardize anyone’s job, and thus we all know this letter is performative and nothing more.

But now that Cuomo is gone, it would be nice if you could answer these questions, just as it would be nice if Ulster County Executive Patrick Ryan would let us know the truth about the rumors that Cuomo threatened to withhold not just the DRI money, but also Covid money, if the Kingstonian failed to rise.

Sincerely,

The Hudson Valley Vindicator

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