Nassau County Comptroller Jack Schnirman released an audit of the county’s Industrial Development Agency that found a consultant was paid more than half a million dollars to develop a cybersecurity industry but has little to show for it.
The agency has been prominent in the news this year, providing incentives and initiatives to promote local businesses in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The audit, which covered 2015 to 2019, also found that nearly 70 percent of the projects reviewed did not accomplish their employment goals in one or more years, as required by the agency.
The audit found that the agency did not review the accuracy of the number of jobs created by various projects and that unidentified board members paid for a $1,600 holiday dinner by using mileage reimbursement funds without first obtaining consent from the board.
“We came in to ask these questions to find out if we are getting the best return on our investment as well as informing people of the process,” Schnirman said. “I made it a priority to audit the Nassau County IDA so that residents and taxpayers would have a clear picture if the Agency was providing value to the County and our economy.”
While the identity of the consultant who was paid $556,250 was not provided in the audit, reports submitted by the agency to state officials identified the person as Syosset resident Brian J. Noone, according to Newsday.
Noone, who was appointed as the Town of Oyster Bay’s inspector general last year, told Newsday that he brought two companies to the county that hired students from the New York Institute of Technology, and that he helped the institute qualify for federal research programs and develop a business incubator.
“To say nothing came out of this [IDA contract] is so erroneous … It borders on ridiculous,” Noone told Newsday. “I’m not going to sacrifice my reputation for a couple of dollars.”
Noone told Newsday that he “did nothing for the [agency] without a contract.”
Efforts to reach Noone for further comment were unavailing.
The audit also found that a public relations firm was used to “flow through” $375,000 in funds for the agency’s advertising campaign to other forms to sidestep the traditional request-for-proposal procedures. The audit said that 87 percent of the funds were targeted to Nassau County, something deemed “counter-productive” in an attempt to bring new firms to Nassau, according to the report.
Of the five years the audit covered, three were from the tenure of former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, a Republican, before Laura Curran, a Democrat, took over in 2018. Richard Kessel, chairman of the agency, said the problems highlighted in the audit stemmed from the previous administration.
“The IDA has worked collaboratively with the Comptroller to ensure that we take whatever steps are necessary to avoid any of the problems caused by the prior administration from ever happening again,” Kessel said.
The report noted that the agency is now “actively monitoring job creation compliance” and is taking the proper action if those tasks are not achieved. The agency recouped more than $300,000 from a firm that failed to follow through on promises to create jobs.
“This audit shows that not only can we make things work better and more transparently, but most of all we can get the best value for our residents and taxpayers,” Schnirman said. “In this economic climate, we need job creation, we need to grow our tax base, and we need to keep competitive as a region.”
