3. Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board
(Latest update 2001)
P. O. Box 63
Huletts Landing, NY 12841
e-mail: aplgrb@aol.com
Key Personnel (2001)
Staff: Joseph T. Rota, Executive Director, Huletts Landing
Chairman: Lloyd E. Moore, St. Lawrence County
Secretary: Carol Monroe
Counsel: John McDonald
Membership
Representative and alternate appointed by the legislative body of each of the twelve counties which are located partly or wholly within the Blue Line. Alternates may be appointed by the members of the board.
Finances (2001)
At various times, the Review Board has been supported by the State Treasury and alternatively, during hostile State Administrations, by solicitations from the counties and towns within the Blue Line. Mr. Rota pointed out for a number of years that the APA Act was flawed in that, even though the Board is an official State agency, the law did not mandate that it receive State funding. He was successful in persuading the Pataki Administration with the Review Board’s request for funding.
At present the State provides about 40 to 50 percent of the Review Board’s funding. Mr. Rota has been able to send a notice to the towns advising them that their contributions are not currently required. The counties provide the majority of the funding.
Coalition Involvements
Adirondack County Legislatures
Adirondack Towns
Organizational Description and Goals
The Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board was established under Article 803-a of the Adirondack Park Agency Act in 1973, as a result of a compromise achieved by Adirondack Assemblyman Glenn Harris. Key provisions of the law are:
“1. For the purpose of advising and assisting the Adirondack park agency in carrying out its functions, powers and duties, there is hereby established the Adirondack park local government review board...”
“7. In addition to any other functions or duties specifically required or authorized in this article, the review board shall monitor the administration and enforcement of the Adirondack park land use and development plan and periodically report thereon, and make recommendations in regard thereto, to the governor and the legislature, and to the county legislative body of each of the counties wholly or partly within the park.”
Board of Directors (2001)
John Maye, Clinton County (Alternate: Howard Aubin)
Dale French, Essex County (Alternate: John Paradis)
Nellie Staves, Franklin County (No Alternate)
George Manchester, Fulton County (Alternates: Dave Edwards and
Sylvia Parker)
Richard Amadon, Hamilton County (Alternate: J. R. Risley)
Henry Eykelhoff, Herkimer County (Alternates: George Hilterbrant
and Linda Eykelhoff)
Randolph Kerr, Lewis County (No Alternate)
Bruce Brownell, Saratoga County (Alternate: Jean Raymond)
Lloyd E. Moore, St. Lawrence County (No Alternate)
John O’Neill, Warren County (Alternate: Fred Monroe)
Bob Banks, Washington County (Alternate: John LaPoint)
Publications
Annual Report to the Governor
Various statements and testimony
Comments
The Review Board has varied in its aggressiveness in monitoring the APA. When Tony D’Elia was executive director, the Review Board was very vocal in criticizing the APA. During Mr. Rota’s more recent years, since the APA’s concession of allowing the Review Board to sit at the table with the APA commissioners during official meetings, the Review Board has been accused of adopting a weak posture toward the APA. However, knowledgeable sources maintain that the Review Board’s presence at the table with the commissioners has helped it to become a more significant influence as a watchdog of the commissioners.
Also, contrary to impressions sometimes conveyed around the Adirondacks, the Review Board is quite active in advocating APA policies that would be fair and beneficial to the Adirondack economy. For instance, when this writer made the trip to New York City to testify in the heart of preservationist country about the classification of the 15,000-acre Whitney acquisition, Joseph Rota was there in lower Manhattan, the only other person there besides me formally testifying in favor of “wild forest” classification, and really the only person sympathetic to the people of the Adirondacks besides the LaGrasses-before a hostile audience.
As the members of the Review Board serve in a quasi-volunteer status for a period of decades for some of them, it is very difficult to effectively keep up their tireless effort to influence a fundamentally independent agency.
Each year the Review Board presents a concise written report
detailing its written recommendations for the improvement of the
APA. Many of these recommendations, such as for the completion
of appointments of the APA Commissioners, have to be repeated
year after year. Since funding is not mandated, the Review Board
has to tread a fine line or else possibly face a cutoff of State
funds.
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