READ RESIGNATION LETTER

MATHES, WHO

REVITALIZED

IDA, LEAVING

3rd Resignation Creates

Crisis For Otsego Now

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.allotsego.com

ONEONTA – The coup is complete.

Sandy Mathes, who revolutionized economic development in Otsego County in the past three years, has given the 90-day notice required by his contract, and will be departing as CEO of the Otsego Now organization he created by summer’s end.

As if to punctuate the end of an era, Bob Hanft of Pierstown, who chaired what was then the county IDA when Mathes was brought aboard in January 2014, and veteran board member Jim Salisbury of Otego, announced at today’s board meeting they are leaving the Otsego Now board.

Hanft, the retired J.P. Morgan managing director, was typically diplomatic, thanking his colleagues for “a great seven years,” and adding, “We always said this thing is a marathon, and it is.”

But Salisbury, a retired banker, was blunt.  “I’m done with this organization. ’Bye.”  And he walked out.

New board member Cheryl Robinson, who chaired the board’s recently formed Reorganization Committee that proposed replacing Mathes with a full-time executive, moved to abolish the committee, which is “at the end of its charter,” she said.

Mathes’ resignation letter, dated today, was businesslike:  “As provided in my Subcontractor Agreement, located in Section 16, subsection (3), please accept this 90-day advance written notice of such termination given to both the COIDA and OCCRC Board of Directors, effective May 31, 2017.  Anticipated completion of my contractual obligation to both organizations will occur on Aug. 31, 2017.”

REVIEW SANDY MATHES FILE

He thanked state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, and Hanft for their “strong support,” and further recalled the support of the late Oneonta Mayor Dick Miller in bringing him here from Greene County, where he had built and populated two business parks at the New Baltimore exit of the Thruway.

In an interview, Mathes said he will focus in the next three months on firming up the foundation of Otsego Now’s three front-burner projects:  The redevelopment of Oneonta’s D&H yards, acquired by the IDA in the past few weeks; the City of Oneonta’s $14 million state-funded downtown revitalization initiative (DRI), now at a critical phase, and the prospective recruitment of a 600-job distribution center at the Schenevus I-88 exit.

While his future plans are not complete, he said, he anticipates recruiting additional clients for his consulting firm, Mathes Public Affairs.

The resignation leaves the Otsego Now effort significantly depleted.  Today’s was departing COO Elizabeth Horvath’s last meeting, and Office Administrator Joe Hughes recently left as well.    The sole remaining staffer is Corey Miglianti, who succeeded Hughes a month ago.

Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig, recognizing this, appeared at this morning’s board meeting on the fifth floor of 189 Main St., on “a matter of great urgency.”

City Hall is in the midst of negotiating $10 million in grants announced by Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul at Foothills last Friday.  “I need to know that Otsego Now is committed to implementing these grants … or to let the state know there is not a commitment to go forward on these grants,” he said.

The Otsego Now board chair, Devin Morgan, the Cooperstown lawyer, told Herzig, “Our commitment to our projects remains the same.  And our commitment to Oneonta and the DRI remains the same.”

But he recognized the challenge: “How do we keep things moving with as much of skeleton staff as you can get?”  The Mathes, Horvath and Hughes departures were “not part of my transition plan,” he said.

At Robinson’s motion, the board approved the hiring of Valletta Ritson & Co., a Binghamton executive recruitment firm that recently completed the search for a new Broome County IDA director, to conduct a “nationwide search” in hopes of having a new president in place in 90 days.  Robinson will chair the search committee, with board members Rick Hulse, Jeff Lord, Craig Gelbsman and Morgan filling the ranks.

Additionally, the board approved a contract with Thoma & Associates of Cortland to take over administration of four pending Empire State Development grants, at $100 per hour for principal Rick Cunningham, $75 an hour for professional staff, and $35 for clerical work, with a $5,000 cap.

Plus, the board approved a six-month “retention bonus” for Miglianti, the remaining staffer, raising her to $20 an hour, plus $5,000 if she remains in place through November.

“We can’t afford any delays,” said Morgan.

Mathes’ resignation signals the success of a strategy of non-support pursued by county board Chair Kathy Clark, R-Otego, since shortly after the economic developer’s arrival.  Under Clark’s leadership, the county, which had been contributing an estimated $250,000 a year to its then-Economic Development Office, stopped supporting economic development at all.

Clark, her lieutenant, Vice Chair Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla, and others objected to Mathes’ salary –  $120,00 a year for halftime, (although he contributed much more than that – even though the salary came from the IDA’s $300,000 reserve and fees generated by such projects as Hillside Commons, Hartwick College’s $30 million in bonding for renovations, and Springbrook’s expansion.

Beginning with her appointment last February of Hulse, a foe of the Mathes’ approach, then Robinson and, in January, engineer Sarah Harvey, Clark shifted support away from the Otsego Now president, making his departure almost inevitable.

With Hanft and Salisbury’s resignations, Jeff Lord, the Community Bank vice president, is the sole remaining board member from Mathes’ hiring.  Including the one created by Richfield Springs’ architect Jim Jordan’s resignation, the county Board of Representatives now has three positions to fill.