ORDA has "ongoing fiscal challenges" according to this article

I don't really know what any of this means:

In the last reported fiscal year, ORDA spent $40.4 million and took in $39.7 million in revenues, which included the state and local financial contributions. The authority’s financial statements identified an operating loss of $16.9 million in 2012. ORDA has maintained up to a $7 million private line of credit which it calls on to fill periodic funding shortfalls in operating revenues, and to fund projects while it awaits payment of ESDC grant funding.

As of fiscal year end March 31, 2012, ORDA reported 304 active procurement contracts totaling nearly $27.5 million, of which 167, valued at nearly $7 million, were either not competitively bid or were non-contract procurements.

There was a loss in 2012 of $16.9 million, but the last reported fiscal year (April 1, 2011-March 31st, 2012????) looks like only a loss of $700,000, which is pretty amazing, considering. Or are they talking about 2010-2011?

Here's the link to the article:

http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2013/03/ordas-ongoing-fiscal-challenges-prompt-review.html

I saw that article and also had no idea what to make of it.

You got to have a line of credit right?  Blowing all that snow in December and no real customers until Christmas.

Also many of the big capital improvements have to be "reimbursed." That was the deal on Gore's snowguns. Not sure about the LWF chair.

The one thing the linked report points out is that capital grants are considered revenues.



Maybe Jeff or someone else with knowledge of accounting can shed some light on what it means.

Statement from ORDA Regarding NYS
Comptroller’s Office Report Findings
 
Today the NYS Comptroller’s office issued a report criticizing ORDA’s financial procedures. ORDA has reviewed the report and has determined that there are inaccuracies in the finding.
 
In response to the NYS Comptroller Office and its audit findings concerning ORDA’s financial practices and in particular non-contract procurement, the Authority has determined that the bulk of the procured items in this category were items not requiring bids such as power transmissions or dealer item parts for ski lifts, etc.
 
Other items also include housing for World Cup events, or the like, at the United States Olympic Training Center, which is owned by ORDA and operated by the United States Olympic Committee. In other instances, emergency situations from power outages caused ORDA to use local suppliers to re-establish high-voltage systems in order to resume operations.
 
As it relates to the audit’s findings that ORDA operated at a loss of $16.9-million, in addition to the New York State and town appropriation, there are items that are non-cash in nature that were not taken into account, which should have been removed in order to obtain the true cash position of the Authority.  They include New York State and town appropriations of $7.8-million, back depreciation of $6.725-million, post-retirement benefits, of $2.735-million and back non-operating revues of $7.814-million. This places the Authority in a more favorable financial situation.
 
In regard to allegations to a 38% increase in employees since 2008, ORDA does not know where the Comptroller’s office is getting this information and does not agree. Reference to a 20% increase in compensation is directly related to increases in health care cost, retirement and workers’ compensation.  
 
Also, only two years ago ORDA was required to include a non-cash item in its financials for post-retirement benefits, making the reports look as though there was an increase in compensation.
 
We will continue to monitor this situation and review procurement policies as well as PARIS submission criteria to assure that all procurement is labeled correctly.  At this time we find no abnormal purchases in the 2012 report.
 
ORDA was not made aware of the Comptroller’s report prior to its release and had no communication with the office prior to today.  If given that opportunity, ORDA would have given an appropriate and justifiable response as it relates to its financial practices and procurements.
 
-- Ted Blazer, New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) president/CEO

Every year ORDA issues a annual report and in it is a balance sheet and a projecter operating budget and revenues for the upcoming year. The year ends March 31 and the report as in years passed will follow shortly. We should wait for that report before passing judgement. I am particularly interested in the Belleyare budget as that will be a new venue for ORDA. My only gripe with these reports is they lack details.

I am glad the state Comptroller is looking hard at the Authorities, many of them have run amuck for decades. A good read on Authorities in NYS is "The Power Broker - Robert Moses".

I work for The Egg in Albany who is also a public authority just like ORDA.  We just got done with a giant audit done by the authorities budget office.... and it did not come out making us look all that great fiscally (we are 100k in the hole, so a drop in the lake).  They want to get rid of us and lump us in with a larger stage agency.  There is a LARGE push inside the state goverment to get rid of the authorities and move things over to agencies.  NYS authorities are 250 billion dollars in debt.  They are going for any low hanging fruit they can to get this number down.  In our case it was our little concrete egg, now it appears it is ORDA.  

State authorities are an interesting type of organization. They were originally intended to be NGO's (non governmental organizations) or quasi-governmental given greater operating latitude in order to run more like private sector businesses with a goal of getting things done (achieving their goals) more quickly. I've done business with some authorities that met those goals admirably. Sadly so many of those leading the authorities are just political appointees who have proven incapable or untrustworthy of the greater financial latitude. One of their greatest privileges is a higher bid limit; authorities can spend larger amounts of money, without formal bid, than state agencies. This allows them to negotiate purchases more like a private business. So some of the controller's criticism may actually be criticism of the legally allowed process more than criticism of ORDA.

The Comptroller is an elected political position. Read his home page paid for by the taxpayers of NY: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/about/bio.htm  Sure sounds like a campaign speech to me. He has been a career politician all of his life, and, I'm sure he has his sights set on the governor's job, as soon as Cuomo takes his dog and pony show on the national road to try to beat Hillary for the White House. So, he's going after an easy target in ORDA. You know, taxpayer dollars wasted for ski areas. Overall, not too many NY voters ski.

Hopefully he is not as corrupt as Hevesi and is making millions off the pension fund he controls.

mattchuck2 wrote

I don't really know what any of this means:

In the last reported fiscal year, ORDA spent $40.4 million and took in $39.7 million in revenues, which included the state and local financial contributions. The authority’s financial statements identified an operating loss of $16.9 million in 2012. ORDA has maintained up to a $7 million private line of credit which it calls on to fill periodic funding shortfalls in operating revenues, and to fund projects while it awaits payment of ESDC grant funding.

As of fiscal year end March 31, 2012, ORDA reported 304 active procurement contracts totaling nearly $27.5 million, of which 167, valued at nearly $7 million, were either not competitively bid or were non-contract procurements.

There was a loss in 2012 of $16.9 million, but the last reported fiscal year (April 1, 2011-March 31st, 2012????) looks like only a loss of $700,000, which is pretty amazing, considering. Or are they talking about 2010-2011?

Here's the link to the article:

http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2013/03/ordas-ongoing-fiscal-challenges-prompt-review.html

The $16.9 million loss and $700,000 loss are both for the same fiscal year, however the two differing amounts measure "loss" differently.

The $.7 million loss is the result you get when you count as "revenue" the appropriations kicked in by NYS and the Town of North Elba and don't count depreciation as an expense.  That measurement - the $.7 million - is a silly number.  ORDA's real operating loss is the $16.9 million.

Remember, the $16.9 million loss is the result for all of ORDA's venues taken together.  We don't know which individual venues generate a profit and which generate a loss, though presumably the ski centers are profit generators.  Whether or not you think $16.9 million is a reasonable number is subject to debate.  Given the $300+ million annual economic impact from ORDA's operations, I think it's reasonable.  Like any organization, there are undoubtedly opportunities to do things more efficiently, and hopefully DiNapoli's audit will reveal some of those opportunities.

In my opinion, the criticisms of ORDA's non-competitive bid contracts is barking up the wrong tree.  There's not much $ on the table in those contracts, and Blazer's response (posted by Harv above) correctly points out that these were appropriate and allowable.

Anyone looking for a big scandal here will likely be disappointed.

Benny Profane wrote

The Comptroller is an elected political position. Read his home page paid for by the taxpayers of NY: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/about/bio.htm  Sure sounds like a campaign speech to me. He has been a career politician all of his life, and, I'm sure he has his sights set on the governor's job, as soon as Cuomo takes his dog and pony show on the national road to try to beat Hillary for the White House. So, he's going after an easy target in ORDA. You know, taxpayer dollars wasted for ski areas. Overall, not too many NY voters ski.

Hopefully he is not as corrupt as Hevesi and is making millions off the pension fund he controls.

This is exactly why I so vehemently opposed Bell being incorporated into ORDA.  All it takes is one politico looking to put a notch on his belt to go after Orda and we will be hiking up WF and Gore for a season.  Last time it was a corrupt state senator from LI that almost took Orda down this time it could be this Comptroller.  The more money that Bell loses the greater the risk to WF and Gore. If the Teddy touch does not fix Bell that also lowers the value and esteem of Orda.  Bell is a lost cause so we all are going to eventually pay the piper and get hurt by them.

ausable skier wrote

Benny Profane wrote

The Comptroller is an elected political position. Read his home page paid for by the taxpayers of NY: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/about/bio.htm  Sure sounds like a campaign speech to me. He has been a career politician all of his life, and, I'm sure he has his sights set on the governor's job, as soon as Cuomo takes his dog and pony show on the national road to try to beat Hillary for the White House. So, he's going after an easy target in ORDA. You know, taxpayer dollars wasted for ski areas. Overall, not too many NY voters ski.

Hopefully he is not as corrupt as Hevesi and is making millions off the pension fund he controls.

This is exactly why I so vehemently opposed Bell being incorporated into ORDA.  All it takes is one politico looking to put a notch on his belt to go after Orda and we will be hiking up WF and Gore for a season.  Last time it was a corrupt state senator from LI that almost took Orda down this time it could be this Comptroller.  The more money that Bell loses the greater the risk to WF and Gore. If the Teddy touch does not fix Bell that also lowers the value and esteem of Orda.  Bell is a lost cause so we all are going to eventually pay the piper and get hurt by them.

Oh, c'mon, there you go agin. Like Whiteface and Gore are profitable businesses. All are sucking on the taxpayer teat, through this accounting shell game authenticated by this "Authority" game. The transfer of Bell to ORDA was the end game of some dick waving between Albany power brokers. Please. My point was, he's just campaigning, he's not attempting to fix this system. Sounds great, he's on some sort of record that he can point to, but, he'll take care of the right people behind closed doors. It's NY, after all.

Benny

From everything I've ever seen, heard, as well as the group conventional wisdom is that in a decent year both Gore and WF make a modest profit.  In a good year they do well and have small losses in a bad year.  The ice arena holds its own but is dragged down by its connection with the convention center boondoggle.  Everything else loses money especially Bell.

Recall that depreciation is only a loss on paper.

My great fear is that Bell tilts the balance to a bigger loss and makes Orda a target as its clearly has become for this comptroller dude.

I get that you are not a fan of NYS and not a big govt guy - I'm with you there totally in every case but in this one since selling the ski areas or getting someone private to run them are expressly forbidden.  Orda is the only way we have to keep skiing up here in the DAK's.  Given you are a K-mart guy that may not matter to you but Orda is a vital economic engine for the LP area and I don't want to spend a winter hiking when some a$$ wipe of a politico shuts Orda down to make a point or repay a grudge against Betty Little.

There are over 1150 of these ORDA type authorities in NYS. They are run by non-elected officials and are responsible for 94% of NYS's borrowing. They are sometimes called a "shadow governmment". These officials never have to answer to the voters. This is a way around official borrowing by NYS. Elected officials in the legislature have to vote on any "official" borrowing by NYS but not the borrowing by the authorities. NYS (the taxpayers) is stuck with the bill if the authority cannot pay up. This is a big problem as there is a huge amount of unchecked borrowing.

The Tupper Lake real estate development is potential example of this type of borrowing. They are trying to get financing from a local authority. This is exactly the problem with these authorities. It is one thing to be involved in infrastructure (bridges, flood control, sewage) but it is a problem when these authorities are involved in a highly speculative real estate venture with an underfunded developer. But somebody presents a case of job development and maybe the Big Tupper authority hands out the cash.

ORDA will not have any problems from Belleayre. It will be cash flow positive just like Gore and WF.

x10003q wrote

ORDA will not have any problems from Belleayre. It will be cash flow positive just like Gore and WF.

I'm definately from Missouri on this - that is the "show me" state - show me that Bell can be profitable in the soon to be released Orda numbers and I will shut up.  Can anyone report that they are so busy they are making money in the time being - I doubt it - its a flat and boring hill that can't compete with its much better local competition.

ausable skier wrote

 its a flat and boring hill that can't compete

i thought we were discussing belleayre not gore

ausable skier wrote

x10003q wrote

ORDA will not have any problems from Belleayre. It will be cash flow positive just like Gore and WF.

I'm definately from Missouri on this - that is the "show me" state - show me that Bell can be profitable in the soon to be released Orda numbers and I will shut up.  Can anyone report that they are so busy they are making money in the time being - I doubt it - its a flat and boring hill that can't compete with its much better local competition.

Maybe you can show me the official DEP numbers that showed exactly what was going on at Belleayre all these years.  

ORDA took complete control in mid November, 2012. How about we give them a full summer and a ski season?

The sad part for you, AS, is that what really set the dogs on ORDA is probably the $18 million white elephant in the middle of LP. You know the building - it is right next to Serge Lussi's Crowne Plaza Resort. It is called the Olympic Conference Center.

You'll notice that I called the convention center a boondoggle in my earlier post.  I've always been against the convention center for the same reasons that I'm against Bell - neither fit with the mission of Orda which is to promote winter sports as a platform for economic growth for the Dak's.  The convention center does not meet the sports part of the mission statement while Bell is 150 miles away and does meet the regional aspect.  Its fine to have a convention center but the town or the Lussi's should have paid for it same as the local area / county around Bell should have taken over Bell if they thought it was important for their local economy.

Both drain time, money and focus from what matters which is WF and Gore.

x10003q wrote

There are over 1150 of these ORDA type authorities in NYS. They are run by non-elected officials and are responsible for 94% of NYS's borrowing. They are sometimes called a "shadow governmment". These officials never have to answer to the voters. This is a way around official borrowing by NYS. Elected officials in the legislature have to vote on any "official" borrowing by NYS but not the borrowing by the authorities. NYS (the taxpayers) is stuck with the bill if the authority cannot pay up. This is a big problem as there is a huge amount of unchecked borrowing.

They actually do have some recourse to the voters, all be it a small one.  Every authority has a board that is appointed by various elected officials.  All of these appointments come through Cuomo's appointment's office.  In theory the board members answer to the officials that put them there.  Unfortunately, there is a huge backlog of appointments that need to be made... many board members in many of the authorities are Pataki era appointees.  On our board we have 5 seats vacant...  

ausable skier wrote

You'll notice that I called the convention center a boondoggle in my earlier post.  I've always been against the convention center for the same reasons that I'm against Bell - neither fit with the mission of Orda which is to promote winter sports as a platform for economic growth for the Dak's.  The convention center does not meet the sports part of the mission statement while Bell is 150 miles away and does meet the regional aspect.  Its fine to have a convention center but the town or the Lussi's should have paid for it same as the local area / county around Bell should have taken over Bell if they thought it was important for their local economy.

ORDA's mission statement:

"To maximize visitation to the Adirondack region by operating our venues (Olympic Center, Olympic Sports Complex, Olympic Jumping Complex, Whiteface Mountain, Gore Mountain) in a fiscally responsible manner while at the same time promoting environmental awareness, safety, fun, and the Olympic spirit."

So, by packaging Gore & Whiteface with the Belleayre season pass, if people in the downstate region who normally ski only the Catskills, are encouraged to buy a Belleayre pass rather than Hunter or Windham, and then travel once or twice during the season to the Adirondacks to ski at Gore and/or Whiteface, would that not be consistent with the principal aspect of ORDA's mission statement to maximize visitation to the Adirondacks?

If the convention center is able to attract groups to Lake Placid for trade shows, conventions, etc., is that not also consistent with the mission statement?

I'm not questioning whether either of these will ultimately work out or not, time will tell, but I don't think you can say that they are inconsistent with the mission statement.

Where do you get this information, "One of their greatest privileges is a higher bid limit; authorities can spend larger amounts of money, without formal bid, than state agencies." Can you direct us to the documents that state this? Otherwise this information is wrong.

You are not the only one to believe this. Im wondering where you got your information. Thanks.

So we should assume this is correct? "In my opinion, the criticisms of ORDA's non-competitive bid contracts is barking up the wrong tree.  There's not much $ on the table in those contracts, and Blazer's response (posted by Harv above) correctly points out that these were appropriate and allowable. "

How much do you personally know about those contracts? And why should we take the word of ted Blazer?? So to say Ted Blazer is correct sounds well, naive. Unless there is much you know that you have not shared with us.

Public Private partnerships are not always the best financial arrangements for the taxpayer. An open bid process should be the minimum requirement since NY values transparency. Lets have have a look at say, the arrangement with centerplate taking over a public profit center such as Belleayre rentals, and receiving it as a private enterprise with no public discussion or any competitive bidding. The taxpayer stands to lose. Should this not be brought up for public discussion?

And I find it interesting there are posters here who think 700 thousand dollars is an acceptable loss. Of course thats a number that's just been tossed out. The object of ORDA is to come out even. So year after year at a loss is well, something we should look at.

If nothing else, an organization that losses money every year, shouldn't be giving raises to its head people. Especially when its workers have taken pay cuts and lay offs. Top pay goes to those who earn the state money. Or am I alone in my thinking.