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                   Minutes of
            The City of Yonkers YEDC
            Audit Committee Meeting
          March 27, 2025 - 2:00 P.M.
                      At
        470 Nepperhan Avenue, Suite 200
         Yonkers, New York 10701-3892
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  B E F O R E:
  CECILE SINGER - Chairperson
  MELISSA NACERINO - Member
  VICTOR GJONAJ - Member (Excused)
  
  O T H E R:
  ROBERT DANIELE - PKF O'Connor Davies
  JAIME MCGILL - IDA Executive Director
  SIBY OOMMEN - IDA/YEDC Chief Fiscal Officer

  

  

  
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
             CHAIR SINGER:  We will now call
        the Audit Committee meeting of the
        Yonkers Economic Development
        Corporation to order.  The first
        order of business is the roll call.
             MR. OOMMEN:  Cecile Singer.
             CHAIR SINGER:  Here.
             MR. OOMMEN:  Melissa Nacerino.
             MS. NACERINO:  Here.
             MR. OOMMEN:  Victor Gjonaj is
        excused.  Madam Chair, we have a
        quorum.
             CHAIR SINGER:  All right.  Then
        we defer the minutes to -- all right.
        And Mr. Daniele, we call upon you for
        a review and discussion of your
        report to us.
             MR. DANIELE:  Okay.  So again,
        good afternoon.  Again, I thank you
        for having us present the audit
        results here for the Yonkers Economic
        Development Corporation.  Once again,
        I just wanted to thank Jaime, Siby,
        Michael, really the entire team for
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
        their assistance.  You know, this
        process starts in December and, you
        know, ends here, so it isn't just a
        week process where we're always
        communicating throughout this time
        period, so again, thank to them.
             CHAIR SINGER:  Right, right.
        And so we're going to, you know,
        instead of having the traditional
        break between meetings, we're going
        to have it after this meeting, right?
             MR. DANIELE:  Sure.
             CHAIR SINGER:  So we'll do it
        once.
             MR. DANIELE:  Okay, makes
        sense.  Is it supposed to be green?
        It's not coming up.
             MR. OOMMEN:  Let's try a
        different mic.
             (Whereupon, an off-the-record
        discussion was held.)
             MR. DANIELE:  All right, so
        once again we'll talk about the
        status of the audit.  We'll go over
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
        some financial statement highlights.
        Again, same format as the IDA.  Same
        types of things that we look at,
        required communications.
             So we'll just turn to page one.
        Again, the audit is complete.  We're
        just waiting to be accepted by the
        Audit Committee.  We'll get a
        management representation letter and
        then we can go final.  There are some
        public authority documents that get
        finalized and uploaded as well.  But
        same with the IDA, we've issued a
        clean opinion, an unmodified opinion.
        Again, it just states that the
        financial statements are fairly
        presented as of December 31st, 2024
        in accordance with the accounting
        standards.
             If we turn to the financial
        statement highlights, we turn to page
        three again, page three is a
        comparative statement of activities.
        Again, just like the IDA, the
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
        Economic Development Corporation
        focuses on initiatives like the
        Yonkers opportunity zoning program
        which tries to bring equity capital
        to designated areas and fund projects
        in Yonkers.
             So just like the IDA, they work
        on hand in hand, and in 2024 the
        Economic Development Corporation
        worked alongside the Industrial
        Development Agency on significant
        developments, most notably the Miroza
        Towers project on Hudson Street, and
        that provided the -- the EDC provides
        certain what we call additional
        mortgage tax exemptions to make it
        financially feasible for these types
        of projects.  So the vendors that
        come in to pay get a mortgage tax
        write off, if you will, or not have
        to pay certain things.  So there is
        an incentive to do things, and
        Yonkers has done a lot of these types
        of things.
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
             If we turn to page three,
        agency fees, again, the EDC closed on
        significant programs, most notably
        with the Metropolitan Realty Group
        which generated almost $300,000 in
        agency fees.  That was a 317-unit
        project housing complex.  The vendor
        or the realty group was able to
        secure some $90 million of funding to
        do these types of projects, and the
        EDC did receive a fee for closing
        that project of almost $300,000.
        Some smaller projects, the Hampshire
        mortgage group, about $23,000, and
        that's generally the bigger ones.
             In 2023 you did have a
        reimbursement for the City of
        Yonkers.  The EDC did lay out some
        money for the Cacace parking garage,
        it was reimbursed in '23.  There was
        some expenses paid in '24 that may be
        funded down the road as well, so
        those claims may be put in for
        reimbursement.
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
             So overall your operating
        revenues were $392,000.  If you look
        in the middle of the page you do have
        expenses.  Consulting fees, again,
        some additional consultants were paid
        for the Cacace garage, almost
        $50,000.  That wasn't the case last
        year, but again, these could be
        reimbursed down the road.  Everything
        looks in line.
             If you like at marketing, you
        did provide for holiday lights events
        and certain film festival charges in
        '24 that wasn't present in '23.  And
        then you had community initiatives.
        You tried to reduce some spending in
        '24, but you did have some -- prior
        year you had some relocation expenses
        and you had some payments made to the
        Yonkers Chamber of Commerce for
        program expenses that weren't present
        in 2024, you did that in '23.  You
        can see those charges were almost
        $300,000 in '23, down to 73,000 in
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
        '24.  So overall your operating
        expenses are $268,000.  You have some
        favorable interest rates so you
        generated some interest income, and
        your net change for overall revenues
        that exceeded your expenses were over
        $276,000 for the year.  So you're
        able to add that to your opening net
        position of $3.6 million to end the
        year at $3.9 million.
             If you turn to page two, that
        $3.9 million is mostly cash.  You
        have about $3.6 cash in what we call
        cash and equivalents, you have some
        accounts receivable, and these are
        just tiny differences.  You have some
        agency fees that closed in '24 but
        you collected the money in January of
        '25, but it pertained to the '24
        year, so that was accrued back and
        that's included in those agency fees.
             CHAIR SINGER:  Didn't we have
        some association with the Yonkers
        Pier?
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
             MR. DANIELE:  You did have some
        -- the IDA had that.  There was some
        money spent on the Pier, yes.  And
        that's really it.  You really have no
        payables and your net position is
        basically in the form of cash, cash
        and some receivables.  So again, a
        really good year as well.
             As far as pages 4 through 11,
        nothing to report.  If there was some
        internal control matters we would
        have presented those to you before we
        got to this point.  So everything
        looked in line, we didn't have any
        internal control issues, there
        appears to be a level of segregation
        of duties within the EDC as well.
        And that's really it.  As I said,
        there are couple of pronouncements
        just like the IDA that may impact the
        EDC, but we'll assist management in
        kind of putting that together if it's
        required.
             CHAIR SINGER:  All right.  Do
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
        you have any questions?
             MS. NACERINO:  No, no
        questions.  Thank you again.
             MR. DANIELE:  Thank you.
             CHAIR SINGER:  All right.  So
        if there are no questions, may I have
        a motion to accept the report --
             MS. NACERINO:  Make a motion to
        accept the report.
             CHAIR SINGER:  -- as submitted.
        Second, I second that motion.  All
        right.  Then we have -- we would like
        to ask Jaime and Siby if they would
        leave the room for this.
             MS. MCGILL:  Cecile, you're
        going into executive session?
             CHAIR SINGER:  Yes, we're going
        into executive.
             (Whereupon, an off-the-record
        discussion was held.)
             MS. NACERINO:  So Cecile, I
        make a motion for us to enter into
        executive session.
             CHAIR SINGER:  Yes.  And I
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
        second the motion.
             (Whereupon, the Committed held
        an executive session.)
             CHAIR SINGER:  We're going to
        have a motion to go out of executive
        session?
             MS. NACERINO:  Mm-hmm, motion.
             CHAIR SINGER:  And I second
        that.  And we're very pleased to say
        that the report about our personnel
        and the cooperation with our
        accounting was outstanding and so we
        congratulate you also on the way our
        departments within the different
        organizations are managed so that we
        have the checks and balances that are
        necessary and that that is all
        satisfactory.  And so all of those
        things are things that we're all
        looking at, and of course that we
        want our accountants to look very
        carefully at because that's where
        vulnerabilities are.  And Jaime you
        are to be congratulated, you and Siby
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
        on the way that everything is managed
        here and the fact that there were no
        comments, there were no concerns and
        that everything was in order and at a
        level.
             I would only say to you that in
        the future, as we have discussed
        cybersecurity, we will need to know
        some of what the city is doing that
        you can take advantage of what is too
        sophisticated for us, what is doable
        for us, because it's -- it's a very
        new area of concern and we should
        move into it early so that we know
        what the risks are and whether there
        are things we have to do as an
        organization which could be very
        costly.  But anyhow, I do
        congratulate you and we feel really
        very confident of what is happening,
        and so when we get a report from our
        auditors and we can see that it's
        clean and that it's a very important
        thing for us, so thank you for all of
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
        your hard work.
             MS. MCGILL:  Thank you very
        much, Cecile.
             CHAIR SINGER:  And we want you
        to know that we appreciate it and
        we're proud of having organizations
        that operate at a level that anyone
        could come in and look at our
        financial and understand what we are
        doing.  So thank you.
             MS. MCGILL:  Thank you.
             CHAIR SINGER:  That's the
        objective.  I feel we're fulfilling
        it.
             So is there any further
        business?
             MS. MCGILL:  We have no other
        business.
             MS. NACERINO:  Make a motion to
        adjourn.
             CHAIR SINGER:  Yes, I second
        the motion.  And thank you for all of
        your help.
             MR. DANIELE:  Thank you.
             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
             (Whereupon, at 2:23 P.M., the
        above matter concluded.)
  
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             YEDC AUDIT COMMITTEE
              C E R T I F I C A T E
  
  STATE OF NEW YORK      )
                         :  SS.:
  COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER  )
  
        I, NATHAN DAVIS, a Notary Public for
  and within the State of New York, do hereby
  certify:
        That the above is a correct
  transcription of my stenographic notes.
        I further certify that I am not
  related to any of the parties to this
  action by blood or by marriage and that I
  am in no way interested in the outcome of
  this matter.
        IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto
  set my hand this 8th day of April 2025.

  
                       <%24408,Signature%>
                         NATHAN DAVIS