MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—Orange County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA) CEO Bill Fioravanti has responded to criticism from the state monitor and said the new powers granted to the independent official will change how his agency operates.
Fioravanti spoke to The Epoch Times on May 29 about allegations against OCIDA leveled by state Sen. James Skoufis and the state-appointed monitor of the agency, Brian Sanvidge, and how the expanded powers of the monitor position will affect the agency.
The state-appointed monitor position for the OCIDA was recently extended for an additional three years and given greater powers over the agency.
Skoufis, as well as state Assemblymembers Jonathan Jacobson and Chris Eachus, announced during a May 22 news conference that the extension for the monitor position had been passed in a budget bill the day before.
Sanvidge has the power to veto the agency’s decisions and also sits in on meetings and issues reports on OCIDA’s actions to ensure that they comply with the law and protect taxpayer interests.
The position, funded by the development agency, was created in 2023 with the help of Skoufis and had the power to veto the agency board’s decisions.
The powers of the monitor are being expanded to include stopping board votes before they occur, forcing clawbacks of benefits from companies that are not meeting job-creation goals and allowing the agency to sue for improper salary payments.
“It’s going to operate very differently,” Fioravanti told The Epoch Times on May 29. “It’s almost like we have to ask his permission before we take any steps.”
The CEO said that he is willing to work with the monitor and operate the development agency effectively.
The industrial development agency is a semigovernmental public benefit corporation. The agency’s goal is to promote economic growth in Orange County by offering temporary property tax breaks to attract companies to the area. The organization receives no taxpayer money and benefits from the flexibility and incentives available to private companies while serving the public interest.
One of the major criticisms leveled by Sanvidge and Skoufis is a lack of communication from the agency. Fioravanti said that the agency maintains excellent communication with the monitor and his staff.
Sanvidge told The Epoch Times in a May 25 phone interview that the agency had discussed clawing back money from one of the 15 underperforming businesses receiving benefits from the agency, and that these businesses need to be looked at more seriously for reparations.
Fioravanti said that the development agency has taken benefit recapture seriously, and that there is more to consider in these situations than the job number charts. He said that sometimes, the job goals are more like estimates, and that being within 10 percent of the goal can be satisfactory.
The CEO said there will be greater focus on clawbacks due to the monitor’s new powers, and that the agency will not take the actions any less seriously.
Sanvidge said that since October 2025, he has been receiving 10 percent to 20 percent of his contractual salary from the development agency, which is capped at $250,000 per year. This has now enabled the monitor to sue the agency for nonpayment. As long as there are issues with the monitor’s payments, the agency will be legally prevented from voting on new incentives and contracts.
Fioravanti said that the development agency has not paid for line items for which adequate information was not provided. For example, he said that some billing had the description “conversation with stakeholder,” but did not specify who was spoken with.
The legal costs accrued by the monitor during a lawsuit filed by the development agency have not been covered either, according to Sanvidge. The legal action was in response to Sanvidge’s veto of a tax break for the potential Amazon warehouse in Wawayanda.
The CEO said the agency is currently challenging whether it must cover the monitor’s legal fees and that further details cannot be shared at this time.
Fioravanti said that the development agency hired a lobbyist at the state capitol to advocate for eliminating the monitor position, since the agency would have had no part in the discussion about the monitor position in the state budget.
The CEO maintains that the monitor position is unnecessary and that the current development agency board and staff have done nothing wrong.
The state monitor position was established after it was uncovered that the agency had granted an unnecessary $2.7 million tax exemption to Milmar Food Group in the Goshen area.
The agency board of directors involved with that issue has since been replaced.
Friends Read Free
Copy
Facebook
Tweet
