Economic Council holds inaugural meeting behind closed doors

POTSDAM — The race for funding kicked off in the north country Friday with the first meeting of the regional economic council.

Lt. Gov. Robert J. Duffy and members of the Northern New York Economic Development Council met for nearly two and a half hours behind closed doors at SUNY Potsdam’s Barrington Student Union, beginning work on a plan council members hope will help secure millions in funding and spur economic growth in the area.

“This is about regional planning and regional decision-making,” Mr. Duffy said. “It’s the best way to plan for the future.”

The first meeting of the 21-member panel came just over a week after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo appointed the committee’s members, who range from local businessmen to higher education leaders and elected officials. Led by Clarkson University President Anthony G. Collins and Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry F. Douglas, the group will compete with nine other regions for a piece of the billion dollars in funding Gov. Cuomo has pledged for economic development.

The council has been given the task of developing a five-year strategic plan outlining a viable approach for business and economic development in the area. The group has until Nov. 14 to finalize its proposal before the state announces in December how it will split the money among the regions.

The top four plans from across the state will receive $40 million each, while the bottom six will split the remaining $40 million.

The councils also may apply for an additional $800 million in funding from state agencies for a variety of projects.

Mr. Duffy said the north country has as good of a chance as any other region in the state to claim the top payout.

“I believe the north country is second to nobody,” the former Rochester mayor said. “It is beautiful; it has great resources, great assets.”

Council members used their inaugural meeting to introduce themselves to one another and begin exchanging ideas, Mr. Duffy said, all of which took place behind closed doors. The lieutenant governor spent much of his time in the preceding week defending the decision to keep one of the meetings private, a decision he said was made in the best interest of the council.

“This is the first meeting where we brought people together and we thought it would be unfair to open this up with all the things we threw at them in terms of just process, structure, goals,” he said.

But, he vowed, residents would have a say in the development of the plan before the process is completed. While open meeting laws do not require the council’s sessions to open to the public, Mr. Duffy said, community input will be welcomed at many future meetings.

“This will be a bottom-up, ground-up approach where the community will be the ones who tell us what they need and we will work to achieve that,” Mr. Duffy said.

Both the lieutenant governor and the council’s co-chairmen emphasized the need to keep young people in the state.