Ogdensburg council to revisit Knox Street lease

OGDENSBURG — Call it the gift that keeps on taking.

The same state and federal regulations that could force the City Council to sell property in its Neighborhood Stabilization Program also will require a new lease for the property at 819 Knox St. that drastically reduces the amount of rent to be paid by its occupants, said James A. O’Neill, president of C.W. Augustine, the DeKalb Junction firm that administers Ogdensburg’s housing program.

Mr. O’Neill said the original lease, approved by the council in December, violated the terms of the program. After the lease was sent to the state Department of Homes and Community Renewal, the agency responded with complaints.

“I know that the main one was the amount of rent, the monthly amount,” he said. “It was sort of a boilerplate lease that the city uses for commercial property, so there were a lot of different clauses that didn’t really fit that HCR definitely had an issue with.”

If approved by the council, the lease would reduce the rent from $650 to $198 a month, Mr. O’Neill said. The city could be on the hook for the excess amount it has collected in rent from the tenants since September, a total of $2,260.

“There was some indication that it could be used as a credit or it could be returned to them,” interim City Manager Philip A. Cosmo said.

Under the guidelines of the state’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program, the city can’t lease the property for more than a certain percentage of the occupants’ monthly income.

The lease was drafted by City Attorney Andrew W. Silver and former City Manager Arthur J. Sciorra at the request of the council. Neither man consulted with Mr. O’Neill or his organization. “Unfortunately, the lease was put together without our knowledge and input,” Mr. O’Neill said. “We could have explained all of this to Andy or Art early on, but they didn’t bother to ask.”

Councilwoman Jennifer Stevenson said many of the misconceptions of and mistakes in the city’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program could have been avoided with a phone call.

“I think with a phone call to Jim, people on the council and in the city could have understood the grant program a little better,” she said. “The state also documents all of this. There is all kinds of information available online.”

The lease may be unnecessary if the council votes to sell the house at its Feb. 13 meeting, Deputy Mayor Michael D. Morley said. “I don’t think we ought to pass that lease. Then again, I don’t think we’ll need to,” he said. “If there is a lease, it will be a short-lived lease. My true feelings are that we’ll have no choice but to sell it.”

Monday, Mr. O’Neill told the City Council that it either had to sell properties at 819 Knox St. and 2 Grove St. at their appraised value with deferred mortgages subsidized by grants, or pay back more than $200,000 in grant money the city spent demolishing and rehabilitating property in the program.