Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Mark Frost, Chronicle Editor
Omar Usmani is executive partner of Aeon Nexus, a business that owns the former Russell & Wait building in downtown Glens Falls. Now they’re in Albany, too.
Mr. Usmani also serves on the executive committee of the Capital Region Economic Development Council’s Executive Committee. He was appointed by the Governor.
The Capital Region Economic Development Council is the entity that decided which local applicants to endorse and assembled our region’s bid in what some have dubbed the “Hunger Games” approach to economic development.
The Cuomo Administration offered three $500-million upstate revitalization awards, pitting the state’s regions against one another. The Capital Region — which runs from the Albany area up through Warren and Washington Counties — lost, but came away with $98.1-million to fund an anointed 114 projects as a consolation prize.
When I checked to see which projects got funded with that money, the first name that appeared on the list was:
Aeon Nexus Corporation, Albany
Project: $2.3 million
Requested: $530,875
Received: $530,000
I said, What!!!?
Mr. Usmani was on the committee that decided which projects to seek state support for — and, lo and behold, his project got the nod.
That’s an enormous conflict of interest, as I see it. Sure, Mr. Usmani insisted Tuesday that he recused himself from any deliberation over Aeon Nexus’s application. But that’s meaningless — all these people on the Development Council are cozy pals with each other. The chairs of the Capital Region Economic Development Council are James Barba, president and CEO of Albany Medical Center, and Dr. Robert Jones, president of The University at Albany, and they both also have Mr. Usmani as a member of their respective boards.
There is simply no separation, no distance. Of course they would endorse Mr. Usmani’s Aeon Nexus application as a priority project. They know him, he’s their guy. The have projects, too; the hands all wash one another.
This is New York. This is how things are done here.
I think it stinks. I was once on a not-for-profit board and it needed to buy exactly what a fellow board member makes a living selling. He refused to take their business.
No “recusing” himself and getting the nod anyway.
No resigning the board, getting the nod, then rejoining.
He actually adhered to the spirit of the law.
Mr. Usmani told me Tuesday that he has “donated 2,200-2,300 hours” to serving on the Economic Development Council and other not-for-profit entities.
But obviously it advances his interest, too. Let’s get real. People do business with the people they know.
Mr. Usmani emphasizes Aeon Nexus isn’t receiving a grant, but rather Excelsior tax credits for job creation. “If we don’t create the jobs, we don’t receive the credits.”
He encourages everybody to create jobs and seek them.
A local economic development official told me Tuesday that Aeon Nexus employs 16 people at its Glens Falls office. Mr. Usmani told me later it’s nine people. He said they’re eager to add more.
I wonder who’s minding the store.
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