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                   Minutes of
            The City of Yonkers IDA
            Audit Committee Meeting
          March 27, 2025 - 1:30 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

  

  

  
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
             CHAIR SINGER:  We are calling
        the meeting of the IDA's Audit
        Committee 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.  We
        are deferring the meeting, the
        minutes, and the next thing is Mr.
        Daniele and the review and discussion
        of the Audit Committee report.
             MR. DANIELE:  All right.  Good
        afternoon and thank you for having me
        present the audit results, again, for
        the Yonkers Industrial Development
        Agency, again, for the fiscal
        year-ended December 31st, 2024.
             We've given you drafts of the
        couple of audit reports and what we
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        call our communication to you folks.
        But I put together a little
        PowerPoint if you will to kind of
        condense the information, talk about
        the signature highlights.
             So if we turn to that document
        entitled report to the Audit
        Committee, if we turn to the first
        page to the table of contents, we'll
        go through the status of the audit
        and the audit approach.  We'll go
        over some financial statement
        highlights and then we'll briefly
        touch upon certain required
        communications together with our
        management letter.  Then in the back
        there is what we call a management
        representation letter that we get at
        the conclusion of the audit when
        everything is issued, and then some
        industry recognition about PKF
        O'Connor Davies.
             So if we turn to page one,
        again, the audit is complete, the IDA
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        is a public authority so all this
        information needs to be filed by
        March 31st.  We're able to -- we're
        able to issue -- oh, I'm sorry.  Is
        that better?  Sorry.  We're able to
        issue this report once you've
        accepted today and we can go final
        with this once we get the
        representation letter.
             We put all the letters together
        but we're in charge with rendering an
        opinion.  We issued what is termed an
        unmodified opinion.  An unmodified
        opinion is a clean opinion.  It's the
        highest level of assurance that an
        entity can receive, and it basically
        states that the financial statements
        present fairly the results of the IDA
        as of December 31st, 2024, and in
        accordance with the accounting
        standards.  Because it is a public
        authority you have to have certain
        filings with the PAAA that will be
        done subsequently.  We'll get those
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        from the file as well.  Then we're
        ready to, you know, issue everything
        final.
             So we'll talk about the numbers
        and then we'll get into -- if we turn
        to page three, page three is your
        statement of activities, 2024 column
        compared to '23.  Once again the IDA
        had a pretty good year.  We had
        agency and refinancing fees of almost
        $1.6 million.  Rather large projects,
        you had the Miroza Tower project
        where the agency received over
        $600,000 in fees.  You had the 2123
        Park Avenue project, about $552,000
        in fees.  Warburton Avenue
        apartments, another $267,000 in fees.
        And Central Avenue, 111 Central
        Avenue project, $120,000.  So that
        was -- those were the main
        agency-type fees.
             You also have some management
        administrative fees.  You do operate
        now the activities of the Larkin
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        garage.  There is a $90,000
        administrative fee paid to the IDA,
        as well as certain what we call
        agency fees.  You have other ongoing
        active projects, over 80 projects.
        You collect fees on those on an
        annual basis.  Those generate about
        $80,000 in fees.  You do have license
        fees of $20,000.  You were getting
        rental income from X2O which is now
        not operating, the landlord is no
        longer there.  We'll talk about that
        in a minute in the balance sheet.
             So overall you generated almost
        $1.8 million in revenues for the
        year.  If you look down in the middle
        of the page we have comparative
        expenses.  Everything looks in line,
        salary, payroll taxes, rent.  Certain
        consulting fees are down compared to
        last year.  You did have some Pier
        repairs that you did in 2023 that
        wasn't replicated in 2024 and that
        resulted in some of the decline in
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        consulting fees in the current year.
        But everything else pretty much looks
        in line, your advertising and so on.
        Your expenses were $1.8 million.
             At the bottom you have some
        nonoperating revenues and expenses.
        You do operate a workforce investment
        grant, and that's basically the mayor
        is the grant recipient of that grant
        and you hire grant employees that are
        funded through that program, so
        nothing is paid out of the IDA.
        That's on a cost reimbursement basis,
        so you incur the expense, you file
        the claim and you get reimbursed for
        it.
             You do have a forgiveness of a
        loan payable.  The IDA did have a
        note, a Section 108 loan that it was
        paying to the City of Yonkers only in
        relation to the income it was getting
        from X2O. So since that landlord is
        no longer there, that has ceased and
        the City has taken over those
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        payments and the IDA is no longer
        liable for that liability.  So it was
        written off through formal board
        resolution.  And those nonoperating
        revenues and expenses generated
        another $745,000, so overall you
        ended the year on a surplus of almost
        $650,000.  And again, that includes
        that forgiveness of the loan.  So if
        you back that out, you're roughly
        about $125,000 net positive.  But
        you're able to add the $650,000 to
        your opening net position of
        $6.1 million at the end of the year,
        that's $6.7 million.
             So if we turn to page two, this
        is the comparative statement for your
        balance sheet for 2024.  You can see
        in the middle of the page your total
        assets are seven and a half million
        dollars.  That's mostly made up of
        cash equivalents to the tune of
        $5.6 million.  You do have some
        accounts receivable, and that's
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        basically from the workforce
        investment board.  Those are December
        claims that generally come in
        subsequent to year-end, so although
        it's a receivable, that will be
        reimbursed or has been reimbursed as
        we speak.
             And you do have money set
        aside, as we call it, restricted
        cash, $218,000.  Very small amount is
        for the Yonkers Pier that we took
        over many years ago.  A piece of it
        is the workforce investment board,
        segregated cash, and you have an
        escrow payment for a payment in lieu
        of tax that you're holding onto until
        that contract is completed.  That's
        the bulk of it, about $158,000.
             You do have some capital
        assets, fixed assets as we call em,
        net of the appreciation of those.
        Those probably are Yonkers
        Pier-related, leasehold improvements
        over the years.  That gets
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        depreciated annually.  And then at
        the bottom of your liabilities, you
        have your normal accounts payable.
        You have your increase in what we
        call incurred expenses, and again,
        that's related to the WDB program.
             You did incur some expenses in
        December that get paid shortly
        thereafter in January and February.
        And that's really it.  You can see
        that the loans payable is down to
        zero.  You did have a New York Power
        Authority loan that's all been paid
        off in 2024.  And again, as I
        mentioned, you had a Section 18 loan
        and that has been forgiven, so
        there's no payables for that purpose.
             You do have a small net pension
        liability on the books.  Again, this
        is the New York State Retirement
        System.  It's your proportion and
        share of the unfunded piece.  You're
        not going to get a bill for this, but
        it's something required to be
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        reported.  You'll get a bill on an
        annual basis that you have been
        getting and paying over the course of
        many years.  So, you know, you take
        your assets, subtract your
        liabilities and you come to your net
        position of $6.7 million.  Some of it
        is in the form of capital assets, but
        a majority of it is what we call
        unrestricted in the form of cash and
        equivalents.
             So that's really the numbers.
        If you turn to four, I'm not going to
        spend a lot of time, but pages four
        through eight, again, although we do
        look at the numbers, again, we're in
        charge of rendering an opinion on the
        financial statement.  As I mentioned,
        we issued a clean opinion.  We don't
        look at every single transaction, but
        we scope it and if there are certain
        issues, we expand our scope, and I
        was happy to report everything was in
        line based on our scope.  And again,
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        anything that we determine that we
        should include in your statements as
        far as a journal entry we did propose
        and they were recorded at management,
        so we didn't pass on anything.  It's
        all reflected in the numbers if
        anything we came across.
             There's certain supplemental
        information that's behind the report.
        Again, those are what we call
        unaudited documents, but we make sure
        that whatever's reported that
        correlates to the financial numbers,
        that they are in sync, but it is an
        unaudited document, but it is part of
        your financial reporting process.
             Although we do prepare the
        financial statement, they're
        ultimately management's
        responsibility, so obviously we're
        making sure they're following the
        current accounting standards, that
        they're complying with any types of
        laws, regulations and provisions of
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        the contracts, and really making sure
        that all of the records are available
        so we can look at them while we do
        our audit.
             Again, I'm just going to skip
        forward.  If we turn to page six, the
        statements do include some estimates,
        but we generally verify those
        estimates, we wait as far as we can
        to see if actual activity has come in
        in January, February and March to
        make sure those estimates are in
        line, and then everything that was
        recorded as an estimate is reasonable
        in your financial statements.
             Again, the disclosures, nothing
        changed compared to last year.  We
        have to evaluate what we call going
        concern on page seven, will the
        entity be in existence a year from
        now.  And again, that's not an issue
        here.  Everything is in line and
        should be operating accordingly over
        the next year.
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
             As we do with all jobs, we
        identify risks.  Generally management
        override of internal controls is a
        risk we generally have for all
        entities, and then we look for
        improper revenue recognition.  We
        make sure that your agency fees are
        recorded in the proper period.  So
        that's an item that not only we look
        at December 31st, 2024, but January,
        February, March to look at that
        activity as well to make sure there's
        proper cutoff. And as far as internal
        controls, if we did find something we
        would report that to you.
             And that's really it.
        Management was very cooperative --
             CHAIR SINGER:  Right, in the
        risks, yes, the management override
        of internal controls, can you speak
        about that?
             MR. DANIELE:  Yes.  We make
        sure that we look at your policies.
        We want to make sure that if
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        someone's recording a journal entry
        that there's a second person has
        reviewed it and signed off on it.
        The person receiving cash is not the
        same person doing the bank
        reconciliation.  So you have Jaime,
        you have Siby, you have Michael, you
        have separation of duties as we call
        them, so if that was an issue we
        would have reported that.  So you
        have proper controls as far as
        overriding and what we're looked at.
             CHAIR SINGER:  That's always
        something that we pay attention
        because we have a limited number of
        employees.
             MR. DANIELE:  Right.
             CHAIR SINGER:  And making sure
        that there's this balance --
             MR. DANIELE:  Segregation.
             CHAIR SINGER: -- is critically
        important.
             MR. DANIELE:  Absolutely.
             CHAIR SINGER:  And that extends
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        to Jaime's good management.  All
        right.
             MR. DANIELE:  Then towards the
        back, page nine, the communication of
        internal controls.  Again, if we do
        have comments, they would appear
        here.  So I'm happy to report we had
        no internal control deficiencies.  I
        would just urge some caution that
        there's always cybersecurity risks,
        that type of thing, so make sure that
        all related-type IDA entities, EDC,
        City of Yonkers, that they're all on
        top of this.  And I know they have
        addressed this in the past.
             CHAIR SINGER:  On the cyber,
        where are you as a firm, because
        everyone is hiring people who have
        specific responsibilities in that
        area.
             MR. DANIELE:  Right.  We have a
        segregated team that would -- if you
        wanted to would come in and, you
        know, do some testing, penetration
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        testing just to see if all your
        controls are in place.
             CHAIR SINGER:  Right.  So --
             MR. DANIELE:  I'm an external
        auditor, I don't get into the IT
        stuff, but it's very good these days,
        yes.
             CHAIR SINGER:  As you know,
        that whole thing is changing.
             MR. DANIELE:  Oh yeah.
             CHAIR SINGER:  And so we're
        seeing more and more programs to
        train cyber risk people.
             MR. DANIELE:  Right.
             CHAIR SINGER:  And so we want
        to be sure that we are adequately
        covered in that area because of
        course for us the risks are very
        important.
             MR. DANIELE:  Right, right.
             CHAIR SINGER:  Being able to
        evaluate it.
             MR. DANIELE:  And maybe you
        guys can talk with them because your
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        systems operate with the City and the
        City has addressed this thing.
             MS. MCGILL:  Right, so the IDA
        relies on the City's resources
        because obviously they can provide
        more cybersecurity than if we were to
        seek that independently.
             CHAIR SINGER:  Right.  And
        they're running our things through
        their cybersecurity.
             MS. MCGILL:  Yes.
             CHAIR SINGER:  So we have that.
             MS. MCGILL:  In fact, they've
        just taken over control of our
        website so that every aspect of
        our --
             CHAIR SINGER:  So we have that
        assurance.
             MS. MCGILL:  Absolutely.
             CHAIR SINGER:  It's critical
        and it's going to grow.  This is just
        the beginning of cyber --
             MR. DANIELE:  There's
        artificial intelligence and you can
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        replicate somebody's voice.
             CHAIR SINGER:  Just so we know
        everybody is very conscious of it and
        very concerned about it because
        there's not a lot of knowledge about
        it in the general community and in
        our areas, and having the expertise
        becomes more and more important.  But
        there aren't so many people which --
        at Westchester Community College we
        just put in three new programs for
        cybersecurity because we're finding
        there is such a demand in students --
             MR. DANIELE:  Student data.
             CHAIR SINGER: -- want to go
        into cybersecurity because out the
        door there's all the employment
        that's waiting for them.  So it's an
        open field and it's something we need
        to be conscientious of and to assess
        how we can best evaluate.  Thank you.
             MR. DANIELE:  That's really it.
        There are a couple of pronouncements
        that may impact the IDA.  One in '25
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        and then a couple that start
        trickling in '26/'27.  We will
        evaluate that with the IDA as the
        year goes on and see if they need to
        implement any new pronouncements.
        All right?
             So there is a financial
        statement.  There is also what we
        call a schedule of cash and
        investments.  These are all required
        as the public authority.  And these
        will be finalized today or tomorrow
        and we're able to file everything by
        March 31st.
             CHAIR SINGER:  All right.  So
        then everything is in order and up to
        date?
             MR. DANIELE:  Yes.
             CHAIR SINGER:  All right.  So
        are there any questions for --
             MS. NACERINO:  No questions,
        thank you.
             CHAIR SINGER:  Jaime, is there
        anything you want to say?
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
             MS. MCGILL:  I have no other
        items for us.
             CHAIR SINGER:  All right.  It's
        all said?
             MS. MCGILL:  It is.  And I will
        say we did have a really smooth audit
        this, year so thank you.  We met our
        timeline deadlines so...
             CHAIR SINGER:  So if there are
        no questions, may I have a motion to
        accept the report as submitted?
             MS. NACERINO:  I'll make a
        motion to accept the report.
             CHAIR SINGER:  And I second it,
        so -- all right.  Thank you.
             MR. DANIELE:  Thank you.
             CHAIR SINGER:  And do we have
        any other --
             MS. MCGILL:  No other business.
             CHAIR SINGER:  No other
        business.
             MS. NACERINO:  Motion to
        adjourn.
             CHAIR SINGER:  Melissa, do you
              IDA AUDIT COMMITTEE
        have anything?
             MS. NACERINO:  No.
             CHAIR SINGER:  No?  All right.
        So there's no other business.  May I
        have a motion to adjourn.
             MS. NACERINO:  Motion to
        adjourn.
             CHAIR SINGER:  I second it.
        The meeting is hereby adjourned.
             (Whereupon, at 1:52 P.M., the
        above matter concluded.)
  
            °        °       °        °

  

  

  

              IDA 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