The Ithaca Redevelopment Agency board on April ??? approved the agency’s 2024 financial audit and related public-authority filings after the audit committee reported a clean audit and recommended the report for board approval.

The audit committee also elected Donna Fleming as its vice chair and nominated Carl Graham to continue as committee chair; the nominations were seconded and approved by the committee and board without recorded opposition.

The audit, prepared by Ancero and Company and reviewed by the governance committee, contained no material weaknesses or findings, the committee reported. “Once again, we got a clean audit,” Carl Graham, chairperson, said at the audit committee meeting. Nels, a finance staff member, told the board the audit was prepared on a modified-accrual basis and noted the financial picture was generally stable but signaled concern about future revenues. “The bad news…is that we’re not keeping up with our expenses or our expenses are exceeding our revenues going forward,” Nels said, adding that federal grant funding has declined and carries uncertainty.

Staff told the board the agency has roughly $475,000 in more-flexible local funds available to cover shortfalls but that many assets are restricted. Nels said the HODAG fund—more than $600,000—must be used only to assist affordable rental housing, and other federal funds carry statutory or program-specific limits that prevent free reallocation.

The board also approved the agency’s annual investment guidelines reaffirming a conservative policy that keeps deposits in FDIC-insured banks and uses a third-party collateral arrangement (BNY Mellon via Tompkins Financial) for balances over FDIC limits. HUD rules requiring interest earned on HUD-held funds to be returned annually were noted during the discussion.

On administrative compliance, the board voted to submit the agency’s required annual reports to the New York State Authorities Budget Office under the Public Authorities Accountability Act/public authorities reporting requirements, including the audit and several policy documents. The governance committee had reviewed the materials and recommended submission.

Board members discussed grant and project finances during the meeting. Staff said most loans and leases are current, but cited a one-month delinquency on a former RIBS parcel at 506 Buffalo Street that staff expect to resolve. The board also discussed HUD spend-down targets for federal grant funds and the challenge of meeting those deadlines when projects are weather-dependent or delayed. Staff said the Cecil Malone sidewalk contract (about $180,000) is under contract and should reduce the agency’s outstanding balance once paid; they described HUD’s typical monitoring cadence if spend-down targets are not met.

Votes at a glance
- Election of Donna Fleming as audit committee vice chair: moved, seconded by Cheyenne, approved (unanimous). Notes: committee also nominated Carl Graham as committee chair and forwarded that nomination to the board, which approved it at the board meeting (unanimous).
- Approval of the 2024 audit prepared by Ancero and Company: moved, seconded, approved (unanimous). The audit committee and governance committee had reviewed the audit and reported no issues.
- Approval of IRA investment guidelines (reaffirmation): moved, seconded, approved (unanimous).
- Approval to submit the agency’s 2024 reports to the New York State Authorities Budget Office / Public Authorities Accountability Act filings: moved, seconded, approved (unanimous).

The board closed the meeting after hearing a staff report that HUD’s desk monitoring letter (CAPER review) had no issues and that the draft annual action plan for community comment would be posted for 30 days.

Ending
The board adjourned after completing the agenda; staff said the draft action plan and supporting materials would be posted for public review and that HUD correspondence showed no monitoring issues at this time.