ALBANY − The state Authorities Budget Office said it has requested 23 members of public authority boards across the state to resign after they ignored pleadings from the group for more than two years to take required training.

Among the list of delinquent board members released Thursday were three board members from the Troy Municipal Assistance Corporation and three people on the Columbia Tobacco Asset Securitization Corporation board.

"Members that do not participate in the training are not fulfilling their fiduciary duty to the authority and the public that they serve," the Authorities Budget Office said in its report. "The ABO will continue to take action to censure and recommend the removal of board members that evade the law and do not participate in the required training."

The ABO, a state agency tasked with maintaining transparency and oversight of both local and state public authorities, researched the status of more than 300 board members across the state starting in 2016, and ultimately found 72 people from 34 authorities who had not completed training. State law requires board members to participate in state-approved training - a less than two-hour course that is held over the internet - about their legal, financial and ethical responsibilities.

After a warning letter was sent to the delinquent board members in March, 23 were found to have still ignored the state's requests to be trained, according to the ABO's report. In late September, another letter was sent to the CEOs and chair people of the 14 boards in question, in addition to the individual board members, recommending their removal. The ABO can only urge their removal - the agency does not have the legal authority to override the local boards and remove members.

Jeffrey Sommer, the executive director of the Troy Municipal Assistance Corporation, said one of the members listed, former Troy corporation counsel Patrick Morphy, got the training last month. He said he didn't know the status of the other two members, but that “we were urging all the members of our board to get the appropriate training.”

Daniel Hogarty, the retired president of Troy Savings Bank, is on the delinquent list as a member of the Troy Municipal Assistance Corporation, but said Thursday he had compiled with the state's training request. However, when asked for details about when he completed the training, Hogarty said, “I don’t want to go into this with you... I don’t have to explain it.” The other board member named, Kenneth Baer, couldn't be reached for comment.

Sommer said it is difficult to get people to be on such small volunteer boards because they rarely meet and do not approve projects or policies. The Troy Municipal Assistance Corporation was formed in 1995 when the city was facing bankruptcy and could no longer borrow on its own. The corporation is now only tasked with monitoring the payoff of those bonds, which are funded through a portion of the city's sales tax.

The board only meets once a year, and usually by video conference or phone as Sommer is in New York City; Sommer's regular job is as executive director of the New York City Financial Control Board. The Troy Municipal Assistance Corporation is supposed to have seven members, but has had vacancies for years. Another member recently resigned because he no longer wanted to fill out the ABO's disclosure forms, Sommer said.

The ABO listed three of the six board members of the Columbia Tobacco Asset Securitization Corporation on the delinquent list. That corporation, created in 2000, also oversees bonds. A web page last posted minutes for a meeting there in 2018, and there is no CEO or executive director listed.

Jeffrey Pearlman, director of the state Authorities Budget Office, said one of the biggest problems among authorities statewide is board members going beyond the mission of their respective authorities. "If they took this training, at least we could say they know what it is to be a fiduciary," Pearlman said about such a duty, which requires a board member to conduct themselves independently and in the best interest of the authority.