Albany

This much we know: Huck Finn's wants financial help to relocate Hoffman's Playland to Albany. The furniture retailer is asking the Albany County Industrial Development Agency for assistance.

OK, so how much money are we talking about? What will this cost taxpayers?

That we don't know — and the IDA has refused to say.

"I can't speak on that right now," Gary Domalewicz told me Wednesday.

Too often, IDAs operate under a shroud of secrecy. Created to encourage economic development, they don't tell the public what they're doing or how they're doing it. And, as Lauren Stanforth reported in Sunday's Times Union, they frequently give money to projects that fail to deliver on job-creation promises.

Secrecy?

Consider that the Huck Finn's request has never appeared on a published agenda. You're reading about it here only because word leaked that the county is working to save the shuttered amusement park. The Huck Finn's application is scheduled for review at the IDA's meeting Wednesday. The agenda will be made public a day earlier, Domalewicz, the agency's chairman, said.

Will the agenda provide any info on what Huck Finn's is requesting?

Nope.

Nothing of the sort will be revealed until the actual meeting, Domalewicz said. He said members of the IDA board may vote to approve the financial package right there on the spot. A public hearing isn't required, he added.

Wait a second, I said. That means there will be no publicity of the financial package prior to the vote. The public won't get a chance to weigh in.

"Are you saying the public would be against anything we're doing?" Domalewicz asked.

Well, they might be.

In fact, the Times Union published a letter this week from a county resident who objects to tax breaks for Huck Finn's Warehouse and More. The store's owner, wrote Fritz Vogel of Delmar, "knows well this move would provide more foot traffic, visibility and sales. Why should I and my family pay for this owner's profits?"

It's a fair question.

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But this column isn't intended as criticism of the Huck Finn's plan. Once we know the details, the project might seem worthy of help. I've certainly heard from people who are OK with taxpayer assistance so long as Hoffman's Playland is saved.

Still, the public has a right to know what the assistance entails before it's approved. Advance notice isn't exactly a groundbreaking concept.

Domalewicz suggested I turn to Huck Finn's president, Jeff Sperber, for details, which I had already done. Sperber, in an email, explained that he and the owners of Hoffman's Playland have agreed not to talk about the plan until it's finalized.

"Please know this for sure," Sperber wrote. "We have been working tirelessly for months in hopes of one thing and one thing only — saving the Playland, intact, for the children and their families to enjoy for generations to come."

I'm fine with that answer. Sperber, as a private business owner, is under no obligation to provide details.

But the same can't be said of a board that's making decisions with taxpayer money. The county IDA, which is subject to state open meetings law, should be more willing to let the public in on its work. It has not answered a Freedom of Information Law request for details on the Huck Finn's plan.

"There are IDAs that provide nothing," Domalewicz said. "We're the most open IDA in the region. We're an open book."

Well, an open book can have nothing interesting on its pages. The county IDA's website, for example, does provide audit and budget data, but doesn't even include minutes of past meetings.

During our conversation, Domalewicz jokingly said he was happy that his IDA is finally getting some attention. It does a lot of good work, he said, but operates in obscurity.

"We never get anyone at our meetings," Domalewicz said.

That's not surprising. If nobody knows what will be discussed, what reason is there to show up? Plus, most people don't know what IDAs do or how they affect tax bills, and their appointed boards aren't subject to the scrutiny that accompanies elections.

Domalewicz and I went around and around. The conversation was good-natured, but I kept insisting details of the Huck Finn's request should be made public while he said there's no obligation to do so.

"It's the way it's done everywhere," Domalewicz said.

He's right. And that's exactly the problem.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5442 • @chris_churchill