New York State - Executive - EXC - Article 41
* ARTICLE 41 OFFICE OF URBAN REVITALIZATION
Section 894. Declaration of purpose.
895. Definitions.
896. Office of urban revitalization.
897. General functions, powers and duties.
898. Assistance of other state agencies.
899. Comprehensive grant information.
900. Designation of target areas for concentrated revitalization.
901. Implementation of services.
902. Federal and local government participation.
903. Temporary assignment or permanent transfer of personnel.
904. Reports to the governor, cabinet and the legislature.
905. Termination of authority.
906. Contract authority.
907. Separability.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 894. Declaration of purpose. The legislature finds and determines as follows:
1. The urban areas of the state of New York have unique characteristics, needs, conditions and opportunities. These urban areas are vital to the economic, social and general health of our state. The magnitude of the challenge of economic habilitation of those distressed urban areas which are in need of assistance is such that a concentrated effort by the state in cooperation with these communities is required.
2. Past efforts on the part of the state to facilitate necessary assistance to distressed urban areas have been characterized by specific and innovative program approaches to individual symptoms of blight and deterioration. The state has firmly established through these individual program approaches its commitment to preserving the viability of urban areas. Numerous agencies have been created, empowered and funded to assist and coordinate these efforts in specific areas of need.
3. Efforts have further been made, through the establishment of the urban affairs cabinet, to facilitate and to enhance the coordination of state programs and efforts intended to remedy the problems of urban blight and deterioration.
4. Despite these tangible past and present commitments to urban preservation and development, the legislature hereby finds and determines that many of the urban areas of our state continue to suffer from blight and deterioration of basic public services, the private economic sector, housing stock and other critical elements of community vitality.
5. It is further found and declared that the numerous efforts of the state designed to address and to correct existing and encroaching indices of community distress must be strengthened and enhanced and assistance to local and community agencies and organizations designed to maximize the amount of financial and other assistance directed to distressed urban areas must be improved.
6. It is therefore, the intent of the legislature to establish an office of urban revitalization. The legislature intends that such office shall augment the efforts of the urban cabinet in coordinating the programs and efforts of the state agencies and public benefit corporations to remedy existent problems in distressed urban areas. Said office shall also be empowered to assure the provision of technical assistance to localities and community organizations engaging the improvement of economic, housing, industrial and commercial revitalization of distressed communities. The legislature intends that this office serve these organizations in order to maximize their abilities to successfully obtain assistance from all available private and public sources.
7. It is further the intent of the legislature to empower the office to initiate, subject to legislative authorization and appropriations for that purpose, programs of financial assistance to local and community agencies and organizations consistent with the policy of enhancing the revitalization of distressed urban areas.
8. These programs of assistance to distressed urban communities and community organizations will thereby constitute an economic advantage to the state and facilitate the implementation of the revitalization of distressed urban areas.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 895. Definitions. When used in this article:
1. "Office" means the office of urban revitalization created by this article.
2. "Director" means the executive director of the urban affairs cabinet and chief administrative officer of the office of urban revitalization.
3. "State agency" means any department, board, bureau, commission, division, office, council or agency of the state, or a public benefit corporation or authority authorized by the laws of the state.
4. "Federal agency" means any department, office, council or agency of the federal government, or any public benefit corporation or authority authorized by federal statute.
5. "Local agency" means any community organization created for the purposes of enhancing the revitalization of distressed urban areas.
6. "Distressed urban area" means communities within cities or urban counties of the state characterized by blight, stagnating or declining tax base, an unemployment rate in excess of the statewide average, an aged housing stock, a stagnating or declining population or the existence of ten per centum or more of the population at or below the poverty level.
7. "Cabinet" means the urban revitalization affairs cabinet created pursuant to an executive order to assist the governor in the coordination of state policies and programs affecting urban areas.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 896. Office of urban revitalization. 1. There is hereby created in the executive department an office of urban revitalization. The head of the office shall be the director of urban revitalization who shall be appointed by the governor and who shall hold office at the pleasure of the governor.
2. The director shall receive an annual salary to be fixed by the governor within the amount made available therefor by an appropriation and shall be allowed his actual and necessary expenses in the performance of his duties.
3. The director shall direct the work of the office and shall be the chief executive officer of the office. The director may appoint such officers and employees as he may deem necessary, prescribe their duties, fix their compensation, and provide for the reimbursement of their expenses, all within amounts made available therefor by appropriation.
4. The director shall report to the secretary to the governor on the activities of the office and shall serve as the secretary's staff representative to assure the implementation of urban policy recommendations developed by the cabinet and approved by the governor.
5. The director shall prepare and submit annually, on or before January first, a comprehensive report, pursuant to section nine hundred four of this article.
6. The secretary to the governor shall assure that all state agencies provide the director with assistance in advancing the purposes of the office and to assure that the activities of the office are fully coordinated with the activities of state agencies providing related services.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 897. General functions, powers and duties. The office of urban revitalization by and through the director or his duly authorized officers and employees, shall have the following functions, powers and duties;
1. To provide comprehensive information on existing state, federal and local urban development and revitalization programs upon request to any local agency located in distressed urban area of the state.
2. To receive notification from all state agencies engaged in urban development and revitalization programs of program descriptions, appropriation data, application procedures and local agencies or community non-profit organizations receiving state assistance for such programs. The office shall, upon receipt of such notification, make available a listing of existing programs and assure that all related local agencies are notified of their existence.
3. To assist, upon request, applicant local agencies located in distressed urban areas in obtaining timely and efficient responses from state and federal agencies, to assist such applicants in consideration of alternative program grant strategies and to assist state and federal agencies in cooperative approaches to address the needs of such applicants.
4. To review application procedures formulated by state agencies and to recommend improvements designed to increase the efficiency of these procedures and to enhance the probability for the success of such applications from local agencies located in distressed urban areas.
5. To make available to local agencies, individuals and corporations located in distressed urban areas assistance concerning grant applications procedures and techniques and job development opportunities and to encourage the assistance of the private sector in effectuating the revitalization of distressed urban areas.
6. To administer local assistance programs authorized by the legislature pursuant to statute, within amounts appropriated therefor, designed to encourage revitalization of distressed urban areas.
7. To assist the governor, the cabinet and the legislature in the coordination, consolidation and improvement of state policy for distressed urban areas, through the establishment, as far as is practical, of offices in such areas, through the holding of public hearings and to represent the governor before federal agencies on matters of importance to coordinate policy for the revitalization of such areas.
8. To apply for and receive, consistent with the appropriation, notification, and approval requirements of the state finance law, grants or financial assistance from federal agencies.
9. To adopt such rules and regulations, procedures, instructions, and forms as are required to carry out the functions, powers and duties imposed upon the office by this article.
10. To serve as staff for the cabinet in the formation of agendas for regular meetings, the preparation of minutes of such meetings, the development of policy papers and assuring the implementation of policies and programs proposed by the cabinet and adopted by the governor.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 898. Assistance of other state agencies. To effectuate the purposes of this article, the director may request and shall be entitled to receive from any state agency, and the same are authorized to provide, such assistance, services, facilities, and data as will enable the office to carry out its functions, powers, and duties, and such temporarily or permanently assigned personnel as the director of the budget may approve.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 899. Comprehensive grant information. 1. The office shall request such specific information as the director determines to be necessary concerning assistance programs and grants administered by federal, state, and local agencies designed to enhance the revitalization of distressed urban areas. Such information shall be provided, upon request, to local agencies for the purpose of maximizing the coordination of program and grant participation by such agencies.
2. Not later than March first, nineteen hundred eighty, the office shall report to the governor and the legislature upon the availability of grants, financial assistance and technical assistance for the purposes of the revitalization of distressed urban areas. Such report shall comment upon the adequacy of current methods for the dissemination of information to local agencies and governmental units and shall contain recommendations for the improvement of the dissemination of such information.
3. Any applicant, located in distressed urban areas, for program grants to improve the physical or economic condition of such areas may confer with the office to obtain assistance in the prompt and efficient processing and review of application.
4. The office shall, so far as possible, render such assistance; and the director may designate an officer or employee of the office to act as an expeditor for the purpose of:
(a) Facilitating contacts for the applicant with state, federal or local agencies responsible for processing and reviewing grant applications;
(b) Arranging conferences to clarify the interest and requirements of any such agency with respect to grant applications;
(c) Considering with the agencies the feasibility of consolidating hearings and data required of the applicant;
(d) Assisting the applicant in the resolution of outstanding issues identified by the agencies, including delays experienced in application review; and
(e) Coordinating federal, state, and local grant application review actions and assistance programs to the extent practicable.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 900. Designation of target areas for concentrated revitalization. 1. The office shall recommend to the cabinet the designation of specific distressed urban areas wherein a program of concentrated revitalization shall be directed based upon an assessment of extraordinary need as determined by the director.
2. Upon the recommendation of the cabinet and the approval of the governor to so designate an area wherein a program of concentrated revitalization shall be directed, the office, in cooperation with federal, state and local governments and agencies shall develop a plan to effectuate such targeted concentrated revitalization. Such plan may include the formation of not-for-profit corporations or subsidiaries of existent public benefit corporations in such areas, the redirection of existing programs and resources for the benefit of such areas, and the creation of such new or expanded programs in such areas as may be authorized by law.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 901. Implementation of services. 1. Services rendered by this office shall be made available without charge, provided that nothing contained herein shall relieve an applicant of any part of existing fees or charges established for the review and approval of grant applications by the agencies.
2. Each state agency involved in the administration of a program grant or technical assistance effort designed to improve physical or economic conditions of distressed urban areas shall designate an officer or employee to act as program liaison officer to cooperate with and assist the office in carrying out the provisions of this article.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 902. Federal and local government participation. 1. Federal and local government agencies involved in the administration of a program grant or technical assistance effort designed to improve physical or economic conditions in distressed urban areas shall be encouraged to participate in the assistance services of the office and to make information available to applicants through the office with respect to any related program undertaking, project, or activity which is referred to the office under the provisions of this article.
2. The director shall consult with federal and local government officials with respect to cooperation in coordinating federal, state and local assistance programs to distressed urban areas and shall recommend to the governor and the legislature any programs which would facilitate such coordination.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 903. Temporary assignment or permanent transfer of personnel. The director, in consultation with the head of the state agency concerned and with the approval of the director of the budget, may provide for the temporary or permanent assignment or transfer of officers and employees of state agencies to the office employees permanently transferred shall be transferred without further examination or qualification and shall retain their respective civil service classification and status. Any employee who, at the time of such transfer, has a temporary or provisional appointment shall be transferred subject to the same right of removal, examination or termination as though such transfer had not been made. No existing right or benefit, including retirement benefits or remedy of any character, shall be lost, impaired or affected by reason of this article. The director of the budget shall be responsible for timely notification of all such assignments and transfers to the chairman of the senate finance committee and the chairman of the assembly ways and means committee. Transfer of employees pursuant to this article shall be governed solely and exclusively by the provisions hereof notwithstanding other provisions of the law.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 904. Reports to the governor, cabinet and the legislature. The office shall hereafter make an annual report, to be received on or before January first, to the governor, the cabinet and the legislature concerning the assistance activities undertaken by the office, recommendations for legislative proposals, data concerning program activities in distressed urban areas and other pertinent information as may be required.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 905. Termination of authority. Unless expressly extended by law, the authority of the office to provide services under this article shall terminate on March thirty-first, nineteen hundred eighty-five.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 906. Contract authority. The office is hereby empowered to enter into any agreement or contract with any state agency necessary or convenient to carry out the provisions of this article.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 907. Separability. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part of this article shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
Section 894. Declaration of purpose.
895. Definitions.
896. Office of urban revitalization.
897. General functions, powers and duties.
898. Assistance of other state agencies.
899. Comprehensive grant information.
900. Designation of target areas for concentrated revitalization.
901. Implementation of services.
902. Federal and local government participation.
903. Temporary assignment or permanent transfer of personnel.
904. Reports to the governor, cabinet and the legislature.
905. Termination of authority.
906. Contract authority.
907. Separability.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 894. Declaration of purpose. The legislature finds and determines as follows:
1. The urban areas of the state of New York have unique characteristics, needs, conditions and opportunities. These urban areas are vital to the economic, social and general health of our state. The magnitude of the challenge of economic habilitation of those distressed urban areas which are in need of assistance is such that a concentrated effort by the state in cooperation with these communities is required.
2. Past efforts on the part of the state to facilitate necessary assistance to distressed urban areas have been characterized by specific and innovative program approaches to individual symptoms of blight and deterioration. The state has firmly established through these individual program approaches its commitment to preserving the viability of urban areas. Numerous agencies have been created, empowered and funded to assist and coordinate these efforts in specific areas of need.
3. Efforts have further been made, through the establishment of the urban affairs cabinet, to facilitate and to enhance the coordination of state programs and efforts intended to remedy the problems of urban blight and deterioration.
4. Despite these tangible past and present commitments to urban preservation and development, the legislature hereby finds and determines that many of the urban areas of our state continue to suffer from blight and deterioration of basic public services, the private economic sector, housing stock and other critical elements of community vitality.
5. It is further found and declared that the numerous efforts of the state designed to address and to correct existing and encroaching indices of community distress must be strengthened and enhanced and assistance to local and community agencies and organizations designed to maximize the amount of financial and other assistance directed to distressed urban areas must be improved.
6. It is therefore, the intent of the legislature to establish an office of urban revitalization. The legislature intends that such office shall augment the efforts of the urban cabinet in coordinating the programs and efforts of the state agencies and public benefit corporations to remedy existent problems in distressed urban areas. Said office shall also be empowered to assure the provision of technical assistance to localities and community organizations engaging the improvement of economic, housing, industrial and commercial revitalization of distressed communities. The legislature intends that this office serve these organizations in order to maximize their abilities to successfully obtain assistance from all available private and public sources.
7. It is further the intent of the legislature to empower the office to initiate, subject to legislative authorization and appropriations for that purpose, programs of financial assistance to local and community agencies and organizations consistent with the policy of enhancing the revitalization of distressed urban areas.
8. These programs of assistance to distressed urban communities and community organizations will thereby constitute an economic advantage to the state and facilitate the implementation of the revitalization of distressed urban areas.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 895. Definitions. When used in this article:
1. "Office" means the office of urban revitalization created by this article.
2. "Director" means the executive director of the urban affairs cabinet and chief administrative officer of the office of urban revitalization.
3. "State agency" means any department, board, bureau, commission, division, office, council or agency of the state, or a public benefit corporation or authority authorized by the laws of the state.
4. "Federal agency" means any department, office, council or agency of the federal government, or any public benefit corporation or authority authorized by federal statute.
5. "Local agency" means any community organization created for the purposes of enhancing the revitalization of distressed urban areas.
6. "Distressed urban area" means communities within cities or urban counties of the state characterized by blight, stagnating or declining tax base, an unemployment rate in excess of the statewide average, an aged housing stock, a stagnating or declining population or the existence of ten per centum or more of the population at or below the poverty level.
7. "Cabinet" means the urban revitalization affairs cabinet created pursuant to an executive order to assist the governor in the coordination of state policies and programs affecting urban areas.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 896. Office of urban revitalization. 1. There is hereby created in the executive department an office of urban revitalization. The head of the office shall be the director of urban revitalization who shall be appointed by the governor and who shall hold office at the pleasure of the governor.
2. The director shall receive an annual salary to be fixed by the governor within the amount made available therefor by an appropriation and shall be allowed his actual and necessary expenses in the performance of his duties.
3. The director shall direct the work of the office and shall be the chief executive officer of the office. The director may appoint such officers and employees as he may deem necessary, prescribe their duties, fix their compensation, and provide for the reimbursement of their expenses, all within amounts made available therefor by appropriation.
4. The director shall report to the secretary to the governor on the activities of the office and shall serve as the secretary's staff representative to assure the implementation of urban policy recommendations developed by the cabinet and approved by the governor.
5. The director shall prepare and submit annually, on or before January first, a comprehensive report, pursuant to section nine hundred four of this article.
6. The secretary to the governor shall assure that all state agencies provide the director with assistance in advancing the purposes of the office and to assure that the activities of the office are fully coordinated with the activities of state agencies providing related services.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 897. General functions, powers and duties. The office of urban revitalization by and through the director or his duly authorized officers and employees, shall have the following functions, powers and duties;
1. To provide comprehensive information on existing state, federal and local urban development and revitalization programs upon request to any local agency located in distressed urban area of the state.
2. To receive notification from all state agencies engaged in urban development and revitalization programs of program descriptions, appropriation data, application procedures and local agencies or community non-profit organizations receiving state assistance for such programs. The office shall, upon receipt of such notification, make available a listing of existing programs and assure that all related local agencies are notified of their existence.
3. To assist, upon request, applicant local agencies located in distressed urban areas in obtaining timely and efficient responses from state and federal agencies, to assist such applicants in consideration of alternative program grant strategies and to assist state and federal agencies in cooperative approaches to address the needs of such applicants.
4. To review application procedures formulated by state agencies and to recommend improvements designed to increase the efficiency of these procedures and to enhance the probability for the success of such applications from local agencies located in distressed urban areas.
5. To make available to local agencies, individuals and corporations located in distressed urban areas assistance concerning grant applications procedures and techniques and job development opportunities and to encourage the assistance of the private sector in effectuating the revitalization of distressed urban areas.
6. To administer local assistance programs authorized by the legislature pursuant to statute, within amounts appropriated therefor, designed to encourage revitalization of distressed urban areas.
7. To assist the governor, the cabinet and the legislature in the coordination, consolidation and improvement of state policy for distressed urban areas, through the establishment, as far as is practical, of offices in such areas, through the holding of public hearings and to represent the governor before federal agencies on matters of importance to coordinate policy for the revitalization of such areas.
8. To apply for and receive, consistent with the appropriation, notification, and approval requirements of the state finance law, grants or financial assistance from federal agencies.
9. To adopt such rules and regulations, procedures, instructions, and forms as are required to carry out the functions, powers and duties imposed upon the office by this article.
10. To serve as staff for the cabinet in the formation of agendas for regular meetings, the preparation of minutes of such meetings, the development of policy papers and assuring the implementation of policies and programs proposed by the cabinet and adopted by the governor.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 898. Assistance of other state agencies. To effectuate the purposes of this article, the director may request and shall be entitled to receive from any state agency, and the same are authorized to provide, such assistance, services, facilities, and data as will enable the office to carry out its functions, powers, and duties, and such temporarily or permanently assigned personnel as the director of the budget may approve.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 899. Comprehensive grant information. 1. The office shall request such specific information as the director determines to be necessary concerning assistance programs and grants administered by federal, state, and local agencies designed to enhance the revitalization of distressed urban areas. Such information shall be provided, upon request, to local agencies for the purpose of maximizing the coordination of program and grant participation by such agencies.
2. Not later than March first, nineteen hundred eighty, the office shall report to the governor and the legislature upon the availability of grants, financial assistance and technical assistance for the purposes of the revitalization of distressed urban areas. Such report shall comment upon the adequacy of current methods for the dissemination of information to local agencies and governmental units and shall contain recommendations for the improvement of the dissemination of such information.
3. Any applicant, located in distressed urban areas, for program grants to improve the physical or economic condition of such areas may confer with the office to obtain assistance in the prompt and efficient processing and review of application.
4. The office shall, so far as possible, render such assistance; and the director may designate an officer or employee of the office to act as an expeditor for the purpose of:
(a) Facilitating contacts for the applicant with state, federal or local agencies responsible for processing and reviewing grant applications;
(b) Arranging conferences to clarify the interest and requirements of any such agency with respect to grant applications;
(c) Considering with the agencies the feasibility of consolidating hearings and data required of the applicant;
(d) Assisting the applicant in the resolution of outstanding issues identified by the agencies, including delays experienced in application review; and
(e) Coordinating federal, state, and local grant application review actions and assistance programs to the extent practicable.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 900. Designation of target areas for concentrated revitalization. 1. The office shall recommend to the cabinet the designation of specific distressed urban areas wherein a program of concentrated revitalization shall be directed based upon an assessment of extraordinary need as determined by the director.
2. Upon the recommendation of the cabinet and the approval of the governor to so designate an area wherein a program of concentrated revitalization shall be directed, the office, in cooperation with federal, state and local governments and agencies shall develop a plan to effectuate such targeted concentrated revitalization. Such plan may include the formation of not-for-profit corporations or subsidiaries of existent public benefit corporations in such areas, the redirection of existing programs and resources for the benefit of such areas, and the creation of such new or expanded programs in such areas as may be authorized by law.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 901. Implementation of services. 1. Services rendered by this office shall be made available without charge, provided that nothing contained herein shall relieve an applicant of any part of existing fees or charges established for the review and approval of grant applications by the agencies.
2. Each state agency involved in the administration of a program grant or technical assistance effort designed to improve physical or economic conditions of distressed urban areas shall designate an officer or employee to act as program liaison officer to cooperate with and assist the office in carrying out the provisions of this article.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 902. Federal and local government participation. 1. Federal and local government agencies involved in the administration of a program grant or technical assistance effort designed to improve physical or economic conditions in distressed urban areas shall be encouraged to participate in the assistance services of the office and to make information available to applicants through the office with respect to any related program undertaking, project, or activity which is referred to the office under the provisions of this article.
2. The director shall consult with federal and local government officials with respect to cooperation in coordinating federal, state and local assistance programs to distressed urban areas and shall recommend to the governor and the legislature any programs which would facilitate such coordination.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 903. Temporary assignment or permanent transfer of personnel. The director, in consultation with the head of the state agency concerned and with the approval of the director of the budget, may provide for the temporary or permanent assignment or transfer of officers and employees of state agencies to the office employees permanently transferred shall be transferred without further examination or qualification and shall retain their respective civil service classification and status. Any employee who, at the time of such transfer, has a temporary or provisional appointment shall be transferred subject to the same right of removal, examination or termination as though such transfer had not been made. No existing right or benefit, including retirement benefits or remedy of any character, shall be lost, impaired or affected by reason of this article. The director of the budget shall be responsible for timely notification of all such assignments and transfers to the chairman of the senate finance committee and the chairman of the assembly ways and means committee. Transfer of employees pursuant to this article shall be governed solely and exclusively by the provisions hereof notwithstanding other provisions of the law.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 904. Reports to the governor, cabinet and the legislature. The office shall hereafter make an annual report, to be received on or before January first, to the governor, the cabinet and the legislature concerning the assistance activities undertaken by the office, recommendations for legislative proposals, data concerning program activities in distressed urban areas and other pertinent information as may be required.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 905. Termination of authority. Unless expressly extended by law, the authority of the office to provide services under this article shall terminate on March thirty-first, nineteen hundred eighty-five.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 906. Contract authority. The office is hereby empowered to enter into any agreement or contract with any state agency necessary or convenient to carry out the provisions of this article.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
* § 907. Separability. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part of this article shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered.
* NB Expired March 31, 1985
