{"id":2280,"date":"2010-06-26T12:23:57","date_gmt":"2010-06-26T16:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=2280"},"modified":"2010-06-26T12:23:57","modified_gmt":"2010-06-26T16:23:57","slug":"are-adirondack-green-groups-preparing-to-challenge-the-local-government-review-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/06\/26\/are-adirondack-green-groups-preparing-to-challenge-the-local-government-review-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Adirondack green groups preparing to challenge the Local Government Review Board?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In April, NCPR reported on the growing influence of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board<\/a>, an entity created by the state legislature in the 1970s to provide oversight over and feedback to the Adirondack Park Agency.<\/p>\n

The LGRB receives taxpayer funding and under the leadership of Fred Monroe, head of the Warren County board of supervisors, has taken a leading role in opposing a number of environmental initiatives.<\/p>\n

The Review Board is backing a moratorium on expansion of the forest preserve, has argued against expanding regulations of private land in the Park, and is attempting to block the confirmation of boat builder Peter Hornbeck to the APA board.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups have grumbled for years that Monroe may have exceeded his legislative mandate, and perhaps used taxpayer dollars to fund political lobbying efforts.<\/p>\n

Asked about those concerns, Monroe says, “If you look very narrowly at the statutory language, I can see where people could make the argument.”<\/p>\n

But he says he’s following the spirit of the legislature’s intent and adds:\u00a0 “I do think it’s important to have a counter-acting force [to the environmental movement].”<\/p>\n

Now it appears that green groups are considering a challenge to the LGRB’s agenda.<\/p>\n

The Adirondack Council and Protect the Adirondacks have both sent Freedom of Information requests to Monroe, demanding disclosure of financial information and details about how the Board is working to influence public opinion.<\/p>\n

In a FOIL request sent April 22nd, Protect requests “all contracts with, invoices submitted by, work produced by, all advertising, public relations, and communications advisers” along with “all financial reports.”<\/p>\n

The Council sent a similar letter last week, on June 23rd.<\/p>\n

In an email sent today, Monroe says “the documents sought by Protect the Adirondacks have been provided.\u00a0 The Review Board is reviewing the Adirondack Council’s request.”<\/p>\n

So what do you think?<\/p>\n

Is this a case of environmental groups looking to challenge a prominent advocate for the pro-development and pro-local government cause?<\/p>\n

Or is it a legitimate inquiry into whether tax dollars are being spent to fund one side of the political debate over the Park’s future?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In April, NCPR reported on the growing influence of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2281,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions\/2281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}