The law states that a majority of a public authority board must be comprised of independent members. What does this mean and how is independence determined?
The majority of the board, exclusive of ex officio members, must meet the independence requirements of Section 2825(2) of Public Authorities Law. This means that if a public authority has a nine member board, with four ex officio members, three of the remaining five appointees to the board must be independent. Section 2825(2) defines an independent member as one who: has not been employed by the public authority or an affiliate in an executive capacity over the past two years; has not been employed by an entity that received more than $15,000 from the public authority or received any other form of financial assistance of more than $15,000; is not a relative of an executive of the public authority or affiliate; and has not been a paid lobbyist to influence the actions of the authority or affiliate over the past two years. This provision applies to the composition of the board following appointments made on or after January 15, 2006.
