Christopher Kay

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NYRA keeps details of CEO’s contract secret

Posted by noonante on July 25, 2013
Posted in: Horse Racing, Political/Social commentary. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 Comments

At Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial in the United States Senate, his attorney, former Senator Dale Bumpers, observed, “When they say it’s not about the sex … it’s about the sex.”  A corollary theory exists when a politician vows to be transparent  –  even running the most transparent administration in history  –  because then it’s time to get out the hip boots.

Governor Andrew Cuomo designated David Skorton, President of Cornell University, to chair the New York Racing Association’s Reorganization Board following the state’s takeover of the “old” NYRA last year.  At the first meeting of the Board, Skorton announced his decision to “voluntarily” comply with New York’s public records law and open meetings law, and had the Board pass a motion affirming that desire.  The new NYRA Board, consisting of  17 members, 12 of whom are appointed by the Governor or legislative leaders, however, is now actually a government agency for purposes of those two laws and must comply with them whether it wants to or not.

When it came time to hire a new CEO, the chair of the Compensation Committee expressed a concern about a government agency paying a salary equivalent to the prior CEO’s, and suggested a bifurcated approach.   While a consultant to the Compensation Committee had advised that a salary for a comparable position would be in the range of $600,000 to $1 million, the Committee’s recommendation was for a salary of $300,000 and eligibility for a bonus of $250,000.  Chairman Skorton endorsed this approach, assuring the Board members that a bonus would be based on a “real, balanced score card” with milestones.  After the NYRA Board decided to hire Chris Kay as its new CEO on June 18, Chairman Skorton in a press statement again referenced the “balanced score card” which contained both quantitative and qualitative “metrics.”  He further stated that he wanted to be “very public about this.”

So at Kay’s first press conference at Saratoga last week, he was asked to identify the benchmarks that would be used to measure his performance.  He refused.  When pressed, Kay told the questioner to ask Chairman Skorton.

It turns out I had already done so, making a request for the scorecard and a copy of Kay’s contract under New York’s public records law.  This week I was informed that I would not be given the documents by the deadline set forth in the  law, but may get them in another month.  While the law does permit extending the deadline for “reasonable circumstances,” there are no valid reasons to withhold documents that are unquestionably public ones and readily available in NYRA’s offices.

Even more troubling than the refusal of NYRA to both follow the law and Skorton’s stated desire to be “very public,” however, is why NYRA would want to withhold them?  The most obvious explanation, of course, is that there is something in the documents that would be embarrassing to NYRA.  One could also conclude that in the Cuomo Administration  –  this is a Governor who once risibly said his would be the most transparent in New York history  – cares little for the niceties of laws that are supposed to guarantee New Yorkers reasonable access to what their government is doing.

While those are both convenient, and perhaps accurate, explanations, I am puzzled that a NYRA that desperately wants to break from the recent past will not let us know how they will be different.  The Cuomo team now fully in charge not only has no track record in racing, but has yet to provide any evidence they have even a remote clue of what they are doing.  The Governor has no interest in a signature New York industry, and has admitted having no knowledge about the sport.  His pick to head NYRA’s Board has also conceded lacking knowledge (at least at the time he assumed his position).  And now the guy running the show can only point to track visits that were more than 40 years ago as his racing background.

So while New York’s horsemen and horsewomen wonder what the future will bring in an economic environment that is increasingly fragile, why won’t NYRA’s leadership tell us what their vision is by releasing the ballyhooed goals of the new CEO?  Why won’t they tell existing fans, as well as the much-needed new ones, what they hope to accomplish to make the sport as prominent in this state as it has been in the not-too-distant past?

In his press conference last week, CEO Chris Kay spoke of the re-privatization effort as being his primary concern.  He said he had thoughts about attracting more people to the track, particularly focusing on women and young girls.  Given that he was barely in to his third week on the job, it is not surprising that he could not be more specific.   But he was able to parrot some of the tired tropes about the discredited old NYRA.  When he was asked to give a concrete example of how NYRA’s now being “aligned” with state government would result in an improvement going forward, he could not do so.  NYRA’s new leaders appear to be operating under a delusion that all they need to do to build the public’s trust and support is to continually denigrate the prior leadership  –  even though that leadership left almost 15 months ago.

If all NYRA is doing is marking time until yet another governing structure is in place in 2016, it would not only be a colossal waste of time, but a grave disservice to all those whose livelihoods depend on the sport, as well as to a sport in which New York has been a national leader.  That’s why it would be nice to know what Chris Kay’s performance goals are.

NYRA Board selects new CEO in 8 minutes

Posted by noonante on June 21, 2013
Posted in: Horse Racing, Political/Social commentary, Politics. Tagged: , , , . 2 Comments

The New York Racing Association has been without a permanent CEO for more than 13 months and the new Reorganization Board did not even begin a search for a replacement until 4 months ago, but they were able to decide unanimously on a new CEO in a mere 8 minutes.  The vote selecting Christopher Kay, an unemployed former executive, took place at the Board’s meeting on June 18.

The NYRA Board hired a search firm that, according to its representative at the meeting, conducted an international search that was able to narrow a field warranting “serious consideration” to a mere 100 candidates in a matter of weeks.  The Board’s committee charged with coming up with a candidate made its report in a closed-door Executive Session during the June 10 meeting.  While that session lasted 54 minutes, there was another item on the agenda.

While I would like to think that Board members spent more than an hour considering the merits of this appointment, one aspect I find troubling is that there was no effort at the public portion of the Board to justify the selection.   The NYRA Board, because it is an agency under the control of state government, is required by law to conduct its affairs in compliance with New York’s Open Meetings Law.  While it is permissible to go into a closed-door session to discuss aspects of certain employment matters, the NYRA Board apparently viewed its obligation to operate in public as being limited to a bare recital of aspects of Kay’s resume.

I don’t raise this because of a desire to nitpick NYRA’s compliance with the spirit of the Open Meetings Law, but because I think it reflects an attitude that public perception  –  and, more significantly, securing public approval for an important decision  –  is not of sufficient moment for this Board to spend more than a few minutes explaining their thinking.

Christopher Kay may turn out to be an outstanding leader for NYRA, and I hope he is.  However, there is nothing that was offered at the public portion of the Board meeting to give me any reason to think so.  His background is one that does not exactly distinguish him from any of hundreds of other lawyers who worked in both the private and non-profit sectors.  He also does not have a background in racing.  (I found his statement that he fell in “love” with the sport by going every summer to Cahokia Downs  –  an oval that closed its doors in 1979  –  as somewhat cringe worthy if that was his last visit to a track. )

I do not think a racing background is a sine qua non for NYRA’s CEO, although Kay’s appointment completes a rather unsettling trifecta with a Governor and Board Chairman who have each acknowledged lacking familiarity with the sport and business.  What is important, however, is that any CEO surrounds himself with knowledgeable and committed staff, and that he be willing to work as an independent figure in the industry and in the New York environment.

There are already indications, however, that Kay was not selected because he is going to be a forceful and independent voice for New York racing.  In comments after the Board meeting, Chairman David Skorton emphasized the importance of cooperating with the state government.  He described unidentified past problems as caused not by a “lack of racing savvy, but because of a lack of government savvy.”  He heralded Kay as someone who would make the connection in “the public-private partnership as opposed to the public-private war.”  In this not so thinly-veiled attack on former CEO Charles Hayward, Skorton is sending the message that Kay is a guy who will not be challenging the Governor’s agenda  –  whatever that may turn out to be.

Unfortunately, Skorton’s base of authority clearly resides on the second floor in the Albany Capitol, and not with the horsemen, breeders and fans who are so crucial to New York’s justifiably achieved ranking as the best racing jurisdiction in the nation.  Having disagreements with those in positions of power in government is not necessarily a bad thing.  A Board of Directors has a fiduciary responsibility to its charter and to its base  –  which in this case is the taxpayers of New York in addition to those horsemen, breeders and fans.  There may be times when that fiduciary responsibility requires a responsible and independent Board to disagree with the Governor so as to further the interests of New York’s racing.  I suspect that the real transgression that led to the termination of Hayward last year had nothing to do with an oversight on takeout rates, but with the reality that he was not afraid to stand up to the government to protect the interests of the New York racing community.  If we can end up saying the same about Chris Kay, then he will prove to be an excellent selection.