Inspector General: NYSTI director acted unlawfully

The Business Review (Albany) reported that the state inspector general today alleged that New York State Theatre Institute producing director Patricia Snyder unlawfully directed more than $1 million of the Troy-based authority’s funds to pay family members and support “questionable expenses” that included a $150,000 apartment in New York City.

The 127-page report issued by Inspector General Joseph Fisch alleges that, among other things, Snyder hired herself and family members to act, direct and produce 92 percent of all NYSTI productions; received adaptation rights and royalties from the theatre’s production of “Miracle on 34th Street;” and spent $150,000 on an apartment near Carnegie Hall that was used to lodge family and friends.

E. Stewart Jones, an attorney representing Snyder, called the 127-page report “highly distorted and really mean-spirited.”

Jones said the report takes situations out of context, and that Snyder’s family members were qualified for their positions and highly respected in their fields.

“They are all present on their merits,” Jones said.

He said that neither Snyder, NYSTI’s board nor its attorney were aware of a 2007 state law that prohibits nepotism in state-created authorities.

State legislation in 1974 created NYSTI as a nonprofit public authority to provide theater and education for New York youth. It is funded with public money.

As such, NYSTI is a state agency that must follow New York’s ethics laws. Those laws were established in the 1980s and strengthened in 2007. The 2007 law prohibits “elected officials, state officers or employees” from “hiring, promoting, disciplining or discharging a relative” for any paid position at state agencies or authorities. Snyder did much of the hiring at NYSTI.

Read more: Inspector General: NYSTI director acted unlawfully - The Business Review (Albany)