But now, those who want to stop Amazon from coming to Queens have gotten their most tangible boost yet: An opponent of the Amazon deal has been selected for a spot on a little-known state board that the governor has said will have to decide on the development plan for Amazon, and could veto it completely.
On Monday, the new Democratic majority in the state Senate chose one of the most vocal critics of the Amazon deal, Sen. Michael Gianaris of Queens, to represent them as one of three voting members of the Public Authorities Control Board. Any voting member of the board has the power to block projects that come before it.
The selection of Gianaris, detailed in a brief letter obtained by The New York Times, was certain to cheer those who have advocated for elected leaders to scuttle the agreement reached by Cuomo and de Blasio in November, which could amount to $3 billion in state and city incentives for Amazon to create 25,000 to 40,000 jobs in Queens.
The obscure board does have a history of scuttling major deals: 14 years ago it helped derail former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plans for a new stadium in Manhattan.
The decision to appoint Gianaris to the board immediately presented a political challenge for Cuomo — who must decide whether to refuse the Senate’s choice — and demonstrated the ability of the newly Democrat-led state Legislature to challenge the governor’s control over the kinds of state boards that, in recent years, he has been mostly able to bend to his will.
The new majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, sent the letter Monday to Cuomo, who must sign off on the selection. It was not immediately clear if he would approve and appoint Gianaris, who has been a frequent critic of the governor and has called the incentives for Amazon “offensive.”
Stewart-Cousins said in a statement that Gianaris, “will add a helpful voice to the Public Authorities Control Board” and that “he will bring an important perspective and accountability to this board as it reviews numerous projects.”
A spokeswoman for Cuomo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokeswoman for Amazon declined to comment. Company executives have said they expected the development plan would go before the board next year. Voting members of the board are appointed to one-year terms.
Gianaris, in an interview, would not commit to voting for or against Amazon because, he said, the details of the state’s development proposal, known as a General Project Plan, were still being put together.
“My position on the Amazon deal is clear and unambiguous and is not changing,” said Gianaris, who has been present at protests against the deal. “It’s hard for me to say what I would do, when I don’t know what it is I would be asked to opine on.”
However, he added, he did not intend to use his position to seek concessions from Amazon.
“I’m not looking to negotiate a better deal,” Gianaris said. “I am against the deal that has been proposed and don’t believe that it can form the foundation of a negotiation.”
The sudden injection of uncertainty followed a troubled unveiling of the project and a concerted effort by activist organizers to rally opposition to the deal. The company, in recent weeks, has been trying its own charm offensive, engaging local business owners, lobbyists and friendly officials to sell the deal.
Last week, Amazon executives endured a barrage of questioning during a second hearing on the deal before the New York City Council, a solidly progressive Democratic body whose members have been critical of the company’s treatment of its workers. During the hearing, Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president for public policy, said the company would not remain neutral if its employees tried to unionize.
The comment sparked criticism from Stewart-Cousins and her counterpart in the Assembly, Carl Heastie, the speaker.
At the same time, Amazon executives have privately voiced frustration at the criticism in New York, comparing it with the welcome they have received in Virginia, where a similarly sized campus was announced on the same day in November. Huseman, in his prepared remarks last week, said pointedly that the company had been “invited to come to New York, and we want to invest in a community that wants us.”
Lawmakers have used the Public Authorities Control Board — whose voting members are appointed by the Senate, the Assembly and the governor — as a roadblock to big projects before. In 2005, Bloomberg saw his plan for a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, part of the city’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics, shot down in front of the board by the vote of one state lawmaker, then-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Silver said he could not support a deal that could harm the district in Lower Manhattan that he represented.
Experts on state government have said that the board would need to weigh in on the Amazon project too, though top officials in the Cuomo administration have delivered mixed signals on the matter.
Shortly after Amazon announced it would be building a new campus in Queens, Robert F. Mujica Jr., Cuomo’s appointee to the board and its chairman, suggested that the deal might not necessarily go before him.
But Cuomo has since said that the board would play a crucial role.
“The state, through Empire Development Corp., will do a project plan that will be approved by what’s called the PACB,” he said in an interview with WNYC last year. (Part of the deal, a $500 million capital grant from the state would not require board approval, Cuomo said.)
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.