382 - Canal corporation.
§ 382. Canal corporation. 1. There is hereby created a public benefit corporation known as the "New York state canal corporation" (hereinafter referred to as the "canal corporation") as a subsidiary corporation of the authority. The canal corporation is solely created to, and shall have only the power to, operate, maintain, construct, reconstruct, improve, develop, finance, and promote the New York State canal system. 2. The authority may transfer to the canal corporation any moneys, real, personal, or mixed property or any personnel in order to carry out the purposes of this section. The canal corporation and any of its property, functions, and activities shall have all of the privileges, immunities, tax exemptions and other exemptions of the authority and of the authority's property, functions, and activities. The canal corporation shall be subject to the restrictions and limitations to which the authority may be subject. The canal corporation shall be subject to suit in accordance with section three hundred sixty-one-b of this title. The canal corporation may delegate to one or more of its members, or its officers, agents and employees, such duties and powers as it may deem proper. 3. The members of the canal corporation shall be the same persons holding the offices of members of the authority. 4. No officer or member of the canal corporation shall receive any additional compensation, either direct or indirect, other than reimbursement for actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of his or her duties, by reason of his or her serving as a member, director, or trustee of the canal corporation. 5. The employees of the canal corporation, except those who are also employees of the authority, generally shall not be deemed to be employees of the authority by reason of their employment by the canal corporation. However, officers, agents, and employees of the canal corporation and officers, agents, and employees of the authority may transfer between the canal corporation and the authority, or vice versa, as provided for in section three hundred fifty-five of this title, and employees of the canal corporation may be placed on promotion lists for authority jobs and vice versa, provided, however, that the canal corporation and the authority are separate promotion units for the purposes of subdivision five of section fifty-two of the civil service law. Such departmental and interdepartmental promotion eligible lists shall not be certified until after the promotion unit eligible lists have been exhausted. All officers, agents, and employees of the canal corporation shall be subject to the provisions of the civil service law which shall apply to the canal corporation as a municipal corporation other than a city. The canal corporation shall participate in the New York state and local employees' retirement system. 6. The fiscal year of the canal corporation shall be the same as the fiscal year for the authority. 7. The canal corporation shall have the power to: (a) operate, maintain, construct, reconstruct, improve, develop, finance, and promote the New York state canal system as defined in the canal law; (b) sue and be sued; (c) have a seal and alter the same at pleasure; (d) make and alter by-laws for its organization and internal management and make rules and regulations governing the use of its property and facilities; (e) appoint officers, agents and employees, who shall be subject to section three hundred fifty-five of this title, and fix their compensation;(f) make and execute contracts and all other instruments necessary or convenient for the exercise of its powers and functions under this chapter; (g) acquire, hold, and dispose of real or personal property for its corporate purposes; (h) engage the services of private consultants on a contract basis for rendering professional and technical assistance and advice; (i) procure insurance against any loss in connection with its activities, properties, and other assets, in such amount and from such insurers as it deems desirable; (j) invest any funds of the canal corporation, or any other monies under its custody and control not required for immediate use or disbursement, at the discretion of the canal corporation, in obligations of the state or the United States government or obligations the principal and interest of which are guaranteed by the state or the United States government, or in any other obligations in which the comptroller of the state is authorized to invest pursuant to section ninety-eight-a of the state finance law; (k) exercise those powers and duties of the authority pursuant to the canal law; (l) prepare and submit a capital program plan pursuant to section ten of the canal law; (m) approve and implement the New York state canal recreationway plan submitted pursuant to section one hundred thirty-eight-c of the canal law. The canal corporation's review and approval of the canal recreationway plan shall be based upon its consideration of a generic environmental impact statement prepared by the canal corporation in accordance with article eight of the environmental conservation law and the regulations thereunder. Prior to the implementation of any substantial improvement by the canal corporation on canal lands, canal terminals, or canal terminal lands, or the lease of canal lands, canal terminals, or canal terminal lands for substantial commercial improvement, the canal corporation, in addition to any review taken pursuant to section 14.09 of the parks, recreation and historic preservation law, shall conduct a reconnaissance level survey within three thousand feet of such lands to be improved of the type, location, and significance of historic buildings, sites, and districts listed on, or which may be eligible, for the state or national registers of historic places. The findings of such survey shall be used to identify significant historical resources and to determine whether the proposed improvements are compatible with such historic buildings, sites, and districts; (n) enter on any lands, waters, or premises for the purpose of making borings, soundings, and surveys; and (o) accept any gifts or any grant of funds or property from the federal government or from the state or any other federal or state public body or political subdivision or any other person and to comply with the terms and conditions thereof. 8. (a) The canal corporation shall review the budget request submitted by the canal recreationway commission pursuant to section one hundred thirty-eight-b of the canal law. (b) The canal corporation, on or before the first day of November, nineteen hundred ninety-two and on or before the fifteenth day of September of each year thereafter, shall submit to the director of the budget a request for the expenditure of funds available from the New York state canal system development fund pursuant to section ninety-two-u of the state finance law or available from any other non-federal sources appropriated from the state treasury.(c) In the event that the request submitted by the canal corporation to the director of the budget differs from the request submitted by the commission to the canal corporation, then the request submitted by the canal corporation to the director of the budget shall specify the differences and shall set forth the reasons for such differences. 9. The canal corporation shall review the recommendations of the canal recreationway commission concerning the future use of canal lands in the Adirondack park issued pursuant to section one hundred thirty-eight-b of the canal law, and shall report to the governor and the legislature not later than the first day of October, nineteen hundred ninety-four, identifying any property not needed for canal purposes that may be transferred to the department of environmental conservation. 10. The canal corporation shall not have the power to issue bonds, notes, or other obligations. 11. The canal corporation may do any and all things necessary or convenient to carry out and exercise the powers given and granted by this section. 12. The authority and all other state officers, departments, boards, divisions, commissions, public authorities, and public benefit corporations may render such services to the canal corporation within their respective functions as may be requested by the canal corporation. 13. Whenever any state political subdivision, municipality, commission, agency, officer, department, board, division, or person is authorized and empowered for any of the purposes of this title to cooperate and enter into agreements with the authority, such state political subdivision, municipality, commission, agency, officer, department, board, division, or person shall have the same authorization and power for any such purposes to cooperate and enter into agreements with the canal corporation.