Carmella Mantello made history this year after she was sworn in as the first woman mayor of Troy. Mantello, a former long-time city council president, is the first Republican mayor to lead the Collar City in more than a decade. Upon taking office in January, she said her first priority was to improve morale among city employees.
She campaigned on being a hands-on mayor who will work with municipal employees to get work done. During her first year in office, Mantello declared several emergencies regarding water infrastructure, abolished the city's planning commission — replacing it with a planning board — and reimagined vacancies in city hall. WAMC's Samantha Simmons spoke with Mantello about some of her decisions that caused a stir among residents and Democratic city councilors.
I was on the council, and it's a given. I think our relationship, obviously a majority, a minority. And, you know, we try to keep it transparent, etc., keep all of them in the loop, you know, the council president, we have tried to meet in the past. Unfortunately, you know, there's politics and policy, and you have to separate those two. At times, I feel the minority many times with, you know, various issues ranging from the comptroller on down, have turned issues into politics. You know, we all know politics. Yes, they're alive during the election. After the election, you roll up your sleeves, you work together. 99 percent of what we do, meaning myself, the chief electeds, are policy. So, you know, my hope moving into 2025 put the politics aside, roll up your sleeves, work together. And I feel, you know, we constantly try to do that. I feel the minority, unfortunately, is not separated those politics from policy. We're seeing statements even before we talk to them, even before they get the information. Wait for the information, call us. The budget perfect example, we spend 12 meetings and over 20 hours, on the budget, line by line, I'm available, I'm accessible. Everyone knows that in Troy including the council. So, you know my message, try to separate politics from policy, and talk to us. We're there. Let's communicate, but it's got to be two ways.
And earlier in the year, the city seemed to have been making steady progress on inventorying water service lines. The city website has data showing where has yet to be inventoried, where already is inventoried. Why has it slowed down when you have information that would allow for a more targeted approach?
We definitely have targeted. It didn't really slow down. The low hanging fruit was hit. Now it's the tough areas. It's the targeted areas of the landlords that have multiple units, tenants, and it's targeting those areas to try to get these multiple unit landlords to allow us in the house, etc. But you know, the great news, we're tackling it every day, not just the inventory, but we have replaced over 350 lines all throughout the city. As you know, some of those lines can be an easy fix. Some are more complex, complicated. The goal, go gangbusters in 2025, hire multiple contractors. We're working on our fee now you're going to hear there is going to be a meeting a week from Monday. We're going to carve out another million out of the ARPA of unspent money toward the lead pipe replacement. We want to thank Senator Schumer, the feds, for appropriating close to $13 million for the lead pipe replacement. It's a huge priority. And you know, when all is said and done, the goal is to replace all the pipes at the end of my term, the first term. And you know, will we do that? You know, that's yet to be seen, but we're going to do everything humanly possible to get there.
Now that the city has been given the green light to bond, if necessary, how quickly do you see those replacement efforts continuing to move?
Yep, quickly. The$1 million will help us of the ARPA money toward the 0% loan. You can't use ARPA money to reimburse but the bonding, we had to put up a bond for EFC anyway, but saying that if we do need to front money outside of the million, the green light was huge. This will also not just for Troy, but have a pathway for other municipalities all across the state, because obviously there was that constitutionality issue with the bonding. So, you know, the great news, we plan to go gangbusters next year, and we hope to triple the amount that we've done over the last year and a half. So, stay tuned. And you know, we're going to be out there replacing lead pipes, and obviously that's got to be coordinated, very detailed, with our paving program, with CDBG, the overhauls that are happening in Lansing, Berg South Troy, and then, of course, you have National Grid also digging up. So, a lot of coordination. But you know, this is a huge priority, as I've stated many times, no parent, no caregiver, should be afraid to turn that tap on, and fear of lead coming out of those pipes. So, it's a huge priority. And for us to come in to replace all those lead pipes at our expense, at government expense, is so big deal, because it's not like folks confront $5-10,000, so huge priority. And you know, we're really pleased of what we've done so far and where we're going.
And one of the largest topics on the table between the administration and the council is the lack of a comptroller since the summertime. Are you concerned over the state of the city's finances? I know that the annual financial report for 2023 was submitted this week. But now that you do have that little bit of a clearer picture, does that change your stance on if you're worried or not?
No. We are under the audit right now. So, the auditors are in house, they're on site, and so the audit will be done within the next few weeks. You know, saying that to take a step back, when your comptroller the first one in 40 years, you literally, you know, have had a comptroller for 12 years before those 20 years doesn't close the books, unfortunately, 2023 wasn’t closed. We, you know, further find out that there were entries all the way from April, January that were not entered. Fast forward, you know, the initial accounting firm that we hired didn't have a lot of government experience. Are we where we want to be in terms of the accounting? Absolutely not. But we are where we are, and we dealt with it professionally, transparently, the public, the council knew along the position that we were in. You know, when your CFO leaves and gives two weeks, that's a little rough, and the books aren't closed. So, keep that in mind for folks out there. But you know, on a total other level, we have interview close to 20-25, people for the Comptroller's position. Our accounting system is from the 1980s 1990s as you know, couple weeks ago, the council authorized me to enter into a contract with Tyler Technologies to update our accounting system, to update our IT. The monies were there. Once again, and they weren't used as many things as we're finding. We're putting projects back on track, whether it be Kronos, whether it be the accounting a new system, and that's really been the past 11 months, putting projects back on track, hitting projects that were, you know, basically turn a blind eye, fix them, and we've come a long way. But saying that we have a great financial team in the comptroller's office. We can't thank BST enough. They put us back on track, and we're confident we'll find the right person. But statewide, I talked to other municipal officials, and there's a real crisis out there finding Comptrollers. There's a small pool all of us are pulling from that small pool. I visited charter school the other day, asked the kids, seniors, what do you plan to be? Not one in accounting? It's just not a profession that you know, seniors and the younger generation is going into right now, comptroller's office the state, they're having a tough time filling position, our accounting firm and others are having a tough time. So, I'm not sure if a shared services program needs to be looked at down the road, but immediately, obviously, we need a comptroller on board. The good news, BST has been phenomenal. Catching us up from 2023 the books not being closed. We filed the AFR auditors in and as I said all along, this isn't a financial issue. The monies are there in the bank. You know, we've tracked all of our expenses, etc. I do on a week to week, monthly basis, but saying that it's an accounting issue. And when you have a system that literally, you're interviewing folks, and they look at you, you know, glossy like, what is KVS? Yes, we never heard of it. It's becoming extinct. It's 1980s 1990s it's very difficult. So, it should have been done years ago. Like a lot of things, we're getting it done. We're going to fix it, and we're moving forward.
The Quality-of-Life Action Task Force has made some pretty big strides this year. I think it's something I hear most when I'm talking to residents about your administration. They're talking about how the streets look cleaner. Why was formalizing this initiative more than you had while council president, important to you, and where do you see it growing in the future?
Yeah, to formalize it, unfortunately, as council president, you have to rely on the administration. They oversee the 24/7 so the first thing we did from day one, it's not just out in the streets, I've talked to you a couple times, and you actually rode along with us. It was changing that mindset in house. Explaining to our workforce that you need to communicate with each other. I give the example where sanitation and streets, same garage, you would have thought there was a wall between them, a physical wall. There wasn't. They just didn't communicate. And that goes for all the departments in the city, whether it be the police talking the streets and the police talking to sanitation code, etc. So, we really focused on getting the in-house. Let's lead by example. Fast forward now, 11 months. We are cleaner. We are safer that cleaner, safer goes hand in hand. Building pride in our neighborhoods. Folks now are seeing the results. Because think about it, when you have filth along your streets, garbage ridden alleyways, it's more prone to attract illegal activity, to attract squatters, blighted buildings, red X buildings, if you're not addressing that, obviously it's going to attract more crime. That's what we've seen so hand in hand, literally, day in, day out, block by block, our neighborhoods are building pride. We're seeing the results. Our stats have gone down. But more importantly, you can take guns off the street. We've taken six percent to date, more off this year, over 70 guns compared to last year. But at the same time, you can throw those stats out of people don't feel it, if they don't feel safe, if they don't feel that your city is clean. It's all for naught. We have to, obviously, show results. We've done it. We're walking the walk. We haven't nearly begun, but we definitely have made efforts, and we're going to continue those efforts. And I can't say enough about our crews, about everyone, from sanitation, you know, on up to streets, they're into it like not only are people taking pride in their neighborhoods, we are leading by example, and our employees are seeing the results. And I'll give you an example, we call him the Energizer Bunny. His name's Joe, and from day one, he just was so enthusiastic. Fast forward now 11 months, I think you met him. He's just so happy. He says, “ma'am, Madam Mayor, I'm just so happy to be working.” So, I'm not sure what they did prior, but they're working now. They're feeling it. There's a buzz in Troy. There's a lot of hope. We are safer and cleaner than we were a year ago, and we're going to continue. It's, you know, our work is not nearly done. So, 2025, you know, a ton of projects on the front burner, which I'm sure you'll get to, but we're pumped in, and people feel a lot of hope, lot of pride and a lot of buzz in the city of Troy,
At the council's meeting this week, you mentioned that they'll hear about proposals for a permanent city hall in mid-January. Can you share any more information on that?
Not a problem, but we have narrowed the eight down to four and now down to two. We helped have an announcement mid-January, end of January. The two proposals, and I must tell you, all eight, they were all unique, geographically located from Lansingburgh to downtown to North Central. And we were really blown away, because people told us, we get one or two, so to have eight now on down to four now the final two were meeting with their financial teams. Because now what it'll come down to is we kind of know in our hearts where we want to go, but the financial package obviously has to make sense. At the end of the day, we not only want a home, a permanent home, as you know, the Hedley building from day one, First Columbia will tell you, it's a temporary floor. It's a city floor. And you know, while folks say, well, it's not costing a lot of money the folks that don't know. But now fast forward, the transparency has shown we're paying close to $600,000 a year for floor. I mean, times that, how long we've been there? Sure, it started out $400,000 or $350,000 but it escalated times that, by 12 or 13 years, you can do the math. What I feel, no matter what, the city of Tory is going to be there long after myself, Kitty, you, me, all of us, it's going to be around forever and ever and ever. Let's find a permanent home. So, 30-40, years from now, people say, look at the vision of those folks, 20, 30, 40, years ago. That's where we want to be. We need a permanent home. We need a more accessible home. We're right now paying for HVAC, you name it. Let's have a permanent home, one that the people of Troy can be proud of, and, once again, one that's more user friendly. So, stay tuned. And while I didn't give up a whole lot, we are down to two sites. And you know, we're looking forward to sharing that with the council and the people of Troy.
Can you say what part of the city that those two are in?
I would prefer not to.
It’s OK.
So sorry, but, you know, the general consensus it has to be not hidden away. It needs to be in the middle of a neighborhood, or an area that is really going to have an impact on the immediate area in that particular say 10- block or whatever radius.
I got a couple more questions. So, your approach to replacing the city's planning commission with a planning board stirred a little bit of local descent. Why was this action undertaken, and is the new body having the effect you were hoping?
Yeah, they're new. It's only been in place for two months. What I am hearing from folks, ‘gee, Carmella, that was the best meeting that we've ever seen.’ No disparage. We thank the folks that were there. You know, I get it. Some of the folks were put in literally on the 24th-hour of the prior mayor leaves an office. Never received training, etc. These folks, they not only have received training, we've given them the comprehensive plan, the zoning plan, they've been in with planning staff continuously. You know that flow of information. You must know, like two-thirds of the people in the playing board, I have no idea what their registration was, etc. You know, that's another area to go back to your first question, politics, policy. Unfortunately, the minority made it all about politics. If it was about politics, I would have done what Rosamilia did in the prior mare and literally overhauled that on January too. I didn't I gave it six months to see how it flowed, to see how it worked. Unfortunately, it was getting bogged down. I don't know for what reason, but I really felt we needed to breathe some fresh life into the planning board. I'm really pleased of the folks that are on it, and coincidentally, one of our alternates called me today looking for the comp. plan. So, we're actually distributing the comp. plan to him. He called this morning, so that's why it kind of clicked. But saying that like I said, this isn't about politics. It's honestly about getting business done here in the city. And I think the prior planning commission was getting too bogged down in issues that were not in their zone, you know. So, what we're trying to teach folks like, you know, just stay in your zone. Work with people. More things will get done.
And we've got one year down out of this four-year term.
Has it been a year?
Do you think you're going to run for a second term?
You know, we'll always leave that door open. I never say never. I never say, you know that something else might not happen. I've kind of been one of those people where it's almost like a wave, where I didn't think I'd be I was, and you never know what tomorrow brings. I must tell you; I'm really focused on the next three years. We have made a huge dent. People are seeing the impact. And you know, I want to make it clear anyone that serves for government, public officials on all levels and both parties and whatever party, they're in it to make a difference. And you know, we're here to do job. I'm going to lay that foundation for the next person. I don't want it to be where we were when we came in and we've we really want to make sure that that foundation is built. You know, the accounting system is fixed, that projects that we're on the back burner, like the Lansinghburgh firehouse, Campbell Avenue, you name it, that they're back on track. But the next three years, folks need to be ready for us continuing to move on all throttles, and we've made such an impact so far. We have it. We've only just begun. That's what I tell folks. And you know, it is a partnership. It's all of us working together, showing that we're one Troy and that we're moving in the right direction. And like I said, look at any municipality in the Capital Region, maybe even throughout the state, they're going to find out that Troy is the greatest city in our state, if not the country.
First-term Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello.
