Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan appeared before the Common Council’s Public Safety Committee meeting Monday evening.
Sheehan received a warm welcome to the chamber from Public Safety Chair Tom Hoey. “I just want to congratulate you on being named president of theNew York State Conference of Mayors. I think that's a great honor. And it's helpful for our city to have that type of input with that organization that we do use quite often for our legislation,” Hoey said.
Sheehan, a third-term Democrat, immediately touted the regular public safety press conferences that is holding with Police Chief Eric Hawkins, saying they are transparent about what's happening in the city, with a focus on areas with higher crime rates.
“This summer, our crime data for all of May through all of August, confirmed shots fired, we're down almost 39%," said Sheehan. "So, higher than the overall average so far. Our shooting incidents down 53%, our shooting victims down 65%. And our total arrests were increased by 6.3%.”
Sheehan acknowledges the city is struggling with issues including homelessness, panhandling, mental health, and substance abuse. She notes that year to date SeeClickFix complaints about needles increased by 235% while complaints including the word homeless increased by 118%.
“So we've heard loud and clear, from our residents, from our businesses, that they are very concerned about the challenges that are presented by individuals," Sheehan said. "And everybody's story is a different story, but by individuals who are on our streets, and using and abusing drugs, openly defecating and urinating, openly, and engaging in behaviors that are in many instances, illegal, and in other instances, simply concerning to anyone with any compassion. Seeing individuals in a state where either they are unclothed, partially clothed, ranting, not able to be coherent, is challenging for anyone to see.”
Sheehan says the city continues to work with the county to deploy resources and make programs available that can help alleviate the problems.
“I believe that our residents want this to be a city where the norm is that you can walk to work and schools and our parks safely, without finding needles and drug paraphernalia, without seeing people defecating and urinating in our parks and on our streets," said Sheehan. "And without having to have individuals who aggressively engage in behaviors that do cross the line, from simply asking and, and panhandling to, you know, being aggressive and frightening to our residents.”
Sheehan says she is aware of and fully supports 14th ward councilor Deb Zamer's local law that would lower the citywide speed limit to 25 miles an hour. The city has applied for funding to conduct a "Vision Zero" study, that would take 18 months. Sheehan suggests jumpstarting the process with a city-led study that would take six to eight months at a cost of $150,000.
“Think about that, as you're thinking about the budget. I think that it's an investment that we should make, accelerate the process. I selfishly am looking at this, because if it's going to take 18 months to do the study, and then we've got to do whatever we've got to do to do the implementation. And then we've got to make the signs and install the signs. That'll be a next mayor thing. And I prefer for it to be this mayor thing, just selfishly,” Sheehan said.
The next mayoral election takes place in 2025 and Sheehan has pledged this will be her final term.
