Troy’s mayoral candidates debated on Tuesday, with election day about a month away.
Troy City Council President Carmella Mantello and Rensselaer County Legislator Nina Nichols took some shots while debating at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s EMPAC, but they often agreed on several issues including the replacement of contaminated water lines throughout the city.
Democratic Mayor Patrick Madden is leaving office after two terms because of term limits.
Mantello, a Republican, pledged to replace all lead pipes in her first term.
“It's ambitious, but it can be done and what we will do is aggressively seek federal and state dollars to implement that program,” she said.
Nichols, a former city councilor, made the same commitment but says the city wasted time by sitting on funds to replace the lines.
“That money came to the city of Troy not only during the Madden administration, but also during my opponent’s tenure on the council,” Nichols said. “That was a significant amount of money and obviously should have been utilized as quickly as possible, for the very reason that it is such a public health issue and particularly for our youngest and most vulnerable Trojans.”
Nichols focused on engaging youth and striving for a cleaner, greener Troy, saying investing in a code enforcement director would be a major priority.
“I would prioritize probably poaching that person from some other code department where they have proven their ability to successfully run that program with integrity and effectiveness,” she said. “I would hire additional code inspectors that I would dedicate first to preserving our vacant buildings and attending to that both in inventory and going after people who are letting their buildings become a demolition by neglect case study.”
A former mayoral candidate and Director of the state’s Canal Corporation, Mantello’s focus remained on infrastructure and being a hands-on mayor, which she says the city lacks, emphasizing steps taken by Madden during a major water main break in September.
“The administration actually had an outside contractor all ready to go. Our DPU staff said no, we're going to show that we can do this in house. That's an example of the people that work day in and day out in City Hall. But guess what, their morale right now is horrible. They have over 40 vacancies, they're getting no supervision, they're getting no management, no leadership,” she said.
Both candidates agree the city has not capitalized on its 8-mile stretch of waterfront, calling it key to economic development. The candidates say you can see some benefits already downtown, but the rest of the city needs access to launches and possible trailways to connect the entire city to the Hudson River.
A major disagreement was on each administration’s potential budget. Nichols stressed the importance of increasing administrative staff and increasing wages for city employees.
“We have to be competitive with the private sector and right now you could get a job at McDonald’s or Taco Bell and make more than more than what you could in some of the very hard jobs that we ask our staff to do,” she said.
Mantello says getting more “boots on the ground” is more important than department heads.
“You know what they tell us,” Mantello said. “We why we want to boost our morale. We want to go out there. We want a quality-of-life taskforce. But the mayor doesn't want to implement it. I will bring that leadership; I will bring that management.”
Safety is a major concern throughout the city according to students at Lansingburgh High School, who asked the candidates what they plan to do about it. In recent weeks, two people were shot, one killed near the school.
Mantello, the daughter of a former Troy Police Officer, says creating relationships with students and officers is essential to forming trust.
“They work with the students hand in hand, they actually deter crimes, they become a mentor, and those students trust our police officers,” Mantello said. “So that's what it's all about, trust. Park Walk and Talk is huge.”
Nichols again pointed to the code enforcement, saying vacant buildings attract crime. The Democrat also added investing in parks could foster more community relationships.
“We need to do more to expand what's happening in our parks and playgrounds over the summer,” Nichols said. “At one time, Troy had staff that would go from Park to park and be available to do youth programming, we need to bring that back. Youth also need opportunities to have pathways to employment as they reach some of their older years. So, in fact, to make us safer, it takes a robust and holistic plan for what public safety will look like.”
Nichols and Mantello disagreed on some possible infrastructure ideas for the downtown. Mantello says other neighborhoods are often neglected. Nichols says focusing on the already-bustling creative economy there is a multi-pronged benefit for the city and public safety.
“So many of our youth are involved in some of these criminal activities as well,” Nichols says “And that happens when youth don't have adequate opportunities for recreation for artistic opportunities for some of those quality mentoring times, we need to do more to help support our small, grassroots community-based organizations that are already doing so much for our youth.”
Early voting begins on October 28th and runs through November 5th. Election Day is November 7th.
