Early voting began Saturday in New York. In the city of Amsterdam, the race for mayor is a choice between a first-term Democrat and a Republican local pastor.
Amsterdam-born Democratic Mayor Michael Cinquanti spoke with reporters after a debate October 23 that he says strayed from the issues he hoped to focus on.
“You talk about the things that are happening in our city, and what needs to happen in the next four years. You know, we talked about the golf course, but all we, you know, we didn't talk about what the solution should be. We didn't have a chance. You said what, you know, I guess I'm just, I was kind of baffled by the fact that everything we talked about was a negative in terms of, you know, a national issue, and how it, or it was something that was very controversial that he highlighted in his campaign, and none of the things that I highlighted in mine. And what I do highlight in my campaign are the achievements we've made in the last four years. We didn't talk about it, we really didn't.”
Cinquanti continued, discussing recent demolition projects funded by state grants. Amsterdam took down an abandoned strip mall and collapsing brewery to make room for new buildings and ensure public safety.
“We didn't talk about the demolitions in our city. We didn't talk about the money we've got for five corners. We didn't talk about 344 coming down. We didn’t talk about anything that that we've done right. And I expect that, I did expect it but not to the degree.”
Cinquanti has accused his challenger, Republican Mike Arbige, of derailing conversations in the past, turning what should be local politics into debates about national issues. Arbige adamantly supported the Second Amendment during the debate, and criticized the mayor’s handling of what he labels “illegal immigration.”
“Not one person has ever come to me and said, ‘I cannot get a gun.’ Never. Not one person has come to me and said ‘they're trying to take away my gun.’ Never. So, I don't address those issues as a mayor. I—that, it doesn't happen. So, you know, he's focused on ‘they're taking guns.’ They're not doing that here. ‘They're trying to steal your weapons,’ they're not doing it here. I don't—it's ‘illegal immigrants are moving in.’ They're not moving in here. We've addressed those issues as they happen, and we've addressed them effectively. There are no—we don't have what's happening in Rotterdam, because of the way we address the issue. We talked to the businessman, we got the honest, God’s-honest truth and that we're ready. If something happens, we'll change it. But right now, we have no problem.”
Amsterdam residents have been on alert since a Rotterdam motel closed its doors to accommodate a group of migrants sent north from New York City July 18th. Three privately-owned Amsterdam motels refused to house asylum seekers in July.
Cinquanti also voiced concern over unchecked, unrestricted concealed carry permits, and defended his approach to public safety, which Arbige has labeled as “soft on crime.”
Amsterdam experienced a pair of shootings this year within weeks of each other, one at a basketball tournament in a city park, the other at an outdoor movie for children.
“We are one of the safest cities in you know, in upstate New York, we're safer than Saratoga. We have a lower crime rate. We've had two gun incidents at Veteran’s Park, unfortunate incidents in both situations. They were isolated incidents. Why didn't we have five cops at the at the film for children? We never had a cop there in our lives. We never had any idea that that was going to happen. Once it happened, we had cops there. The basketball tournament—they've been holding high school basketball tournaments, and not just at that venue, but other venues in the city—and those tournaments always bring supervisors. So, our police thought it was a high school basketball tournament. They had spot patrols going up there and when you know the shooting, but they go by the history of the events. And when we see that the history has changed we respond to it. And we had policemen at the kid’s soccer games this summer just as a precaution. So, we respond to what happens. But there's never been a shooting at a child movie. You know, and there was one and we've responded we're putting $55,000 with the video cameras up there. We've formed a safety committee of citizens who are taking up patrols.”
Cinquanti said he has been a successful steward of city funds. The Democrat says when he took office office the city faced a deficit of more than $8 million, which has since been replaced with a $3.5 million surplus.
Before I became mayor, we were borrowing money to pay payroll. OK, we had no cash. So as a result, infrastructure in our city has been neglected for years. And it's okay with them, because they neglect—they don't care about infrastructure. They say they do, but they don't invest in it. They just want to keep the tax rate down, which I do as well.
Cinquanti also defended expenditures on the city’s aging infrastructure.
“Our water—wastewater plant was so out of code we were getting EPA fines, you know, once a month, dumping stuff in the river that we weren't supposed to. Our water filtration plant has a high lead level, we've got that 150-year-old pipeline, it's 150-years-old, and it's buried under the ground. And, so, when we couldn't afford, we couldn't afford to fix it. What we've done in the past three years to bring fiscal sanity back to our city of Amsterdam, is permitting us to spend the money that we're spending now to do things we should have done 4, 5, 6, 7 years ago that couldn't. And that's what I'm talking about. We—it's like, you know, you can talk about me spending more money but let's talk about what we're spending it on.”
Election Day is November 7th.
