In the early days of its new term, the Troy City Council met again Monday night to make committee head assignments.
At the request of the council’s Republican majority, Mayor Carmella Mantello called a special meeting for the council to select committee chairs. Mantello says the council’s failure to name chairs at its organizational meeting Thursday could have delayed government action.
Mantello, the former council president and a Republican, says according to the charter, the council “shall,” not “may,” name chairs at the organizational meeting.
“By not doing their job on Thursday night, actually took away power from the full council,” Mantello said. “Because no committee chair could call a meeting. Not just a committee meeting, but a special meeting. It hindered government.”
Council President Sue Steele, a Democrat, called the meeting unnecessary. But she said she was happy to comply with the majority’s wishes. Republicans hold a 4-3 edge.
Steele says the charter’s language is vague and needs to be updated to be more explanatory and inclusive.
“We would have done it on the 18th as part of the finance committee meeting,” Steele said. “So, any argument that it was totally necessary within that less than two-week period is really baseless, because the Finance Committee always has a chair in the president of the council. So, anything could have been referred to the Finance Committee, which has been functioning.”
During a brief, seven-minute meeting Monday, the council’s majority swept the board. All committees consist of three councilmembers with at least one from the Democratic minority.
Chairing the General Services committee is Ryan Brosnan of District 2. Republican Bill Keal of District 1 and Democrat Katie Spain-McLaren of District 3 sit on the committee.
Irene Sorriento of District 5 will chair the Law committee. Brosnan and Spain-McLaren are also on the committee.
Brosnan was also selected to chair the Planning committee, with Keal and Democrat Aaron Vera of District 4 as members.
Chairing the Public Safety committee will be Tom Casey of District 6, the council’s majority leader and president pro-tem. Sorriento and Spain-McLaren sit on the committee.
Sorriento will also chair the Public Utilities committee, while Keal will head the Science and Technology committee. Casey and Vera are members of both.
Casey says he was glad to be able to tackle unfinished business from the previous meeting.
“If there were anything to happen, or for any other reason we may have to meet and if you don't have a standing committee with a chairman,” Casey said. “Say, if there was some controversy as far as a shooting or something with police, we do need our committees in place with the chairs. So, we took care of that tonight to make sure that everything was good.”
The council meets the first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m.
