Troy City Councilors and the mayor’s administration exchanged barbs over more than $225,000 in unpaid rent on city hall at Thursday’s special meeting.
The disagreement stems from unpaid rent on city hall’s temporary Hedley Building location on River Street — with the current mayor blaming her predecessor for the snafu.
After a 4-3 vote, nearly $227,000 will be paid to First Columbia and the costs will be added to the 2023 books.
Minority Democrats voted against the transfer within the General Fund.
While the city’s rate of roughly $30,000 per month has been paid, the adjusted amount of $45,000 had continually been crossed off and approximately $15,000 per month went unpaid between October 2022 and December 2023.
Republican Mayor Carmella Mantello, who took office in January after serving as city council president, says she was unaware that then-Mayor Patrick Madden’s administration wasn’t covering the full cost of rent. Mantello says “residents want a city hall they can be proud of.”
“In April when the property owner made it clear long-term lease, or moved on, we made it clear, Council President, nothing ever came before the council for a long-term lease; the full council never ever did we know,” Mantello said. “I did not know, maybe you did. I did not know that that escalated rent was not being paid or in December at the end of the year, pay that rent in December. How would we have known if in December, the $226,000 wasn’t being paid? So, when I came in, was I surprised? Absolutely.”
Democratic council president Sue Steele claims Mantello was aware and is trying to score political points. Steele says an agreement with the landlord would waive the fee if the city enters into a long-term lease— something the administration expressed is unlikely.
“The bottom line is we're paying this money because the mayor wants a short-term lease for the city hall so that she can, and all of this I have to say before we've done an RFP while we have an outstanding Lansingburgh Firehouse, Knickerbacker Pool, water treatment plant upgrades, the transmission lines from the reservoir. There are many, many competing projects,” Steele said.
“Neglected projects,” Council President Pro Tem Thomas Casey said.
“Exactly. Sure. So, entertaining a new city hall is not necessarily a number one priority. Until negotiations are completed and we've heard from First Columbia, I can't in good conscience vote to pay for this,” Steele said.
Pressure has been mounting in recent years for City Hall to be housed in a city-owned property. Troy has rented the fifth floor of the River Street building for nearly 15 years. Multiple plans to develop 1 Monument Square and return City Hall there have fallen apart.
The city’s new Corporation Counsel, Dana Salazar, detailed the unpaid rent.
“Imagine you were renting your house from your landlord, and you were going to buy it, and you stopped paying your rent for 14 months before the sale, if they waive your back rent, you're going to pay more for the house. The waiver is never going to be a true waiver because you owe that money,” Salazar said. “So, either you're going to have to pay your back rent, before you can buy the house, or they may waive it by rolling it into the price that you're going to have to pay. So, in negotiations going forward, whether it's for the short-term lease or for a longer-term lease, the back rent is due.”
Mantello says the city has until Friday to close the 2023 books and wants to include the overdue rent.
The administration says it expects a request for proposals to go out in the next six weeks to begin searching for a new home for city hall. Mantello says a three-year lease at the Hedley building seems like the right option for now.
