As we heard last weekend on Midday Magazine, Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello and other city officials are marking 100 days in office. City Council President Sue Steele is highlighting efforts by the council to ensure the city remains in good financial standings after it recently climbed out of historic debt. Speaking with WAMC’s Samantha Simmons, the Democrat says implementing a city-wide social media policy would protect Troy against potential litigation after a post by the city showed a resident’s unkempt home.
It will also give employees a blueprint, a guideline as to what is appropriate to post and what is not. It's important that social media be used to inform the public and not to influence the public. It's not a political tool. It is an informative tool. So, I think that having a comprehensive policy will help the city on multiple levels.
And recently, there have been special meetings or things brought to the council by the administration to transfer money within different funds. And I've seen some of your posts and the monthly letter, that that's something you're concerned about the money transfers, specifically for the consulting services and what that means moving forward for city finances. The city recently just climbed out of that historic debt. How do you plan to keep an eye on this moving forward?
Well, it's going to be important that our finance meetings, we keep a close eye on the finances, we will have reporting from the controller. These transfers, some are indeed necessary. The one that we just did, as you mentioned, provided for consulting services, in the absence of having a comptroller to do end of year accounting, so that that certainly was necessary. Where the money came from is questionable. And, again, we need to keep a close eye that's part of the role of the City Council is to serve as a check and balance to the administration. I take that very seriously. And so going forward, the finance committee will play a major role in that.
Do you see, right now, any potential hazards when budgeting comes around, that these transfers have been made?
It's a little too early to tell at this point. And we don't really have enough information to forecast that. Again, it's just a case of staying on top of it. Month by month, and seeing how things go. We have yet to receive. And we will in the coming months, the comptroller’s quarterly report, and that will begin to show us where things are and how things are looking.
A little bit more on city finances. City Hall has been, a new city hall, has been a little bit of a contentious issue in recent weeks. And in the long term, it has been too. One Monument Square was a proposed spot It seems to have fallen through now. What do you what's your vision for One Monument Square? And what's your feelings on a new city hall right now? Or other things that should be done?
Well, I'm not sure that a new city hall is a top priority. I've said that. I mentioned it in my legislative address. I think the finances the numbers have to make sense. And we have an awful lot of other projects in the works that need our attention before a city hall. A new Lansingburgh firehouse, for instance, were about to great break ground for a Knickerbacker pool. We have a number of other issues, the lead pipe replacement for instance. These are big ticket items, and are very much resident needs as opposed to a standalone City Hall. We have a perfectly fine situation now, at the Hedley building. It's centrally Located, on a bus line, it does serve the purpose for the public. I'm not convinced. I need to see the numbers; I need to see the location. So, I'm not convinced on city hall. As far as one Monument Square. I await the mayor's new proposal that she says she has. She said the old one is dead. I want to know why. That proposal did not include a city hall, it included a permanent location for the farmers market, the winter market. It included housing and public space. It had a lot of good features, and it was a result of a very extensive community engagement process. So, before we can that, we need to make sure that it includes the elements of that community engagement process, to the best of our ability, we need to find out where we are with the state monies that were earmarked for One Monument Square, if we're going to scrap the plan, what does that do to the monies? So, there's a lot of questions to be asked and answered regarding one Monument Square.
And now that you both are 100 days into your term now, would you say that communication between the administration and the council has improved? That's something that you've highlighted that was lacking? Is it still?
I'm afraid that it still is. I have reached out to the administration on numerous occasions to try to have a more regular communication, regular sit down. It seems to be more reactive. When the administration wants something, they reach out to me for a special meeting or a particular legislative item. I think it would be more productive if we were communicating on a regular basis and had more conversational opportunities. That's just how I feel about it. I think we need to be more collaborative, going forward. And that's true of the council itself. There's an awful lot of partisanship that needs to be overcome. I'm hoping in time as people settle into their roles, that that will give way to more cooperation.
You talked a little bit about the lead pipe replacement happening throughout the city and the inventorying process. It seems in recent months that the percentage of that has slowed down a little bit. I'm sure there's a lot of work happening behind the scenes with that. And there's the lofty goal of having it all inventoried by sometime in October, and the administration's goal of replacing it all in her first term. What do you think needs to be done to boost the number of inventoried lead lines?
We need more aggressive public relations to the community. The people need to understand that every household needs to report its situation. Even if you think that you don't have lead lines, you still need to report that otherwise, we assume you have lead. And that is going to jack up our cost estimates. And it's unrealistic. So there needs to be a much more aggressive public relations and a better understanding among the citizenry of what how important this issue really is. Not only to their health, but to the city's economics.
And lastly, we're nearing June, which is the proposed closure for the Burdett Birth Center. The hundreds of people, including you and state leaders, gathered a few months ago at Hudson Valley Community College where the hospital held a public forum and people express their thoughts and concerns on how the closure would affect the community. Where do you see that moving forward as we get closer to that deadline?
Well, I'm concerned. I really am. I'm not seeing parties coming together. And I it would be a tremendous loss to our community to lose the Burdett Birth Center, it would impact the health of women and babies that would leave Rensselaer County without a birth facility. So, I'm going to remain vigilant on this issue. It's extremely important.
