The public spat between Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and County Executive Dan McCoy continues after a weekend of violence marred July 4th celebrations in the city.
The day after Albany’s July 4 celebrations devolved into violence and chaos near the downtown fireworks show, Mayor Kathy Sheehan was heated. Three shootings and a fire left 10 people hit and a Madison Avenue building burned by a flare gun. And leaders were left looking for answers.
Though Sheehan didn’t name names during a press conference about the violent incidents that involved multiple teens, she pointed blame toward County Executive McCoy, a fellow Democrat, suggesting the county was not doing enough to support programs for young people that Sheehan said are “some of the hardest kids to reach.”
“I'm not going to call out another elected official," said Sheehan. "I'm sure that he's as equally frustrated as I am. But we've got to get to the bottom of what is happening here. Because I hear excuses and I hear and nobody wants to hear that. I want my community to be safe. And so just as we came together with the county around the mental health crisis issue, and we worked with them, and the mental health department, at our request, went out and worked in the community to see how serious the challenge was, and then created programs that we're now deploying. We need to be doing the same things with our juveniles.”
After Sheehan’s remarks, which had to do with what she described as a lack of funding coming from the county to the city as part of New York’s Raise the Age law, McCoy defended the county’s role in addressing youth violence. “I'm not going to have my programs being blamed for what's happening in the city of Albany,” he said.
The back and forth marked the latest exchange in a long-simmering dispute between city and county leadership. Notably, McCoy ruffled city leaders’ feathers when he suggested during his State of the County address in February that the city and county consolidate services.
In the latest tiff, the disconnect that started in the aftermath of July 4 only continued over the next few days, McCoy told WAMC Monday evening.
“I didn't know what the mayor was talking about, so I said, 'Hey, look, it's not time for pointing fingers. We got to work together, and I'll reach out to her tomorrow and see what she's talking about.' But you know, [her] chief of staff sent a text to my deputy and said, ‘No, need to reach out,'" McCoy said.
David Galin, the mayor's chief of staff, said it’s “standard procedure” that he, as Deputy Mayor, be tasked with communicating with Deputy County Executive Mike McLaughlin. “Just to be very clear, what I relayed back to the deputy county executive on Saturday was not that the city didn't want to have the conversation, in that I related to him, ask the county executive to watch the press conference where the mayor said multiple times, ‘I'm not blaming any particular official,’" said Galin.
Feeling the blame, McCoy’s extended an olive branch. “I look forward to working with the mayor, sitting down with her this week, if she'd like to," McCoy said. "I want to talk to her, but, you know, her chief of staff made it pretty clear. He put out another statement again. I'm not picking a fight with the city. It's not time. We owe it to the residents of this city, we owe it to the residents of the county to really set the example, and that's what I'm going to do.”
McCoy was referring to a Monday afternoon press release by Galin again criticizing the county's youth programs, saying in part: "This isn't a time to talk about our feelings — this is a time to roll up our sleeves and solve problems. The safety of our community depends on it."
Galin says there’s a plan in the works for city and county officials to actually sit down for problem-solving sessions.
“The deputy county executive, we've been in communication with him. We're working on making sure that there is a conversation in place, and figuring out who the right entity should be at the table to be part of that conversation. So I'm optimistic that a conversation will happen in the near future, and hopefully will be in the coming days,” Galin said.
Sheehan is in the final months of her 12 years in office, while McCoy is in his fourth four-year term.
