After two incumbents lost last week and after another member resigned over the summer, the Schenectady City Council is set to undergo significant changes.
The council will welcome two new faces come January.
Three seats were up for grabs in this year’s elections, with five candidates seeking those spots. Incumbents – Councilman Damonni Farley and Council President Marion Porterfield, who ran on the Working Families Party line after failing to get endorsements from the Schenectady Democratic Party – lost their bids. The winning candidates were those with Democratic backing, including 12-year council veteran John Mootooveren, City Planning Commission Vice Chair Hayden Engert and political newcomer Kim Wiggins.
Engert says he is excited to begin.
“I’m very optimistic, I’m also very appreciative, you know the people of Schenectady put a lot of faith in me and I look forward to living up to that role of being a councilmember in January,” Engert said.
The 21-year-old will be the youngest-ever member to serve on the council.
Engert says he ran because he wanted to be a young voice at the board.
“I think that we have this new generation, that we are entering the workforce, we are entering life to say the least, we are starting to come up,” Engert said.
Despite being made up entirely of Democrats, the council has a reputation of being divided in recent years. One recent split came over the council’s vote on Good Cause Eviction.
That vote ended in a 4-3 decision to not opt into the state law that would have required landlords to have good reason to evict their tenants and placed limits on rent increases.
Engert says he wants to help move the council in a new, more collaborative direction.
“I think we need more collaboration from members on the council to try and work for better solutions for the people of Schenectady,” Engert said.
Engert will be joined by Wiggins as the new faces on the council come January.
But the council could have another new face soon, as members work to replace the seat Joseph Mancini vacated when he resigned in August.
The council is collecting resumes and will soon begin the interview process to select a candidate to fill the seat.
Council President Porterfield, who will be leaving her post in come January, said the interview process could begin within the next couple weeks.
“We have received numerous, the number is 17 to be exact, of resumes from people that are interested, so we have to as a council decide who is going to fill that seat,” Porterfield said.
She said the process has not yet begun because one council member is out of the country.
“We have a councilmember who is out of the country and we don’t want to that and give her the opportunity to be able to be there,” Porterfield said.
Schenectady City GOP Chair Tom Kennedy says the Republican party has three candidates who have submitted resumes for the vacant seat.
“Knowing how politics are in the city of Schenectady, I doubt very much that they are going to be given much credence, but they are going to come in and they are going to interview, and we are hoping for the best,” Kennedy said.
Whoever the council selects will serve in an interim capacity. Next November, a special election will be held to fill that seat.
Kennedy says the party put forward candidates to be a part of the process but doesn’t want the seat to be filled otherwise.
