Carmel Patrick is back.
After having a hemorrhagic stroke in December, the member of Schenectady City Council attended a meeting for the first time in seven months on July 13 – against her doctor’s advice.
A lot has happened in that time. Council members have come and gone, votes have deadlocked and one new member even weathered a court challenge to his appointment by the sitting mayor.
As she contends with changes at City Hall, Patrick — who was first elected to city council in 2019 — will also have to decide whether she wants to run for reelection next year.
Patrick spoke to WAMC Capital Region Bureau Chief Grant Ashley on Friday about her health, her plan moving forward and some of the issues facing Schenectady.
Editor's note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Ashley: So, you had your first council meeting back this week. How did that go?
Patrick: Actually it went really well from my standpoint. It was great to receive such a warm welcome from everyone. Before the meeting started, I had lots of folks that were in the audience that came up and were giving me hugs and telling me how great it was to see me. So of course, that felt really great. They started clapping when my name got announced. It really made me feel good and you know people were just expressing how much they had missed me. So, the whole experience was great that night.
Ashley: Yeah, it's always good to know people care about you, right?
Patrick: Absolutely, and I will say, I knew that going in because I had received so many cards. I actually held a stack of the cards up at when I was speaking at the end of the meeting and thanked everyone for all of their warm wishes that they had shared, when I was still at the rehab.
Ashley: You've been recovering for a couple of months. In as much detail as you're comfortable sharing, how are you feeling?
Patrick: Yeah, it's actually been seven months. I think the stroke was after a city council meeting, believe it or not.
Ashley: I do believe it.
Patrick: Yeah, on Dec. 1, I believe. I think early in the morning of Dec. 2 was when I had the stroke, and you'll have to repeat the question. Let me back up and just say that my major deficit remains short-term memory loss. So, I may have to ask you to repeat things while we're speaking. Sorry about that. So, what was the last question?
Ashley: I just wanted to know how you're feeling.
Patrick: I guess that night was somewhat of a pretty contentious city council meeting. I don't really remember anything from the night of the council. But like I said, I got back home from the rehab right before Christmas, and so I had several months after that where I was in physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, and all of that ended sort of in mid-April. So right now, I'm still trying to, every day, do a lot of different brain exercises and word games and that type of thing to try to help me rebuild my memory.But physically I'm doing very well. I'm feeling well that way. It's just really the short-term memory loss that remains, and that was really, again, what was holding me back initially from going back to city council. I was kind of keeping up to date with everything that I was receiving and trying to you know go through the packets of information that we get ahead of our meetings, but I was concerned that you know I wanted to make sure that I was responsibly voting before I returned to City Council. And so, even last week, there was a pretty light agenda for the meeting, so I decided that you know I'd give it a shot and see how it went. And like I said, it was a good experience that evening. But I think that you know I'm going to play it by ear, week by week, and make sure that I feel like I'm going to be able to really you know do my job well as a city council person.
Ashley: Right. There's no point in attending if you know you're not able to follow the meeting.
Patrick: Exactly, exactly. I think that again, I now will have to do some thinking and make some more decisions about whether I'll be able to actually fully participate in the committee meetings as opposed to the council meetings. And so that's my next – I don't want to say hurdle, but that'll be my next point of decision: whether I will actually start to attend the committee meetings. I can watch those from home, obviously, like everyone else. I can't vote from home, but that's how I can continue to keep up to date as well. IfI don't feel comfortable going.
Ashley: Yeah, and then I was going to ask about your plans moving forward, but it seems just kind of like attend the meetings, play it by ear.
Patrick: Yeah, and again, it's clear that it was stress related. The hemorrhagic stroke was stress related. I started having the headache as soon as I left City Hall that evening. So I really, obviously, have to put my health first, and I think that's been what everybody else is saying as well around me. I think you probably heard that my doctor actually didn't really want me to go back yet.
Ashley: I did.
Patrick: Yeah, so I was kind of, you know, going against what she had suggested. But I really wanted to give it a shot, and it went well. So now I'll just take it week by week as we move forward.
Ashley: I know you have many, many months before you need to make a decision on this, but do you have a sense of whether you want to run for re-election?
Patrick: Yeah, not sure yet. I will be making that decision later this year, probably. I mean, we have to make the decision I think by February or something. I can't quite remember that. But I think I want to, you know, really wait and see how things move forward before I make a final decision.
Ashley: Has your time away changed your perspective on the council or city government or anything like that?
Patrick: Not so much that. There's still issues that I guess I'm trying to remain very open to learning the new dynamic of the new council. I mean, there's folks on the council that weren't on the council when I left, or I guess just about when I left, and so I think at first I really need to make sure I'm listening well and paying attention to everyone. And again, because there's new folks, I want to hear their perspectives and see how it goes from there.
Ashley: Yeah, you know, there was some controversy around how he was appointed, [City Councilmember] Justin Chaires. Do you have any thoughts on that situation? I assume you've been following it.
Patrick: Yeah, I don't have any thoughts on that. Again, like I said, I really want to stay open and stay open-minded about my colleagues and hear what they have to say and hear what their thoughts are moving forward. Justin and I served on the Library Board of Trustees together before my term ended at the end of December. My last meeting was in November for the Library Board right before I had the stroke, coincidentally, I'd been on there for a long, long time, and you know Justin was a very active participant, and we got along on that board. So, you know, I'm interested to see what his thoughts are as we move forward.
Ashley: My understanding is that there was some talk about, you know, developing some sort of method to temporarily or permanently replace council members who are in your position, who weren't able to attend for a couple months. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Patrick: Yeah, I was a little upset by that, actually. I mean, I think that you know, I was elected – we are all elected by the community, and, you know, the community, by voting, expressed their interest in having us. I don't really think there is that mechanism –and there isn't that mechanism in place right now – and it doesn't seem right to me that the council would take that up as a discussion point. So I guess we'll have to see how that evolves.
Ashley: Yeah, or if it evolves, who knows?
Patrick: Yeah, or if it evolves.
Ashley: Then, you know, I just wanted to ask you about some of the issues that have been going on since you've been gone like the old Central Park Pool demolition process. Could you talk a little bit about that?
Patrick: Yeah, so I was the chair of the Health and Recreation Committee before the stroke, and so I was very actively involved in what was happening over these last several years at all of our parks in the city. And in terms of the old Central Park pool, my thought has been that I would like to see that become a green space. I would like the old pool – well, the old pool is being taken out –but I mean, I'd like to see us have a space in Central Park, which is such a gem. It's just an incredible place, and we offer so much. There's so many different activities that go on in Central Park. I think having a space that actually has nothing on it but grass, so that folks and families can really relax, have a picnic, sit, just enjoy being in this beautiful space, is really my first thought about what I would like to see happen with that space.
Ashley: And then what are some other issues that you're passionate about getting back into now that you're voting and attending meetings again?
Patrick: We – just today, I think – received the report of the Housing Stability Task Force, and that was something that I was very interested in. Unfortunately, you know, we had one or two meetings, I can't quite remember, and then I had actually met with a few of our leading housing representatives in the community myself. I was going to be reporting back on that to the meeting, and then I had the stroke. So, I noticed today in my email that we got that report. It's kind of lengthy, so I haven't had a chance to go through it yet. But that is still, for me a key issue because, you know, even in my community service work – I've had to put all of that on hold as well –but there really has been an issue with our homeless population and how it's affecting food security. These are the kinds of things that I do want to get back up and discussing, so I very much appreciate that that the task force went on, and I look forward to seeing what they have to say – and then really seeing, you know, how will the city council take the information that was gained and make some positive change in our community for folks? So that's important to me.
