City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Troy City Council. This is a special meeting. Today is June 25th, and it's 6.30 p.m. I'd ask that you please join me in Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance. to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Councilmember DiLorenzo?

Present.

Councilmember Struber? Present. Councilmember Spain-McClaren? Present. Council Member McKee.

Present.

Council Member Favreau. Present. Council Member Campbell-Cohen.

Present.

Council President Steele.

Present.

Six members are present.

Thank you. We have one item on our agenda this evening. But before we get to that, we have a public forum on that item. So if there's anyone who wishes to speak... regarding the scheduling of the public hearing on local law number four, please come forward and share your thoughts.

Good evening council members. My name is Frankie and I'm a resident of Troy and I want to thank you for introducing Resolution 72 tonight. I'm sorry you had to call a special meeting for it, but I appreciate you doing whatever is necessary to put some guardrails up around our current mayor. While she's out focusing on reelection this evening, you very rightly have your eyes on safeguarding Troy's system of checks and balances. Unfortunately, the mayor doesn't take governing nearly as seriously as you do. She's more than willing to invent fake emergencies or squeeze through tiny little loopholes to grab executive powers wherever she can. And that's why we need resolution 72 and local law number four. The council and the community need to show Mayor Montello that it's unacceptable to advance her agenda by force or manipulation. We all need to remind her that, as an elected official, she's obligated to operate within the bounds of our tried and true democratic process, which includes working cooperatively with a co-equal legislative branch and listening to public feedback. Thank you all for tackling this issue head on and getting these public hearings scheduled right away. As always, your diligent efforts are appreciated. Oh, and by the way, we're now on day 85 of the mayor's fake emergency that precipitated the need for local law number four. I don't know about the council, but I'm pretty thankful the automated license plate readers are out there looking after all of us. I'm not really sure how the mayor can relax at a campaign fundraiser with all this mayhem and chaos plaguing our city. She's pretty brave.

Thank you, Frankie. Let the record show that council member Spain McLaren has joined us. So we now have seven in attendance. Yes.

Thank you.

Does anyone else wish to address the council?

Good evening. My name is Sylva Menard, Fifth Ave, Troy, New York, District 4. Thank you all for holding this special meeting. I would like to make a note that the duties of Corporation Council Section Article 5, Rules of Order Section 219, the Corporation Council shall either in person or by deputy attend all meetings of the Council. There's one for the Mayor as well. Again, thank you for doing the hard work of making sure that our guardrails are in place and much more. And thank you. Thank you, Silva.

Does anyone else wish to address the council as part of the public forum? Seeing none, we'll move along to our agenda. We have, as I mentioned, one resolution, Resolution 72.

Resolution 72, a resolution of the Troy City Council scheduling public hearings on proposed Local Law No. 4 of 2026, amending the city charter by repealing and replacing Part 3, Article 8, Section C-40, Council President Steele.

Thank you. Motion. Council Member DiLorenzo, did you move?

No, who moved?

I did not. I'm sorry. Council Member McLaren has moved. Do we have a second? Second. Council Member Struber. Because we are addressing a local law that affects the charter, it's necessary to hold three public hearings. And so... We need to fill in the blanks of this resolution 72. We'll be holding the public hearing on July 23rd at 515, 530, and 545. Is there any discussion on the resolution?

Council President?

Council Member Favreau?

Did we want to potentially move one of these to another date so that if that evening doesn't work for a resident, then they have the opportunity to contribute to the conversation?

Well, I don't know. I would defer to the sponsor of the local law.

Do we have enough time to get it out there for one of them on July 9th? No. Okay. What's after that? I agree with you that it tightens who can participate in it. So that would push it to August 6th for one of them.

That's a regular meeting? Yeah.

Does it have to be during? We could do it in July.

Okay. Well, that's the 23rd. That's when we're already planning.

It doesn't have to be the evening of a regular meeting or finance meeting?

We'd have to schedule it at a, you know, we can schedule at any time. Okay. Sorry to throw a monkey wrench.

I'm just thinking.

I understand your concern. We have, just so folks know, we have done this in the past. So we're not doing anything out of the norm.

Was there an objection to the August 6th suggestion?

Was there an objection by anyone to the August 6th suggestion?

It delays the it just pushes it back and delays the. The inevitable, I guess, although. I guess we could hold it before the August 6 meeting and then enacted afterwards. Right. If there are no changes.

Yeah. Okay.

What time would we, let's see, the regular meeting is at 7 o'clock. So would we want to make it?

Either 6.30 or 6.45? Yeah, 6.30. 6.30?

Yeah.

Would there have to be a finance meeting too as well?

There will be. I'm getting my meetings confused here. The dates are.

The law has already been introduced.

It's been introduced. It has to go through committee.

Right.

So that would give us opportunity on the 20th to put it through committee. August 20th. Yeah. And then pass it in September.

Or do we want to, can we put it, could we put it through committee on the 23rd and, and hold a public hearing after that? The public hearings have to precede the committee work. All right. Then we would have to have a special finance meeting before August 6th, regular meeting. That day.

So after the public hearing before the regular. Before the regular. So public hearing at 630, finance at 645.

Exactly. Okay. And that's the night I'm hoping to honor the Rainbow Division. which could be lengthy. That's at 7 o'clock.

We can start doing that part of the regular meeting. I think we have a plan. Moving backwards here, let's see. We'll have July 23rd at 5.15 and 5.30. If you want to have your science and technology at I would give a bit more time to give you more time before finance. So 515 and 530 on July 23. And 630 on August 6. Does that work for everyone?

Yes, yes. Yeah.

Okay. Is the clerk clear on it? Yes. I'm not sure I know. Okay. That's great. That's a point well made that it does offer an option for those who might not be able to make it on the 23rd. Okay. Then I think we're ready for a vote. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Resolution 72.

7.0 knows the resolution passes.

That concludes our agenda. Is there anyone who wishes to address the council on any item, not necessarily of agenda related?

Hello, Avi Menard, Fifth Ave, Troy, New York. So in the city charter, under the mayor's powers and her duties, it says that she must attend all regular and special meetings of the council and to take part in discussion but not to vote, except by the power of veto as set forth here. So no one from the administration is here. Why is this? It's still a meeting of the council.

Thank you. Thank you, Avi. That's a question we're all wondering ourselves. But the work of the city goes forward, and I'm hoping that there'll be more collaboration and cooperation on this matter from the administration. We'll see. Any other comments? Any members of the council wish to say anything at this time? Well, I want to thank those of you from the public who've attended, and I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion.

Council Member Favreau? Seconded. Seconded by Council Member DiLorenzo. All in favor?

Aye.