General manager, city clerk named
Council member upset he was not informed of appointments
WATERVLIET, N.Y. » Mayor Michael Manning recently removed the “acting” titles from city General Manager Jeremy Smith and City Clerk Scott O’Reilly.
As of Thursday morning, Smith and O’Reilly officially took over their respective positions after serving in the acting roles for just about six months.
Prior to being appointed acting general manager, Smith served for the past few years as the city clerk, while O’Reilly served as an assistant clerk and also as a purchasing clerk for the past few years. Both were named to the acting roles,
after former city general manager Mark Gleason announced he accepted a new position with the Albany County Nursing Home.
The city’s general manager position is responsible for overseeing the dayto-day operations of the city.
Manning said he felt that Smith and O’Reilly performed well in their acting roles and believes that they have what it takes to perform their new roles at a high level. “In this case, they had the luxury of acting in the positions, so we were able to evaluate them in their roles without having to go outside for a search and I think it is always better to promote someone within if you can,” said Manning. “I think both proved over their acting period that they have the skills to do the job.”
During the City Council meeting Thursday, Councilman Charles Patricelli read from a statement, saying how he was shocked to officially hear about these appointments, especially the general manager’s full-time position going to Smith.
“Mr. Mayor I would ask that you please let everyone know when this appointment was made?” Patricelli asked during the council meeting. “I want it to be clear that I was never informed of the appointment. I was not given the courtesy of a phone call, text or e-mail by either the mayor or Mr. Smith until officially hearing it tonight. I find that disappointing and troubling. “I have heard rumors of this appointment for the past week or so but I believed that as a member of the City Council I would, at the very least, be informed of this important decision. When was Mr. Smith notified of his promotion Mr. Mayor? The only reason I can assume that you did not let me know of this decision was pettiness over the fact that I have not agreed with you, like previous councilpersons before me, with everything you wanted to push upon the residents of our city. After I was elected, Mike, you and I agreed to do a national search through Gregg Carroll’s firm in Arizona. I felt we had the opportunity to help raise the bar in a search for an individual with years of experience in public policy, urban development and contract negotiations. We received letters of interest from many experienced and qualified candidates, but the process stopped there.”
Manning did note that the city did enlist in a national hiring recruiter to help during the interview process of finding a general manager and said that they did some screening of applicants from that.
“We whittled it down to a list,” said Manning when asked about the national search during a phone interview Thursday morning. “One of my main reasons for keeping it in an acting role for a while is that we were able to save some money with having two guys filling a couple roles. But even if we did end up bringing someone in from the national search, they would have had to learn the system and learn the people.”
“After the search process and observing [them] over the last several months, it became clear that the best candidates were the ones who were living in the city and serving in those roles on an interim basis,” Manning said Friday. “No one can question their commitment to the city or the quality of their work.” Smith and O’Reilly are both lifelong Watervliet residents and both are thrilled and ready to take on their new full-time roles. “The position itself is humbling, everybody that works here and the public itself, they keep me humble on a daily basis, but for me it’s the opposite of humbling; I’m very proud and I have a lot of pride in the city of Watervliet,” said Smith during his first day in his new role. “This is my fourth year working for the city of Watervliet, but in the last six months, in my acting role, I’ve noticed a lot of things that we can shore up and do better here.”
“I’m happy about getting the position,” added O’Reilly. “It’s nice to get it official for both me and General Manager Smith, to kind of get it out of the way, and we’re excited for the future.”