Council candidates share fiscal concerns
Three vying to fill seat vacated by Foglia resignation
WATERVLIET, N.Y. » Three candidates are hopeful they will be the person to finally fill a vacant seat on the City Council after the general election on Nov. 7.
The City Council has been one member short since Nicholas Foglia resigned for personal reasons earlier this year. Since then, the council has been made up of Mayor Michael Manning and Councilman Charles Patricelli, with the two unable to agree on an interim replacement until Foglia’s term expires Dec. 31.
Democratic primary winner Frank McGrouty and Republican Andrew Williams hold the major party lines on the ballot, while Jeff Foster, who lost the Democratic primary to McGrouty, remains in the race on the Independence and Conservative party lines.
McGrouty, 65, is a lifelong city resident who said he has lived in pretty much every part of the city. Retired after a 27-year career as a city firefighter and paramedic, the small business owner also served on the Watervliet City School District Board of Education for 12 years and is involved in several youth programs, including Watervliet Little League.
A key issue to McGrouty is the city’s aging water system.
“Everything is old,” he said during an interview last week. “Things were put in more than
a hundred years ago, and we always have water main breaks. Everything just needs to be fixed over a period of time.”
Although McGrouty knows the city’s finances are also an important issue, especially after a recent report from the state Comptroller’s Office listed the city as being under the second-most “fiscal stress” of any municipal government in the state outside New York City, he knows he won’t be able to have much input into the proposed 2018 city budget.
“I believe a lot of it comes to down the contracts with the unions,” said McGrouty of the city’s financial issues, pointing out a new city firefighters’ contract needs to be negotiated. “Hopefully, we can keep the wages down, along with the benefits.”
Williams, 39, also believes the city’s current financial condition needs to be improved.
“The current and most pressing issue that needs to be addressed is the dire financial condition that the city of Watervliet has found itself in,” said Williams. “There needs to be some sort of adjustment made so that we can turn things around without putting a greater burden on the city’s taxpayers. Many of the residents that live here have owned their homes for many years and live on a budget based on a fixed income. A large tax increase will not be affordable and will lead to even more abandoned properties that are falling into disrepair, causing property values and overall quality of life in the city to decline.
Williams said the answer is not to simply cut budgeted spending, though.
“We need to get creative and find other sources of revenue for the city to increase the tax base without increasing the individual taxes that are paid by property owners,” he said.
Williams grew up in Waterford and is a 1996 graduate
of Waterford-Halfmoon High School who has lived in Watervliet for the past four years. A 911 dispatcher with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office who is also a part-time real estate agent for Exit Realty Capital’s Choice in Latham, Williams served as Saratoga County coordinator for Jim Fischer’s unsuccessful congressional campaign and was briefly a member of the Waterford Planning Board before moving to Watervliet. He is now chairman of the Watervliet Republican Committee and has served the last two years as an alternate delegate to the state Republican judicial convention. He was also a member of the 2017 assessment review board in Watervliet and also ran in last year’s election, losing to Patricelli.
Williams believes finding ways to fill empty storefronts would be a good way to increase tax base in the city.
“We need to find ways to attract small businesses to the city, which would do a couple of things: create jobs and help increase the tax base,” said Williams. “Cutting spending and increasing revenue will be vital to the survival of the city. There will be tough decisions
that have to be made; the city council has to work with the mayor and general manager to get things back on track in Watervliet.”
Foster, 43, a lifelong resident like McCourty who also owns numerous rental properties around the city, is a 1993 graduate of Watervliet High School and is a wholesale hot-tub dealer. He said he has attended City Council meetings for the past 15 years and intended to run for an open council seat a few years back, but did not get his petitions submitted in time and ended up running unsuccessfully as a write-in candidate.
Foster said he agrees with Williams that the city needs to find more ways to collect revenue. Specifically, he suggested loosening up the city’s zoning restrictions to allow for more new construction.
“Ultimately, we need to do something with the non-conforming lots,” said Foster. “There are a lot of non-conforming lots in the city of Watervliet that don’t meet the standards to build a house, so they need to redo the laws and make them buildable. That would help bring in more revenue.”