Councilman: End contract with PR firm

Tie vote keeps resolution from passing

WATERVLIET, N.Y. » A city councilman introduced a resolution during the council’s Thursday night meeting to immediately terminate the city’s contract with a public relations firm.

During Thursday night’s council meeting, Councilman Charles Patricelli introduced a resolution to terminate the annual contract of $1,500 a month with Gramercy Communications.

However, the resolution ended in a one-to- one tie vote, with Mayor Michael Manning voting to continue the services with them.

Manning said the communications firm has been representing the city for the majority of his time as mayor. He said the firm is beneficial for the city to continue to use.

The annual contract was renewed for the year during a council meeting in January, with Patricelli voting against it; Manning and former Councilman Nicholas Foglia voted to pass that resolution.

Since February, the council has only been made up of Manning and Patricelli; Foglia resigned that month.

“I just want to show that there is really no sincere efforts to cut costs where we need to be able to cut costs,” said Patricelli. “... the ultimate cost is $1,500 a month, and what I just was showing was the fact that there is no real proof or no need for that contract. They are a great company, great people — it’s just that we don’t need to have that kind of cost, and I think it shows ... why we’re here to begin with.”

Manning said he voted against the resolution this time around since there is only a few weeks left on the contract with Gramercy Communications, so he wanted to finish out the contract and then evaluate what is best to do next year.

“Well there’s only three weeks left and I don’t know if we want to be seen as someone who enters into contracts and then to have a good December, cancel [the] contract,” said Manning. “We’ll finish the year and this will come up again for vote to renew the contract or to go to another firm, so that is when that should be addressed and not during the 11th hour.”

Manning said he believes that Gramercy Communications has been a good asset for the city and he looks at the public relations team as extra employees of the city. Manning said representatives from Gramercy Communications work frequently with city General Manager Jeremy Smith, and that they have recently helped the city conduct research on surrounding communities’ costs to see how the city compares to others.

“They are a PR firm and they help us when we need PR, but I view them as additional staff. There are a lot of bright people over there and they are good to consult on things and they do their tasks for us very professionally,” said Manning. “The fee that we pay Gramercy is much, much less than we’d have to pay to put a person here.”