WOJTON CLEARS FIRST HURDLE
Committee recommends confirmation of general services commissioner
TROY, N.Y. » A City Council committee unanimously recommended Thursday night confirmation of the city’s first- ever commissioner of general services.
After about 20 minutes of questioning, the council’s General Services Committee gave its approval to the hiring of Charles Wojton, who grew up in South Troy and has spent the bulk of his career working for Rensselaer County, most recently as director of buildings after previously serving as director of purchasing and director of special traffic operations. He will be paid $85,000 a year under terms of the 2018 city budget.
Wojton has already been on the job for several weeks, but was not yet ready to offer any observations on city services or how they can be improved. He said he is still familiarizing himself with all the operations he will be overseeing and didn’t want to make any pronouncements until he had all necessary information.
“I still want to get a grasp on what the concerns are, what the needs are,” he said.
Addition of the commissioner of general services position was among a host of changes to the City Charter approved by voters in November 2015, with responsibilities that include oversight of the city’s Department of Public Works and Parks and Recreation and Code Enforcement offices. Though the charter changes took effect July 1, 2016, the position went unfilled in the 2016 and 2017 budgets as officials addressed ongoing fiscal issues.
Mayor Patrick Madden included the position in his 2018 spending plan, however, along with a controver-
sial solid waste disposal fee that helped the city to avoid a second straight year of double-digit property tax increases. Council President Carmella Mantello questioned Wojton extensively about a solid waste management plan tied to the $160 fee, which is set to expire at the end of this year in favor of provisions in the plan.
Wojton will be responsible for developing the plan, but again deferred when asked for his thoughts by Mantello, though he said he expected to have the plan ready for the council to give its necessary approvals and implement any of its recommendations before the disposal fee expires Dec. 31.
Earlier in the evening, the council’s Planning Committee gave its unanimous OK to a proposed swap of downtown parking lots tied to a plan to redevelop the vacant Key Bank branch at the intersection of 4th and Congress streets. Under terms of the plan, the city- owned lot adjacent to the bank property would be turned over to the Troy Local Development Corp. in return for a nearby lot at the corner of 4th and Ferry streets currently owned by Capitaland Taxi.
The swap is part of a proposal by Rosenblum Cos., a local developer, to develop the property as a mixeduse building similar to one being built along 5th Avenue as part of its current conversion of The Record’s former home on Broadway into The News Apartments. As the plan stands, Rosenblum will acquire the Capitaland lot and transfer it to the LDC, with the exchange to only occur after the LDC has control of both properties.
“It will not happen until such time as there’s the transfer back to the city of a lot with a similar number of spaces,” said Steven Strichman, the city’s commissioner of planning and economic development.
To acquire the Capitaland property, Rosenblum will trade land it owns across Ferry Street from the cab company’s current lot, including two small lots purchased from the city in the past several weeks. That swap will allow Capitaland to increase its parking capacity on that side of Ferry Street.
Councilman Jim Gulli asked about the conditions of the two lots and suggested the city might consider asking Rosenblum to repave the current Capitaland lot before turning it over to the city.
“We’re giving up a nice piece of property,” Gulli observed. “We should get a little something out of it.”