PRIMARY CHALLENGER
Democrat Ed Kinner plans run against Mayor Keeler in Cohoes
COHOES, N.Y. » Ed Kinner recently announced his candidacy for Cohoes mayor on Facebook. Kinner, a Democrat, is challenging incumbent mayor and fellow Democrat Bill Keeler.
“I have served in appointed positions here in the city, under the current administration. I was on the charter review committee. I’ve been the city’s commissioner of deeds for two years,” Kinner remarked on his background.
Kinner further described why he thought the Spindle City was unraveling in the wrong direction.
“The city is not going in a good direction,” Kinner said.
“Consistently, even with Empire Ambulance, extended wait times for EMS, we have a very large older population in our city and we have several nursing homes in our city and the wait times for ambulances is two, two and a half hours. Sometimes we have ambulances coming from Guilderland, Colonie, it’s a mess,” Kinner explained.
Kinner noted that he believes some of those problems extend to city finances, crumbling infrastructure and a lack of communication with city residents.
“I believe that the current administration has not been fiscally responsible. While it’s great to have grandiose ideas, when you put them on a bad foundation, everything’s gonna end up crumbling in the long run,” Kinner commented.
“Our roads are terrible. We’re having water main breaks weekly. Look at Remsen Street, millions of dollars thrown into Remsen Street, it’s pretty much dead now. Residents tell me all the time they feel uninformed by this administration, they don’t share any information. If you go onto the city’s website, the website says the last time the board of managers met was in 2021, and they meet every Friday,” Kinner noted.
Kinner also remarked that he’d like the city to get back to having a more vibrant community with more resident input on city services.
“I’m trying to bring community together, that’s why we bought a house here, the school district was the main reason. The sense of community when I moved here 10-12 years ago was
huge,” Kinner said.
“You’d walk down the street, people talk to you, it didn’t matter what political affiliation you were, fat, skinny, black, white, Puerto Rican, people would stop and talk to you and it’s not like that anymore,” Kinner continued.
“Our most vulnerable communities are left behind. I hear from seniors all the time about the condition of McDonald Towers. There’s nothing to do for kids anymore in the city of Cohoes. Previous administrations worked in-depth with the county and had county programs for youth.
It’s just not there anymore. There’s two places in the city of Cohoes where kids can go, Connect Center up on Johnson Avenue and City Life down on Remsen Street, outside of extracurricular activities at school,” Kinner explained.
According to Kinner, the city has seen neglect of many services outside of policing.
“The last year, the year before last, we had DPW was using garbage trucks that were spewing hydraulic oil all over the street. We became a police community and forgot about other services here in the city. The current administration has hired more police officers under his administration than the last four mayors combined and at the same time it takes away from our fire department,” Kinner said.
The mayoral candidate also commented on some of his accomplishments and what he feels are needs being ignored in the city.
“I’ve done tons of community things here in the city. I’m sure you remember the birthday parades that went on during the pandemic, that was me and my friend. We also did food distributions. We were taking seniors to doctor’s appointments during the pandemic. Anything we could do, because there was a need, because the current administration hid behind closed doors,” Kinner said.
“There’s a need and a want for the city to go into a different direction and to bring the community together. I think over the past several mayors, the division within the city has never been more than it’s ever been. It’s time to get back to the basics. Run the city like it’s a business. Your constituents and your taxpayers are your customers and be held accountable, be transparent and that’s what I want to accomplish,” Kinner explained.
Among his additional priorities, Kinner said he wants a city-owned ambulance service and he doesn’t want to fill highsalaried appointed positions, plus he noted he’d like to see the mayor’s salary cut from $70,000 to $50,000.
Kinner additionally spoke about cleaning up some of the city’s toxic environment.
“You’ve got a commissioner of DPW who is known to treat his employees like they’re garbage. He’s called taxpaying residents vulgar names before and was made to apologize by the current mayor. We have a city council member who’s been accused numerous times of sexual misconduct, he’s still sitting on the city common council,” Kinner commented.
“It’s not a good look on the city, it’s just not. It just seems like it’s been eight years of a black cloud over the city of Cohoes,” Kinner noted.
Additionally, Kinner remarked that he intends to run a clean campaign around policy issues, not personal squabbles.
“I’m not trying to run a dirty campaign, I want to say that first and foremost. Bill Keeler has given 40, almost 50 years of service as a law enforcement officer, not only to New York State residents but he started out as a Cohoes police officer. I’m not taking that away from him, he’s a great man. He’s appointed me to several positions within in the city. It’s just the fiscal decisions, the lack of communication with his constituents that I’m going on. I’m not gonna take anything away from him because that just incites more division in the city and that goes completely against what I’m trying to do,” Kinner added.