Mayor Mantello reflects on first 100 days in office
>> Mayor Carmella Mantello walked down the steps on the backside of the Hedley Building earlier this week, heading to the waterfront to take a photo on the clear skies day. But she stopped briefly to pick up an empty energy drink can on the pavement.
“The more we lead by example, the more people will respect our city,” she said, setting it on the steps to collect when she returned to City Hall on the fifth floor. “I know it sounds corny, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And we’re a team here.”
Mantello reached 100 days in office this past Wednesday, three and a half months scored by activity. With several emergency declarations, new projects, and renewed enterprises, emphasized by trademark winter weather, Mantello said it’s like they pressed a reset button.
One of the more visible efforts is the administration’s Quality-of-Life Action Task Force, which handles everything from free weekly bulk trash dropoffs to Troy’s Operation Pothole (TOP). Though they’re not new ideas, Mantello said they’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, just improve it.
For example, she said they’ve added brooms to the garbage trucks so the workers can sweep up junk that falls while they’re collecting it and with potholes, they clean out any debris, spray it out, put in hot coal and tamp it down, a longer-lasting fix than simply filling it. Clean streets, a point she’s stressed since her inauguration on day 1, also set a standard, she said, which, in turn, will reflect on the private grounds and houses in the city, continuing the “One Troy” mentality.
Mantello also said the cleanliness in those private areas can also be approached from a different angle; instead of sending a warning letter or a fine to the corner shop owner, they talk to them first and try to make a connection. In the same way, she said, the administration and she want to be seen by the community, whether that’s in Stuarts or at the State of the City.
Communication between the residents and the mayor’s office is another factor she underscored, noting that projects like removing the traffic circle at Sausse Avenue and 15th Street are a group effort; she said the people spoke and the administration listened. Inter-departmental communication is also higher, the mayor noted, as they have meetings with more than just the department heads and encourage a sort of open-door policy that has increased efficiency and morale.
“I constantly tell people to come in and now it’s like Grand Central; people will pop in here and there,” Mantello said. “But this is their office too.”
All the administrative seats are full, Mantello said, and all of the ones requiring City Council approval went through unanimously. Mantello also created a new position, Director of Diversity, Opportunity and Outreach, and appointed Kevin Pryor.
Though it’s a position that’s been proposed before, Mantello officially established it, an example of what she called the proactiveness of the administration. Some of the reasons she’s had to make emergency declarations, she said, was to continue that proactiveness.
In early January, Mantello declared an emergency for the Eddy’s Lane Pump Station to repair the aging water main pipe, replace two leaking valves, and replace a 700-horsepower pump. They replaced the valves and pump in February and are currently working on replacing the pipe, which Mantello said residents can stay tuned to hear more about.
More recently, she issued an emergency order to pay off back rent to the Hedley Building owners, a $226,000 fee the city incurred while working on a new rental agreement. Though there was a disagreement on whether or not it had to be paid at that moment, the City Council did vote 4-3 to approve the payment.
Both instances, Mantello said, could have been left for later, but by doing so, they could’ve incurred more problems. After paying the fee, the city was able to arrange a short-term rental agreement while they explore options for City Hall (an RFP should be out soon, she said), and if they had left Eddy’s Lane Pump Station as it was, the 100,000 people it serves could have been impacted.
“We’re really trying to show the folks of Troy we are being more proactive,” she said. “Are we gonna let our pipes rust? No, we’re not.”
When the administration moved furniture around at the beginning of the year, she said they found boxes of incomplete ideas and studies that had gone nowhere sitting in a cabinet in the mayor’s office that had been there even before the previous administration. Those were moved to the archives and Mantello said she doesn’t want to add to them.
“Studies are great when they’re going to be implemented, but a study that is going to take a year or year and a half…” Mantello said. “Let’s be proactive and that’s what my administration is about.”
For example, the city is currently working to be declared a pro-housing community — which in this stage is about sending over data and such, she said — but Mantello said they don’t need something like a Vacancy Study, something the Democratic Caucus of the Troy City Council asked for as a part of a Housing Task Force. A task force is unnecessary, she said, and both it and the report would tell them things they already know or be a new name for something they’re already doing.
That being said, there are situations where they need to take a step back and reassess like Prospect Park or the Knickerbocker Pool, she said. But with other parks like 112th Street Park and the pocket parks, they can continue with development and breaking ground as it starts to unfreeze while making sure it works for all ages and mobility levels.
In March, the Capital Region Transportation Council and the City of Troy released a draft ADA Public Streets and Sidewalks Plan for public review as they bring them up to code citywide. With a son who has special needs, Mantello said she was glad they’d been able to take a first step.
They’ve also been able to take the first couple of steps in replacing all the lead pipes in the city, with the most recent development being a $12.5 million grant. Mantello’s goal is to entirely replace the pipes in her first term.
There are several other projects and initiatives, Mantello said, are in the works — modernizing the city’s computer systems, continuing code overhaul, looking at lowering taxes while keeping their quality services, escalating public safety initiatives — and residents can “stay tuned” as they roll out. It all feeds into each other, she said.
“It dominoes into each other in little projects and keeping our city cleaner, safer dominoes into those bigger projects which are revitalizing some of our neighborhoods,” she said. “What we have dealt with since Day 1, we hit the ground running, but you really don’t realize it until you actually write it down.
“We have done so much in 100 days,” she continued. “And just the buzz and the energy out there…it gives me chills.”