Issues debated
Questions about Thevenin shooting, closed city pools dominate mayoral debate
Fatal police-involved shooting, pool hot topics at Troy mayoral debate.
A secret city memo on a fatal policeinvolved shooting and the three years the city’s two swimming pools have been closed were two important issues that filled the debate Tuesday night among the three candidates running for mayor.
Those two topics are some of the baggage Mayor Patrick Madden, the Democrat and Working Families Party candidate, is carrying as he seeks a second four-year term leading the city of about 50,000 people.
Madden started the night with an explanation of how many of his decisions have been directed by his efforts to stabilize the city’s finances and keep the municipality solvent.
The April 2016 shooting of Edson Thevenin by Sgt. Randall French and the city’s failure to open the South Troy Pool this summer gave Thomas A. Reale, the Republican-conservative candidate, and former City Council President Rodney G.
Wiltshire Jr., the Green-libertarian-independence candidate, opportunities to attack the mayor.
Questions submitted by residents turned the candidates’ attention toward the two topics. The debate, attended by about 100 people at the Lansingburgh Boys and Girls Club, fell on the second Tuesday in September, the state’s traditional primary date. The primary was moved to June 25 this year.
Activists calling for the secret memo to be released lined one wall of the club, holding signs.
“There was absolutely no coverup,” Madden told the crowd. He said the memo would be released after the federal civil rights lawsuit against the city concludes.
The mayor was referring to his decision not to release the memo written by former Glenville Police Chief Michael D. Ranalli. The memo Ranalli undertook for the city disputed findings in the 69-page internal affairs report written by Capt. Joseph L. Centanni, which concluded French was not justified in using deadly physical force when he fatally shot 37-year-old Edson Thevenin on April 17, 2016.
“It’s hard for people to believe there’s not a coverup going on,” Reale said, asserting that the mayor should worry less about the lawsuit and more about residents being fully informed. Reale blamed former Republican Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove for hastily pushing the investigation before a grand jury.
Reale also condemned the mayor for not having a functioning Police Objective Review Committee to study the internal affairs reports.
Wiltshire, an enrolled Democrat, said that failing to release all the information “does reek of a coverup.” He said that night “never should have happened.”
Wiltshire and Reale also slammed Madden for promising to open the South Troy Pool for the summer swim season and failing to do so. Wiltshire said the South Troy and Knickerbacker pools should have been kept open with modest repairs. Reale said the condition of the pools ref lects the lack of focus on providing basic city services.
As the candidates head toward the Nov. 5 election, Madden’s position as the incumbent Democratic candidate places him in the strongest position. The Democrats dominate the voting rolls with 42.4 percent of the city’s 21,969 registered voters, compared with 28.2 percent unaligned voters and 15.1 percent Republicans. The remaining minor parties account for about 14.3 percent of the voters.