Council OKS budget on third attempt
Schenectady mayor signs $109.7M plan
SCHENECTADY — City Council members on Thursday afternoon took about three minutes to accomplish something they couldn’t do in hours of grueling negotiations over days of negotiations: adopt a budget.
And Mayor Gary Mccarthy promptly signed the $109.7 million spending plan for next year instead of vetoing it as he had two earlier budget proposals, according to a document from the city clerk’s office after the special meeting ended.
The tax levy or amount to be raised by taxes is $32.06 million and the budget relies on $7.4 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding, which is the deficit the mayor has said the city will be facing in 2025 when those federal pandemic bailout monies are no longer available.
The action by the mayor and city leaders marked the end of a bruising budget battle among the divided alldemocratic board.
On Monday, Mccarthy threatened to sue the council in a bid to get a court to rule that his original budget should stand because the council failed to pass the budget by the statutory Nov. 1 deadline.
That seemed to force council members to make more concessions, chiefly giving back the mayor the water and sewer rate hikes, $16.25 and $74.20, respectively, per year that he’d wanted, as well as restoring the code enforcement officer and assistant corporation counsel positions cut during budget talks. Additionally, residents will be charged extra for large items put out for trash collection.
The council also wants to get a question on the ballot next November to revise the existing city charter’s language to specify that if the budget is not passed by the Nov. 1 deadline, the spending plan would revert to the mayor’s proposed budget or the one used the previous year. Currently, there is no clear guidance on what the
next steps or repercussions are if a budget isn’t adopted by the Nov. 1 deadline.
The 2024 budget also features a 16 percent pay raise from $14,100 to $16,356 for the seven-member council, whose members also receive health insurance coverage.
That raise is the same increase Mccarthy asked for in his preliminary 2020 budget that the council later whittled down to 4 percent, with the stipulation the mayor wouldn’t get a raise in what was then the remaining three years of his third, four-year term. The mayor’s salary is $100,680.
Like the two prior budget votes, Thursday’s final tally on the plan was 4-3 with dissenting votes from Doreen Ditoro, John Polimeni, and Carmel Patrick. Voting to approve were Marion Porterfield, Damonni Farley, John Mootooveren and Carl Williams.
Patrick, the only one to speak on her vote, said she based it on the reduction of overtime monies for the police and fire departments.
“I feel that not putting in the overtime as the mayoral budget had asked for is really showing that the majority of this council doesn’t seem to have confidence in (Police Chief Eric) Clifford or (Fire Chief Don) Mareno and the figures that they have given us,” Patrick said.
Even though roughly $662,873 in police and fire overtime monies were cut out of the mayor’s proposed plan, several on the council who supported that move were quick to point out that the budgets for those two departments are the largest ever that the city has passed.
‘Pettiness and dysfunction’
Schenectady Republican leader Tom Kennedy earlier this week made public a Nov. 27 email Porterfield, the council president, sent to Mccarthy outlining her concerns about how he acted during the budget discussions and claiming that some of his other actions have racial overtones.
“It may not be your intention, but you definitely are doing things that are divided along the lines of race,” she wrote.
Porterfield and two other council members are Black. One councilman is Guyanese of Indian descent. Mccarthy and the other three council members, two women and a man, are white. Mccarthy did not respond to a voicemail message or text Thursday seeking comment.
Porterfield begins the letter by calling out the mayor for a budget meeting last month where he acknowledged former Republican mayor Albert P. Jurczynski who was in the room, jokingly asking him if these meetings bring back old memories. Jurczynski proceeded to scold the council and called it dysfunctional as Porterfield tried to restore order.
The council president also wrote that when she first took the leadership post she routinely made overtures to Mccarthy in hopes of developing a “working relationship and to discuss city issues” but felt that he never reciprocated.
“You always say, ‘we’re (one) big happy family, whether we like it or not.’ However, you regularly speak and stand against the council. Your behavior has given people encouragement to attack the council members that you do not support,” Porterfield wrote.
She also questioned if Mccarthy is “undermining the minority members of the council,” asking why he only invited the white council members “to lead the parade with you.”
On Thursday, Porterfield during a phone conversation suggested that she has since learned the council members who marched in last month’s popular Holiday Parade were not invited by Mccarthy to join him.
Along with the email, Kennedy said in an accompanying news release that the budget negotiations “exposed levels of pettiness and dysfunction that are so destructive and pervasive” that it’s hurting the city and its residents.
“The city of Schenectady deserves better than what our elected leaders are shoveling out day in and day out,” he added. “They have proven they are only interested in satisfying their personal egos at the taxpayer’s expense.”
Porterfield said the email was meant to be private and was annoyed that Kennedy managed to get a copy and was trying to score political points, which he denied was his goal.