Council seat stays empty
Mayor Michael Manning and Councilman Charles Patricelli unable to agree on interim member
WATERVLIET, N.Y. » For nearly six months, the Watervliet City Council has been operating one member short — and it appears that will not change anytime soon.
The City Council has been one member short since Nicholas Foglia resigned due to personal reasons. Since then, the council has been made up of Mayor Michael Manning and Councilman Charles Patricelli
Shorty after Foglia resigned, Manning and Patricelli began accepting resumes and conducted a total of 10 interviews for possible replacements for the remainder of the year.
But Manning and Patricelli are having a hard time agreeing on an interim appointment
Back in June, Manning introduced a resolution at a council meeting to have former Councilwoman Ellen Fogarty come back on the council on an interim basis this year.
However, Patricelli voted against it and the resolution was voted down due to a tie vote. Forgarty made the decision to not seek re- election in last year’s election, which Patricelli ended up winning.
Manning said he and Patricelli did eventually agree that they did not want to appoint someone to the council who has announced their candidacy in the upcoming election this year.
There are currently a handful of residents who announced their candidacy to run as Watervliet City Council members in the election this year.
During last week’s City Council meeting, Manning introduced another resolution, this time to try to appoint resident and Planning Board member Donnelly Whitehead to the council.
“Donnelly has been coming to every council meeting as long as I can remember and he sits right up front every time,” said Manning. “He comes to every meeting, he takes notes while there and he is also the chairman of our Planning Board. He is very knowledgeable of city events and he’s one of the 10 people who interviewed for the open spot and he has not decided to get into the actual election race.”
Whitehead did not get appointed to the interim role, since Patricelli voted against the resolution.
“The reason I voted this down was because, again, I got a quick second to think about it before I was asked to vote and with that amount of time, it doesn’t
really give me an opportunity to think it through,” explained Patricelli. “Before, when the mayor asked me to consider Ellen Fogarty, I had a couple weeks to discuss things and I even was able to have two conversations with Ellen. As far as Mr. Whitehead, I have no idea why or whatever the situation, the mayor may have had a conversation with Mr. Whitehead, but I did not have the opportu-
nity to.”
The council will continue operating with two members through the near future and possibly until after the race in November.
Four candidates have officially announced their candidacy in the November election and they include, Democrats Frank McGrouty, Peggy Germano and Jeff Foster along with Republican candidate Andrew Williams.