RUNNING AGAIN
Wiltshire begins process to face Madden in Democratic primary for mayor
TROY, N.Y. » Former Troy City Council President Rodney Wiltshire is running again for Troy mayor.
Wiltshire, who came up short in a contentious 2015 Democratic primary, is beginning the petitioning process across the city.
Raised in Troy, Wiltshire and his wife have two boys and he is the owner of Empire Solar and Electric. Wiltshire discussed why he’s throwing his hat in the ring again.
“As a lifelong resident of Troy, I have experienced the city through many different phases of life and development and its current phase as well. I was approached by a few people who are both concerned citizens and also very active in various communities and they started to highlight a lot of the concerns they had and also the things that really haven’t been improving but going in the opposite direction,” Wiltshire said of what motivated him to run.
“I do keep an eye open, I have an ear to the ground so I kind of suspected a lot of these things were happening and they’re very basic structural issues. As you drive through the city and you see the potholes, garbage and urban decay if you will that should not be going on in our city. Our city had experienced a bit of a resurgence and the momentum seems to be lost to be completely honest. There’s disharmony, there’s administrative chaos that is going on within city hall and as a leader the mayor has the obligation to set the tone for the city and especially for employees,” Wiltshire added.
“Our city had experienced a bit of a resurgence and the momentum seems to be lost to be completely honest.” — Rodney Wiltshire
“I spoke to my support base and they were very excited and very happy. I also spoke to some people who had previously voted for [ Troy Mayor Patrick] Madden last time and they’re not happy with him and they’re throwing their support over here. So I said it sounds like this is something that needs to happen because we can’t go through another four years like this,” Wiltshire noted of the decision.
“Honestly it’s getting back to basics. We’re getting signatures right now, we’re meeting people, we’re talking to people, we’re identifying what constituents are really concerned with. A lot of the platform of what I spoke about four years ago still needs to be done. There are changes and new challenges to be quite honest, I want to make sure it’s citizen- driven, that it is taxpayers driven. Many of the items from four years ago are still on the table because they just haven’t been addressed and now we have new problems,” Wiltshire said of addressing concerns of constituents.
Wiltshire also noted his business acumen as a template for how he would provide services and run the city.
“I own a business, I’ve owned Empire Solar and Electric for over 10 years now in Troy, you don’t own a business for 10 years if you don’t know how to run a business. We’re not based on grants and government funding and non-profit, we based on actually providing customer service and
meeting the needs of our customers, being agile and having a product that people want to buy. That’s really the same kind of thing that a city if you look at it from a business standpoint, needs to be providing. The taxpayers are the customers and this is the crew that provides those services and basic services are just not being met,” Wiltshire said.
Given his recent experience on the city council, Wiltshire noted how he was taken aback by the budgeting of certain city services and resources.
“My heart was broke and I was dismayed when they closed the pools a year after we got out of office. That was probably the biggest thing that let me know that something was wrong,” he said.
“I was on the council for four years and in that time we always had budget meetings and I was council president as well, so I had a deep understanding of the budgetary process and a deep understanding of what’s going on in the various departments and I was blindsided when I heard that the pools were falling apart and needed to be closed.
“To be honest every year more or less it was about $50,000 to $200,000 dollars to keep the pools moving, which was a reasonable upkeep fee. So when that didn’t happen and when it turned into this gross over exaggeration of what needed to be done I was floored and I was like OK something is wrong here that doesn’t sound right and I had the information to understand it myself,” Wiltshire said of pool closings in South Troy and Lansingburgh.”
“You can’t do that, the city deserves better, the streets shouldn’t be the way that they are and employees in the city that actually carry out the work shouldn’t feel so uninspired and unsupported that even their performance suffers from it. I understand setting the tone for your employees is a big deal and needs to be done correctly. You want to work for somebody who inspires you and not somebody who lets you down,” Wiltshire added of boosting morale at City Hall.
Citing his relationships on the city council, Wiltshire believes that experience will help him and the city get things done.
“Half the people that are running on the city council I’ve worked with before and I even ran with before so we have a really good connection. Some of the people who are on the city council I have respect for and they have respect for me. Depending on the council people who get elected, I think we’re going to have a very successful and cordial term as far as getting things done and that’s the most important thing,” Wiltshire said.
Wiltshire concluded why his multiple perspectives and experiences make him the most viable candidate for Collar City mayor.
“I think I’m the best can- didate for this position. I think I was the best candidate four years ago. I’m going to speak truth to a lot of the issues that the establishment and some of the players within the Democratic party did to ruin that election four years ago. There was some fraud that was involved in petitions four years ago and that kind of tainted the ballot and Madden was the beneficiary of that. Had the board of elections treated the petition objections correctly as they should’ve, Ernest Everett wouldn’t have been on the ballot and it would’ve been a fair primary and I think I would’ve been victorious in that and I think everybody knows that,” Wiltshire said of the race four years ago.
“The perspectives that I bring as a business owner, customer service, understanding who’s paying the bills,” he said. “My line of business is, I’m an electri-
cal engineer, it’s construction based, we do solar, we do electrical construction and you’ve got to get your hands dirty. You’re meeting with people, you’re meeting in their houses, you’re talking about their needs, you’re respecting them.
“I’ve always been a man of the people, I thrive on that, I enjoy that and that’s a tremendous difference in our perspectives and in our personalities. Madden comes from the non-profit world where you write a grant and you get paid and you move on but that’s not how it works in the real world. You have to provide services and be attractive and meet customers needs in order for them to want to live here, want to stay here, want to be happy.
“We need homeowners who want to live here and take pride in the upkeep
in their house, you cannot have a transient community and expect it to give you the same kind of community interaction you get with homeowners and taxpayers.
“My experience of four years on the city council, understanding the budget as at-large council president I dealt with people in their communities intentionally walking the streets, meeting with people, going to their houses, trying to help them with their problems, all of these experiences together I think are what qualified me before to be the mayor and also continue to qualify me to be the mayor right now.”
Assuming he secures the 472 valid signatures needed to appear on the ballot, Wiltshire will challenge Madden in the Democratic primary on June 25.
“Honestly it’s getting back to basics. We’re getting signatures right now, we’re meeting people, we’re talking to people, we’re identifying what constituents are really concerned with.” — Rodney Wiltshire