Peter Torncello seeks City Council seat WATERVLIET
Torncello was recently endorsed by the Watervliet Democratic Committee
WATERVLIET, N.Y. » With many years of experience as anattorney at law, Peter Torncello, said he is now ready to take his knowledge and skills to city government.
Torncello, 56, was recently endorsed as the Democratic candidate for the Watervliet City Council by the city’s Democratic committee. As of now, Torncello will likely challenge Councilman Frank McGrouty in a primary election on June 25.
After McGrouty was elected to his council position, Democratic Councilman Charles Patricelli, who is now running for mayor, immediately questioned whether McGrouty should serve a four-year term or a shorter term after Democratic Councilman Nicholas Foglia’s resignation and city officials continued to do it the way that they had in the past, which was to elect him to a four-year term instead of filling the unexpired term.
The City Charter states that elections to the three-member council must be done in oddnumbered years, with the mayor and one council member appearing on the same ballot and in the next election two years later the other council member is supposed to run. All three seats are part-time positions.
According to the Albany County Board of Elections, Patricelli needed to run for his council seat again in 2018, which he was reelected to, for what will be a three-year term and then McGrouty and Mayor Michael Manning would need to run for their positions in 2019. Manning has not officially announced whether he intends to seek re-election yet or not.
Upon graduating from law school, Torncello accepted a position as an Assistant District Attorney in the Albany County District Attorney’s Office and served in that office for 12 years as a felony trial lawyer. Torncello is currently an Assistant Alternate Defender in the Albany County Alternate Public Defender’s Office.
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Torncello said he worked on the staff of former Assemblyman Mike McNulty and worked on the staff for former U.S. Congress Sam Stratton, and he said he saw first-hand what it is like being a public servant. Torncello also formerly served as the attorney for the Watervliet Housing Authority and was also a deputy corporation counsel for the city of Watervliet.
“I learned from watching those two greats and how they attacked public service and how important it was for them to listen to their constituents and respond to their constituents and both of them really knewhow to get things done,” said Torncello. “And I’d like to think that I learned a little from working with and watching those two.”
Torncello said he believes that now is a good time for him to join city government since his youngest child is out of college, and he wants to work with Patricelli to help make improvements throughout the city.
“I’m looking forward to pitching in,” said Torncello. “I think the city could use a little tweaking and some improvements in some areas.”
Torncello said he thinks his experience as an attorney, especially as a former deputy corporation counsel for the city gives him an edge for how city government works.
“My former position as the deputy corporation counsel for the city, I was intimately involved in pretty much all the matters that affected the city,” he said. “[In that position] you’re at every City Council meeting; you prepare every [council] resolution, you review and prepare [city] ordinances, you provide guidance to the mayor and the council on the law and how they should attack an issue and what they’re prohibited fromdoing as well. Part of my job when I was the corp. counsel was to negotiate the [city’s union] contracts.”
Torncello noted that he has some goals that he would like to help the city achieve if he is elected to the council.
“Number one would be to improve the city’s financial picture, and I think a way to do that is to recruit and encourage good businesses to move into the city and to create some really well-paying jobs,” he explained. “There are areas that can be developed wisely in the city and on the other hand, there are some small things that we need to do to make everybody’s everyday life a little bit better, the street paving system has to be a little bit better in the city, the parks need to be sort of cleaned upandtaken care of a little bit better and I’m really a big proponent of increasing the whole park’s system.”