Councilman Frank McGrouty seeks re-election on City Council
McGrouty will likely challenge Peter Torncello in a Democratic primary election in June
WATERVLIET, N.Y. » City Councilman Frank McGrouty believes that he has done good work on the City Council and is hopeful to earn enough votes from residents again this year.
McGrouty, a Democrat, was first elected to his council seat in 2017 and was appointed the seat a month early in December 2017 since there was a vacancy in the council seat for several months.
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- mem- ber council must be done in odd-numbered 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 and are four-year terms.
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.
McGrouty has been a city resident for more than 60 years and retired after 27 years as a city firefighter. He served on
the city’s school board for 12 years and is also active in several youth programs, including Watervliet Little League. McGrouty noted how he is proud that he helped the school district receive roughly $40 million in grants for improvements such as a new gym, football field, and more classrooms at the high school and ele- mentary school during his time on the board.
McGrouty was not endorsed by the Watervliet Democratic Committee this year, with the committee endorsing Peter Torncello. McGrouty will likely challenge Torncello in a primary election on June 25.
“I believe that I am more well-known that Pete [Torncello],” said McGrouty. “I’ve been in the city for 65 years and have been doing many things in our city.”
McGrouty said he has enjoyed his time on the council so far and wants to continue making decisions to help move the city forward.
“I enjoy making decisions [on the council],” said McGrouty. “We’re trying to clean up our reservoir; we’re trying to get more grant money for our reservoir. We’re working on our zombie properties, and that’s important. Our sewer infrastructure is much better now, we have new roads, and water and sewer lines from grant money.”
McGrouty said he is hopeful that city officials can find grant funding to make more improvements at the Watervliet Dome.
“The Dome is a nice place to have functions, but it’s kind of like an eyesore, so maybe we can get grant money to improve the dome,” he said.
Even though the current council, comprised of McGrouty, Patricelli and Manning, have had some differences, McGrouty said he is hopeful that everyone would be able to give their opinions and do what’s best for the citizens of the city.
“We all have our own opinions and the [citizens] voice their opinions, and we’re supposed to be listening to them and hopefully [we all] will have the same reasoning with our citizens,” explained McGrouty. “Nobody wants to raise the taxes; we’re hoping for more grant monies, and we’re just trying to do the best with what we have.”
While McGrouty has recently knocked on doors throughout the city for petition signatures, he said he noticed that many residents own dogs. He said that got him thinking that the city should look into trying open a dog park.
“A lot of people seem to think that dog parks would benefit them,” said McGrouty. “There’s no place to just let your dogs run free besides your backyard, so that’s something I’m looking into.”