I’m shocked to hear Watervliet GM Smith is resigning
Sometimes you get a work email that makes you stop what you’re doing since it throws you off guard a little bit. That’s exactly what happened to me on Monday afternoon. I was working in our Saratoga newsroom, and as I saw a new email come in from Watervliet General Manager Jeremy Smith, I for sure did not expect it to read as it did. Jeremy wrote to me to inform me that he would be resigning his position as the city GM as of Oct. 4. I was shocked when I read that first line of his email, but in a way, I was not all that surprised. Having worked closely with city government for almost four years now, I realize that when a new mayoral administration takes over that sometimes city employees might feel at ease or could end up losing their job.
I’m not sure what the incoming mayor, Charles Patricelli, has in mind for his administration, which is set to take office next year, but I think Jeremy did not want to take any chances of being blindsided.
When I first started as a reporter fresh out of college, I remember covering Watervliet City Council meetings. I honestly did not know what to expect when covering those meetings since I never really attended a city council meeting prior to that.
From the first meeting in Watervliet, I remember Jeremy, who was then the city clerk, have a presence during the meeting. He would explain a lot of things to the residents in attendance at the meeting.
Not only was he there to answer questions from residents, but he has always been helpful to me as a reporter. Even when he was city clerk, I remember I could always go up to him after meetings, and he would explain things in further details. Jeremy would also be available to answer any questions that I needed more clarification on the next day as I was writing a story about the city.
When Mayor Michael Manning appointed Jeremy as the acting GM around 2017, I remember thinking to myself that Jeremy seemed like a good fit for the position since he seemed to be very involved in how the city operated and did things even as the city clerk.
From that day forward, I believe that Jeremy has proved himself that he does know how to handle the day-to- day operations of the city as the GM, and he became even more helpful to me as a reporter.
A few months later, Jeremy was then appointed as the fulltime GM, and he always seemed to work hard and try to do what was best for the city, even though he had to make some unpopular decisions in order to help get the city’s finances back on track.
Every phone call or text that I sent to Jeremy for a story idea, he would always find time to answer me and give me more than I always needed since he would explain things so well and in great detail.
With Jeremy being a Watervliet native, I know this decision could not have been easy for him, but I do wish him the best of luck in his next career.
With that being said, I am also eager to work closely with Patricelli’s (who has also always been accessible to me as a city councilman) administration next year and hope to be able to report on more Watervliet stories just as easy as I have been able to with Jeremy.
Nick on the Record appears in print every Wednesday. Nicholas Buonanno is the assistant senior editor for The Record and can be reached at nbuonanno@medianewsgroup. com