‘At the end of the day, it passed:’ Troy City Council votes, 4-3, to mobilize rent funds after combative meeting

TROY, N.Y. — There was one item on the agendas for Wednesday night’s finance and special meetings of the Troy City Council, and after a contentious hour, the single ordinance to mobilize $226,000 to pay fees incurred through the City Hall rental agreement passed along party lines, 4-3, with the three Democratic members voting ‘no.’

The $226,807.80 is an accumulation of a holdover fee from First Colombia, the owner of the Hedley building that City Hall rents the fifth floor of. When the city did not extend its lease in September of 2022, First Colombia said there would be a monthly fee of $15,120.52 that the company would waive while negotiations continued.

However, there was a disagreement on Wednesday on whether this fee needed to be paid, driven by a differing opinion on where the City of Troy should have its headquarters. Due to press releases from Tuesday night announcing the need to pay the money and the Wednesday meetings, questions were also raised if this fee was a surprise, as the city’s administration said, or if making it out to be a surprise was misleading.

Mayor Carmella Mantello, a Republican, has said that they need to evaluate whether the Hedley Building’s fifth floor is the most suitable location for City Hall and announced Wednesday night they are putting out a Request for Proposals (RFP) for spaces they could rent or renovate. In the meantime, however, they need a short-term lease of about 3-5 years with First Colombia to continue occupying their current City Hall.

Mantello, as well as Corporation Counsel Dana Salazar, Deputy Mayor Seamus Donnelly, and Comptroller Dylan Spring, presented this plan on Wednesday night and said that before negotiating with First Colombia, they were asked to pay the fee in whole. Mantello said that she was first made aware of this fee in the second week of her administration.

However, City Council President Sue Steele,a Democrat, said Mantello knew of this agreement as they served together on the council (as the District 4 representative and the City Council President, respectively) during the negotiations. Steele also added that First Colombia had said on public record in a City Council meeting on April 20, 2023, that they would waive the accumulating fee entirely should the city enter into a long-term lease to keep City Hall in the Hedley building.

Steele said in her statement Tuesday, at the meeting Wednesday, and in speaking with The Record Thursday that the administration was misleading in its statements that the fee was a surprise. Mantello disagreed, saying that she knew the arrangement but not what the amount was and believed the fee would be entirely paid in December of 2023.

“It was never stated how much,” Mantello said, “and here’s me thinking as I came into office, not even thinking about the back rent, thinking that was paid in December of 2023.”

“The second week the property owner paid a visit and basically said, ‘Where’s our back rent?’” she continued. “They want their money and they’ve made that very clear in their negotiations.”

Those negotiations are for a short-term lease and during the meeting, Salazar repeated that First Colombia would not be moving forward with any negotiations until the $226,000 was paid. The money needed to be mobilized immediately to continue negotiations and to close out the books for 2023.

The money was moved from several accounts and Spring believes it will not cause a shortage, he said. The accounts pulled from were: Ice Rink Street’s utilities gas and electric; Engineering’s and Maintenance’s consulting services; and Maintenance Facilities’ utilities street lights, utilities gas and electric, and other materials and supplies.

Though it was not put in writing, Steele reiterated that that fee would be waived if the city entered into a long-term agreement, citing that she spoke with First Colombia on Wednesday before the meeting and they said the same. However, the administration’s presenters said that had no bearing as it wasn’t in writing and that the property owner hadn’t presented that as an option even regarding a long-term lease.

“It doesn’t sound like ever a long-term lease was tenable,” Donnelly said at the meeting. “It didn’t ever seem like it was going to be reasonable or accepted by the folks involved at various times. That’s why it didn’t get done so I think that, you know, talking about like there was this 20-year option that was so favorable and didn’t happen is unrealistic.”

“Well, and I’d like to clarify that because that’s absolutely not correct,” Steele said in response. “It didn’t happen because it never — the lease agreement — never got finalized, (brief interruption from Donnelly) but not untenable.

“We had four votes ready for a 10-year lease,” she continued, speaking of the previous City Council. “You cannot say it was untenable, it was not done.”

The lease negotiations were in the final stages as the previous administration was exiting, according to a statement from former Mayor Patrick Madden, a Democrat, given to The Record before Wednesday’s meeting. In her press release Tuesday night, Mantello said the unpaid rent charges were something “the previous administration failed to address.”

“The incoming mayor asked that we hold off on finalizing the lease until she came into office and I obliged her request,” Madden said in the statement. “What should be clear is that the current Mayor was fully aware that my administration was in negotiations with First Columbia, as well as the details of those negotiations.”

Mantello said she did not recall a conversation about the lease with Madden and that the transition for her administration was “not smooth at all.” She did, however, say she asked publicly, before and after, that whoever won the election should be allowed to decide the future of City Hall.

Steele said the criticism of the Madden administration was unnecessary, and the city needs to be very careful about public statements, keeping them factual and not veering off into partisan attacks. She added that the mayor’s Tuesday night statement had caused confusion.

The city was paying rent, she said, and this money was an additional charge while negotiations were ongoing. Steele, as well as fellow Democratic Councilmember Aaron Vera, said at the meeting that they felt they did not have enough information on the current negotiations and it was premature to vote ‘yes.’ Councilmember Katie Spain McLaren,a Democrat, also voted no.

Steele reiterated Thursday that a 10-year lease would give them proper time to evaluate where City Hall goes, and Madden, who had taken the city out of debt, was concerned with their fiscal situation. Additionally, she said, Troy has a bad record of taking care of their buildings.

Mantello said that a short-term lease is the best option while the RFP goes out in the next week or two, and they will have a finalized lease with First Colombia in the next month to 6 weeks. Mantello, optimistically, she admitted, believes they’ll have a decision for City Hall in a year, though Salazar said she thinks it’ll be closer to 18 months.

Their findings, they said, could still lead to Hedley as the best option, but the administration said citizens deserve a City Hall they can be “proud of.” Steele agreed but said that Hedley works due to its parking, ease of access, and location, adding that they need to take a look at how many residents come to City Hall in person when so much is done online.

Steele and Madden, through his statement, said a City Hall is not a top priority right now compared to the Lansingburgh Fire Station, the Knickerbacker Pool, housing problems, the lead pipe replacement or the water treatment plant upgrades. Mantello said their administration has gotten several projects back on track including the lead pipe replacement, the pool, and the firehouse and they are not a one-priority office.

“To fault an administration of three months of work where we’ve done more in three months than the prior did in eight years is just plain politics, and quite frankly we’re so proud of our three months in office,” Mantello said. “We have gotten things back on track and frankly we’re able to multitask much better than the prior administration.”

Mantello and her administration also reiterated that this was another example that they would take care of things quickly and properly. Whatever the solution is, Mantello said, they will be proactive and they’ll pay any outstanding bills they find.

“The three minority Democratic votes say, what that said resoundingly is, you know, they’re advocating for not paying your bills and to lease a building for 20 years,” Donnelly said Wednesday after the meeting. “The Mantello administration is not going to just let problems linger.”

The meeting, though comparatively short, was antagonistic with interruptions, laughter, raised voices, and open criticisms from several directions. Both Mantello and Steele said the behavior was “disappointing.”

“I did not feel like we were in sync last night in any respect,” Steele said Thursday, adding that she felt certain administration members were unwilling to hear their viewpoints. “I think that there needs to be open dialogue and mutual respect.

“I don’t think there was mutual respect,” she continued, saying that this won’t cause a problem for her in the future and she will be moving forward. “Both sides need to work at listening to each other, hearing what we’re saying, and finding mutual common ground and that did not happen last night.”

“This was literally black and white there are no politics,” Mantello said. “We owe money and we owe back rent that is due now…To get embroiled into the politics, the jabs that were taken, they’re unnecessary because you really have to separate politics and policy.

“It’s just frustrating,” she continued. “But at the end of the day, it passed.”