Troy Council to vote on excessive force settlement

HOULE shortly after his 2012 arrest

The City Council will vote to settle for $60,000 a federal lawsuit brought by freelance photographer Brian Houle at next month’s meeting.

The ordinance, which the Council will first discuss at the Finance Committee meeting on Nov. 20, will satisfy claims that officer Kyle Jones and others used excessive force while arresting Houle on June 26, 2012 in front of his South Troy home.

Prior to the questionable arrest, Houle and Jones got into a dispute on Facebook over what constitutes a “hero.” Houle referred to himself as one as he described how he extinguished an automobile fire after an accident.

Jones disputed there was a fire, Houle took exception. Jones then called Houle and the two continued the debate on the phone – a conversation Houle recorded and distributed to the media. Jones didn’t outright threaten Houle but he came close.

He was arrested for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct for allegedly blocking traffic during the early morning hours of June 26, 2012.  Those charges were dropped.  

Houle’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, named Jones and other officers as well as Chief John Tedesco, for failing to supervise or train his officers, and the city.

He initially asked for $3 million.

Internal Affairs investigated Houle’s claims against Jones and found the officer violated the department’s computer policy but did not use excessive force.

If the Council does not accept the mayor’s recommendation to settle, the case will proceed to trial.

Houle is represented by attorney Danielle Neroni.

Kopka grew a set (WITH EMAILS)

KOPKA

As if to answer the immortal challenge put forth by Parks and Recreation head George Rogers – Councilwoman Lynn Kopka, D-At Large, is the only I know of who looked at Troy's fiscal dilemma and grew a set.

She is not afraid to look at the deficit (which, according to the state Comptroller, is currently $6 million and climbing) and look at where the most money is spent (51 percent of the budget on pubic safety) and put two and two together.

It’s kind of like legendary thief Willie Sutton. When the FBI asked him why he robbed banks he said:  That’s where the money is.”

Politically, to even look at cutting public safety takes guts or, as Rogers said, “balls.” But what are the alternatives? Jack taxes through the roof? That just chases some people out and deters others from moving in. I’m sure there are other spots in the workforce or the budget that can get cut too, but public safety is the big enchilada and it’s always been sacrosanct.

Sutton didn’t rob quicky marts.

I’m not even sure if she proposed the idea of closing the Fire Department’s North Station, but the fact she supported at least talking about what is a pretty decent idea brought down a flurry of nasty emails from her colleagues on the Council.

They can be read below since I generally get the juicer ones sooner or later.

(My favorite is from Councilman Bob Doherty, D-District 4, asking why Kopka is sending former Councilman Mark McGrath the emails.  “As has happened before when you email speculate using our communications to Mark they wind up in Franco’s [hands] with accusations of black people colluding or other’s alleged criminal behavior,” Doherty wrote on Nov. 9. I really have no idea what he’s talking about when he says “black people colluding” but I’ve been called worse. At least I think I’ve been called worse.)

Back to the issue … What Kopka is proposing, or supporting, makes at least some sense since the North Station is tiny with only one door and is home to just one pumper truck - although, someone did send me a photo of an ambulance sitting outside the station at the corner of North and River streets on Sunday. Provided the ambulance will find a permanent home along the curb of North Station, I can’t help but wonder what will happen should it get called out in January at, say, 3 a.m. Let’s hope the patient can wait while firefighters scrape the windows.

Also, while there is just one pumper truck – and possibly an ambulance – it has to be manned with two firefighters 24-7, which equals the full time equivalent of 14 shifts.  And when one of those 14 firefighters calls in sick or goes on vacation, that shift is filled with another firefighter on overtime.

It was closed down in 1993 when Central Station was opened on Sixth Avenue, the 14 shifts were disbursed to other stations and it was re-opened for political reasons a few years later. Then it was closed again, and then opened again. I don’t think many knew if it was open or closed for the last two decades.

Troy currently has 133 cops, which is the most since I’ve been at The Record. And shortly before I started covering Troy it was under 100. And Troy just hired 14 new firefighters. Not everyone loves cops but everyone loves firefighters.

It takes a “set” to even talk about cutting the Fire Department.  

Without further ado, here are the emails (I just cut and pasted them so I can’t take credit for the typos):

From Councilman Jim Gordon to Kopka on Nov. 7 at 5:40 p.m.

“I'm hearing that you and Erin are in favor of closing the North Central fire station. This would be a huge hit for this community, loosing it's police substation and now you want to close its fire house. 

I'm sure you're well aware of the minimal manning clause in the UFA agreement, are you willing to layoff firefighters to be able to realize any cost savings from this closure - after just hiring 14? Are you aware of how operationally this rig works with engine 1 in Lansingburgh? Would there be a public safety and first responder safe concern?

There has been no constructive bargaining sessions with the UFA, why aren't you calling on the mayor to initiate constructive negations. This could address cost savings and open the door for discussion on FD operations. Just like with the PBA contract, efficiencies can be had if we had the leadership in our administration to properly negotiate.

Additionally, you voted in support of the purchase of a new fire truck and two new ambulances, now what do you do with equipment such as this, that I believe is in the process of being ordered at a hefty price tag, and the debt it creates.

While I applaud your ambition it sounds like this proposal wasn't that well thought out before making public statements. Is the mayor supportive of your proposal? Is there more to the story than we are understanding? Please enlighten us.”

From Kopka to Gordon on Nov. 7 at 10:59 p.m.

“Rodney does not speak for either Erin or me. If you wish clarification on our suggestions, please contact us directly.”

From Councilwoman Anastasia Robertson to Kopka on Nov. 7 at 11:50 p.m.

“Regarding the suggested closure of any FD house is not a viable option especially in the North Central community.

Concerns addressed by Council Gordon are definitely issues that should be researched before any such closure were to be suggested let alone take place. North Central has minuscule resources and cannot afford to have more deflected to Lansingburgh or any other community.

Both Lansingburgh and North Central seem to shoulder the bulk of both fires and crime. Would you consider the FD house servicing your area for closure as the need appears to be less? I don't believe you would see that as a viable option.

I realize the constraints and fiscal responsibility we are facing there are many things to consider but to suggest taking resources out of a suffering community is not right or responsible.

On another note I also do not agree with decreasing the NI Grants to 6500 from 9k. This grant though small in scale serves many communities with an opportunity to beautify and in a small way bring a touch of sunshine and neighborly cohesion. If there were other grants for communities to draw from I might begin to understand, however this is not the case. The NI Grant is a viable and necessary grant toward the building and bridging of positive communities.

If you believe there are one or two who failed to utilized their grants, then next year deny those applicants.

Just my thoughts. ...”

From Kopka to Robertson on Nov. 8 at 1:02 a.m.

“Anastasia - Had you participated in the Wednesday caucus, you would know that I did not suggest that we close a firehouse. I did suggest that Troy adopt the Albany model of identifying savings in the public safety area (where the OT is creating problems) thru joint efforts - the administration and the police and fire work together to identify achievable savings.

Again, had you participated in Wednesday's caucus, you could have voiced your opposition to the NIP cut.

In order to accomplish the ads that many members wanted (Code Inspector, Grant Writer, Comptroller, Powers Park, etc), reductions in expenditures must be found. As it is, the majority submitted $47K in ads (not including fringe benefits for the positions) and has not identified a like amount in expenditure reductions.”

From Doherty to Kopka on Nov. 8 at 5:47 a.m.

“If there is a concerted effort to manage and reduce personnel costs, it must target the workforce in its entirety. Assuring management effectiveness to accomplish budgeted targets is our core responsibility of stewardship and accountability to Troy’s citizens. Because the uniformed Public Service sectors are our largest costs does not mean they become the sole target of attention and actions. Given the fundamental critical support of safety to citizen’s wellbeing, we should not speculate on drastic proposals, unless and until our reviews efforts are universal. The only effective effort will be a shared one with Administration. If there is not willingness on all of our parts, that must be addressed and remedied.

Passing our budget and acknowledging the content of the State Comptroller’s communications is the immediate challenge. Our next responsibility is to gain accurate and timely reporting of fiscal performance. We must start gaining the tools we need that will lead to control and stability. Controls and varied effective administrative actions to produce necessary outcomes need to be applied forthwith and continually throughout the year.

Speculative targets that gain attention for discussion don’t get us nearer to accomplishing our tasks.”

From Kopka to McGrath on Nov. 8 at 9:25 a.m.

“Mark - here is why it would be difficult to close a firehouse.”

From Robertson to Kopka on Nov. 8 at 11:10 a.m.

“Is there a reason why the council's communications are being shared with Mr. McGrath?”

From Kopka to someone on Nov. 8 at 12:19 p.m.

“I wanted to let him know about the feasibility of closing a firehouse”

From Doherty to Kopka on Nov. 9 at 8:22 a.m. (my favorite)

“Then please write your own communications and do not use mine. Adding Mark to our communications render them subject to hyperbole and insult.  As has happened before when you email speculate using our communications to Mark they wind up in Franco’s with accusations of black people colluding or other’s alleged criminal behavior.

Sincere interest in solving problems or even being thoughtful of the interests of Troy become an opportunity to scorn.

I’m disappointed you continue this behavior in spite of the chilling effect it has on your participation and reputation.  The answer to the question “Do you ever embarrass yourself?”  Is  apparently never.  It is impossible to know when you are being your usual contemptuous hurtful self or when you might actually want to be taken seriously.  I had hope you might collaborate and dialogue about City finances, but disruption is more to your liking.  Bob”

 

Troy's North Station was closed before and few even knew

NORTH STATION

In a scathing audit, the state Comptroller said Troy has run a $6 million deficit over the last three years.

That’s not a slight miscalculation – that’s a structural problem. In other words there is no money from anywhere to continue operations as they are now. The water and sewer funds are tapped to the max, the contingency fund has been spent down and the capital fund was spent on operational costs rather than things like paving roads.

KOPKA

The city has to cut expenses or raise more revenue and it doesn’t appear anyone has any idea how to go about doing that.

Mayor Lou Rosamilia has ignored the problem and his proposed 2015 budget includes massive one shots on each side of the ledger, a $650,000 source of revenue for the sale of the old City Hall site and he proposes to defer $1.9 million of pension costs until 2016.  That’s just pushing the problem off and will make things worse.

Council President Rodney Wiltshire, appearing on Talk1300, said Trojans can expect a tax hike. That’s pretty much a given at this point in time but the revenue generated could be offset by people moving out.

WILTSHIRE

Councilman Jim Gordon has the most creative idea – eliminate public safety from the budget and charge everyone a fee, including the non-profits which currently don’t pay taxes. But, that’s years out since it would take participation from the state Legislature and turn the entire taxing structure on its head.

One proposal, though, that makes sense and supported by Councilwoman Lynn Kopka, is closing the Fire Department’s North Station. It would bring immediate and long term relief, but for some reason her Council colleagues crucified her for even talking about cuts to public safety.

Here’s a bit of history.

ROSAMILIA

The Fire Department’s central offices were located in the Police Department building and while it wasn’t practical or efficient it was crowded. So, the city set out to find a new home and set its sights on what was then Bloomfield’s junkyard on Sixth Avenue.

Part of the justification behind building a new station was the savings generated by closing the North Station at the corner of North and River streets. It’s a small station with only a pumper but it is manned 24-7 and that constitutes some 14 shifts that have to be filled by firefighters. And the city just hired 14 new firefighters ... get the possible correlation?

In 1993 Central Station was open and, with the union’s blessing, North Station was closed. As an aside, at the time Gary Favro was head of the Uniformed Firefighters Association and there is no one I know of who is more of a union guy than Favro.

GORDON

Skip ahead four years, Mayor Mark Pattison had been in office about a year and a half. In an effort to help an ally on the Council, Christine Stone, win re-election in District 2 Pattison re-opened North Station. Stone lost anyway.

Skip ahead a few more years, the station was close for about 18 months for repairs that included a new roof and other structural work. I’m guessing nobody noticed.

And nobody would notice if it were closed now. Central Station is blocks away and was designed to handle the calls taken by North Station.

Kopka has the the wherewithal to realize the city is in deep trouble and the guts to say public safety is not sacrosanct.

Public Safety constitutes 51 percent of the city’s budget. A bank robber goes to the bank for one reason – that’s where the money is. If you want to fix structural deficiencies in the budget – you have to look in the same place.  

Comptroller: Troy spent $5.9 million more than it took in from '11 through '13 (DOCUMENT)

ROSAMILIA

From 2011 through 2013, the City of Troy spent $5.9 million more than it took in, according to a scathing report by the office of state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (see below.)

According to the 10-page report, the city operated at a $2.3 million deficit in 2011, a $1.3 million deficit in 2012 and a $2.4 million deficit in 2013. The report comes about a week after the Comptroller warned the city that if it closed this year at a projected $800,000 deficit, it could come back under the control of the Financial Control Board for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Mayor Harry Tutunjian's last year in office was 2011 and Mayor Lou Rosamilia took over on Jan. 1, 2012.

TUTUNJIAN

In addition, the Comptroller points out that the city has transferred substantial amounts of money from the water fund to help offset the deficit, an option the Comptroller warns will be limited in the future. In 2011, the city took some $300,000 from the water fund, in 2012, $1.2 million and in 2013, $1.5 million.

Furthermore, the Comptroller says the city failed to adequately budget for capital expenditures and instead relied on borrowing. From 2011 through 2015 the Comptroller estimates the city’s capital improvement fund will decrease from $6.2 million to $175,000.

The Comptroller also points out that next year’s budget, which has not yet been approved by the Council, includes a one shot $650,000 of revenue from the sale of the old City Hall site and an approximately $1.6 million of savings by deferring three months of its pension contribution until 2016.

  “As a result, the 2016 budget must contain provisions for a significant increase in retirement appropriations,” according to the report.

More information as it becomes available.  

Here is a link about the Comptrollers report written by a seasoned reporter.

Here is another link, about the same by a talented writer and ambitious young reporter who unfortunately has no editorial oversight and nobody above her willing or able to pick up the slack when a major story breaks late in the day.

 

 

 

Troy_C_BR by jfranco17410

Race for DA is too close to call

ABELOVE

The race for Rensselaer County District Attorney will go to absentee ballots.  

According to unofficial results from the Board of Elections, Republican Joel Abelove ended the night with 50.36 percent or 21,857 votes to Democrat Carmelo Laquidara’s 49.58 percent or 21,518 votes.

LAQUIDARA

There were about 2,700 absentee ballots issued and 1,814 were returned to the BOE.

The re-canvass of machine votes generally takes place the day following the election. It’s unclear when the two sides will sit down and go through the arduous process of counting the absentee ballots.

The two are vying for the seat vacated when Rich McNally was sworn in as a Supreme Court judge on Jan. 1.  

Kehn beats Gorman for second Troy judge seat; Maier cruises to another term

KEHN

Jill Kehn will become the second city court judge alongside incumbent Judge Chris Maier, who led the three candidates running for two spots on the bench, according to unofficial results from the Rensselaer County Board of elections.

When she is sworn in on Jan. 1, she will become Troy's first ever female city court judge.

Kehn, who ran on the Republican, Conservative, Independence, Green and Working Families Party lines, ended up with 30.48 percent, or 4,457 votes to Democrat Keith Gorman’s 24.74 percent, or 3,618 votes. Maier, a Democrat who had four additional lines, ended with 44.55 percent, or 6,515 votes.

GORMAN

The newly created position carries a 10-year term.

Gorman beat the Democratic Party’s pick, Troy Corporation Counsel Ian Silverman, in a primary to earn a spot on the ballot.

MAIER

Kehn came under fire when it was revealed her law license was suspended from 1999 to 2005 because she failed to follow the two-year registration requirements. It was also disclosed she practiced law during the time her license was suspended. She said she was unaware of the suspension because she was raising her children, taking care of an ill family member and had moved.

Across the board public safety fee is an idea worth exploring

GORDON

For years, decades even, the City of Troy has tried to get Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to pay for city services and for years, decades even, the college has refused.

The easiest way to accomplish that would be to charge a nominal public safety fee, as it’s been called in the past, as part of the tuition and that money would pass through the college to the city. But, the city can’t just impose a fee on RPI or any other specific entity without imposing the same fee on all properties, like the recycling fee. And it can’t tax any of the non-profits.

As I mentioned, this has been going on for decades. Now, though, there is a sense of urgency because the city is in the worst financial shape in 20 years.

Councilman Jim Gordon, R-District 1, while appearing on Talk 1300, said he and his Republican colleague, Councilman Dean Bodnar, R-District 3, will propose a possible way to get some much needed cash from RPI and other non-profits.

It’s an out-of-the-box idea, and I have no idea if the city can find a way to implement it, but on the surface it is worth exploring.

BODNAR

According to Gordon, he wants to take all or part of the public safety budget – which equals about half of the city’s total spending per year – and rather than pay for it with taxes spread the bill out among all the properties in the city – including non-profits like RPI – and have them all pay a fee. By bringing such huge non-profits like Samaritan and St. Mary’s Hospital and RPI into the mix, the average homeowner will see an overall decrease in what he or she owes Uncle Sam per year while at the same time it represents a huge, untapped source of much needed revenue.

There are all sorts of road blocks in the way – including how much each property will pay, how to collect the fee, what happens if the fee isn’t paid, odds are the state Legislature will have to pass some sort of law and God knows they can complicate tying a shoe and that’s if the city can even come up with a rationale home rule request.

But, as reported in the Times Union, the city is facing an $800,000 deficit, which is more than 1 percent of the budget. If the city runs the deficit through the end of the year it risks again coming under the auspices of the state Comptroller’s Financial Control Board. That means the Comptroller will pretty much take away the city’s check book and every other aspect of the city’s finances.

Not surprisingly, police and fire overtime are over budget as is temporary help, which is surprising. At the same time some revenues aren’t coming in as predicted such as building permit fees – which I wrote about more than a year ago – and collection of vehicle and traffic fines.

My guess is if the administration of Mayor Lou Rosamilia is saying there is an $800,000 deficit then it’s really $1 million-plus, which will be even harder to make up before the books are closed at year’s end. Or maybe all the mayor, a former accounting professor at Hudson Valley Community College, is worried about is getting the deficit below the 1 percent threshold, or about $750,000.  

ROSAMILIA

And that’s not going to help out next year or the year after that at all. If anything it will just make it harder to get a balanced budget. All of the unions are without a contract, reserves have been spent down in recent years and the city already deferred $1.6 million in pension costs from next year to 2016.

Troy maybe in a little worse shape than other upstate, older industrial cities but it’s not alone in its financial woes. It’s also not alone in having a huge number of non-profits – close to 50 percent – that require a huge amount of city services they don’t pay for.

That’s why Gordon’s idea is at least worth exploring. Of course there will be naysayers and it certainly isn’t going to be an easy lift. But it’s better to get a little creative and explore new ideas rather than point fingers and unilaterally raise taxes on the average homeowner.