January 31, 2024
The Community Digest is getting a bit snappier. If you have thoughts about its new look and focus, please let us know. We cannot do everything that everybody asks, but we do take public feedback very seriously.
TROY CITY COUNCIL
Public notices for tomorrow’s finance and regular meetings were published Tuesday afternoon. Under §104 of New York State’s Open Meetings Law, public bodies are required to provide notice of meetings at least 72 hours in advance. Since the start of the new year, only two meetings (29%) have been compliant with OML in this regard.
Ordinance 4 appropriates funds for an emergency temporary corrosion control treatment system at Troy’s Water Filtration Plant. The memorandum in support of Ordinance 4 notes that Troy was placed under an administrative order relating to exceedances of the EPA’s lead and copper rule. Interested readers can access the full administrative order here.
City council agendas no longer include vacancy lists. Vacancy lists were a valuable transparency measure that helped the public make heads or tails of Troy’s staffing shortages. We hope that the administration will consider publishing them in the months to come, especially since the Council just passed a resolution requiring it.
As presented, Ordinance 2 on the regular meeting agenda transfers funds between departments in the 2024 general fund and water fund. A discussion during the January 8 finance meeting clarified that the transfers are for a $5,000 raise for the Deputy Mayor, a $10,000 raise for the Deputy Director of Public Information, and a $5,000 raise for the Confidential Assistant to the Mayor.
WANGLED UP IN BLUE
Ordinance 2 also transfers funds to free $18,712 for the reclassification of a supervisory position that was identified verbally only as “Bill Wangler,” and only because the Council asked. Bill Wangler is a person, not a position. Bill Wangler (the person) is the unit president for CSEA, which voted to endorse Mayor Mantello in the 2023 general election. Bill Wangler (the position) — which is seemingly beside the point here — is really “Traffic and Signal Systems Superintendent.” The proposed reclassification updates a job description last revised on July 22, 1977. The original job description is available here.
The administration shared verbally that the reclassification was approved by the Civil Service Commission, although we cannot confirm that because neither minutes nor recordings of that meeting have been published anywhere. We can, however, see that the January 3 Civil Service Commission meeting agenda has an item to “establish one (1) new position of Traffic and Signal Systems Superintendent.” The reclassification of an existing position was not on the agenda. The distinction is plausibly significant because Article II of CSEA’s collective bargaining agreement stipulates that the union negotiates whether new positions are included in the unit. In Troy, unit-eligible supervisors and managers (including “superintendents”) are typically represented by UPSEU so that CSEA can ensure that its union maintains a community of interest.
From TIMBER’s limited perspective, this seems like an awful lot of effort on the part of an employer to keep a manager in a CSEA bargaining unit, but we always welcome the insights and perspectives of rank-and-file workers in Troy. We wish Bill Wangler luck in navigating the trials and tribulations of CSEA leadership after his promotion to Bill Wangler, which was budgeted by Bill Wangler and possibly even approved by Bill Wangler. City employees should contact New York’s Public Employment Relations Board at 518-457-6410 with questions.
A circus in Troy, New York. 1907.
STATE BUDGET
On January 16, Governor Hochul released the executive budget for New York State’s Fiscal Year 2025. While we encourage folks to read the budget themselves, our observations about three key items are available below.
This year’s executive budget halves New York’s investment in local clean water infrastructure to $250 million. In every state budget since 2019, New York State has appropriated $500 million for clean water infrastructure. TIMBER’s top priority in this year’s budget is to restore the traditional $500 million for Clean Water Infrastructure, and to add $100 million lined out for lead service line replacement. The 2017 Clean Water Infrastructure Act established core programs that fund major local water infrastructure projects in New York State. When the act was conceptualized, funds were specifically dedicated to lead service line replacement programs. In subsequent budgets, those were collapsed into a single line funding the Environmental Facilities Corporation’s Intermunicipal Grants (IMG) and Water Infrastructure Improvement (WIIA) programs. In Rensselaer County alone, WIIA and IMG grants have provided over $53 million in financial assistance to critical repairs and upgrades for water infrastructure projects that include Troy’s water main transmission replacement and the Albany Pool Communities plan. In Troy, many of the projects WIIA & IMG can or do support are not just urgent, they are legally mandatory: the US EPA has issued administrative orders relating to sewage outfalls, lead service line replacement programs, and a host of other issues.
As proposed, Part W of FY25’s Public Protection and General Government bill increases the maximum awards for planning ($20,000 per municipality, $100,000 total) and implementation ($250,000 per municipality, $1.25 million total) Local Government Efficiency grants. TIMBER is enormously supportive of the Local Government Efficiency grant program, and we strongly endorse these proposed changes. To make the grant program even stronger, we are requesting that the local matching fund requirement be waived for planning grants that either (1) predominantly support disadvantaged communities; or (2) support a total population of more than 30,000 and less than 200,000.
Local governments need the planning grant to fully assess the potential fiscal impact of a consolidation. Without the planning grant, they are betting up to $10,000 that there will be a return on their investment. For New York State, this may sound like a negligible amount of money – and for New York State, it is! But for local governments with acute staffing and/or liquidity crises, $10,000 from the general fund could go to any number of urgent needs for which the return on investment requires no imagination at all. Ironically, the matching fund requirement can often be a prohibitive obstacle for the very communities that LGE grants are intended to support.
Part UU of TED in last year’s budget was intended to clarify whether cities can bond for the full replacement of Troy’s lead service lines. It did not provide the clarity that some cities had hoped for. In most of New York State, lead service lines become private property beginning at the curb stop. Because local governments cannot borrow money to give gifts, several local water authorities have shared concerns that they may be sued if they bond to fully replace lead service lines. While we are confident that state agencies consider any private benefit to be incidental to the public health crisis that lead service line replacement programs are obviously intended to address, local governments are stuck in a holding pattern until the state clarifies the matter. Like many other concerned and disadvantaged communities around the state, Troy does not have the liquidity to fully replace its lead service lines without bonding. We are requesting that the state formally, publicly, and explicitly opine on the constitutionality of bonding for lead pipe replacement programs so that local governments can plan accordingly. We have drafted a resolution and memorandum of support for any local official in New York State who would like to introduce a resolution to call for state action. Please do not hesitate to reach out.
AROUND THE HORN
To address concerns with state and local freedom of information law compliance, TIMBER will be launching its Adopt-A-FOIL program in February. Anybody interested in learning how to FOIL and maintaining a scorecard for certain agencies is welcome to participate.
Environmental Advocates NY released a new report on Clean Water Infrastructure Act spending from 2017 to the present.
The US EPA held a virtual public hearing on its proposed lead and copper rule improvements, the most notable of which is a requirement to remove all lead service lines within 10 years of enactment (2037). This will not impact Troy at all, as the mayor has promised to replace all of the city’s lead pipes in 4 years (2027).
The Office of the State Comptroller released a new report on tax checkoffs and disbursements.
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