Planning, Finance & Special Meeting
September 17, 2026 | Troy City Council
September 17, 2026 | Troy City Council
The council passed Local Law 3 by a 6-0 vote, setting Troy's first written rules for the city's automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras, run by the vendor Flock. Council Member Noreen McKee, the law's sponsor, amended it before the vote after months of public input and talks with the police department. Eleven residents spoke first. Most said the changes, including a longer 72-hour data retention window, made the law weaker. Council President Sue Steele said she expects Mayor Mantello to veto it, and noted the council can override a veto.
Then the council did exactly that on a different bill. In a special meeting, it voted 6-0 to override the mayor's veto of Local Law 4, which lines up Troy's emergency powers rules with state law. Local Law 4 is now law. Earlier, at the Planning Committee, Deputy Mayor Seamus Donnelly said the planning commissioner's office is still empty, and that he and the mayor have stepped in to fill the gap.
Chair: Council President Steele. Called to order at 6:13 p.m. Council Member Spain-McLaren absent. In attendance: Mayor Carmella Mantello, Deputy Mayor Seamus Donnelly, Commissioner of General Services Joseph Mazzariello, Deputy Chief of Police Steven Barker, Corporation Counsel Richard Morrissey, Communications Director Alex Horton, Purchasing Agent Maria DeBonis. About 25 members of the public attended. Adjourned at 7:10 p.m.
Eleven residents spoke, and nearly all of them talked about Local Law 3.
Francis Sweet of District 6 said the police department's own 60-day camera report, presented August 20, recycled the same three or four cases and offered no hard evidence that the cameras solve crime. "Yet this council has changed the law in their favor," Sweet said, pointing to the jump in data retention from 48 to 72 hours.
Emma Delapia of Euclid Avenue and Maya of 24th Street both said the law got weaker since they last read it. Holding data longer, they said, means a private company keeps images that researchers have found can go beyond license plates. "That means they're creating a nationally accessible database of all the children that live here in Troy," Maya said.
Bri Harrington of District 4 thanked the council for keeping misdemeanors off the list of qualifying crimes. She asked why retention needed to grow at all, since the department's own report showed police searched Flock data within 48 hours 70 percent of the time. "Flock needs to go," she said. "That should have happened in the very beginning."
Heather Kremens of Lansingburgh said phrases like "an officer reasonably believes" and "related to or involved in a felony" were loopholes broad enough to swallow the law's other protections. She said the city has had legal grounds to end the Flock contract since March.
Other speakers, including Frankie, Riley (by Zoom), Ekko Goff, Deirdre, Jay, and Cyan, raised the same concerns: distrust of Flock, cameras that capture more than plates, and reporting limited to data "to the extent recorded in existing case management systems."
Steele thanked the speakers and reminded them that the council is suing Mayor Mantello over the Flock contract. While that case is active, the council is limited in what it can do about the contract itself.
McKee moved a set of amendments before the final vote. Here's what changed:
The amendment passed 6-0, and the amended law passed 6-0.
McKee, who has led the effort since February, said the law lets police keep using the cameras for serious crimes while protecting residents' privacy. She pointed to recent misuse of similar technology by the Albany County Sheriff's Office as the kind of abuse strict limits are meant to stop. "The answer is not to look away, and it is not to ban the technology," she said. "The answer is what Troy has done: show up, speak out, and write the rules ourselves."
Deputy Chief Barker, answering Council Member Favreau and McKee, said Flock's system has no built-in hold feature, so any longer retention means exporting plate reads into a spreadsheet by hand. He said most matches and arrests happen in the first 48 to 72 hours, but that victims whose cases reach a detective later, like incidents over a weekend, shouldn't be left out.
Council Member Shikole Struber said she is "not a cop" and had doubts when police first asked to include certain misdemeanors. She said she researched it herself and found that crimes like child endangerment, assault, and sexual abuse already have felony-level versions, so the law needs no misdemeanor carveout.
Steele closed by saying she expects a mayoral veto and that the council can override it. She said the process, from public concern to repeated rewrites to a likely veto fight, is how legislating is supposed to work.
The council introduced Local Law 5, a property tax break for permanently and totally disabled veterans, sponsored by Steele and Favreau at the administration's request. Resolution 92 sets a public hearing on it for October 1 at 6:45 p.m., before that night's regular meeting.
On Ordinance 45, which declares city property surplus for auction, Purchasing Agent Maria DeBonis said most items came from the police evidence room and impound lot after their required holding periods ended. That includes several Nintendo Switches, wrecked or stripped vehicles, and rolls of insulation. Other items, like office equipment, are tied to the move to the new City Hall. A third-party auction service will run the sale and list each item's condition for bidders.
The council also named the stretch of Tenth Street between Oakwood Avenue and Hoosick Street "Bishop Dr. Norman R. Macklin Way."
Council President Steele presiding. Called to order at 7:10 p.m., right after Finance adjourned. Adjourned at 7:23 p.m.
The council met for one item: overriding Mayor Mantello's veto of Local Law 4. The council passed the law 7-0 on September 3. It lines up the city charter's emergency powers rules with New York's executive law. A veto override lets the council enact a law over the mayor's objection with a two-thirds vote.
Three residents spoke in favor. Emma of Euclid Avenue called the mayor's use of emergency declarations "a complete travesty." Frankie called the mayor's months-long state of emergency a "political charade." Noel Demos of Oakwood Avenue imagined out loud what "a real mayor" might say if she accepted the council's criticism and canceled the Flock contract herself, closing: "I know this won't happen... but I just wanted to see what it would feel like."
Council Member DiLorenzo noted the mayor has told the press that the council "simply opposes everything" she does. He said her veto of a bill that only brings Troy in line with state law showed the opposite. Council Member Campbell-Cohen called the mayor's reasons for the veto "pointlessly combative, contrived, and boring." Steele said the pattern of "we propose, she opposes" isn't good government.
The council voted 6-0 to override. Local Law 4 is now law.
In an open public forum after the vote, Francis Sweet thanked McKee for her work on Local Law 3 but said, "I had really high hopes for this, and it's just not quite enough."
Briefing session, no votes taken. Chair: Council President Steele.
Planning commissioner. The job has been empty since Randy Coburn left. Deputy Mayor Donnelly said few people have applied, one candidate took another job mid-process, and a paid recruiting firm produced no hire. He said the administration may ask for a higher salary in the coming budget. For now, Coburn (now the part-time head of the Troy Industrial Development Agency) and the city's economic development coordinator handle much of the outside work, a supervisor runs the staff day to day, and Donnelly and the mayor answer department-head-level questions themselves.
Geothermal pilot. The city, Troy LDC (the city's local development corporation), and National Grid are testing a shared geothermal heating loop from the Troy Public Library to Monument Square, funded by a state energy (NYSERDA) grant. About 16 buildings, including the Troy Music Hall, could connect. Donnelly said it's the only pilot of its kind in New York to reach a second-phase state review. National Grid will build and own the equipment and is bound to the pilot for five years.
Riverwalk Trail. Extending the path from behind City Hall to Hoosick Street was estimated at about $6.3 million several years ago. The city has $4 million secured. It will update the estimate with engineers LaBella, then ask the council to borrow the rest. Donnelly expects that gap to grow past the current $2.3 million.
Other projects. A downtown signage project has about $400,000 for its first phase. The American Theater renovation is on track to open next year. In South Troy, a lawsuit from American Rock Salt ended after the city agreed not to extend South Troy Industrial Road past the company's property, and National Grid's cleanup of the former King Fuels site is nearly done. Council Member Campbell-Cohen asked about bike connections to South Troy, including First Street striping and the Uncle Sam Trail; Donnelly said both are being weighed in the city's yearly infrastructure planning.
All items passed 6-0. Council Member Spain-McLaren absent. Votes verified against clerk's minutes (_09172026-1875).
| # | Full Title | Sponsors | Notes | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local Law 3 | A Local Law Establishing Standards Governing the City's Use of Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) Systems | McKee | Amended before passage (moved by McKee, seconded by Struber); see summary above | 6-0 |
| Ord. 45 | Ordinance Declaring Certain City Owned Personal Property as Surplus and Directing the Office of the City Comptroller to Sell or Dispose of the Surplus Property | Steele (Admin.) | 6-0 | |
| Res. 87 | A Resolution Commemorating the Service of Bishop Dr. Norman R. Macklin by Designating the Portion of Tenth Street Between Oakwood Avenue and Hoosick Street as "Bishop Dr. Norman R. Macklin Way" | Steele (Admin.) | 6-0 | |
| Res. 92 | Resolution of Troy City Council Scheduling a Public Hearing on Proposed Local Law No. 5 of 2026, Amending Chapter 257 of the Troy City Code by Adding a New Article XIII to Provide a Real Property Tax Exemption for Permanently and Totally Disabled Veterans | Steele (Admin.) | Public hearing Oct. 1 at 6:45 p.m. | 6-0 |
Council Member Spain-McLaren absent. Verified against clerk's minutes (_09172026-1880).
| # | Item | Sponsors | Notes | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local Law 4 | Override of the Mayor's veto of A Local Law Amending the Charter of the City of Troy by Repealing and Replacing Section C-40 "Public Emergencies" to Align It with State of New York Executive Law Article 2-B Regarding Emergency Declarations | Struber | Veto overridden; Local Law 4 is now law | 6-0 |