About 40 minutes into the Q&A portion of her budget presentation at John J. Bach Library on New Scotland Avenue this Tuesday, Mayor Kathy Sheehan was becoming visibly frustrated with the crowd—mostly firefighters concerned with her decision to discontinue funding for a ladder truck in Albany’s South End.
Joined by city department heads such as Fire Chief Warren Abriel, Albany City Treasurer Darius Shahinfar and Deputy Police Chief Brendan Cox, the mayor spent the first half hour of the public meeting outlining her budget with the help of a power point presentation. She began by talking about her “commitment to sound fiscal management” and the debt handed down by the previous administration. She spoke about rising costs and the impending consequences if the city does not take decisive steps to pull itself out of what she essentially described as a financial morass (the state could step in and essentially take control of city government, a possibility that Albany Common Councilwoman Cathy Fahey, who was in attendance, asserted is not too far off). She also advocated five ways in which the city could build a “bridge to a sustainable future”—controlling expenses; investing in technology; investing in “capacity” (making sure that certain “key” positions are fully staffed to “deliver services more efficiently and more effectively”); investing in community; and increasing revenue.
“It’s very important to recognize,” said Sheehan, “That simply balancing a budget is not sound fiscal management. It is not one and the same. For too many years, the city of Albany has focused year after year on simply balancing the budget at the end of a given year without looking further.”
It’s hard to argue with investing in technology, a major component of the mayor’s proposed budget. The city’s IT system, she says, hasn’t been updated since the 1990s. By making city operations more efficient through improvements, Sheehan anticipates an additional $750,000 worth of savings that she says she has not built into the budget. The mayor has also managed to secure $1.5 million in PILOT payments, voluntary payments from non-profit entities who make use of city services and are willing to help shoulder the tax burden. This type of budgetary revenue is a first in Albany. Another change Sheehan has proposed under her “capacity investment” initiative is what she called “strategic departmental reorganization,” one aspect of which is her intention to bring the departments of Planning, Building and Codes and Community Development under one roof at 200 Henry Johnson Blvd., thereby creating a “one-stop shop.”
Toward the end of her slide presentation (Slide No. 22), Sheehan discussed her intention to “link CAC”—the Capitalize Albany Corporation, which Sheehan has repeatedly called Albany’s “economic development arm”—“with Planning and Codes to streamline business development, attraction, expansion, and retention and provide clear materials and assistance detailing resources and expectations.” The position of Commissioner of Codes, however, is a salary line that has been taken out of the 2015 budget, thereby shifting power to the Director of Codes, a position that is not accountable to the Common Council. This shift is a reversal of last year’s budget and the salary has not been reduced, causing some concern among council members that the executive is attempting to use her budget to wield too much unchecked power–particularly as regards economic development in the city. It is worth noting that the mayor’s Chief of Staff, Matthew Peter, sits on the CAC Board.
After she finished her presentation, Sheehan opened the floor for questions and was immediately bombarded for the next hour and a half by many of the approximately 20 firefighters in attendance. Clearly an emotional issue for those that spoke, the mayor’s answers seemed unacceptable to those who came armed with alternate suggestions, challenges to the numbers she has used to justify her decision to close Ladder 1 and copies of the budget from which they questioned other expenditures. Many brought up hypothetical scenarios in which they expressed concern for the safety of close family members.
“I don’t know how many people here, aside from the firefighters, who have either been a victim of or even observed a major conflagration,” said Matt Neeson, a Vietnam veteran whose father was a firefighter in New York City. “Or witnessed rescues from high-rises. Fighting a fire from above the fire, I’m sure they can attest to, happens very often.”
“Now let’s say,” he continued, “That the other three ladder trucks are deployed at on-going fires and a fire breaks out on State Street on the sixth floor. What do they do? They don’t have any ladders… This gentleman brought up before about his daughters and other young children, there are elderly people, handicapped people that might have to be rescued. If you’re on the fourth floor and you’re hanging out the window, mayor, what do you do? They don’t use the nets the way they used to. I come from a fire family in New York City, my father spent 32 years as a battalion chief. I’ve seen some of the most horrific fires—what an apparatus can do and what the lack of it can result in. I strongly urge yourself to give this some serious thought.”
As far as funding for the truck, Neeson mentioned the free concerts given in Albany throughout the summers. “Those are wonderful cultural events,” he said before sitting down to applause, “But priority, priority, priority.”
“We can never guarantee that we will always be able to respond to every emergency,” countered Sheehan. “We do the best we can.”
The mayor’s PowerPoint presentation (including a schedule of future public meetings) and the budget are both available on the city website.
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I don’t know what meeting you were at but the one I attended wasn’t “mostly firefighters”. I only saw one firefighter comment during her presentation. The other vocal interruptions were from obviously angry south end residents. Many south end residents showed up for this meeting because it directly impacts their safety to lose their ladder truck. Some civilians have their own “Save Ladder 1″ T-shirts (the same that the firefighters were wearing) so it may be confusing for one who doesn’t know the individuals.
After a while the firefighters exited the meeting room to make way for residents waiting in the hallway. They needed to be in there because it was, after all, a meeting primarily for South End residents.
Maybe if she didn’t blame overtime for the need to close Ladder 1 , which we know is not true, she would have gotten a better response. Maybe if she had spoken with the union reps who offered cost saving ideas concerning health care costs (which she emphasized was a major obstacle) she would have had more success.