TROY NEWS

Pay raises for non-represented employees were approved at Thursday's City Council meeting in Troy, as was the SEFCU project.

The incoming Democratic majority will also form a committee to look at the sale of City Hall.

Campana said there is no schedule for when the committee will issue a public report on the proposed sale of city hall to Judge Development Corp. and the relocation of city government to the Verizon building at 1776 Sixth Ave.

Selling city hall was a major campaign issue, with the Democrats promising to review it thoroughly. The Democrats will hold a 6-3 majority when the council meets for the first time on Jan. 3.

Tutunjian urged the City Council to move quickly on the study so the deal is not endangered. The exchange of city hall for the Verizon building is valued at $2.5 million plus $16,000 per month rent that will be reimbursed to the city by Judge Development.

Normally, we'd be opposed to a committee. They're noisy and never clean-up after themselves. We also agree with Harry (we'll take a few Aspirin and it will pass). The Council and it's committee should move fast. The City Hall swap is not something they want to be discussing in April or May. Get input from professionals and citizenry and give it a thumbs up or down and move on.

Also:

the Democrats intend to go back to allowing residents to speak for 10 minutes each on any agenda item or government issue before the council meeting. Appeals of freedom of information requests will be handled by the Law Committee instead of the corporation counsel.

Individually, these are small steps but the overall picture is the important thing. The incoming Democratic majority will do more in January to make government 'transparent' than the current Administration has done in four years. People love reform. They love the word reform, at any rate. If the Democrats keep it up, they'll get a reputation for reform that could pay big dividends in the future.

MARGE

We'd like to wish outgoing Councilperson Marge DerGurahian farewell and good luck. The same to Bob Krogh and Carolin Collier. Unlike Collier and Krogh, Marge went out with a funny, little F**K Y*u to Corporation Counsel David B. Mitchell. According to Talespin (we'd link but The Record site has been down for some time now), at the last Council meeting Mitchell was asked a question. When the Corporation Council approached the podium, Marge asked that he state his residence. Mitchell appeared apoplectic. He did give an address however: the same location as Harry's campaign HQ, a building Mitchell does own.

After the meeting, Mitchell accused Clem Campana of being behind the question. Words ensued, seconds were chosen.....Read Talespin. It's Mitchelliscious.

The Mayor may not realize it, but his biggest problem moving into his second term could be easily solved by asking for one, simple resignation letter.

We hope he doesn't ask for that resignation.