City's outside legal fee projection borders on obscene

Carmella Mantello may not have been successful last year in her bid for a City Council at-large seat (she came in fourth in a race for three seats), but she isn't withdrawing from sharing her thoughts on governance.

Mantello just released on Facebook a shortened version of a letter she sent to Mayor Lou Rosamilia and the nine members of the City Council:

"We are all aware the City of Troy is facing a very difficult budget situation for 2015 and beyond. I am recommending, in order to reduce expenditures, the City put a freeze on any legal consultant services effective January 1, 2015. In the years 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014, the City has spent $629,425 for such consultant services. I believe an unnecessary expenditure and such services can easily be done in-house.

"In particular, in the 2015 budget $297,450 is allocated for the Corporation Counsel’s office. This includes seven staff personnel, six of which are attorneys. Therefore, the legal city staff has the ability to perform the same services as the outside consultants. ... "

Mantello has a point -- the point being the matter certainly is worth discussing. Is she correct? That depends on what the discussion reveals.

As someone with long experience creating and managing multi-million-dollar budgets, I've always been cautious about too quickly assuming something is bad simply because it has large numbers attached to it. But, breaking it down by Mantello's figures, we have shelled out a monthly expenditure of $18,000 for outside legal help during the 35-month period she cites.

Now, that is a big number I don't like.

And, because politicians don't put dollars in a budget and then not use them, the cost to taxpayers will grow even larger in 2015. Result: Add that $18,000 per month to the nearly $24,800 the City has budgeted for its in-house legal office and we're up to $42,800 -- per month!

I regard that as an obscene number, especially in a city of fewer than 50,000 residents.

To be fair, doing away with outside legal services isn't always possible in a municipal setting. There often are legitimate circumstances in which legal work by non-employee, unaffiliated people is necessary. However, a moratorium on using them for a specified period appears advisable.

Such a moratorium would be a period in which the Rosamilia administration and the Council would be tasked with critically analyzing the perceived need on an instance-by-instance basis. And, by the same token, a time in which the people of Troy would be able to critically analyze the decisions their elected officials are making, and shape their votes accordingly.

---

Peck's Arcade will be the city's newest venture

One of the vintage Peck's post cards.

The Tavern is not coming back to downtown Troy. However, Peck's Arcade is.

That is the name of the latest downtown commercial restoration project by the husband-wife team of Vic Christopher and Heather LaVine, the people behind the Lucas Confectionery & Wine Bar and The Grocery, a title just announced Wednesday.

The Tavern operated at the 217 Broadway site for about 60 years, until the 1990s. However, well before that a department store called Peck's Arcade did business there from 1883.  That title, and finding vintage post cards advertising the store, prompted the couple to revive that name for their veggie-heavy casual restaurant in the building they have fully restored.

Peck's Arcade, which is connected to hallways and a courtyard serving both their other businesses, will offer small plate dishes from Wednesday through Saturday, beginning next month. However, curious potential customers will be able to get a preview of the venue before the scheduled January 7 opening. That will be tonight, when Tavern Noodle, a pop-up noodle eatery that made its first appearance during the recent Victorian Stroll, will return at 5 p.m. and serve until food runs out. Nick Ruscitto is the head chef. You can see the pop-up menu here.

The latest look.

The building at 207-217 Broadway just off Monument Square, which Christopher and LaVine purchased in March 2013, extends for 10,900 square feet over four floors. The ground floor will be used for dining and bars in a rustic-industrial atmosphere. One of the adornments is the neon dining room sign that came from Spiak's, the recently-closed Watervliet restaurant icon.

The commercial history of the building actually predates Peck's Arcade.  It began as a boarding house, called Clark House, built in 1876. It had numerous small lodging rooms but only one bathroom. By 1894, it housed a collection of industrial, manufacturing and retail tenants, including Peck's Arcade on the ground floor.

Publicly, at least, opting for the Peck's Arcade name rather than reviving The Tavern name was a change of pace. There has been a Facebook page for The Tavern since the reconstruction project began, and that name has been the only public working title until this announcement. The Peck's Arcade page on Facebook was launched just two weeks ago. 

---

Belief

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.

Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.

Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.

Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.

But, after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

-- Buddah

---

$1.5M grant will help Farmers Market create a home

TROY -- The bustling Troy Farmers Market, arguably the premier such operation in the Capital Region, may get a home of its own.

The 15-year-old market, which has about 80 vendors operating during warm months at Riverside Park and during the winter at the Atrium, will become a permanent part of the One Monument Square project -- if all the dithering ever ends over getting a final plan for the project to be constructed on the vacant site that formerly was home to City Hall.

Creation of a new home for the market will be enabled by a $1.5 million Economic Development grant, part of $60 million in grants announced on Thursday for various Capital Region projects.

While the $1.5 million award is heartening, it is far less than the $2.8 million grant application the Farmers Market reportedly submitted back in June.

Monica Kurzejeski, market manager, said, "We're pretty hard on the Atrium. It's a tough use. We bring in produce and freight and everything every week and then pull it back out. So, this is a great opportunity for us to design a building that fits the market."

While there are no actual architectural plans for the project so far, Kurzejeski said "We are working with a developer to create a very garage-door like atmosphere, so during the summer we can roll it up and it can be a wide-open space and you can see the river and be able to utilize the public access points of the park."

---

Troy Drug-Free Coalition buoyed by $625K federal grant

For the next five years, Troy's Drug-Free Community Coalition will have a financial underpinning that should help it make strides against the infestation of illicit drugs that makes our city much less than it could be.

The organization has been notified it will receive $625,000 -- $125,000 grants each year for the next five -- from the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy. The feds say the Coalition will be working to promote a lifestyle free from the abuse of alcohol and drugs. If that sounds a bit vague, it notes that the financial grants are intended to facilitate youth and adult participation at the community level in youth drug prevention efforts.

Davia Collington, a prevention specialist with the Rensselaer County Department of Mental Health who is the coordinator of the coalition, is quoted in The Record saying “We are not powerless against the challenge of drug use among young people here in Troy. Research shows that prevention is the most effective tool we have to reduce the terrible consequences associated with drug use among young people. This new funding will allow us to help place more young people on the path toward success and enable them to live healthier and safer lives.”

Troy’s Drug-Free Community Coalition works to involve parents, youths, teachers, religious and fraternal organizations, health care and business professionals, law enforcement and media members in its programs. Any organization that can do that deserves a financial helping hand.

---

Friday parking crackdown promised by City

City officials are promising strict enforcement of the normal Friday morning prohibited parking zones in downtown Troy to help facilitate snow plowing.

Vehicles parked in areas designated "No Parking" tomorrow will be ticketed and towed to allow for snow pushback.

The affected area runs from Federal Street to Ferry Street and from River Street to Sixth Avenue. The normal Friday morning prohibited parking zones are sides of the street that are posted for no parking on Fridays from 4 a.m. until 7 a.m.

Thanks to the Troy Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) for spreading the word on the situation.

---

Tavern Noodle scheduled for another pop-up

What do you call a pop-up restaurant that is popping up for a second time? Tavern Noodle, of course.

The latest project from Vic Christopher and Heather LaVine first surfaced during the Victorian Stroll last Sunday. Now, it will reappear at 5 p.m. next Thursday, December 18, and operate for one night until it runs out of food.

The downtown venue is the same -- 217 Broadway,  just off Monument Square. That's where the industrious couple is renovating The Tavern, which will become a full-service restaurant to join their portfolio of renovated structures that now house the Charles F. Lucas Confectionery & Wine Bar and The Grocery.

You can get a look at Tavern Noodle's food menu here and drinks menu here.

---

Calling 911 on city's emergency dispatching contract

A spokesman for the mayor of Troy just told a local newspaper he cannot comment on details of the city's pending new contract with Rensselaer County to continue handling its 911 dispatches -- until it is finalized.

How lovely. Is there something Lou Rosamilia and his administration does not want the public to know about?

This is not a personnel matter. What it is, is a matter of dollars and cents -- yours and mine -- and the quality of services to be rendered. That is something that needs more public discussion, not an after-the fact comment. Especially not from an administration that has stumbled and bumbled its way through other contract negotiations and budgeting, landing us under the fiscal microscope of state government once again.

At one point it appeared as if Troy City Council members would find several possibilities on their menu. Now, however, it turns out there apparently is only one choice, since, according to a report in the Times Union, the Rosamilia administration "ended its conversation with the City of Albany about teaming up for emergency communications after reaching an agreement with the county on Friday, officials said."

Translation: Rather than having competing possibilities for 911 dispatching services to consider, we have the "choice" of the one County Executive Kathy Jimino says is being distributed to legislative bodies for consideration. And it is one the administration doesn't want to talk about publicly. That makes me nervous, since this is the first time in 20 years the city could have had a choice to consider.

I encourage the City Council to forget about their Republican and Democrat labels and work collectively to publicly discuss the potential contract rather than rubber stamp it. Given some of the machinations that have gone on under the current administration, it is imperative that all commitments the city makes undergo the most careful scrutiny before the fact.

What we do know is that eight months ago the County proposed raising its 911 dispatching fee for Troy by an astounding 75.5%, to a half-million dollars in 2015. Calls for Troy's ambulance, fire and police services make up about 40% of the county dispatch center's business, which comes out to about 53,600 calls a year.

Using those numbers, the County was trying to hike the cost to Troy taxpayers from $5.32 to $9.33 per call.

Is that number part of the contract now under consideration? Although we do know the city wasn't thrilled with that proposal back in April, we don't know what wound up in the proposed contract.

Am I making a big deal out of nothing? Again, who knows? Until someone makes details of the proposed new contract public -- and, bear in mind it is only proposed even though it is being presented as the only choice -- and gets some input from beyond the halls of government we can only ask questions.

---

Another improvement in reworking Plywood City

Architect's drawing of City Station North.

The much-anticipated plans for the fourth phase of the City Station project are scheduled to be unveiled at tonight's City Planning Commission meeting.

City Station North is expected to be 90,000 square feet of office space and 100,000 square feet of residential space divided into 80 apartments in a seven-story structure.

The prior phases of the sprawling project by the United Group of Companies of Troy have turned a blah open space into an eye-catching development very much in keeping with the architecture of the city and the needs of RPI graduate students for off-campus housing. Unlike those, however, this part of the project will include residential space designed for families. The designers even envision, at least in the abstract, an urban grocery locating there, something many city dwellers  desperately need.

The $55 million phase, which should take about two years to complete, will involve getting rid of a very ugly building at Congress and Sixth opposite the police headquarters that until recently was home to the Troy Educational Opportunity Center (EOC). In a good example of the ongoing revitalization efforts in the city, the EOC recently relocated to the Hedley Building on River Street, itself the conversion of an old factory into an attractive and bustling edifice.

All of which shows the very healthy mix of new and renewed buildings that continues to make Troy an ever-more-attractive place for new businesses and new residents, all of which help grow the tax base -- certainly something the city needs, given its current financial woes created by some very weak management.

Now, if we can just get our city government to do something about what makes this place Plywood City -- namely the boarded-up commercial and residential structures that so heavily punctuate our streets and neighborhoods -- we can begin crowing about the rebirth of a community. Until then, boarded-up buildings are daily reminders of failure.

Note: Back in 2002, I first tagged Troy with the nickname "Plywood City." You can read that commentary by clicking here.

---

'2015: A Beer Odyssey' set for Rare Form Brewing

Rare Form Brewing Company, Troy's new craft brewery, will ring in the new year with a little something it is calling "2015: A Beer Odyssey."

The New Year's Eve event is scheduled for 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Wednesday, December 31.

Rare Form will be tapping its Tripped Out Belgian Trippel and inviting some guest taps for the occasion. Among those guests will be the Other Half Brewing Company of Brooklyn and Rushing Duck of Chester, Orange County, with several to be added.

In a bit of a nod to the event title, a riff on "2001: A Space Odyssey," sci-fi films will be shown on a big screen, and custom printed T-shirts will be available. Tickets, priced at $55, will cover all-you-can-drink beer plus wine, a New York State sparkling wine toast, appetizers and a T-shirt. Tickets are available only online.

Rare Form Brewing Company is located at 90 Congress Street in Troy. Phone: 326-4303.

---