Twenty-two Trojans showed up to speak at the new council’s first public forum on January 8, 2026. Carmella was not there. Neither was anyone from her Administration. The meeting was three days after the new Democratic supermajority was sworn in.
Sean Collins of the Troy Area Labor Council said it plainly: “The mayor’s absence at the new council’s first public meeting is indicative of what the next two years of your term will be.”
Council President Steele closed the meeting by acknowledging the Administration’s absence and committing to a “more transparent environment,” adding, pointedly, that the council could not accomplish it alone and would need the Administration to cooperate.
Labor
Collins arrived with a concrete agenda: a living wage ordinance, paid family leave for city employees, fair pay for performers at city events, and greater council involvement in collective bargaining. On that last point, he noted that recent CSEA and UFA agreements had included administration-pushed denials of retroactive raises.
No Response
Speaker after speaker described the same pattern. Drea Leanza had submitted a proposal nearly two years earlier to build owner-occupied homes on a city-owned South Troy lot, with TAP and Habitat for Humanity ready to participate. No answer. Natalie Jabau had sent a letter in October 2025 asking the city to correct a rezoning error that reclassified her neighborhood from “industrial residential” to “business development,” a change that put existing homeowners’ insurance at risk. No response.
Downtown resident Noah had emailed Communications Director Alex Horton twice about park benches the Administration had removed, filed a FOIL request, and was told the city had nothing on record. “Either they lied to me,” he told the council, “or they have really bad records.”
Francis Sweet put it as a pattern: reports always late, agendas posted hours before a vote, the city hall move rushed through with only symbolic public input.
Grants Left on the Table
Daniel Morisy, acting chair of the Joint Task Force on Sustainability and Climate Smart Practices, described more than a year of silence from the Administration while time-sensitive grants expired. The task force had accumulated enough qualifying points for $837,000 in match-free NYSERDA grants. An EV charging grant worth up to $500,000 was also stalled. The city’s solar farm had been abandoned. The street tree committee had been eliminated. A formal request for recognition from the Administration had gone unanswered for more than a year.
The Frear Park Bond
Jessica Bennett flagged a potential legal problem with the $6 million Frear Park pavilion bond the outgoing Republican council had rushed through on December 30. State law requires project plans to be available 24 hours before a vote on SEQR grounds. Bennett had called the city clerk at 3:00 PM on the day of the vote and was told no plans were on file. She had a recording of the call.
ICE
Downtown resident HG Warner read from a Capital Region Sanctuary Coalition post confirming ICE vehicle sightings in Troy on New Year’s Day 2026: J Street and Fifth, J Street turning north on Sixth Avenue, 106th Street, near 103rd and Fifth, and entering 787 northbound.
Multiple speakers called for the city to restrict police data sharing with ICE and prohibit Troy officers from assisting federal enforcement. Collins noted the county sheriff’s 287(g) cooperation agreement made Troy’s posture a live question.
The Sound Ordinance
Gigi Sweets documented the economic damage from the sound ordinance Carmella had imposed without a council vote. The ordinance originally limited outdoor music to 9:00 PM, later walked back to 10:00 PM under pressure. Downtown bars generate roughly 50% of their income after 9:00 PM. Musicians were already moving to Albany. “It’s killing us,” she said. The council had never taken a vote.
Partisan angle: The new council had been in office for three days. Twenty-two Trojans showed up to speak about two years of unanswered letters, expired grants, removed benches, and a sound ordinance no one had voted on. The Administration sent no one.
Source: Troy City Council Regular Meeting / Public Forum, January 8, 2026 (transcript; City Clerk’s office; no formal minutes filed)