Donnelly spent eight years selling insurance before serving as Legislative Aide to City Council President Carmella Mantello. When she won the mayor’s race, she brought him with her. On her first day in office, she named him Deputy Mayor and Executive Director of the Troy Local Development Corporation simultaneously. He was then placed on the committee that screened the Proctor’s Theatre city hall RFP — the same deal the LDC would fund. Tom Casey resigned from the LDC board over the overlap. Carmella called it baseless.
During contract negotiations, Donnelly spoke directly to city employees about their raises, bypassing the union. Under New York’s Taylor Law, that is an improper labor practice. Charges were filed. At the April 23, 2026 council meeting, he acknowledged he had been “partially listening in the back” during CSEA’s full testimony before stepping forward to respond to it.
Donnelly previously organized Troy’s Pride Night Out and presented himself as an LGBTQ community advocate. After the 2024 election, he posted congratulating Donald Trump. Collar City Pride relocated the annual festival out of Troy entirely. Founder Meagon Nolasco: “We feel so uncomfortable with the administration that we don’t want to support those events.” He will not apologize. Carmella backed him.
Donnelly is the cousin of Sara McDermott, hired by Carmella at $80,000 for a position created with no job description and no open application, and Maria DeBonis, who served as City Clerk in Carmella’s first year. All three were placed in city roles through Carmella’s direction. All three spoke publicly in favor of the Proctor’s Theatre relocation: the same deal Donnelly was structuring through the LDC.
Sources: WNYT, CBS6 — LDC conflict, CBS6 — Pride festival, WAMC — Pride tensions; Troy City Council Law Committee and Finance Meeting, April 23, 2026 (transcript); Troy City Council Regular Meeting, January 8, 2026 (transcript)