SCHENECTADY Stratton rips ‘rogue’ city cops King voted president of council BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
Mayor Brian U. Stratton on Tuesday continued his hard-line talk on police discipline, vowing to fire any officer guilty of misconduct. Stratton used his second-term inaugural address to talk of progress made since his first inaugural four years ago. Much work still must be done on the city’s neighborhoods, he said, and the city must get its fair share of state and federal funds. But the strongest words were left for the Police Department, which saw fi ve officers placed on paid administrative leave last week while investigators look into an alleged Dec. 7 beating of a drunken driving suspect. The paid suspensions capped a full year of turmoil, the latest such year in the department’s history. A drug evidence scandal that broke last January, a detective went to prison in September and a grand jury report on police discipline was released in November — less than three weeks before the alleged beating. “There can be no room for rogues, cowboys and thugs,” Stratton told a packed house at City Hall on Tuesday afternoon, adding soon after, “They will be fired. They will be replaced. We will rebuild and we will move on.” Stratton looked both backwards at the past four years and forward at work that must still be done. His own future, however, re- mains in flux. Though he won a new four-year term, there has been much speculation that he would seek the congressional seat being left open by U.S. Rep. Michael Mc-Nulty. McNulty on Tuesday attended the city ceremonies, and was among the series of handshakes Stratton shared after his address. It was one of at least two stops for the congressman Tuesday. He also attended the County Legislature proceedings, home to another potential suitor for his seat, Chairwoman Susan Savage. But, should Stratton run and win, his potential successor as mayor was voted in Tuesday, or so it seemed. The City Council voted to name Margaret King council president, a position that council members said she worked for. But, after Tuesday’s meeting, King said she doesn’t see herself becoming mayor. She noted she still has her full-time job at Schenectady County Community College that she’s not ready to retire from yet. Asked if she could be convinced, if the situation arose, she responded, “I seriously doubt it. “I think there are other people who would be much better suited to being mayor than me,” she said. If Stratton were to replace Mc-Nulty, the City Council president would become acting mayor until a special election could be held in November 2009. If the council president declined to become mayor, someone would be appointed, officials have said. But that someone could not be another member of the council. Before being named council president, King took her oath of offi ce for the council. She was joined in taking the oath by returning council members Denise Brucker and Joseph Allen. Newly elected Councilman Thomas Della Sala rounded out the swearing-in. Stratton won re-election this year with 71 percent of the vote, the largest percentage received by any Schenectady mayor since the city returned to the strong-mayor form of government in 1978. Stratton noted that figure in his inaugural address. Among the council members, King was the top vote-getter, with newcomer Della Sala coming in second. The mayor gave his synopsis of the past four years, where the city went from the brink of financial ruin to attracting new jobs and a restored credit rating. “Taking the tough medicine was not always easy,” he said, “but it proved essential to eliminating the debt.” The city is now at the stage where it can look toward improving the neighborhoods through eliminating blight, Stratton said. He touched on code enforcement and absentee landlords, an issue that began to come to prominence in 2007. Cleaning up derelict properties is vital to restoring the neighborhoods, Stratton said. “Once-proud neighborhoods where families grew up today too often have become home to absentee landlords and negligent investors who have shirked their social and financial responsibilities,” Stratton said. Those owners have forced the city to spend thousands on code enforcement and blight removal. Those owners will also be held accountable, he said. The most severely blighted properties will be targeted for demolition. The city must go after every federal and Metroplex dollar toward those goals, Stratton said. Earlier in his speech, he acknowledged dignitaries in attendance. He took the state funding reference to acknowledge another dignitary in attendance. “I also want to point out that Assemblyman [James] Tedisco is with us, too,” Stratton said to laughs, “and I hope Jim heard that last part.”
Mr. Stratton's warning First published: Friday, January 4, 2008
It's hard to listen to anything Schenectady Mayor Brian Stratton has to say just days into his new term, especially regarding the city's troubled police force, without thinking that it might be his swan song. Such is the burden of someone re-elected amid such heavy speculation that he'll soon enough be a candidate for the congressional seat that his father once held. Tuesday had Mr. Stratton making his second inaugural address, full of warnings for the sort of cops who have to grasp the message about obeying the law, much less enforcing it. "There can be no room for rogues, cowboys and thugs," he said. "They will be fired. They will be replaced. We will rebuild and will move on." That might make for quite a sound bite to capture the attention of potential voters in the 21st Congressional District in a few months. For now, though, what Mr. Stratton has to say in the wake of Schenectady's latest police scandal lends itself to a fair assessment of his four years and a few days as mayor. Two things stood out above all when Mr. Stratton first ran for mayor, with the police union opposing him, in 2003. The city was on the verge of a fiscal disaster, and just enough cops were just enough out of control to constitute a genuine municipal embarrassment. This week, though, the mayor can talk with confidence and even pride about how the city took what he calls the tough medicine necessary to eliminate a crippling debt load, restoring its credit rating and attracting some badly needed new jobs. And the police? Well, a Schenectady County grand jury report says the police department is plagued by a culture where mediocrity prevails over talent, the union is too powerful and officers lack adequate supervision. Five officers, meanwhile, have been suspended in connection with the alleged beating of a drunken driving suspect, while a vice squad officer is doing time for the theft of crack cocaine from an evidence locker. This is the more daunting challenge for Mr. Stratton and whomever will succeed him. Avoiding bankruptcy was easy by comparison. The message Mr. Stratton had for nine newly sworn police officers on Wednesday night couldn't be more relevant. He might be thinking about moving on, but they're the ones who in time will be expected to transform the police department. "The Schenectady department has once again come under increased public scrutiny," Mr. Stratton said, letting the new cops know that he and Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett will accept nothing short of excellence from them. Failure to meet such a high but essential standard, he warns, will mean very short careers on the police force that has so long been resistant to excellence or anything like it. If that turns out to be Mr. Stratton's farewell to Schenectady, it couldn't be more fitting. THE ISSUE: The mayor tells the Schenectady cops to shape up. THE STAKES: Continued corruption and misconduct could undermine all his other accomplishments.
Stratton delivers state of city address tonight Focus of speech will include plans to improve the city's neighborhoods Monday, March 10, 2008
Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton said he will outline plans to improve the city's neighborhoods during his 2008 state of the city address at 7 p.m. tonight at City Hall.
The speech will happen during the City Council's regularly scheduled meeting. A release from Stratton's office says he will discuss new initiatives to reduce blight as well. Stratton has said in the past that this is the year to turn attention to neighborhoods, after his first term focused on redeveloping downtown.
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