In Year One, Gallo brings new energy to City Hall, but some grumble about style

“He’s very hands-on, but at the same time he can be very hard to talk to. He’s got his mindset and that’s it, there is no other way,” said Senor. “But in politics you have to give a little bit and make those compromises.”

Illustration by Rick Holland.

The truth hurts …

What some call belligerence, Gallo describes as simple truth-telling. In a city where favoritism and backroom deals are widely assumed (if rarely proven) to be routine, Gallo said he felt a special burden to respond to voters’ demands for a more transparent and accountable government, in part because of his political pedigree.

“There’s a higher standard that I have to bring to this office because of my background,” said Gallo who, during the campaign, had to fight the perception that he was a City Hall insider out to preserve the status quo. “It’s not about being combative, it’s about being a representative for the public’s interest and a watchdog over their tax dollars. It’s what the people of Kingston demand.”

Gallo’s brash style, however, has not stopped him from pursuing a number of partnerships with other government officials, in line with his philosophy of consolidation of services and increased use of state, federal and county resources. Working together with County Executive Mike Hein, Gallo folded the city’s tourism office into the county’s better-funded promotional operation and completed the consolidation of city fire department dispatching with county 911. A lobbying trip to WashingtonD.C. led to a commitment from Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson to support Gallo’s Midtown revitalization program by opening a district office on Broadway and pushing legislation that could open the door to grant funding for a police station in the heart of the city’s most crime-prone neighborhood.

Much of the intergovernmental largesse has come through the efforts of Gallo’s revamped Economic Development Office. In hiring grants-writer Gregg Swanzey for the post, Gallo signaled his intention to boost the offices’ ability to compete for outside funding. So far, the effort has yielded $1.2 million in state funds for a walkway at the site of the proposed Hudson Landing housing development and another $1.1 million in federal money to fix a sinkhole on Washington Avenue.

While Swanzey pursues new grant money, the city’s Community Development Office, under former alderwoman Jennifer Fuentes, has spearheaded the mayor’s Midtown revitalization effort using the city’s annual award of federal entitlement funds. Since taking over the office in March, Fuentes has launched a series of small-scale initiatives in line with Gallo’s vision of a safer, more stable Midtown. They include a “microloan” program to encourage investment in Broadway’s 721 Media Center and a grant program to encourage first-time homebuyers to settle in the neighborhood thus reversing  trend towards rental housing owned by absentee landlords. Fuentes has also worked to bring the office into closer compliance with federal regulations going so far as to ask the council to give back thousands of dollars in entitlement funds which she said were spent on ineligible projects during the Sottile administration. Further, Gallo’s department heads have improved the social life of Kingston, instituting programs to bring free weekly movies and music to city parks in the summer months and dramatically upgrading the dissemination of information about events happening in the city.

Looking back on his first year in office, Gallo said that he has few regrets, but several disappointments, including what he called the “distraction” of politically based opposition to his agenda and the failure to come up with solid redevelopment plans for vacant lots at site of the former King’s Inn on Broadway and the site of the demolished parking garage on North Front Street. Looking ahead, Gallo said he would continue to focus on battling blight and promoting quality-of-life initiatives, particularly in Midtown, in 2013. He’ll also be faced with the daunting prospect of Kingston Hospital, a mainstay of Midtown and the city’s economy, closing down along with more prosaic challenges facing a small Hudson River city in an age of austerity.