Addressing public safety, Gallo praised Kingston Police Chief Egidio Tinti and the men and women of the KPD for recent reductions in reported crime. He also praised innovative new community policing strategies implemented by Tinti, including the creation of a youth bureau to connect cops with kids, foot and bike patrols and the new software that allows citizens to get anonymous tips to police using mobile devices.
Keep ’em coming
Gallo has promoted a vision of Kingston as a cultural tourism destination. To that end, he touted the creation of a partnership with Bard College and the creation of an arts council to explore the potential for an art museum in the city. He also highlighted RUPCO’s proposed Lace Factory Project which will convert a vacant former factory building into below-market artists’ housing and exhibition space.
Looking ahead, Gallo pointed to some troubling signs, like flat mortgage taxes and sales tax revenue lagging behind projections. The mayor blasted Assemblyman Kevin Cahill over the chain of events which led to the county and city losing 1 percent of sales tax revenue in the last quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014; in the audience and name-checked by Gallo was Town of New Paltz Supervisor Susan Zimet, who on Tuesday announced she would challenge Cahill in a primary for his Assembly seat.
Gallo also acknowledged the challenge of hammering out new labor agreements with three unions representing city employees. The unions have been working without a contract since Jan. 1, 2012; leaders of the Common Council have expressed concern that retroactive raises granted in an arbitration process could result in a huge hit to the city’s reserve funds. Gallo blamed the previous administration for failing to set aside money for potential raises and pledged to continue working with the unions to reach an agreement.
Gallo also promised to seek $8 million in state and federal funds to begin implementing recommendations in a flood-control plan developed last year to prepare the city for rising water levels and more severe storms. The money, if approved, would pay for raising the levee at Kingston Plaza, which has been decertified by the Army Corps of Engineers, and better flood-proofing for the city’s sewage treatment plant.
Gallo also extended an olive branch of sorts to the Common Council. Gallo has repeatedly clashed with some aldermen and even accused city lawmakers of conspiring against him in a “shadow government.” In his address, Gallo called for city officials to “put politics and ego aside” in order to work cooperatively and move the city forward.
“We haven’t always … well, we haven’t always,” said Gallo of his relations with the council, which brought chuckles from many in the audience. “But the fact is we need each other and I look forward to working together.”
Click here for a transcript of the speech.
I think we have a great Mayor
There is a simple fact which is that any Mayor of Kingston these days has an extremely tough road to hoe in getting much improvement. I am certain the Mayor will continue to do what he can along these lines; however: the best advice I could offer is that in the competition to see which Catholic boy became Mayor and how we “compare and contrast” these two “in any essay”, conceived or written by any of us and offered up as homework to any of us by any Nun who ever taught any of us, let’s put the traditional inferiority complex aside from those days inasmuch as that is possible, as neither that on the one extreme– nor elitist piggery on the other extreme— will serve this city well in these latter, post-IBM, post-2008 days in which while The Syndicate resides mostly to our south within our state, it yet exists and has negatively impacted the local area in two examples I can think of off the top of my head. So in addition to “the challenges we know”, there may be one or two about which we may not generally be so well versed. We must continue to swim upstream because there is no suitable alternative, including the fact we cannot just jump out of the water.