https://carmellafortroy.com Meetings, filings, and records from the City of Troy, New York — published in full alongside the writing that cites them. en-us Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/blocked-from-the-mayors-page https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/blocked-from-the-mayors-page Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT The page titled "Mayor Carmella R. Mantello" blocks residents who criticise her. The city holds no record of which accounts are official channels of the Mayor's Office, and no policy governing what goes on them. Our pages must be made available to everyone, regardless of their personal opinions… > People should not be punished for that. > > — City of Troy, Press release, April 1, 2024 The statement was a lie. The administration that issued it blocks residents who criticise it from the official account carrying the mayor's title, and the city can produce no policy governing any of it. What else has gone out over those channels since is covered in ["Our pages must be made available to everyone"](/articles/available-to-everyone). ## The same page, two answers On September 14, 2026 the page at `facebook.com/CMforTroy` returned two different things depending on who was asking. Signed out, it loads. The title is "Mayor Carmella R. Mantello." The category is "Public figure." It has 25,000 followers and follows 197 accounts. The Intro reads: "It is an honor to serve as your Mayor. Each day, I remain committed to building a safer, cleaner Troy and improving the quality of life for all of our residents!" The most recent post is a remembrance ceremony at 9-11 Park. The listed links are an Instagram account, `carmella4troy.com`, and `twitter.com/CMantello`. Signed in, the same address returns: "This content isn't available right now." Facebook does not tell a blocked user they have been blocked. That message is what it shows instead. The account receiving it belongs to a Troy resident, and it is not the only one. Residents have reported being blocked from the page. ## Nobody wrote down who speaks for the city On August 30, 2026 a records request asked the City of Troy who runs its social media accounts, what policies govern their use, and which accounts it treats as official channels of the Mayor's Office. The city answered the next day. > A diligent search of City records returned no results relative to your request. > > — City of Troy Records Center, Response to FOIL request C008660-083026, August 31, 2026 Two things follow from that answer. The policy announced in April 2024 is not a record the city holds. A request for any policy governing content on city social media, covering January 1, 2024 to the present, returned nothing. And the city has never written down which accounts speak for the Office of the Mayor. No record identifies them, and no record identifies who has the keys to the ones it runs. ## The state has already answered this, about this county In 2019 the New York State Committee on Open Government was asked whether the list of accounts blocked by a Rensselaer County official was a public record. The official was the County Executive, and the question covered both his government account and his personal one. > In our opinion, records that reflect Twitter usernames blocked under the official @RenscoExecutive Twitter account are records maintained by the County and would be required to be disclosed in response to a FOIL request. > > — Kristin O'Neill, Assistant Director, Committee on Open Government, FOIL Advisory Opinion 19732, May 15, 2019 A blocked list is a record because FOIL defines a record as "any information kept, held, filed, produced or reproduced by, with or for an agency," and the list sits in the account's own settings. The opinion adds that no exemption is likely to cover it: disclosing a username would not cause the harms the statute is written to prevent. The personal-account question is the one that reaches `facebook.com/CMforTroy`. > If [the official] ever uses his personal Twitter account for County government business, the record of blocked Twitter usernames would be a record subject to rights of access conferred by FOIL since it would likely be impossible to separate usernames that were blocked for personal or political reasons from those that may have been blocked for a County sanctioned purpose. > > — Kristin O'Neill, Assistant Director, Committee on Open Government, FOIL Advisory Opinion 19732, May 15, 2019 The test is "ever," not "mostly." The page carries the office in its title, an Intro written in the voice of the officeholder, and posts of the mayor's official appearances. On that test the list of people it has blocked is a public record, and the city has to produce it. ## Blocking a resident from a government account is a First Amendment problem A private citizen can block whoever they like. A government account cannot — shutting someone out of it is the government silencing a critic, which the First Amendment forbids. In 2024 the Supreme Court decided unanimously ([Lindke v. Freed](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/601/22-611/)) where the line falls: an official's page counts as government when the official had authority to speak for the government there and was using it that way. The Court wrote the test for exactly this kind of page — one that is neither plainly the city's nor plainly hers. The Court also said blocking is worse than deleting a comment. Deleting removes one post; blocking shuts the person out of everything on the page, including the parts that are unmistakably official business. The case people remember is [Trump blocking critics on Twitter](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca2/18-1691/18-1691-2019-07-09.html), which a federal appeals court ruled unconstitutional in 2019. That ruling was later wiped when he left office, so it does not bind anyone. Lindke does. ## What the record shows Mayor Carmella Mantello supports censorship. The page carrying her title and written in her voice blocks residents who criticise her. It is the account where she speaks as Mayor of Troy, and the people it shuts out are constituents who questioned what she was doing. That is the whole of it: an elected official using an official channel to silence the people she governs. The 2024 statement was a lie. Her administration put out a press release saying the city's pages "must be made available to everyone, regardless of their personal opinions" and that "people should not be punished for that." It made her look like the corrective to a predecessor who blocked fifty-plus residents. She now does the same thing, from the page that carries her name and the office. Asked in August 2026 for any policy governing content on city social media, the city produced nothing. Asked which accounts it treats as official channels of the Mayor's Office, it produced nothing. Asked who holds administrator access to the accounts it runs, it produced nothing. The principle announced in 2024 exists in a press release and nowhere else — no policy behind it, no record of the unblocking it claimed, and no rule stopping her from blocking whoever she likes. Facebook notifies no one when it happens. The city announces nothing. A resident finds out when the page stops loading. ]]> https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/flock-contract-never-went-to-council https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/flock-contract-never-went-to-council Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT A police captain signed Troy's first Flock contract in 2021 and the department signed again in 2022. The City Charter gives that power to the Mayor, the Purchasing Agent and the Council. No Troy agenda or minutes document mentions Flock until 2026. To execute all deeds and contracts on behalf of the City and to sign all warrants, > certificates, licenses and other legal instruments issued by or on behalf of the City, > unless otherwise provided by law or ordinance... > > — Troy City Charter, § C-33(I), duties of the Mayor [§ C-45](https://ecode360.com/32050726) creates a City Purchasing Agent who "shall make all purchases for the City, including purchases by contract," and who "shall comply with all public bidding requirements, shall bid all contracts for services and goods so far as reasonably possible." [§ C-47(L)](https://ecode360.com/32050761) governs the money: > No money shall be drawn from the City treasury nor shall any obligation for the > expenditure of money be incurred except pursuant to obligations made by the City > Council. > > — Troy City Charter, § C-47(L), all expenditures pursuant to appropriations The Mayor executes, the Purchasing Agent buys and bids, the Council obligates. The signatures on the two order forms are a police captain's and a department contact's. The Charter's delegation clause is "unless otherwise provided by law or ordinance." Chapter 79 of the City Code, which governs the Police Department, contains no mention of contracts, purchases, or procurement, and no other chapter delegates contracting power to it. The only department head in the entire code who may sign a contract is the Commissioner handling solid waste, under § 247-11, and only after the Mayor has declared an emergency. Neither the 2021 contract nor the 2022 expansion was signed by anyone the Charter empowers to sign it, and the money was never obligated by the body the Charter requires to obligate it. ## Nobody else was allowed to bid Above $20,000, [state law](https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/general-municipal-law/gmu-sect-103.html) makes a city advertise what it wants to buy, take offers, and go with the cheapest qualified one. Both Flock order forms are above that. Neither records a bid. ## What the city agreed to The contract deletes the pictures after thirty days. It does not delete what Flock makes out of them. Section 4.4 lets the company call Troy's data "Aggregated Data" and keep it: > Agency hereby grants Flock a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free right > and license (during and after the Service Term hereof) to (i) use and distribute such > Aggregated Data to improve and enhance the Services and for other marketing, > development, diagnostic and corrective purposes, other Flock offerings... > > — Flock Group Inc., Services Agreement, § 4.4, signed July 22, 2021 Perpetual means forever. During and after the Service Term means the licence outlives the contract — cancelling in Troy does not take it back. Marketing and other Flock offerings means the company can sell it. Section 4.2 grants the same thing over the underlying data: a "perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid license to use, reproduce, modify and distribute" it as part of that aggregate. The clause says Aggregated Data is "compiled anonymous data which has been stripped of any personal identifying information." The agreement never says what personal identifying information is. The term appears in that one sentence and is defined nowhere in the fifteen pages, so the company applies its own meaning to its own data. A plate number names a vehicle; it reaches a person through Department of Motor Vehicles records, which Flock does not hold. On that reading a plate is not personal, and nothing in the contract says it comes out. So the thirty days covers the photograph of the car. Where the car was, and when, sits under Section 4.4. A police captain agreed to this on Troy's behalf. Nobody Troy elected saw it. ## Nobody in the room had read it On March 19, 2026, with the renewal resolution in front of the council and a Flock representative on Zoom, Council Member Noreen McKee read the licence clause aloud. > The contract gives the right to Flock for worldwide perpetual royalty-free right and license to disclose agency data and to share data with federal agencies for investigative purposes, even if a local department chooses to restrict the data. This clause effectively gives Flock the ability to override any restrictions that local PDs have written into the contract and essentially provides ownership rights to the data forever. > > — Council Member Noreen McKee, Public Safety committee, March 19, 2026, 3:00:12 The representative answered with a different section — 4.1, which says the customer owns the data — and then said he could not speak to the one she had read. > I haven't seen your contract, but I'm familiar with our updated contract. > > — Flock Group Inc. representative, Public Safety committee, March 19, 2026, 3:01:55 Then the police answered. > I haven't seen that specific one, but I'll read it again with your intentional focus. > > — Steven Barker, Troy Police Department, Public Safety committee, March 19, 2026, 3:02:29 Barker signed the order form in 2021. He has held the department's technology and grants portfolio since 2019. The contract was enclosed in that night's agenda. McKee was asked to supply the section number, said she would, and was told to hold it: "We'll do it afterwards. Let's finish." The council moved on. She closed with "I look forward to seeing that part of the contract." Four and a half years after Troy signed it, at the meeting called to sign it again, the company that wrote the contract and the officer who signed it both told the council they had not read the clause the council was asking about. ## Five years of agendas with no mention of it Every City of Troy agenda and minutes document from 2021 and 2022 has been searched for Flock Safety, Flock Group Inc., ALPR and automated licence plate readers. The numbered resolution and ordinance titles are searchable text, and none of them names it. Nothing in 2023, 2024 or 2025 either. The earliest entry is the resolution tabled on March 19, 2026, titled "Resolution Authorizing The Mayor To Enter Into A Two Year Subscription Agreement With Flock Group, Inc., For The Use Of Its License Plate Recognition Camera Platforms For Law Enforcement Purposes." The city could not find the contract either. A records request filed in June 2023 for "Flock Safety Contracts and Agreements" was closed that month with no responsive documents: > A diligent search of City records returned no results relative to your request. > > — City of Troy, Records request P005450-060523, closed June 21, 2023 The signed order forms above were produced three years later. ## The rule exists and nothing happens when it is broken § C-47(L) says no obligation for the expenditure of money may be incurred except pursuant to obligations made by the City Council. It does not say what happens when one is. Many New York city charters void a contract made without a council appropriation; Troy's does not, and the only voiding provision in the whole code, § 43-9, concerns conflicts of interest. So the rule was written, the rule was not followed, and the charter left nobody a remedy. On April 1, 2026 Council President Susan Steele said that "as the administration admitted last month, there is no executed contract between the city of Troy and Flock." The two executed order forms above are dated July 2021 and December 2022, and the city produced them under a records request three years after it told a requester it had none.]]> https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/party-over-people https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/party-over-people Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Mayor Carmella Mantello's administration promised the city's channels were open to everyone, whatever their opinion. Since then it has called residents paranoid, the council liars, and its legislation Pro-Criminal — on city letterhead and under oath. Our pages must be made available to everyone, regardless of their personal opinions… > People should not be punished for that. > > — City of Troy, Press release, April 1, 2024 Here is what the same administration has published since, on the same channels, about the people who disagreed with it. ## The residents About 150 people came to the council meeting on March 19, 2026 to talk about the cameras. Every resident who spoke was against them. Her own sworn answer concedes it: "most speakers from the general public opposed authorizing the contract with Flock," and the speakers in favour were "from the Administration and the Troy Police Department." No resident has ever spoken for the cameras at a Troy council meeting. The support has come from the people who run the city and the people who operate the system. Four months after that meeting the mayor described the residents to a judge, in a document she signed under penalty of perjury. > I was elected to serve more citizens than the three dozen or so paranoid souls who > spoke at the City Council meeting. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Verified Answer, sworn August 24, 2026 Residents who said at that meeting that they had been followed or tracked appear in the same document as people making "wild unsubstantiated claims of being tracked and stalked." Before that, in March, she had described residents who wanted the camera contract to end as trying to "defund our police department," and on March 31 as "a small but highly vocal group" using "intimidation tactics and misinformation." On April 1, at a news conference at police headquarters announcing the emergency declaration, she told them their turnout did not count. > If they truly felt that their crowds spoke for the 49,950 other folks here in this > city, why didn't they vote? > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, News conference, April 1, 2026 She would "not cave to what is a vocal but small minority." What the paranoid souls came to object to, and what the records show about it, is set out in [Mayor Carmella Mantello supports Flock](/articles/mayors-case-for-flock). ## The council Troy elected an all-Democratic council in November 2025. Two days later she posted that Troy would "not become a socialist city," and described some of the people who had just voted as backing a "socialist agenda." By January the city's own press channel — troyny.gov, the Office of the Mayor, the city seal — was running a release headed "Sue Steele and the Democratic Majority." > These are not misunderstandings - they are blatant lies… I am done playing political > games with the Democratic Council. > > — City of Troy, Press release, January 21, 2026 In May, the same channel called the council's proposed limits on camera data "Pro-Criminal," the legislation "dangerous, misguided, and a gift to criminals," and the council members servants of a "national agenda to score political points." In July, when the council said the camera data it had been given was incomplete, the city's own Facebook page carried her statement that its members "were too lazy to review it in its entirety." In August, under oath, the council had "spinelessly refused" and "irresponsibly refused" to act, was "behaving recklessly," and was dithering. ## The volunteers The pattern predates the cameras. In July 2024 the city's Facebook page announced she had introduced legislation "to replace the dysfunctional Planning Commission" — unpaid volunteers, described that way in the city's own voice rather than inside a quotation. > Unfortunately, the Planning Commission has inexplicably delayed projects of all kinds… > The commission should operate within the bounds of its duty, personal preferences have > no role in decision making. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, City of Troy Facebook, July 10, 2024 In December 2025 the Times Union reported that a city release accused representatives of the Knickerbacker Memorial Playgrounds board — another volunteer body — of "outright recklessness." Of their proposal she said: "which we are not going to allow you to do, period." ## The auditor Jeff Nessich is the City Auditor. When the council voted to stop paying Flock, he was the officer who declined the payment. Her filings describe him as an instrument of the people who appointed him — "merely a creature of the Council," someone Council President Steele "apparently controls," an official who "takes his marching orders from the City Council" and has "no genuine autonomy and no role whatsoever in emergencies." ## What the pattern is for Every one of those characterisations was aimed at someone who had disagreed with her about the same thing: cameras that photograph every vehicle in Troy. The residents who objected were paranoid. The council that voted to pause the contract was lying, spineless, reckless and lazy. The auditor who followed the council's direction had no independent judgment. The council's legislation was pro-criminal. The lawsuit was a political power play wasting taxpayer money. > This local law is yet another example of the City Council's misdirected priorities and > nothing more than a political power play… While the Council wastes time and taxpayer > dollars pursuing this in a courtroom, the people we serve lose. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Statement, September 3, 2026 ## What the record shows The 2024 promise was that the city's channels would be open to everyone regardless of their opinions, and that people would not be punished for holding them. What followed used those channels to name the opposing party, call its members liars, and label its bills pro-criminal. It described the residents who turned up to speak as paranoid souls and their accounts of being followed as wild claims. It told a court the city's own auditor has no mind of his own. Not one resident has stood up at a council meeting and asked Troy to keep the cameras. The people who want them are the administration and the police department. The people who came to object are paranoid souls.]]> https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/what-the-flock-audit-logs-show https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/what-the-flock-audit-logs-show Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Troy's police department produced its Flock audit logs under a records request. They record 26 cameras, 25 million vehicles photographed in five months, and 5,309 outside agencies searching the data — 12 of them federal. Over the 60-day evaluation period ALPR technology proved to be a controlled, > high-yield asset... System access remains strictly regulated. > > — Troy Police Department, 60-day ALPR evaluation, August 2026 The review reports 826 searches across 81 unique queries, and states that 90.2% of search activity consisted of repeated follow-up queries on existing cases. It tracks 30 search series and reports that 7 resulted in direct arrests and 2 in arrest warrants. The council had asked for something specific and did not get it. The 60-day pause existed so the department could establish how many crimes were reported more than 48 hours after they happened — the number that decides whether a 48-hour retention limit would work. Troy currently holds the data for 30 days. The report reached the council on July 29, 2026. Two days later Council Member Noreen McKee, who chairs the public safety committee, told the [Times Union](https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/troy-city-council-calls-60-day-flock-data-22368608.php) that complete data had been turned over for only 30 of the 81 cases in which police used camera information. > Without complete data for all 81 cases, it is impossible to determine how many were > reported more than 48 hours after the crime occurred. > > — Council Member Noreen McKee, Email to the Troy Police Department, reported July 31, 2026 Council President Susan Steele agreed the data was incomplete. The mayor and Police Chief Daniel DeWolf said it was exactly what had been asked for. Her reply went out on the city's own Facebook page. > The information was available for review, but they were too lazy to review it in its > entirety. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, City of Troy Facebook, July 31, 2026 She also said the report "reflected exactly what was requested," that there was "no attempt to conceal, omit, or withhold information," and that the council "received all 826 [automated license plate readers] searches conducted during the audit period." McKee set a deadline of August 7 for the dispositions and case numbers she said were missing. The committee met on August 20 to take up what it had been given. A records request for the documents defining the logs' "Total Networks Searched" field, naming the networks included in searches of 200 or more networks, and showing which search capabilities were enabled drew this response: > A diligent search of City records returned no results relative to your request. > > — City of Troy, Records request response, August 1, 2026 In the same response the department stated that statewide searching, National Lookup and geographic-radius searching were disabled during the review period, and that Troy has sharing relationships with commercial networks. ## What the first audit left out Sixty days. Troy's own officers. No names, no cases, no outcomes. The fuller logs that followed run back to April 1, 2024 — two years instead of two months — and they answer a question the first audit never raised: not what Troy police did with the cameras, but who else had been searching Troy's data the whole time. ## Who searches Troy's data The network audit logs run from April 1, 2024 to March 18, 2026. In that window they record 5,309 distinct outside agencies running searches against Troy's data through Flock's National Lookup tool: 5,143 out of state, 154 elsewhere in New York, and 12 federal. Between them those agencies ran 12,222,023 searches. **The five agencies searching Troy's data most are all out of state** Searches run against Troy's Flock data, April 1, 2024 – March 18, 2026 | Category | Searches | | --- | --- | | Houston TX Police Department (9.29% of all queries) | 1,135,831 | | Louisville Metro KY Police Department | 189,085 | | Palm Beach County FL Sheriff's Office | 165,421 | | Dallas TX Police Department | 155,680 | | Missouri State Highway Patrol | 151,826 | Source: Troy Police Department Flock network audit logs, obtained by records request. A separate snapshot covering April 2026 names 90 agencies that searched Troy's data that month, and gives their distance from Troy. **Most agencies searching Troy's data are more than 100 miles away** The 90 agencies that searched Troy's Flock data in April 2026, by distance from Troy | Category | Agencies | | --- | --- | | 0 – 15 miles | 11 | | 15 – 30 miles | 4 | | 30 – 60 miles | 0 | | 60 – 100 miles | 22 | | More than 100 miles | 53 | Source: Troy Police Department Flock network audit logs, April 1–30, 2026, obtained by records request. ## The federal agencies 62,259 searches in the logs were run by federal agencies. The logs name them. | Agency | Searches | Status in the logs | | --- | --- | --- | | US Postal Inspection Service | 49,909 | Active | | ATF Nashville TN | 6,340 | Marked inactive | | US Border Patrol (CBP component) | 2,714 | Marked inactive | | ATF Louisville KY | 1,719 | Marked inactive | | Naval Criminal Investigative Service | 629 | Marked deactivated | | Homeland Security Investigations (ICE) | 531 | Marked inactive | | Six others, combined | 417 | — | The six others are Langley VA Air Force Base, the US GSA Office of Inspector General, Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada, the Roudebush VA Medical Center police in Indiana, and the US Park Police at the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Homeland Security Investigations is ICE. On March 19, 2026 the mayor told the council committee that Flock "does not share our data with outside agencies including the federal government including ICE." The window these logs cover ends March 18, 2026, the day before. ## Who else is in the network Seven entities in Troy's sharing network are not law enforcement agencies. The logs name Home Depot, with 101 store networks shared with the department, and Lowe's, with 99. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute also shares data with the department. The department reports sharing with 137 networks. Individual searches in the logs record between 231 and 281 networks queried at once, so what the shared total covers is not settled by these records. ## What the cameras collect - Cameras: **26** (Up from 11 in 2021) - Vehicles photographed: **25,367,366** (Jan 1 – Jun 8, 2026) - Vehicles per day: **159,543** (Troy's population is about 52,000) - Hot list hit rate: **1.32%** (1,538,562 hits, Apr 2024 – Mar 2026) Annualized, the Flock cameras alone record about 58,233,262 vehicles a year. Adding the department's Axon body and dashboard cameras brings the estimate to 84,806,073. The logs count these as plate scans, but a plate is not what the camera sees. To report a vehicle's make, colour and body type — which is what Flock sells — the camera has to photograph the vehicle, and everything around it in frame at that moment. Of the vehicles that produced a hot list hit, nearly all were flagged for a lapsed registration rather than for being stolen or carrying a wanted person. **Almost every hot list hit was a suspended or revoked registration** Share of hot list hits by category, April 1, 2025 – March 31, 2026 | Category | Share of hits | | --- | --- | | Suspended or revoked plate | 96% | | Stolen plate | 2.6% | | Wanted person | 0.64% | Source: Troy Police Department Flock audit logs, obtained by records request. The preceding year, April 2024 – March 2025, ran 97% suspended or revoked, 1.4% stolen plate and 0.48% stolen vehicle. ## What Troy police searched Against 25 million scans in five months, the department ran 19,241 searches of its own in the whole period since installation. **Troy police searched the system 19,241 times in five years** Flock searches run by the Troy Police Department | Category | Searches | | --- | --- | | 2024 | 5,336 | | 2025 | 10,815 | | 2026 (through April 30) | 3,090 | Source: Troy Police Department Flock organization audit logs, obtained by records request. The 2026 bar covers four months, not twelve. The department averaged 772.5 searches a month across the first four months of 2026. In the same period the cameras averaged 4,856,494 scans a month. ## The department does not track whether any of it works Five years of cameras, 25 million vehicles photographed in five months, and the department's own review states that outcome data — arrests, cases advanced, recoveries — is not tracked or retained. It has never measured whether the cameras solve crimes. Records requests for its Flock policies and procedures before May 19, 2026 returned "no records could be located." There were none to produce.]]> https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/available-to-everyone https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/available-to-everyone Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT In April 2024 the Mantello administration published a policy: Troy's city pages belong to everyone, whatever their opinion. They later called the council president a liar. Our pages must be made available to everyone, regardless of their personal opinions… > People should not be punished for that. > > — City of Troy, Press release, April 1, 2024 That policy has not been rescinded. What follows is what has gone out over those same channels since. ## What has gone out over them since **November 4, 2025.** Democrats win the City Council. Mantello posts to Facebook that "we are fighters here in Troy and will not become a socialist city despite the city, county, state and country legislative movement," and describes some voters as backing a "socialist agenda." Recorded by the [Times Union](https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/democrats-declare-victory-troy-21138934.php). **January 21, 2026.** A City of Troy press release — the government channel, not the campaign one — responds to the council under the heading of "Sue Steele and the Democratic Majority." It calls their statements "not misunderstandings - they are blatant lies," alleges a "misinformation campaign," and closes: "I am done playing political games with the Democratic Council." **January 2026.** The city's own social media accounts accuse council Democrats of trying to "obstruct" the Frear Park "project and city finances." Steele told the Times Union the city Facebook page was being used as a political tool. The mayor defended naming the council members' party. **January 23, 2026.** From her personal Facebook account, after a council meeting: "Last (night) disappointingly the new council showed disrespect and displayed misogynistic behavior." **March 2026.** Residents and council members seeking to end the Flock contract are characterized as moving to "defund our police department." **March 31, 2026.** Flock critics become "a small but highly vocal group" whose opposition rests on "intimidation tactics and misinformation." **May 4, 2026.** An official City of Troy release labels the council's proposed ALPR restrictions "Pro-Criminal." The mayor calls the legislation "dangerous, misguided, and a gift to criminals" and says the council is serving a "national agenda to score political points." Six of those seven went out over channels the taxpayer pays for: troyny.gov, the city's Facebook page, the city's Instagram. ## Why it matters which account says it A candidate can call her opponents liars. A city cannot — when the words go out over troyny.gov, the city's Facebook or the city seal, it is the government talking, paid for by the people it is talking about. The Supreme Court decided unanimously in 2024 ([Lindke v. Freed](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/601/22-611/)) that an official's page counts as government speech when the official had authority to speak for the government there and was using it that way. That test exists because a personal account is a hard case. A press release on troyny.gov, issued by the Office of the Mayor, is not a hard case. Six of the seven above went out that way. The precedent everyone reaches for here is [Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca2/18-1691/18-1691-2019-07-09.html), where the Second Circuit held 3-0 in 2019 that blocking critics from @realDonaldTrump violated the First Amendment, because the account was a primary channel for official government business. Worth stating precisely: the Supreme Court vacated that judgment as moot in April 2021 after Trump left office, so it is not binding law. Lindke is. ## What the record shows The administration also blocks residents from the page carrying the mayor's title, and the city holds no record of any policy governing its social media or of which accounts speak for the Mayor's Office — set out in [Blocked from the mayor's page](/articles/blocked-from-the-mayors-page). None of what is on this page is in dispute, because the administration published it itself. The city channels that "must be made available to everyone, regardless of their personal opinions" have since described the council president as a liar, the opposing party by name, its legislation as "Pro-Criminal," and residents at a public meeting as a "small but highly vocal group" trading in "intimidation tactics."]]> https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/dead-when-i-took-office https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/dead-when-i-took-office Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Mayor Carmella Mantello's campaign lists five first-term accomplishments in Troy, NY. The city's own archive dates all five to before she was sworn in. a project that was dead when my administration took office > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, 2025 State of the City On March 10, 2026, a city press release put it two more ways: the project "had been sitting dormant for years," and "a project that was once dead in the water is finally moving forward." The clearest account of what was happening before 2024 was written by her own administration. Resolution 139, on the September 19, 2024 council agenda, records that Ordinance No. 103-2021 established the capital project for relocating the firehouse, that $1,000,000 in ARPA funding was appropriated to buy an alternative site and complete construction documents, that the city obtained three appraisals of the J&J Auto property in 2022, and that "since 2022, two Administrations" had been negotiating with its owners. Two administrations. Her own resolution says so. Before that, in April 2021, the Madden administration announced the architectural assessment and feasibility study weighing the existing site against Second Avenue and 117th Street. Ground was broken under Mantello. That much the accomplishment list has right. ## The Knick Aquatic Center > The Mantello Administration is proud to have put this project back on track after > years of inaction > > — City of Troy, Press release, February 25, 2025 The years in question: November 2021, when the city announced $1.5 million for the Knickerbacker Pool in its first ARPA round, listed coordination with CHA, the Knickerbacker Association, Planning, Parks and Engineering on final construction documents, and projected bidding in early 2022 with construction starting that summer. Another $6 million was planned for the second tranche. Council Resolution 166, December 2024, confirms the appropriations: Ordinance No. 103-2021 and Ordinance No. 65-2022, with $2 million of that earlier money still unspent in 2024. The old pool was demolished in 2023. The February 2025 release describing "years of inaction" is the document that tells you so. ## Prospect Park > under the Mantello Administration, the city has made significant upgrades at Prospect > Park, including brand-new accessible playground equipment, resurfaced tennis courts, > and the addition of pickleball courts. > > — City of Troy, Press release, September 12, 2025 Five days before she took office, on December 27, 2023, City Hall published a release titled "Madden-Era ARPA Investments to Improve Parks in 2024." It states that the city had already released an RFP for the first phase of improvements at Prospect Park: installation of a new playground, and total renovation of six tennis courts. The pickleball courts are not in that release. ## Kinloch Park > the Mantello Administration upon taking office in January 2024, immediately took > decisive action to fix the long-standing drainage > > — City of Troy, Press release, March 3, 2025 On June 21, 2023, City Hall announced that Kinloch Park would close beginning June 26 for ARPA-funded upgrades to sidewalks, drainage and parking. ## Lead service lines Two city releases, April 29 and June 5 of 2025, describe the replacement plan as one "that has been aggressively underway since 2024" and a "comprehensive strategy" that "has been underway since 2024." The city's own Lead & Drinking Water page says the Department of Public Utilities "will be scheduling lead service line replacements beginning spring 2023 in conjunction with annual paving and resurfacing work." On October 18, 2023, Mayor Madden and the department announced that "the lead water service line replacement program will continue on Excelsior Avenue," and discussed holding the funding, management and staffing needed to keep it going. The count of 700-plus pipes is a separate claim, and these records do not speak to it. A year-by-year replacement count, or the city's address-level ledger, would. ## What the record shows Ground was broken. The Knick opened. The playground went in and the courts were resurfaced. Kinloch got drainage work. Lead pipes came out of the ground. All of it happened while Carmella Mantello was mayor, and she is entitled to say so. She said something else. She said the firehouse was "dead when my administration took office," that the Knick followed "years of inaction," that lead replacement had been "underway since 2024." The ordinance, the appropriations, the appraisals, the RFP and the press releases with the earlier dates were all published by the City of Troy, which is the same city she runs. She could have said she finished them.]]> https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/eleven-emergencies https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/eleven-emergencies Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Eleven emergency declarations signed by Mayor Carmella Mantello in Troy, NY between January 2024 and April 2026, six in her first year alone. One of the primary purposes of a state of emergency is to afford municipal officials a > dispensation from the usual auditing and purchasing procedures of municipal government. > > — Memorandum of Objections in Point of Law, filed for Mayor Mantello, Supreme Court, Rensselaer County, July 24, 2026 **Competitive bidding.** Normally the city has to advertise a job, take bids, and award it to the cheapest qualified bidder — the rule that stops a mayor handing work to whoever she likes at whatever price. [State law](https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/general-municipal-law/gmu-sect-103.html) sets the threshold at $20,000 for purchases and $35,000 for public work, and lets a city skip all of it during an emergency. Most of the eleven declarations authorise "immediate procurement of materials, commodities, and services." The road salt one puts it plainly: "there is not enough time to follow normal procurement." **The owner's hearing.** Normally, before the city tears down your building, it has to post a notice on it and give you a hearing you can attend and argue at. Four of the eleven declarations authorised demolition, covering six buildings. **Historic review.** Normally, knocking down a building in a historic district needs a public hearing before the Landmarks Preservation Board. 624-630 Second Avenue were two adjoining 18th-century buildings. They were inspected and condemned on the same day, August 22, 2025. ## Who decided the buildings had to come down The declarations assert that each building was structurally unsound. The only evidence for that in the file is the city's own inspection report, written by the official recommending the demolition. No independent engineering assessment of the six structures appears anywhere in the file. The city inspected, the city decided, and the city signed. The documents record the process that did not happen. At 1124 Fifth Avenue, code inspectors "despite repeated attempts — have been unable to make contact with the current owner." At 200 Hill Street, officers "have made numerous attempts to contact the owners of record at their address of record to afford them opportunity to be heard and to remediate, all to no avail." At 310 and 314 2nd Street a hearing was held before the Deputy Mayor and the owner did not appear. One timeline is worth stating on its own. The 310 and 314 2nd Street declaration is dated April 2, 2025. The inspection it rests on is dated March 19-20, **2024**. > As a result of his March 19-20 inspection, the City Engineer condemned the aforesaid > buildings and has determined and reported that the risk of imminent collapse is so > great that the structures must be demolished. > > — Declaration of Emergency, 310 and 314 2nd Street, April 2, 2025 Twelve months separate that finding from the emergency. ## The two with no building **January 28, 2024.** Comptroller Andrew Piotrowski left and nobody remaining was qualified to close the city's year-end financials. The declaration names the vendor it authorizes: > Pursuant to § C-40 of the City Charter, I hereby declare a public emergency to > mobilize all available City resources as shall be required to address the complete > and proper functioning of the Office of the Comptroller. This shall include but not > be limited to the hiring of ProNexus, a financial consulting firm… > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Declaration of Emergency, January 28, 2024 **April 1, 2026.** The council tabled the Flock Safety renewal and directed the City Auditor to withhold all payments. One day after the contract's stated expiration, the mayor declared an emergency to keep paying it. [Full account here](/articles/mayors-case-for-flock). > The mayor cannot unilaterally spend taxpayer dollars using a state of emergency > declaration when no such conditions exist. > > — Sue Steele, Troy City Council President, Spectrum News, April 2026 ## She had a choice of two powers and took the one that never ends Every mayor in New York can declare an emergency under [state law](https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/EXC/24). That one runs thirty days and then stops. To keep it going the mayor has to renew it in public, which gives the council a chance to say no every time. Troy's charter has its own version, § C-40, and it runs until the mayor says it is over. All eleven of her declarations use the charter. None uses the state law. The Flock declaration of April 1, 2026 runs "until such time as the emergency conditions described herein have been resolved" — a condition she defines and she decides when to lift. Troy was still under it five months later. One signature, no renewal, no vote. Under the state law it would have expired in thirty days and needed renewing five times in public. Under the charter it needed her signature once. Niagara Falls shows the other choice. Mayor Robert Restaino declared an emergency in late July 2026 after his own council refused to fund road and blight work — same tactic, same obstacle. His runs on the state law, so it is "set for 30 days but can be extended 30 days at a time." Every month it goes back in front of the people who said no. ## She vetoed the public hearings The council wrote a local law to replace § C-40 and put a clock on it. Before it could hold hearings on that law, it had to pass a resolution scheduling them. She vetoed the resolution scheduling the hearings. The council overrode her 7-0 on July 9, 2026, and held them on July 23 and August 6. The law passed 7-0 on September 3. Asked about it, she said the council was misdirected. > I inherited the emergency powers that are currently in place, and there is a reason the > City Charter gives the duly elected mayor the ability to act when a crisis occurs... > While the Council wastes time and taxpayer dollars pursuing this in a courtroom, the > people we serve lose. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Statement, September 3, 2026 She also defended the eleven directly. > Throughout my time as mayor, I have used emergency declarations to address a number of > serious issues, including dilapidated buildings, failing water infrastructure, an > accounting crisis, and natural disasters. These powers exist for a reason. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Statement, September 3, 2026 ## What the record shows Eleven times in twenty-seven months, Mayor Mantello signed a document that let Troy spend without bidding, demolish without a hearing, and answer to nobody until she decided it was over. She used it for a water main and an ice storm. She also used it to hire an accounting firm, and to keep paying a camera company the council had voted to stop paying. She had a version with a thirty-day limit available every time, and used the one with no limit every time. Sued over the last one, she told the court the practice was "not unprecedented" and filed six declarations to prove it — three of her own and three from the mayor before her. By September 2026 the council had written itself a law to [overturn a declaration](https://www.wamc.org/news/2026-09-06/troy-flock-cameras-city-council-limits-mayors-emergency-powers), because it had no other way to stop one.]]> https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/mayors-case-for-flock https://carmellafortroy.com/articles/mayors-case-for-flock Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Mayor Carmella Mantello spent nine minutes defending Flock's license plate readers in Troy, NY. Thirteen days later she declared an emergency to keep paying. Public safety is a top priority for my administration... Flock safety cameras are a > piece of that pie. They are not the panacea. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Public Safety Committee, March 19, 2026 — 2:24:29 On where the program came from: > Look back at 2021 when Flock entered our city. The license plate readers, you know > where it came from? It came from our minority community. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Public Safety Committee, March 19, 2026 — 2:25:05 On what the cameras are: > They are not surveillance cameras... Your Ring doorbell is more of a surveillance > camera than the license plate readers. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Public Safety Committee, March 19, 2026 — 2:26:41 A plate is registered to a person. A car sits outside one house at night and another during the day, and the pattern is a life — where you work, who you visit, which doctor you see, which church, which meeting. The cameras do not need your name to record that, and the contract Troy signed lets Flock keep the pattern forever once your name is stripped off it. On who can see the data: > Flock does not share our data with outside agencies including the federal government > including ICE. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Public Safety Committee, March 19, 2026 — 2:28:52 And the ask: > We are here tonight to plead with the council to support our efforts supporting Flock > to support the license plate readers. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Public Safety Committee, March 19, 2026 — 2:30:44 The police chief followed with the same message in the same order, telling the council at [2:33:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg13YL_bTnM&t=9218s) that he felt "pretty assured from Flock that they're not in any shenanigans. At least here in Troy." Asked about Flock misuse documented in other states, he said at [2:33:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg13YL_bTnM&t=9234s): "I can't control what happens outside of us... I can do what matters here." ## She vouched for a company that would not speak for itself The company had a representative at that meeting. The minutes list him in attendance: "FLOCK Public Affairs Manager Kerry McCormack." He was not in the room — a Flock spokesperson took part remotely. Asked about the contract, the company's answer was that it [does not discuss](https://www.wamc.org/news/2026-03-20/city-of-troy-officials-and-residents-engaged-in-heated-debate-over-flock-safety-technology-thursday-night) "specifics regarding contracts." That was the night the council was trying to find out whether the contract had already renewed itself without them. By the council's own account it tabled the resolution after [the mayor, the deputy mayor and the Flock representative did not answer its questions](https://wnyt.com/top-stories/troy-city-council-sues-mayor-over-flock-cameras/) about data security, privacy and information sharing. The mayor spent nine minutes that evening telling the council what Flock does with Troy's data. Flock's own representative would not answer the same questions. She kept vouching for the company anyway, and has not stopped. ## The council said no Four hours later, Resolution 35 came up for a vote. Council Member Stuber said there were [too many unknowns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg13YL_bTnM&t=23018s). Council Member McLaren moved to table it pending more information from Flock. At [6:25:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg13YL_bTnM&t=23108s), the two-year renewal was tabled. The council went further, directing the City Auditor to withhold all payments to Flock Safety. We know that because the mayor's own emergency declaration says so in its opening line. ## The contract was ending on its own The Flock contract expired on March 31, 2026. The council had voted to let it. Doing nothing would have ended the programme. On April 1, the next day, Mayor Mantello signed a Declaration of Emergency titled "Emergency Action Relating to Public Safety and the Law Enforcement Infrastructure of the City." It invokes § C-40 of the Troy City Charter to mobilize "all available City resources... to continue the operation, proper functioning, and uninterrupted service of the City's ALPR system from Flock Safety" — and it is explicit about what that includes: "making such payments as may be necessary." The declaration describes the contract it is protecting as "the current contract which the City Council failed to act upon before it renewed" — the same auto-renewal the March 19 meeting had spent the evening arguing about. It closes: > Public safety must take precedence over partisan political squabbling. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Declaration of Emergency, April 1, 2026 The declaration remains in effect, by its own terms, "until such time as the emergency conditions described herein have been resolved." The [charter section](https://ecode360.com/32050706) she used is four sentences about disasters — "conflagration, riot, storm, earthquake." It runs until she says it is over. She has used it [eleven times](/articles/eleven-emergencies). ## She told them the data stays here On March 19 the mayor told the committee that Flock does not share Troy's data with outside agencies, the federal government, or ICE. The cameras photograph every passing vehicle, not just its plate: Flock reports make, colour and body type, which the camera can only supply by imaging the vehicle and its surroundings. The department's Flock audit logs run to March 18, 2026 — the day before. They record 5,309 outside agencies searching Troy's data, twelve of them federal. Border Patrol is on the list. So is ICE. The full breakdown is in [What Troy's Flock audit logs show](/articles/what-the-flock-audit-logs-show). ## Her own lawyer told her she did not have to pay The council sued her over the declaration. In August she answered under oath, and the answer is the clearest account of what she chose. The reason she gave for paying is that the contract renewed itself. Nobody had sent Flock a non-renewal notice thirty days out, so by its own terms it rolled over on April 1. Her answer quotes the advice she had on that, from her own Corporation Counsel, eight days before the contract expired: > In my experience, the automatic renewal clause is pretty standard fare in tech > subscription contracts. It is not very enforceable against a municipality. > > — Corporation Counsel Richard Morrissey, Email to Council President Sue Steele, March 23, 2026, quoted in the mayor's verified answer The city's own lawyer told her the clause probably could not be enforced against Troy. She declared an emergency to honour it anyway, and told the court why: > Mr. Morrissey's opinion was not definitive. In any event, I am entitled to err on the > side of caution. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, Verified Answer, August 24, 2026 Two days after signing the declaration she signed the requisition. The amount is in her answer, and it appears in none of the eleven declarations: **$78,000**, the first year of a new two-year contract at $78,000 a year, paid on or about April 17. How she talks about the residents and council members who disagreed with her about the cameras is set out in [Party over people](/articles/party-over-people). ## A policy of her own instead On May 7, 2026 the council introduced a local law to govern how ALPR data is used. On May 17 the Washington Post [reported from Troy](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/05/17/citys-ai-license-plate-cameras-led-an-uproar-state-emergency/) on the fight over the cameras and the emergency declaration. Two days later the mayor and Council President Sue Steele [announced a policy instead](https://www.troyny.gov/m/newsflash/Home/Detail/367), effective that day, alongside a 60-day working period. The policy incorporates portions of the council's local law. It is the first written governance record for the cameras since the 2021 signing; records requests for the department's earlier Flock policies returned "no records could be located." At the end of the 60 days the department evaluated itself and reported that its use was "highly disciplined." The council had asked for one number: how many crimes were reported more than 48 hours after they happened, which decides whether a 48-hour retention limit is workable. Council Member Noreen McKee, who chairs the public safety committee, said complete data arrived for only 30 of the 81 cases. Council President Steele agreed it was incomplete. > The information was available for review, but they were too lazy to review it in its > entirety. > > — Mayor Carmella Mantello, City of Troy Facebook, July 31, 2026 On September 6, 2026 the council passed a local law giving itself the power to [overturn a mayoral emergency declaration](https://www.wamc.org/news/2026-09-06/troy-flock-cameras-city-council-limits-mayors-emergency-powers). ## What the record shows Every time the cameras were about to stop, she kept them on. The contract had expired. The council had voted to let it go. The city's auditor had been told to stop paying, and her own Corporation Counsel had told her the renewal clause was "not very enforceable against a municipality." Nothing required her to act. She declared an emergency, signed a $78,000 requisition two days later, and the cameras stayed on. When the council wrote a law to govern them, she announced a policy of her own instead. When the council asked for the data to write that law, what came back was incomplete, and the city's Facebook page carried her reply that its members were too lazy to read it. When the council sued, she told the court the case was a political power play and the cameras are "still available to protect public safety because of the action I took." She told the committee that Flock does not share Troy's data with the federal government or ICE. The department's own logs, for the two years ending the day before she said it, name twelve federal agencies that did. She has not corrected it.]]>