The final feasibility study compiled by John G. Waite and Associates on the Dauchy Building as a future city hall will be completed as early as tomorrow, according to Councilman Bill Dunne. Although Waite gave a final presentation of the study at a public meeting nearly two weeks ago, the final report, complete with cost estimates for the move and refitting of the building, has not been finished.

"It's 99.994 percent complete," said Dunne, adding that when the report is ready it will be posted on the Troy City Council Facebook page. He said that the committee formed to oversee the study and possible transition may also meet this week to discuss the results of the report and outline some next steps. The bi-partisan committee is comprised of Council members and city administrative employees.

The study was at the center of some emails that flew around late last week between Mayor Harry Tutunjian, Dunne, and Council President Clem Campana. Those are posted over at the Talespin blog.

Meanwhile, the city is currently accepting bids for the sale of the Dauchy and the River Triangle Buildings.

Mayor Harry Tutunjian questioned the validity of a special meeting held by the City Council Thursday that started more than an hour after its scheduled time.

According to a legal notice which appeared in The Record on April 21, the council planned to hold the meeting at 7 p.m. to make an appointment to fill the vacancy on the Board of Assessment Review and to override Tutunjian's veto of Local Laws 1 and 2 for 2009, which dealt with allowing both political parties on the council to hire their own legal counsel.

However, the special meeting did not actually begin until roughly 8:15 p.m. after the council's Finance Committee, which ran long because members had listened to a 30-minute presentation on reassessments from the state Office of Real Property Services.

Tutunjian said that the council was required to follow the schedule set forth in its legal notice - including both the time the meeting would start and the matters which would be discussed, since the override of his vetoes was actually moved to the council's regular May meeting.

"This appointment is null and void," said Tutunjian, who noted that the appointment was ever legally challenged it would not hold up in court.

Council President Clement Campana, D-At Large, said that that the council did the fair thing and was not in the wrong.

"I would never stop government from acting, regardless of what the clock says," said Campana, who said the complaint was typical of Tutunjian and his administration. "We weren't going to let these people speak, and as a courtesy, knowing full well that this thing wasn't ready to go forward, I let the guy speak."

City Council President Clement Campana apparently wasn't satisfied with the response of Corporation Counsel Charlie Sarris to his questions about a lawsuit filed against a city employee last year to remove a reverter clause from the former Verizon Building on Sixth Avenue.

In his reponse to Campana's questions about why the City Council had never been notified of the issue, considering that its members also make up the Troy Urban Renewal Agency - which had control over the reverter which was enacted in 1973, Sarris had said that the city had not disposed of any property and that Sondra Little was named as the defendant in her capacity as Commissioner of Planning and Community Development.

"Your comments are erroneous and extremely misleading to the general public," wrote Campana in a letter Thursday. "The caption of the verified complaint states in plain English that Ms. Little was being sued in her capacity as Executive Director and Secretary of the Troy Urban Renewal Agency."

Supreme Court Judge Michael Lynch ruled on Sept. 18 in the LLC’s favor after receiving no opposition to the motion from the city.

The matter is not believed to have any impact on the city's current lease on the Verizon Building or its plan to use the structure as a temporary City Hall.

The public hearing for a proposed downtown Business Improvement District, which was scheduled for Thursday night, has been canceled, according to City Council President Clem Campana.

Campana said Tuesday that a new date would have to be set for the hearing because the council did not vote on a resolution during a regular or special meeting to establish the formal meeting time.

The start of the hearing would have begun a 30-day public comment period where members of the proposed district can submit their official objections to its creation to the City Clerk. The district cannot be created if 51 percent of its prospective members vote against it, but a failure to vote will actually count as a vote in favor of the BID.

Read more about this situation here.

After reading in The Record that there was a possibility that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development may ask the city to reimburse it's CDBG account with $469,616 by the end of April, City Council President Clement Campana said Wednesday that he had decided to call a special meeting of the City Council to meet with Mayor Harry Tutunjian to discuss the matter next week after a regularly scheduled meeting of the council Finance Committee.

Upon learning about the meeting Campana had scheduled, Tutunjian issued a statement asking for the council to call a separate special meeting to discuss the proposed sale of the River Triangle and Dauchy buildings, which the council compelled the mayor to sign off on in September and is current the subject of litigation.

“Only the members of this City Council would show great concern for $475,000, and totally ignore $8 million,” Tutunjian said. “Their New Year’s resolution must have been to remain consistent, as they continue to govern by ‘gotcha politics’ while showing no regard for my administration and the difficult decisions we make each day.”

Campana said that while the issues did need to be discussed, Tutunjian had only called for the meeting because he had already scheduled one to discuss CDBG spending.

“The meeting is obviously just his reaction to the block grant issue,” said Campana. “There has been no decision on the River Triangle sale and he (Tutunjian) had a chance to veto the legislation and he didn’t. That’s a fact.”

The special meeting to discuss the city's CDBG issues will take place Jan. 22 at 7 p.m.
A time and date has not yet been set for the River Triangle meeting.

City Council President Clement Campana, D-At Large, said tonight that he will not call any more special meetings this year.

The council would have had to call a special meeting prior to Dec. 15 to override a veto by Mayor Harry Tutunjian which knocked down an amendment they approved on Nov. 25 to move more than $500,000 from various budget lines into a contingency account in an attempt to save taxpayer money and provide fiscal oversight.

“There will be no special meeting called,” said Campana. “On be half of the citizens of the city, there needs to be oversight and we will meet in January to discuss how we’re going to provide it.”

Tutunjian and City Comptroller Deborah Witkowski previously stated that the council did not follow budget procedures when they introduced the amendment at the last minute and that the way they had moved funds would have led the budget to become unbalanced and unstructured.

More about that is available here.

After learning about Campana's decision, Tutunjian said he was pleased about the budget but concerned about what the council would do in 2009 and who was really in charge of the legislative body.

“I need to be able to talk to someone that can speak clearly for the majority of the City Council and I haven’t found that person yet,” said Tutunjian. “My confidence is shaken when I see a press release from the council president that says he’s going to do something one day and does the opposite the next day.”

A press release had been issued to some of the local media outlets with Campana's name on it Monday saying that the council would be overriding the mayor's veto Thursday at 7 p.m.