Treading Water
Troy Mayor Harry Tutunjian continues to hang tough against Democrats trying to chisel money from Troy residents.
First, Tutunjian fended off attempts by Democrat Council members led by At-Large Councilman John Brown to give away a chunk of the more than $2 million owed to Troy to help Democrats in Rensselaer. Brown’s deal would have collected $1.1 million with no guarantee of future payments. After filing a lawsuit against Rensselaer, he convinced Troy Democrats to drop the costly gambit and approve a $2.1 million settlement.
Now, Tutunjian is doing battle with Rensselaer Democrats who are trying to add insult to injury, and are trying to continue to withhold payment owed to Troy for water services. The issue may be headed back to court.
The whole water debt has been a major embarrassment for Democrats. On the Troy side, Democrats like Brown wanted to sell out Troy taxpayers to help Rensselaer Democrats at a cost of at least hundreds of thousands of dollars. On the Rensselaer side, Democrats cannot seem to answer basic questions about why they cannot pay a bill after collecting money from their residents for years.
What is clear is that Tutunjian’s approach will net Troy hundreds of thousands more than Brown’s secretive deal would have. The only question is whether the deal gets settled voluntarily by the respective city leaders or whether a judge resolves the issue.
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