Troy mayor sets tone for future, removes perceived obstacles

Trimming any more fat from Troy’s book of resolutions will probably have to wait until next winter. With spring projects already getting started, Troy’s mayor, Darren Coldwell, will be occupied for the next several months. “I have to be honest; we’re getting a little busier now, so I don’t think I’m going to have the time to do the reading I was doing in the winter,” he said.

Some light winter reading by Coldwell led to the repeal of four resolutions and the dissolving of another over the last few months at the Troy City Council. All were approved unanimously by council members.

“I just didn’t see where it was improving anybody’s lifestyle in the city. I just didn’t get it, I guess. And neither did the council,” Coldwell said.

All the repealed resolutions were passed between May and June 2011, when the council and the mayor at the time, Donald Banning, weren’t seeing eye-to-eye. Banning attempted to veto two of the resolutions, but was overridden by the council on both accounts.

The repealed resolutions include: a quarterly newsletter of council happening to be mailed to residents, transfer of mayoral powers to the council chair if mayor is absent from town for 24 hours, requirement for police officers to maintain log books and establishing an eight-hour a day work week. The dissolved resolution dealt with alley maintenance.

Coldwell said government works best when the separation of powers is well defined. “My concern was that separation wasn’t there in the wording of some of the resolutions. The duties of the council are to create legislation and the duties of the mayor are to administer that legislation as the executive officer. So I just wanted to make sure for the next guy that sits in this seat that it’s very clear which side does what,” he said.

Phillip Fisher was on the council at the time when the Coldwell-repealed resolutions were passed in 2011. He sees the resolutions more as a skeletal system. “I don’t understand what they think was so harmful with the resolutions. We were just trying to help add some structure to the town,” he said.

Citizens would come up to council members on the street and express concerns, said Fisher, but when they would bring those concerns to Banning, “he would fight us 100 percent, tooth and nail.”

Fisher said he and his fellow council members wanted city employees to proactively find projects to engage in. “The city employees had their own way for 10 to 12 years—and we came in and tried to change that,” he said. “I’m a firm believer in that if you’ve got a job to do, go do it.”

“We weren’t against anybody. I’ve known most of the employees for years and I just told them to go do their job.” Which Fisher said was commonly responded to by the phrase, “We don’t make widgets.”

Banning said he’s glad the resolutions have been repealed. “The council was running amuck at that time. The resolutions did not do anything for the city,” he said.

After serving a little over two years, Banning said the council had him recalled. “I had two more years to try and survive,” he said. “They did not like me at all.”

He thinks the current council and Coldwell are working well together. “He’s got a good council right now, they were active at city meetings before they became council members,” Banning said. “And they’re getting educated on some of the problems from the old council.”

Coldwell said, “One nice thing about the council and myself, I think that we’re shooting for one goal: to improve the City of Troy.” He said it’s important that any concerns or problems the council has about employees or otherwise be directed to him. “I think it’s important we have that chain that everybody follows.”  

Fran McCully was another member of the council when the repealed resolutions were enacted. She said the council had rational reasons for why they passed each of the resolutions, which came from citizen concerns and a new council trying to get as much information about the policies from city departments.

McCully enjoyed running the numbers, which she believed could give black and white feedback on city affairs. She said ultimately it seemed to be all gray. “I spent four years in council, it’s hard making it work.”

The council may have been flippant on occasion and overstepped their boundaries with the eight-hour workweek resolution, but they took a hands-on approach to their jobs, McCully said. “The council sets the course and the mayor steers the ship,” she added, but questions whether the current council is plotting the way.

One reason it may appear the council is in lockstep with Coldwell at city council meetings is because possible issues are ironed-out at the work meetings a week prior. “I can throw a lot of stuff I consider, but if there are adamant feelings against it, then it’s not top priority for me,” Coldwell said. “The council and I have tabled quite a few different things.”

With laws and regulations piling higher every year, it might behoove government workers to periodically clear those that impede fluid operation. “We’ve got laws out there to protect laws and laws that also can’t be enforced,” Coldwell said. The resolutions he brought forward for repeal, he felt, “had 100 percent to do with the mayor, council and employees” not the community.

Coldwell may sit down with a glass of red wine and Troy’s book of resolutions next winter to see if any other repeals should be brought to council. But currently he’s focused on park improvements, city banners, thinning trees and looking at sidewalk improvements.

He knows he has some detractors, receiving the right amount of dirty letters to keep life interesting. “You could pave Main Street in gold and some people still wouldn’t be happy.”