Tension over allegations against a city councilor came to a boiling point in Schenectady this week.
In mid-February, City Republicans claimed Democratic City Councilman Damonni Farley had been put on leave by the Schenectady City School District where he is employed as a community outreach specialist. They did not offer specifics or say where they learned of the development.
Mayor Gary McCarthy, a fellow Democrat, told WAMC that Farley and the school district should be open about the situation, while Council President Marion Porterfield said the panel doesn’t speak for the district.
The Schenectady School District has not commented.
Allegations that misconduct prompted Farley's furlough served as grist for the rumor mill, which came to a head during Monday’s council meeting.
Tom Kennedy, the local Republican chair, raised the matter during the public comment period, saying people are concerned because the damaging information is "in the public square."
"If that's not the case," Kennedy said, "he has had every opportunity to dispel that. But last week, he had that opportunity, and what happened here during the executive session was that another city councilman left the meeting early to go and stage a getaway car to wait outside for Mr. Farley to come running out to talk to the media. Now that was reported in the newspaper. So that's not the kind of councilman we want."
Kennedy continued, asking Farley and Porterfield to resign. Carl Williams, the councilor Kennedy referred to in his remarks, explained the alleged collaboration with Farley.
"I was already planning on leaving before," Williams said. "However, as you can tell, when accusations are being shouted at you without even having an opportunity to have a conversation, that may sometimes be wrong or an inaccurate reflection of what the actual events were. And secondly, I'd like to point out that Mr. Kennedy pointed at Mr. Farley when he was speaking to me, Mr. Williams. I think that just outlines some of the undertones that are present in these comments as they continue to be thwarted at Mr. Farley. And I think at this point, it is responsible for me, myself to call it out and call out these shenanigans. And if we are truly looking forward to impacting the lives of people in our city, let's talk about some real issues."
Kennedy also called for Williams to resign.
Porterfield warned Kennedy to "be careful about making allegations."
"Unless you have that in writing some place, because that's a very serious thing to say about anyone haven't seen it publicly, haven't been told that publicly by anyone, received no correspondence, not even from you. So I just wanted to just say that, because that's really very something serious to say about anyone. If you have no proof of it, and if you have proof of it, then that's a different conversation," Porterfield said.
Reached by phone Thursday evening, Kennedy claimed he has damaging information.
"I was given names, dates, locations. So it's a little more than just hearsay, but I can't go out, because I'm not part of the investigation, I can't go out and actually level allegations... I thought that going to the city council meeting and directly speaking to Mr. Farley, as he's in the sitting in the chair there, that you would think that he would owe some explanation to the people who have elected him. That wasn't the case," said Kennedy.
Porterfield and Farley did not reply to requests for comment. Both are up for re-election in November.
