The $15,360 contract with the Albany-based Martin Group was approved by the Town Board by a 4-1 margin during its July 23 meeting, with Councilman Jason Moskowitz opposing the agreement, which runs from June 24 through Dec. 31.
The firm will assist the town with public and media relations and counsel on communications strategy as part of the agreement.
“The Town of Niskayuna has routinely hired professionals to provide services for the town, such as engineers, human resources consultants and attorneys,” Supervisor Jaime Puccioni said on Wednesday.
“Following feedback from residents to improve communications, the town made the decision to seek expert counsel and contract with the Martin Group,” Puccioni added. “Once the contract is up for renewal, we will evaluate the relationship and budgetary impact.”
The supervisor’s confidential secretary Erin Cassady-Dorion, at her own request, took a $30,000 salary reduction in the 2024 budget in order to make room for outside public relations help.
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“This confidential secretary did request that $30,000 be removed from her budget in order to have experts do this job of increasing communication with the public and increasing transparency,” Councilwoman Jessica Brennan said during the July 23 meeting.
Councilmembers JohnDella Ratta and Bill McPartlon both expressed opposition during the meeting to reducing Cassady-Dorion’s salary in order to fund the hiring of the outside public relations firm, with Della Ratta saying the issue would be addressed at a future meeting.
“I’m not in favor of a woman cutting her salary in half to do a job that’s not her job to begin with,” Della Ratta said. “Because she’s not a PR person, she’s a confidential secretary that’s got about 20 different job duties that she’s got to handle. All that being said, I think this is a very reasonable amount of money and it’s a responsible use of money to try to correct a problem that we created.”
Moskowitz said during the meeting that he didn’t believe the funds used for the public relations contract were being spent wisely.
“My concern is that, for the remainder of the year, the cost to retain this firm is just over $15,000, and if we were to renew our agreement for the next calendar year, the retainer would be $31,000,” he said. “Two of the things that this company will be assisting us with is press releases and creating content for our monthly newsletter, which is very informative, and bringing attention to major events in town. While I think that’s great and we could use some assistance, I don’t feel it’s a responsible use of taxpayer dollars to pay tens of thousands of dollars for press releases and monthly newsletter content, which our highly skilled employees have been doing for decades.”
Deputy Supervisor Joseph Drescher noted during the meeting that the contract with the Martin Group runs through the end of the year and could be revisited in short order if the board wishes to revisit the agreement.
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Over the past three months, the Town Board has received criticism from a group of residents frustrated by the town’s increased water and sewer rates, noting that they were not adequately informed in advance of the hikes. Town Comptroller Beth Greenwood, who has resigned from her post to take a job with the city of Cortland starting in August, gave several presentations at town board meetings prior to the adoption of the new utility rates in May 2023. Some residents received water and sewer bills reflecting higher rates than were projected by the town.
“We failed miserably in getting our message out to the town about the water bill,” Della Ratta said during the meeting. “We’re not communications people, we’re town board members.”