First published:
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Troy politics, what goes around goes around, and around, and around.
Democrat Jim Conroy is looking to displace Republican Mayor Harry Tutunjian this fall, and insiders give him a better than fighting chance. Jim Conroy should be a familiar name to just about any long-term resident of Schenectady or Troy.
He was born and raised in Troy, where he graduated from Catholic Central and worked for years as former Troy City Manager John Buckley's assistant. Politically, though, he was initially best known as the man who didn't quite grab the mayoral golden ring in Schenectady.
That was a decade ago, after he had worked under former Schenectady County Manager Bob McAvoy and served six years as a Schenectady city councilman. Conroy is a professional city planner and manager, with a master's degree in public administration from Russell Sage College.
Conroy lost the mayor's race to Schenectady's native son Al Jurczynski. Conroy then applied to be Troy's city manager, but lost out there to David Grandeau. When the administration changed, he became deputy mayor in Troy under Mark Pattison.
So in terms of both professional credentials to run a city, and the political experience necessary to become mayor in a bare knuckles environment like Troy, nobody can touch Jim Conroy.
But as so often happens in these matters, a long, colorful political career brings with it a train of baggage. Arguably for those with a long memory, fairly or not, Jim Conroy's biggest opponent is Jim Conroy's past.
Not that Harry Tutunjian won't put up a scrappy fight. Harry has powerful friends whose interests are best served by keeping Harry in office. But the feeling among Troy insiders in both parties is that the current administration is stagnant and deeply mired in internal, partisan politics. One veteran Republican told me, "The trouble with Harry is he just listens to the wrong people."
Harry remains a hail fellow well met, a likeable guy and a perfectly competent caretaker mayor. And maybe in the end, Troy voters will say that's enough.
Jim Conroy is counting on voters wanting more from City Hall than a caretaker. But first he has to persuade the electorate that the realities or perceptions -- depending on your point of view -- concerning a notorious federal Housing and Urban Development loan made to his brother Stephen 10 years ago are not a disqualifier.
The $12,500 loan, issued while Jim Conroy was deputy mayor, reeked of insider rigging and profiteering. HUD had given Jim Conroy a conflict of interest waiver and the Troy ethics commission did the same. Stephen Conroy went through the same procedures to get the loan as everyone else. But Jim Conroy was heavily tarred for the loan.
A subsequent HUD investigation concluded that the waiver should never have been granted because key information about ownership of the family estate property had been withheld. Jim Conroy was part owner. Whose fault the omissions were was never established, or whether there was anything in play but innocent error. But by then, with Republicans raising a ruckus about it, Stephen Conroy had paid the loan back in full and the matter died down.
Still, the entire ugly incident has hovered like a black cloud over Jim Conroy's political career.
Conroy, 59, and still living in Troy, has been selling commercial real estate for Prudential since he left office as Pattison's deputy at the end of 2003.
Now he says he's ready to take on both Harry and his own past.
"I'm ready for it," he said Monday, referring to the inevitable questions about the HUD loan. "I understand the concerns, but I feel my voice has not been heard on this."
"I played absolutely no role in granting that loan," he insisted. Any suggestion otherwise was political spin by Pattison administration adversaries intent on creating a scandal where there wasn't one, he added.
"However, the horse is out of the barn on this," Conroy acknowledged. People have already made up their minds. "But those who know me know I'm a straight shooter, and anyone who has dealt with me professionally or politically knows that too."
He also points out that HUD found nothing about the loan transaction illegal, and that no legalities remained once the loan was paid back.
A solid self-endorsement.
But not an entirely satisfying one. I will tell you what I would have liked to hear from Jim Conroy concerning the suspect HUD loan. I would have liked a sense of "upon reflection, we shouldn't have done that." A sense of having learned from a mistake. What happened here was squishy ethics, no matter what the legalities.
In fairness to Jim Conroy, he's not beyond self criticism. "I have a short fuse, sometimes. And I've learned a lot. I'm a different person than I was when I was 35, or 45. I've come to appreciate and value different points of view than mine."
LeBrun can be reached at 454-5453 or by e-mail at flebrun@timesunion.com.
