Troy City Council President Carmella Mantello on Redistricting — extended interview

In a 4-3 party line vote in an effort led by the Troy City Council’s new Republican majority, the Council voted to re-open the redistricting process by seeking to amend the city charter to expand the number of people on the city’s first independent redistricting commission. Hudson Mohawk Magazine correspondent Corinne Carey spoke with the Council president, Carmella Mantello; the ranking Democratic member, Sue Steele; and outgoing city councilperson Ken Zalewski, currently serving as a Rensselaer County legislator, who served on the charter revision committee that created the independent redistricting commission in 2015. This is an excerpt of an interview with Mantello about the Troy Now Initiative. A story about redistricting featuring all three of Corinne’s interviewees can be found at mediasanctuary.org.