Schenectady GOP calls for Damonni Farley resignation, while McCarthy calls for transparency

SCHENECTADY — Schenectady City Republican Committee Chairman Matt Nelligan, in an event Tuesday outside City Hall, called on Schenectady City Councilman Damonni Farley to resign amid revelations that Farley owes $29,070 in unpaid state income taxes from 2016 and 2017.

Nelligan, who is running for mayor on the GOP line in November, previously called for Farley’s resignation earlier this month after revelations that Farley had served as both a full-time employee for the Schenectady City School District and a consultant for the district from 2015 to 2021.

“It’s time for Farley to go,” Nelligan said on Tuesday. “He’s already shown he’s not worthy of this seat.”

Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy said on Tuesday that Farley should be transparent with the public regarding his consulting contacts with the school district and the outstanding tax bill, which Farley said on Monday that he is working with the state Bureau of Conciliation and Mediation Services to resolve.

“At this point I’d encourage Councilman Farley to engage in full disclosure to clear up any of these questions that may be arising from the contract with the school district and the apparent issues he has with the Department of Taxation and Finance,” McCarthy said.

While Nelligan has publicly requested that McCarthy call for Farley’s resignation, the mayor resisted that call on Tuesday.

“There’s nothing at this point to raise to the level of resignation,” McCarthy said of Farley. “It’s raising a lot of questions and he should engage in full disclosure to clear up any issues that are being raised.”

Farley said on Tuesday that he has been transparent with the public regarding his relationship with the school district, where he is employed as a community outreach specialist. From 2015 to 2021, Farley also received income from the district through his Common Thread Consulting firm, which was contracted to help the district implement strategies to help the district more effectively engage its male students of color.

Veerma Rai, a former city council candidate on the GOP ticket who dropped out of the race in January, has had numerous city tax liens on property owned on 66 Snowden Ave. with Ray Rai. The property has no outstanding liens, with a 2022 lien of $785 paid off to the city in January. The property owners also paid off a $1,625 lien from 2021 in January 2022.

Farley criticized Nelligan’s event on Tuesday.

“Mr. Nelligan’s press conference was the latest attempt to raise his political profile by trying to criminalize myself and others,” Farley noted. “His MAGA tactics come fresh out of the ‘good ol’ boys handbook’ of how to bully your way into office. This new information about yet another one of his candidates is a glaring example of the hypocritical nature of Mr. Nelligan’s leadership. I remain focused on representing the people of Schenectady.”

Nelligan downplayed comparisons Tuesday between Farley’s tax warrant and Rai’s liens.

“We were aware of that and she’s not running,” Nelligan said of Rai. “There were other personal factors and she decided to withdraw.”

Former GOP candidate Jeff Moore withdrew in January after past incendiary Facebook posts were unearthed. Council candidates Stephanie Hayes and Jacob Dobbs have since replaced Rai and Moore on the Republican ticket.

Nelligan contended on Tuesday that the Schenectady Board of Ethics should be given additional power.

“The city has had the same ethics law in place since 1970 and it doesn’t require any disclosure for any member of the council beforehand with conflicts of interest or anything else,” he said. “They have no enforcement authority and they meet once a year. So we need to scrap that entire entity and we need to have an independent ethics board here in the city that meets monthly that has enforcement power and has referral power to the district attorney.”

Board of Ethics member Father Dominic Isopo, the pastor at St. Luke’s Roman Catholic Church, said the current system allows the three-person board to effectively address ethics complaints.

“We used to meet once a month, but because there were no formal complaints coming in and the financial disclosure forms had been sent out and returned, there was not really much for us to do,” Isopo said on Tuesday. “So the mayor (McCarthy) decided that we would meet annually unless there was a formal complaint to the ethics board. Then obviously we’d meet and deal with it. So the current system is working well and we’re basically on call.”

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