Mayor-Elect Palmer’s ‘First 100 days plan

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

“I’m a planner,” Glens Falls Mayor-Elect Diana Palmer told The Chronicle in a sprawling, two-day conversation on the eve of her January 1 inauguration.

“I already had a transition plan. I also had a first 100 days, first 30 days, four year-long goals.

“I’ve been planning everything from budget to training to meeting with department heads and staff to the physical space,” Mayor-elect Palmer said. “I have been doing a lot of work to get ready.”

She also stepped back from her private psychology practice. “Not an easy thing to do,” she said Friday, “but I just finished my last clinical session with a client this past week, so I will be able to focus.”

The Mayor-Elect said, “What I want to lead with is how excited I am to bring a positivity and a planning mindset to the city. I think I’m a very values-based person. As a city government, we’re going to stress that.

“I want the city to be easier to work with. I want information to be easier to find. I want to find partnerships. I want to collaborate. That’s uniquely possible here because of how much people want to get involved and want to be part of the solution. Part of my message is: I’ll be calling you, and I hope you reach out to me, because I’m looking for that.

“I hope everybody understands….It’s a process. I’ll be working diligently and deliberately in making that happen. That’s the promise I can make.”

Some of what Mayor-elect Palmer plans for her first 100 days.

• Restructure departments & staff “to better align our budget with the skill sets we need and priorities the city needs. It’ll result in a cost savings, but also, I believe, in increased efficiency and increased public relations. We should be easier to work with.”
• “Stand up the Audit and Finance committee immediately. There was talk of that last term, but it never really went anywhere. I want that to be a regular committee.”
• Provide training for incoming Common Council members, something new, she says, covering “things you just wouldn’t know if you hadn’t served in office before, like, open meetings law, FOIL requests, legal and procedural things.” Also, training on budgeting, “across the city, with department heads, council members and staff that directly work with finances.”
• Pursue true multi year planning, an ongoing, long term goal, but start with looking at finances all year long, and get everybody trained.
• Review all the contracts the city has for such things as streaming services and subscriptions. “I want to make sure everything we’re spending money on, on a regular basis, is actually necessary.”
• Start LEAD program for Public Safety. Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion diverts low-level offenses from jail to case management and support services, in partnership with Catholic Charities.
• Eliminate two-hour parking limit in residential areas, working with Public Safety Commission and Common Council, as a start to considering longer term parking issues.
• Seek possible private partners to run The ED Market Center and 36 Elm Street, and launch a targeted marketing and recruitment effort for the City’s Tech Meadows site, working with the City’s Local Development Corporation.
• Shift internal culture. “It’s been tense,” says Mayor-Elect Palmer. “That might be the case in general when you have a contested election, but I am really excited about moving forward. We all have the city’s best interest in mind. We’re very lucky that we have great, hard working employees in the City. We are in good shape to start the year off positively. I want to encourage and foster that as much as I can.”

Other mayor priorities

• Water & Sewer: “I spent hours at the wastewater treatment plant and water filtration plants, so I can deepen my understanding across the board and also make decisions that are informed by what’s actually happening on the ground.”

  “I want to look at our Water and Sewer department and come up with a long term capital improvement plan.

• ‘Day-spenders’ and homeless. “I talked with the Saratoga Public Safety Commissioner, the Glens Falls Police Chief and Assistant Chief,” Mayor-Elect Palmer said. “If there is something specific that is not law that would help, I want the police to tell us. We are not getting that feedback at this point.

  “Something they did in Saratoga that I want to do in Glens Falls, is they have dedicated officers patrolling the downtown area, who cannot be reassigned. Having that presence makes a difference.

  “If we were going to put some sort of law in place, which I’m not opposed to considering, it needs to be crafted towards the needs of Glens Falls,” noting that Saratoga’s law was “targeted to solve for a different problem set” than experienced here.

• Spruce up City Hall “a little bit, nothing expensive, but some fresh paint, little changes like the really old carpet on the second floor,” befitting a public place where “a lot of important work gets done.”

Swearing in: 1868 Palmer family Bible

When Diana Palmer is sworn in as Mayor of Glens Falls on January 1, it will again be on the Palmer family Bible given to her by father-in-law Hollis Palmer when she was elected to her first term as Ward 3 Councilwoman.

She grew up in California, but her husband Scott’s family goes back “many generations,” with “great, great, great grandparents” buried in Glens Falls Cemetery, the Mayor-Elect previously told The Chronicle.

Copyright © 2025 Lone Oak Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved