Gary McCarthy

One would think that the Mayor of a City would be above chasing young girls around at night while drunk….well, not in the case of Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy! 

In 2016, a young woman named Sara Dingley was doing some trash picking when she had the misfortune to run into Mayor McCarthy late at night. According to the account published in the Times Union (Audio: Chase involving Schenectady Mayor McCarthy released) that includes the audio of the 911 call from the young woman, she had been threatened by McCarthy and he appeared “highly intoxicated”. The second part will be no surprise to the city residents who regularly see McCarthy drunk at local watering holes and derisively refer to him as “Otis”, but the first accusation of him threatening and intimidating the woman may be shocking. 

Dingley drove directly to the police station, and McCarthy followed her there, it’s no surprise that the Schenectady cops who work for McCarthy didn’t do anything, despite the fact that the victim made a complaint. 

Lt. Wesley McGee made that on scene call, and shockingly, he was also a finalist to become Schenectady Police Chief at the time! This was done despite the fact that Sergeant Michael Dalton “smelled alcohol” around the mayor and recommended that the State Police be called in, as an independent agency. 

In the end, the police failed to administer a field sobriety test to McCarthy, failed to take any action regarding the woman’s complaint and failed to turn the situation over to an outside police agency. As a result, vital information was not collected, which allowed McCarthy to later avoid charges after a separate investigation by the Saratoga County DA. 

You or I would have been tested and arrested, but in Schenectady it pays to be Otis! 

Super Bowl 2022, McCarthy makes racist post, blames staff 

Picture it, you’re watching the Super Bowl in Schenectady and getting ready for a great halftime show featuring Snoop Dog, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent and others. You jump on your phone and tap Instagram to see what the world has to say. 

There you see the following post from your Mayor. 

“Today during the Super Bowl Halftime Show, your children will learn about your ratchet past.” 

WTF? 

Ratchet is often used as a substitute for “ghetto” and is considered by many to be a racially offensive term. 

Can’t you see it? Gary alone at the corner of the bar (as he often is) thinking he was making a clever “with it” post, only to have the whole digital world react negatively, causing him to scramble to find a way to erase it. 

While that certainly may have been the case, the Mayor blamed his staff and called it a mix up. He promised whoever was really responsible would have consequences, which rang about as hollow as OJ searching for the “real killer”. 

But it’s all working out well for Ole Gary. He just got a 19% pay raise in the 2025 budget, while he imposed new garbage fees and raised property taxes on residents. 

In the Schenectady Swamp, the joke is almost always on us!