Background
Sara McDermott first entered city employment in January 2024 as Legislative Assistant to the City Council at $10,000 per year. That appointment was made at Mantello’s direction and rubber-stamped by the council without independent review. McDermott simultaneously held the position of Deputy Director of Human Resources at Rensselaer County.
After a falling out with the Rensselaer County Executive, McDermott lost her county position. Before Mantello created the city role for her, her employment included gig work and delivery service.
Mantello then created the role of Deputy Director of Operations and placed McDermott in it. The position carries an $80,000 salary. No job description for the role has been made public. No open application process was conducted. The appointment did not go before the city council for approval, unlike other positions confirmed at the same June 4, 2026 meeting.
What the Role Requires
No formal job description for Deputy Director of Operations has been made public.
The Gap
The position did not exist before McDermott needed one. It was created for her with an $80,000 annual salary, no documented qualifications standard, no posting, and no competitive hiring process. A public commenter at the June 4, 2026 city council meeting described it directly: “Why was no one else except the mayor’s close personal friend given the opportunity to get this job?” The same commenter: “$80,000 of taxpayers money to pay someone to be the mayor’s friend.”
Outside her city role, McDermott administers the Troy Republican Committee’s social media page, where public testimony confirmed she has posted content described as queer phobic and transphobic, intentionally misgendered a community member who had testified before the council, and encouraged others to post with hate. She created a petition calling for City Council President Rodney Steele’s resignation, which gathered approximately 100 signatures.
A second resident testified at the same meeting that McDermott, while doing delivery work, had used private customer order information to make mean-spirited social media posts, raising questions about her handling of sensitive information in a city role.
On the Record Before the Job
Before Mantello created a position for her, McDermott was a regular public commenter at council meetings. At the September 18, 2025 Finance Meeting, she spoke against Resolution 98, the council’s human rights and due process resolution addressing ICE activity in Troy. She went through the resolution’s numbered findings one by one. Her argument: immigration enforcement is a federal matter beyond the council’s authority, ICE operations are “intelligence-driven” and focused on people with criminal records or outstanding deportation orders, and detained individuals have access to due process through the immigration court system. She closed: “Let’s stop the political fear and get back to focusing on Troy.”
The resolution failed 3-4. Mantello hired her as Deputy Director of Operations at $80,000 per year, a position created for her with no job description and no open application, in 2026.
Family Network
McDermott is the cousin of Deputy Mayor Seamus Donnelly and Maria DeBonis, who served as City Clerk during Mantello’s first year. All three were placed in city roles through Mantello’s direction. All three spoke publicly in favor of the Proctor’s Theatre city hall relocation at the August 2025 public comment period: the same deal Donnelly was managing through the LDC.
Sources: Troy City Council Regular Meeting, June 4, 2026 (public comment transcript); Troy City Council Finance Meeting, September 18, 2025 (transcript); Troy City Council Organizational Meeting Agenda, January 4, 2024; WAMC — cousin relationship confirmed; Rensselaer County Staff Directory