THE Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) will be hosting a special meeting today to greet visiting mayor of the city of Schenectady, New York, Gary McCarthy.

According to the KSAMC, the special sitting is to facilitate the Schenectady mayor’s visit to Kingston to provide an update on initiatives regarding smart cities.

McCarthy, who has served the city of Schenectady as mayor since 2011, sees a smart city as a municipality using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to increase operational efficiency, share information with the public and improve both the quality of government services and citizen welfare.

As a result, he has been dealing with brownfield sites and costly consent decrees to combine in controlling sanitary sewer overflows. His administration has also been trying to utilise new technology to provide economic and job opportunities for current and future generations in Schenectady.

Smart cities have several features, including a smart health-care system, governance, transportation system, better surveillance for security, smart infrastructure, better job opportunities and every other facility and amenities for comfortable living.

They are defined as smart, both in the ways in which their governments harness technology, as well as in how they monitor, analyse, plan, and govern the city.

In smart cities, the sharing of data is not limited to the city itself, but also includes businesses, citizens and other third parties that can benefit from various uses of that data. Sharing data from different systems and sectors creates opportunities for increased understanding and economic benefits.

McCarthy is expected to share details on his three decades of experience in Government, as well as his reputation as a hands-on, accessible public servant who believes that the Government can be a force for positive change in the lives of its residents.

He was elected council president in January 2010, a position he held until he was elected mayor. He has also served on the boards of the Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority, Schenectady Municipal Housing Authority and the Schenectady Industrial Development Agency.

He started his full four-year term as mayor in November 2011, and was re-elected in 2015 and in 2019. He co-chairs the Center for Economic Growth’s Capital Region Local Government Council, and previously served as president of the New York State Conference of Mayors.

The special council meeting will begin at 10:00 am at the KSAMC’s main office building on Church Street in downtown Kingston.