TROY – The City Council will have a 5-2 Democratic majority in 2018 as the absentee ballots counted Tuesday saw the Republicans retain the council presidency but lose Council District 2 by a single vote.

Council President Carmella Mantello defeated Democratic Rensselaer County Legislator Gary Pavlic by 49 votes, 3,812 to 3,763, to win re-election. Mantello went into the count leading by 40 votes, 3,600 to 3,560.

“I am very pleased in a year of a 'blue wave,' I was able to be elected Troy City Council president,” Mantello said.

“I am grateful to be the first directly elected council president in the history of our city. I will attempt to use my position to bring all parties together in working to solve Troy's problems and moving our city forward,” Mantello said.

The two council seats were closely contested, leading the county Board of Elections to count the absentee ballots in the races to resolve the elections.

Councilman Mark McGrath, an enrolled Conservative who ran with the Republican endorsement, lost by one vote to Democratic challenger Cindy Barclay after leading by 13 votes on election night, 437 to 424. Barclay beat McGrath by nearly a two-to-one margin on the absentees. She garnered 31 absentees to McGrath’s 17 and won, 455 to 454.

“Everything has a shelf life,” McGrath said, who credited Barclay for registering new voters and getting them to the polls.

This was McGrath’s sixth bid to represent the 2nd Council District, which includes North Central and South Lansingburgh. McGrath was the first councilman to serve the city charter mandated limit of four terms, take a two-year break, then return to win a fifth term.

Mantello and fellow Republican Councilman Jim Gulli of the 1st Council District were the only Republicans to win elections in the city. The Democrats took five council seats and all six county Legislature seats.

The new City Council may be the first time that the council president may not be a member of the majority. Mantello said she was unaware of this ever occurring before. The new council also is the first under the new city charter to have just seven members as two at-large seats were eliminated. Previously, the top vote-getter of the three at-large council members became council president.

Democratic Mayor Patrick Madden will work with a Democratic majority for the first time. And with five Democrats there will be enough votes to provide a supermajority for overriding the state tax levy cap if necessary.