ALBANY - Donald “Dontay” Ivy was loved and respected.

“He wasn’t a threat to the world in any way, shape or form,” Derek Johnson, an Albany councilman and Ivy’s cousin, said. “For this to be the ending, it was a tough pill to swallow.”

The $625,000 settlement Albany is poised to pay in a federal wrongful death lawsuit is hard to accept for Johnson, who says the low figure is “a smack in the face.”

Ivy, an unarmed mentally ill black man, died in 2015 during a confrontation with Albany police after he was Tasered, chased and tackled while walking down an Arbor Hill street.

Common Council members were presented with a request to borrow $625,000 to pay the settlement on Monday. Members discussed the bond in executive session and it was introduced that night at the council meeting.

Albany does not have an insurance policy that covers lawsuits like these because the cost purchase for the additional coverage would prohibitive, said David Galin, Mayor Kathy Sheehan's deputy chief of staff.

The federal lawsuit seeking up to $20 million in damages was filed on behalf of Ivy’s son, Isaiah, and Susan Bartlett, the teenager's mother and executor of Ivy’s estate. The legal action alleged negligence, excessive force and racial profiling by the three officers who confronted Ivy.

Manhattan attorney Michael Rose and Long Island attorney Steven Harfenist, both of whom represented Bartlett and Ivy’s son, did not return requests for comment Tuesday. Bartlett could not be reached.

Ivy, a 39-year-old who was battling paranoid schizophrenia and had heart issues, was walking home from a store near Lark and Second streets when police stopped and questioned him. The confrontation got physical, and police said they used a Taser on Ivy at least once but it didn't work and Ivy continued to fight.

Ivy was an honor student and athlete at Albany High School who had attended college in Virginia.

The amount of settlements in wrongful death lawsuits varies and depends on such factors as the deceased person’s age, income, the value of support provided to family members, funeral expenses and medical bills.

The city has settled lawsuits for varying amounts over the years depending on the circumstances, each in turn prompting changes in the department’s conduct and policies.

In 2005, Albany paid $1.3 million to the family of a bystander who was shot to death by a police officer during a chaotic pursuit of a drunken driver on New Year's Eve 2003. The settlement with the family of David Scaringe, a 24-year-old engineer who was making marriage plans, is double what Ivy’s family is set to receive and remains the city’s largest in history.

The incident led to changes to the department's policies on police pursuits and use of deadly force, and included in-service training for officers, an improved radio transmission system that gives police supervisors control of the airwaves and a rule prohibiting officers from firing at a moving vehicle to disable it. In addition, officers must break off any chase that might unduly endanger the public.

After Ivy’s death, Albany police resolved to purchase body cameras, which were put into use last year.

Previously, the largest settlement had been $500,000 to relatives of Jessie Davis, a mentally ill man shot and killed by police officers in 1984 after he allegedly lunged at them.

In 1999, the city settled with a former College of Saint Rose student Jermaine Henderson for $60,000 after he filed a lawsuit alleging he was beaten by officers while handcuffed in a police garage.

Settlements often come with the caveat of the accused party admitting no fault.

The Common Council must approve the bonding request for the settlement to be paid, which Johnson said is a difficult situation.

“It took everything in my power to remain professional,” he said of the initial revelation of the settlement. “I just don’t want to be pressured into making a decision, an abrupt decision, that could have an effect on my family and on a community.”