Owners plead their case, pay fine in first local law case involving the migrant crisis
COLONIE – Owners of a hotel pled guilty on July 17 and paid a fine for violating a 2015 local town law meant to identify who stays in an establishment and for how long.
The guilty plea is the first time in recent years for a hotel and the town hopes it is an incentive for other hotels to follow the law and limit influence from outside groups.
“Where does Mayor Adams have the right to place migrants in other municipalities without any notification or permission across the State and how is it that I can be told that we can’t enforce a local law that was passed in 2015,” Colonie Town Supervisor Peter Crummey said. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Colonie local law 119-26 has been in the center of a fight between the town and two hotels in the past 15 months who refused to provide information about long-term housing of migrants guests sent and paid for by New York City.
The two hotels are the SureStay, located at 200 Wolf Road and the Baymont by Wyndham Latham Albany Airport, on Airport Park Boulevard in Latham. The most recent case involving the Baymont began when a New York City contractor, DocGo, who is responsible for the care of thousands of migrants moved up to the Capital District in 2023, decided to relocate people from a condemned hotel in Rotterdam to Colonie hotels.
According to Colonie Court documents, on May 17 the Baymont received a reservation for 30 rooms for five days under the name Cudesia Arnold-Francis and on May 21 approximately 40 individuals resided at the hotel. The owner of the hotel, Mena Vaghasia, said that she was not provided with the names of the people staying there and, therefore, could not provide a list of names and addresses to Colonie officials. This was a violation of local law 119-26 that reads “Every hotel/motel, bed-and-breakfast, inn or boarding house shall keep for a period of one year a register which shall show the name, residence, date of arrival and departure of all persons provided with lodging at the premises.”
The law was passed nine years ago in response to hotels along Central Avenue being used as long-term housing or illegal apartments because they were not equipped with amenities such as kitchens and laundry facilities to sustain long stays.
“It is my understanding that the Baymont was not given the information by DocGo, so they could not give it to us,” Deputy Police Chief Robert Winn said.
When migrants arrived at another hotel in Colonie, the SureStay, in May 2023, officials requested the same information from its management and were told that DocGo would not allow them to release it either.
The Town sued New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York City Social Services Commission Molly Wasow Park, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and the SureStay in June 2023 and while it was initially not allowed to proceed in local court, a series of newer rulings allowed the town to proceed. The SureStay was cited again for not revealing its list on May 21, when police learned that other Rotterdam migrants were relocated there as well. The management did not allow police to see it when asked, court documents said.
On May 29, Colonie police Lieutenant James Herbst served the owners of the Baymont with a formal complaint for violating the local law on May 17 and appearance tickets for June 27 in Town Court.
In the plea agreement, approved by Colonie Town Judge Andrew Sommers, dated July 17, the Hotel and its owners agreed to plea guilty to the charge and pay a reduced fine of $3,200. According to the law a fine “shall be assessed for each day the violation continues,” but the agreement limited that and it has now been paid.
The agreement said that the “defendants have been very cooperative with the Colonie Police Department personnel,” the owners had no prior records and the plea was in the “interest of justice.”
