Utica's Mayor issued a response Monday to a late-breaking story from last week, when the city was called out by Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente for backing away from a Memorandum of Agreement as it relates to funding of a new downtown parking garage, part of the Mohawk Valley Health System's new hospital. It in (the full text of which can be found below), Mayor Robert Palmieri says the city has been a 'strong project partner', and says 'no other local government entity has done or invested more to the support the hospital project.' Palmieri goes on to explain the financial support already provided to the project, including the re-direction of grant money that had been secured for other things. Additionally, the mayor points to $8 million in infrastructure improvement 'to ensure the hospital project comes to fruition,' Palmieri wrote.