Peekskill Common Council Work Session – August 10, 2026
Peekskill Common Council Work Session – August 10, 2026
The Common Council held a work session on Monday, August 10, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in the Common Council Chamber. The agenda included a financial presentation, several resolutions, and council liaison reports. The meeting concluded with a motion to enter executive session. Deputy Mayor and Councilman Rigor were excused.
Consent Calendar
- Authorize Intergovernmental Cyber-Security Agreement: The council approved moving forward with an agreement with New York State to enhance cybersecurity services at no cost to the city (estimated value $28,000 over three years). A resolution will be brought back for final approval.
- Street Closures: Three street closure requests were discussed and will be brought back as resolutions on August 17:
- Virgen del Cisne religious procession (Saturday, September 5, 2026, 5–7 p.m.)
- Assumption Church Fair (Wednesday–Sunday, September 26–?; closed 2–10 p.m. weekdays, full days Saturday and Sunday)
- Walk/Run to Remember (Friday, September 11, 2026, starting at 8:46 a.m. from Central Firehouse to the riverfront)
- Update Personal, Private and Sensitive Information Security Policy: The council approved moving forward with an updated policy to comply with state requirements, with revisions for unionized employees. Resolution to be presented on August 17.
- Declare Surplus Equipment: The Fire Department will auction off old and obsolete equipment through Auctions International.
- Accept CDBG Grant for Neighborhood Center Elevator Panel: The city accepted a $47,500 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for a $90,000 electrical panel replacement; the city’s match comes from general funds. Resolution on August 17.
- T-Mobile Equipment Relocation: The council discussed a $132,068.11 cost for relocating T-Mobile equipment from a decommissioned water tower to an adjacent tower. The city will bear the cost due to the lease terms. A settlement agreement will be finalized.
- Local Law Regulating E-bikes and E-devices: The council reviewed a revised local law (amending Chapter 182 and Chapter 416) that sets definitions, age limits (minimum 16), prohibits sidewalk operation, increases penalties for reckless riding, and allows impoundment for underage riders. A public hearing is scheduled for August 17.
- Renewal of Peekskill Business Improvement District (BID) Agreement: The council agreed to schedule a public hearing on September 14 for a five-year renewal (September 30, 2026 – September 30, 2031).
Public Comments & Testimony
- No formal public comment period was held. However, council members relayed concerns from residents and business owners during liaison reports, including issues with parking meter confusion, crosswalk striping, garbage dumping, double parking, and taxi service complaints.
Discussion Items
- 2nd Quarter 2026 Budget to Actual Variance: Comptroller Toni Tracy presented a review. The projected excess is $3.9 million, which includes $3.9 million in one-time revenue from the 901 Main PILOT and $2.5 million in revenue/expense from a bond and insurance settlement. Removing these one-time items leaves a $55,000 excess. Revenue shortfalls were noted in meter parking (due to non-working meters) and parking fines (addressed by adding an enforcement officer). Expenditure overruns include advanced life support contracts, snow overtime, refuse removal, and employee/police/fire retirement systems (approximately $1 million). Offsetting surpluses in consultants, contingency, and health insurance narrow the gap.
- T-Mobile Relocation: City Attorney Eric explained that the old water tower at 138 Benefield Boulevard must be demolished to make way for a new tank funded by a 60% state grant. T-Mobile’s lease (approx. $3,500/month, with extensions through 2035–2040) does not require them to pay for relocation. The council expressed concern about the cost but acknowledged the need to proceed to avoid losing grant funding.
- E-bike Law: The council discussed the complexity of the law and thanked staff for finalizing a comprehensive version. Councilwoman Chang requested adding “or roadways” to the definition of where devices can operate. The council also emphasized the need for signage to inform the public about new rules (e.g., no riding on sidewalks, except for children).
Key Outcomes
- Approved to bring forward resolutions on August 17 for: cybersecurity agreement, street closures, information security policy, surplus equipment declaration, CDBG grant acceptance, and T-Mobile relocation settlement.
- Approved to schedule a public hearing on September 14 for the BID renewal.
- Approved a public hearing on August 17 for the local law regulating e-bikes and e-devices.
- Council direction: City Manager will investigate parking meter signage and crosswalk striping; Police Chief will address taxi service complaints; the council supported allowing city employees to participate in the Walk/Run to Remember with a 30-minute late arrival.
- Executive Session: The council voted to enter executive session to discuss matters concerning medical, financial, credit, or employment history, and personnel matters.
Meeting Transcript
We have quite a lengthy agenda. Um, a presentation, and then executive session for discussion of matters concerning the medical financial credit or employment history of a particular person, persons, or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal, or removal of a particular person, persons, or corporation. Please note that deputy mayor has been excused from this meeting today, as well as uh councilman uh rigor as they're both traveling. So at this time I will turn this over to our city manager. Okay, good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening. Good evening. Uh, first up tonight we have a presentation from Tony Tracy, our comptroller for a budget to actual for the second quarter of 2026. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Good evening, indeed. It's not allowing me to share this on the screen. Okay, hold on. So uh you do all have a copy that was included in your packets last week. So for the second quarter of 2026. Oh, okay. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. So for the second quarter review of 2026, we're reviewing the budget, the actual budget against the adjusted budget, and we are still, as we were in the first quarter, we're trending very close to what we projected, what we planned earlier in the year or last year. Uh, what I did want to go through on this sheet, so if we're looking at the uh projected column in the center, that is what is going to show on the actual revenue and expense. So it is showing a projected uh excess of about 3.9 million dollars. So that will be what's in the financial statements. So that goes along with the next explanation of the column next to it. We have a couple of one-time revenues in there and a one-time expense. So what I'm showing there is to remove those from the totals, and that way we are comparing the actual budgeted against the actual the budget and the actual amounts now. So in the one-time revenues, we had received 3.91 $3.9 million dollars from the 901 main pilot. So I'm removing that from our total. And then on the revenue and expense side, there's 2.5 million dollars that we had gotten revenue from a bond and from the insurance company for an expense of that same amount for a lawsuit. So once we're moving those from the budget, we have about a $55,000 excess. So again, very, very close to budget. And what else what I also have to show you in that conversation is just a couple of items that some things on the revenues are over the projections, and then some of them were showing some some shortages. So on the shortage side of this, we have meter parking right now, is projecting a little bit low. That is mostly due to uh we have a quite a few non-working meters due to battery issues, things like that. Again, that's why we're looking to make that current transition over to the new parking app. We're putting the new kiosks in fairly soon, and that should resolve that revenue issue for us. And the parking fines are projecting low also. We are adding another parking enforcement officer, so again, that should help correct that problem. On the excess projections and the revenues, we have additional money that we're receiving uh due to bonds that we issued, there are premiums, and then also once that additional cash goes into our account, it's in a high interest account. So we're planning to receive more interest in the bank account also. So that nets out to approximately the 159,000 dollars. And then I just wanted to walk you through a couple of the expenditure projected shortages. We have an expected shortage in the contracts for the advanced life support services through the Portland Peak Scale Regional Ambulance Service. And also we have the snow overtime that's projecting higher than we planned initially due to additional storms. The refuse removal, the cost is coming in a little bit higher. And the last one we've already talked about during the first quarter review, the employee and police and fire retirement systems are projecting much higher than we anticipated. So that's about a million dollars of expenses that are a little higher than we expected them to be. On the offsetting side there, we are projecting some excesses in the consultants lines and some contingency lines, and also the health insurance. So netting all of that out comes about to that $55,000 of projected excess for the second quarter. Aren't there any questions?
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