Meeting colors

OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Peekskill Common Council Work Session and Regular Meeting - September 28, 2026

Meeting Portal — Monday, September 28, 2026

BodyPeekskill, New York

SessionMeeting Portal

DateMonday, September 28, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 3:39:23

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.

Speaker 1

0:14

So good evening, everyone, and welcome to our committee of the whole meeting for tonight, September 28, 2026.

0:20

Uh, we're starting early uh tonight.

0:23

So we have um couple things on the agenda financing and budget presentations, um liaison concerns and issues, and then uh 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 corporations.

0:48

So at this time I'll turn it over to our city manager.

Speaker 2

0:53

Good evening.

Speaker 1

0:54

Good evening, good

Speaker 2

0:55

evening.

0:56

Good evening.

0:57

Uh good evening, Mayor and Council.

1:01

Good evening.

1:02

So tonight we have uh the first of the budget presentations, and we're gonna start off with uh the city manager's tentative budget presented by our comptroller Tony Tracy.

1:14

We're gonna go into the building department, the fire department, and section eight tonight.

1:18

But before that, we do have a uh three items of housekeeping to take care of.

1:25

There's three grants that the city just wants to make sure it has all of its proper resolutions in place, and Tony Tracy is gonna talk to us about those before we start.

Speaker 3

1:36

Okay.

1:38

Good evening, Mayor and City Council.

1:40

Good evening.

1:40

Good

Speaker 4

1:41

evening.

Speaker 3

1:41

So, as the city manager said, I have a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into an intermunicipal agreement with Westchester County to accept flood mitigation funding.

Unassigned speaker

1:54

Um,

Speaker 3

1:54

it's also to hire Barton and Lejudis to do the work as they are the current vendor that's familiar with all of the project work that's currently happening.

2:03

In order to do this intermunicipal agreement, the it's a hundred thousand dollars of funding that's available to us, and there would be a one hundred thousand dollar match for that.

2:14

So we're just identifying that match as in the um interfund transfers to capital from the general fund.

2:22

So with your approval, then we'll bring back the resolution.

2:25

Any questions, counsel?

2:27

I'm good.

2:28

Okay.

2:30

And that that is the only resolution I had as far as the lockwood drive met.

Speaker 2

2:36

Okay, we also have two other um grants.

2:40

The uh environmental facilities corporation has an engineering planning grant of $50,000 for the city, and then there is a GIGP grant of three million dollars for riverfront um flooding mitigation.

2:59

And I explained last week, I think that this does not mean that you're gonna see three million dollars worth of work at the riverfront.

3:07

This means that you're going to see projects which mitigate the flooding that exists at the riverfront, but they might not they might be things uphill that we start to address first.

3:21

And so uh they want us to return the um approval to accept those grants to them with by October 9th, and so we'd like to ask you to approve those tonight.

Speaker 5

3:35

Okay.

3:36

Questions, anybody again?

3:37

I'm good.

3:38

I'm good with it.

Speaker 2

3:40

Okay, and Tony, uh I'll just have start off.

3:44

This is uh one of the most uh challenging times of year for us to sort of take a look at where we think we're gonna end up at the end of this present year and look back at uh many years' history and put together a budget.

4:00

Uh, but we've done that, and Tony's gonna explain the process and uh where we came

Unassigned speaker

4:05

out.

Speaker 3

4:07

Okay.

4:08

So, yeah, so we are starting with the 2027 tenant of budget.

4:15

And so we're beginning this conversation basically with an overall view of the budget, and we're showing on this on this slide is a total of 58,966,000 dollars, nine hundred and sixty-six thousand nine hundred and sixty-five dollars.

4:31

So it's an approximate one point five million dollar increase over the two thousand twenty-six budget with the expenses, which represents a 2.73 percent increase.

4:43

Related to that, in order to get those funds collected and our revenue to support the expenses.

Unassigned speaker

4:50

That would be a 3.5 percent tax increase that we're representing here, and that is a 3.92 percent increase in the levy.

Speaker 3

5:00

What the 3.5% rate increase is for a taxpayer, we've taken the average value of a single-family home that we've gotten from the assessor's office of $9,732 of assessed value.

5:14

And this rate increase of 3.5% is $107.68 for the year, or about $8.97 per month.

5:29

So in this conversation, as the city manager pointed out, this has been a very difficult budget to build because we have a lot of mandatory costs that we have seen unprecedented increases in.

5:43

And as we're looking at here, we have retiree health care.

6:01

So looking at this graph, and it's showing you that over the past six years, it's been between a 9%, well, some of them are low, but 9% up to a 24-28% increase in one year.

6:15

So we have increased significantly, and that is a real struggle for us on the funding side to cover that cost, as well as all of our other costs.

6:24

And we do show that about 76% of this budget is personnel cost related, debt services 7%.

6:33

So it's really only leaving us, you know, possibly 15%, where we really have control over what numbers are funded and what those funds are used for.

6:45

So a list of the challenges and things like that that are affecting the city and some and some positives.

6:52

So as we've mentioned, we've we've really had difficulty in funding these expenses.

6:57

Some of the revenue sources have not really come through the way we expected them to, but we do have a very big positive for the city that the city secured a $3.8 million impact fee through a proposed pilot agreement, and then those funds can be used in the future for capital work and other needs of the city.

7:19

And as far as some other things the city has done in order to try to maintain the services that are needed and withhold the cost a little bit, but we have um worked on the staffing.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Fire Department Budget██████████████14%

Parks and Recreation████████████12%

Procedural██████████10%

Budget Equity Analysis████████8%

Affordable Housing████████8%

Parks And Recreation████████8%

Trail Safety███████7%

Public Engagement█████5%

Fiscal Sustainability████4%

Summary of Proceedings

Peekskill Common Council Work Session and Regular Meeting - September 28, 2026

The Peekskill Common Council met on September 28, 2026, for a budget work session and a regular meeting. The work session featured the presentation of the City Manager's Tentative 2027 Budget, which proposed a 3.5% tax rate increase, alongside budget requests from the Building, Fire, and Section 8 departments. The regular meeting included a public hearing on amending park rules to allow bicycles on designated trails, the unanimous renewal of the Peekskill Business Improvement District (BID), and the approval of 18 resolutions covering appointments, contracts, and grants.

Budget Work Session Presentations

The Council heard the first of several budget presentations for the 2027 fiscal year.

City Manager's Tentative Budget (Presented by Comptroller Tony Tracy)

Total budget of $58,966,965, a 2.73% increase over 2026.
Proposed 3.5% tax rate increase, correlating to a $107.68 annual increase for the average single-family home ($8.97/month).
Challenges highlighted: Mandatory costs (pensions, retiree healthcare) accounting for large increases (9-28% annually). Personnel costs represent 76% of the budget. Debt service is 7%.
A proposal was introduced to change the use of the city's 1% property transfer tax, currently restricted by a 2010 resolution to the firehouse building fund. The City Manager recommends removing the restriction to allow funds to be used for the general fund, utilizing a $6.6 million reserve to cover the remaining 11 years of firehouse debt payments.
Staffing additions: 2 new police officers (total to 60), a DPW assistant, and a foreman.
The capital plan totals $250.6 million, with $88 million in secured grant funding.
The city secured a $3.8 million impact fee through a proposed PILOT agreement.

Building Department (Nick Sasier)

Proposed budget: $710,922, a decrease from the prior year.
Department issued 1,053 permits and collected $653,890 in revenue year-to-date.
The fire inspector position is vacant and is not budgeted for in 2027, with a plan to potentially hire mid-year if revenue permits.
Goals for 2027 include hiring a full-time fire inspector, digitalizing records, and updating the department's ISO rating.

Fire Department (Chief Jim Seymour)

Recommended budget: $5,791,783.
Emergency responses are up to 10.4 per 24-hour shift (projected 3,056 incidents for 2026).
The department secured $1.39 million in grants over the last 12 months, including $688,000 for a new rescue boat and $209,000 for new air packs.
Chief Seymour identified staffing as the next major concern, noting the department is often stretched thin.
He proposed allowing fire inspectors and lieutenants to write tickets for parking in fire lanes, fire hydrants, and double parking to improve response times.

Section 8 Department (Jessica Gannis)

The department is utilizing cost-saving measures (lowering vouchers, enforcing strict rent reasonableness) to maintain a budget utilization rate between 95-105% amid rising rents.
The 2025 HAP utilization rate was 106.81%, prompting a conservative approach for 2027.
A housing inspector position remains vacant; the city is utilizing a third-party inspection service (CVR) as a lower-cost alternative.

Public Hearing: Amendment to Chapter 416 (Parks and Bicycle Regulations)

The Council held a public hearing on a proposed local law to amend park regulations, specifically to allow bicycles, e-bikes, and other non-motorized devices on the riverfront multi-use trail and designated trails in DePew Park. The current code generally prohibits bicycles on footpaths.

Public Testimony:

Proponents (representing the Putnam/Westchester Mountain Biking Association, community members):
- Stated that DePew Park's trails were historically designed and developed as multi-use trails in cooperation with the city.
- Argued that mountain biking is low-impact, safe (no reported conflicts with hikers), and provides significant health, youth development (NICA programs), and economic benefits (tourism).
- Emphasized that the mountain biking community provides volunteer trail maintenance at no cost to the city, offering a formal maintenance plan.
- Advocated for allowing Class 1 e-bikes (pedal-assist with no throttle) as accessible options for older adults or those with injuries.
Expressed Concerns:
- Argued that DePew Park's trails are narrow, and its quiet, natural character would be compromised by bike traffic.
- Noted that Blue Mountain Reservation immediately adjacent already has an extensive network of mountain bike trails, questioning the need for Dupew.
- Raised concerns about enforcement, safety on blind curves, erosion, environmental impact on wildlife, and long-term responsibility for maintenance costs.

Outcome: The public hearing was left open and will continue on October 26, 2026, to allow for further language development regarding bike classifications and speed limits.

Public Comments & Testimony (Citizens Desiring to be Heard)

Kenny Lewis questioned the safety of planned lane reductions on South Division Street. The City Manager stated it stemmed from the 2019 DRI plan and a traffic safety study.
Nathan Couchon requested an update on anonymous reporting for immigration status complaints under the "Peakskill for All" policy. The Police Chief confirmed an anonymous form is available on the city website.
John Ford reported a historic marble hitching post knocked over on Nelson Avenue. The city pledged to look into it.
Earl John Powell voiced frustration over the lack of downtown parking.
Tanya Dwyer (Online) asked about long-term maintenance costs for assets created by new grants (e.g., flood mitigation).
Evan (Online) raised concerns about ICE potentially having access to ALPR cameras in Peekskill via Westchester County. Police Chief Renwick stated he had received written assurance from Westchester County that they are complying with the county law and that Peekskill Police usage is internally audited.
Arnie Paglio criticized the low voter turnout (less than 10%) in the BID renewal ratification process and requested mailed notices and recorded meetings for future renewals.

Key Outcomes

BID Renewal: Local Law No. 3 of 2026, extending the Peekskill Downtown Business Improvement District through September 30, 2031, was passed unanimously.
Resolution Approvals (Resolutions J1-J18): All resolutions were passed unanimously, including:
- Appointments to the Parks Advisory Board (Douglas Glickert, Megan Cea) and Zoning Board of Appeals (Sheridan Taylor).
- Awards for structural repairs to James Street Garage ($928,922) and Nelson Avenue Garage ($131,490) (total authorization not to exceed $2,339,472).
- Acceptance of a $3 million NYSEFC Green Innovation Grant for riverfront flood mitigation.
- Acceptance of a $200,000 CDBG grant for the Lockwood Drive Culvert replacement.
- Authorization for the new Section 8 FSS Coordinator contract (not to exceed $70,000).
- Agreement accepting various other grants and authorizing the Lockwood Drive Culvert engineering contract and the T-Mobile relocation agreement.
Budget Next Steps: The Council will continue budget deliberations. Resolutions to override the tax cap and to amend the use of the transfer tax are scheduled for future meetings. The final budget must be adopted by December 1, 2026.
Executive Session: The Council voted to enter executive session to discuss personnel matters.

Meeting Transcript

So good evening, everyone, and welcome to our committee of the whole meeting for tonight, September 28, 2026. Uh, we're starting early uh tonight. So we have um couple things on the agenda financing and budget presentations, um liaison concerns and issues, and then uh 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 corporations. So at this time I'll turn it over to our city manager. Good evening. Good evening, good evening. Good evening. Uh good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening. So tonight we have uh the first of the budget presentations, and we're gonna start off with uh the city manager's tentative budget presented by our comptroller Tony Tracy. We're gonna go into the building department, the fire department, and section eight tonight. But before that, we do have a uh three items of housekeeping to take care of. There's three grants that the city just wants to make sure it has all of its proper resolutions in place, and Tony Tracy is gonna talk to us about those before we start. Okay. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Good evening. Good evening. So, as the city manager said, I have a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into an intermunicipal agreement with Westchester County to accept flood mitigation funding. Um, it's also to hire Barton and Lejudis to do the work as they are the current vendor that's familiar with all of the project work that's currently happening. In order to do this intermunicipal agreement, the it's a hundred thousand dollars of funding that's available to us, and there would be a one hundred thousand dollar match for that. So we're just identifying that match as in the um interfund transfers to capital from the general fund. So with your approval, then we'll bring back the resolution. Any questions, counsel? I'm good. Okay. And that that is the only resolution I had as far as the lockwood drive met. Okay, we also have two other um grants. The uh environmental facilities corporation has an engineering planning grant of $50,000 for the city, and then there is a GIGP grant of three million dollars for riverfront um flooding mitigation. And I explained last week, I think that this does not mean that you're gonna see three million dollars worth of work at the riverfront. This means that you're going to see projects which mitigate the flooding that exists at the riverfront, but they might not they might be things uphill that we start to address first. And so uh they want us to return the um approval to accept those grants to them with by October 9th, and so we'd like to ask you to approve those tonight. Okay. Questions, anybody again? I'm good. I'm good with it. Okay, and Tony, uh I'll just have start off. This is uh one of the most uh challenging times of year for us to sort of take a look at where we think we're gonna end up at the end of this present year and look back at uh many years' history and put together a budget. Uh, but we've done that, and Tony's gonna explain the process and uh where we came out. Okay. So, yeah, so we are starting with the 2027 tenant of budget. And so we're beginning this conversation basically with an overall view of the budget, and we're showing on this on this slide is a total of 58,966,000 dollars, nine hundred and sixty-six thousand nine hundred and sixty-five dollars. So it's an approximate one point five million dollar increase over the two thousand twenty-six budget with the expenses, which represents a 2.73 percent increase. Related to that, in order to get those funds collected and our revenue to support the expenses. That would be a 3.5 percent tax increase that we're representing here, and that is a 3.92 percent increase in the levy. What the 3.5% rate increase is for a taxpayer, we've taken the average value of a single-family home that we've gotten from the assessor's office of $9,732 of assessed value. And this rate increase of 3.5% is $107.68 for the year, or about $8.97 per month.

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI

TRANSCRIPT VIA PUBLIC VIDEO
openpublica.com