Catalina Accuses Council of ‘Negligence’ for Bad Budgeting
Peekskill Mayor Frank Catalina accused the Democratic-controlled Common Council of “negligence” by failing to property budget for $1.3 million for tax certiorari cases that the city may be forced to bond for.
A fuming Catalina, who took office in January, criticized the administration of former Mayor Mary Foster and her Democratic council members for only setting aside about $150,000 when tax settlements had been costing more than $1 million annually for three straight years.
“While I accept the fact that we are here to clean up the mess left by Mary Foster and Marybeth McGowan and the so-called ‘controlling majority,’ it’s hard when members of the council play politics and jump to take credit for good news, that’s really not good, by issuing chest-pounding yet deceptive press releases, while sitting stoically silent as million dollar blunder after million dollar blunders are uncovered,” Catalina remarked.
Catalina has also been critical of the council in the past for deferring $1 million in pension costs under a state ‘pension stabilization’ program.
“The fact that this budget was stripped and passed after the 2013 election results were finalized is clear evidence these $2.3 million liabilities were intentionally punted on to the next administration,” he said. “I hope the ‘majority’ recognizes that as the ‘majority’ and creators of this crisis through their own actions, they will have a front row seat to explain their actions and be the first called upon to propose solutions to pay for that negligence.”
Several members of the council appeared surprised when Comptroller Ann Maestri asked them last week to bond $1.3 million to replace $900,000 that has already been paid from the city’s general fund for tax certioraris.
“We need to do this for September for cash flow reasons,” Maestri explained.
City Manager Anthony Ruggiero conceded he was “a little taken aback” to find out the city was short of cash, while Deputy Mayor Drew Claxton and Councilwoman Kathleen Talbot said they thought there weren’t many outstanding tax cases remaining and what was budgeted was sufficient.
“I’m a little confused at this because I thought the big ones were behind us,” Talbot said.
Councilman Darren Rigger said the discovery of the large tax certiorari expenses supported those in favor of revaluation, although he quickly added, “We can’t afford revaluation either.”
The council was scheduled to entertain the bond Monday night following Catalina’s first State of the City Address at City Hall.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
