Gloves Come Off in Peekskill as Election Barbs Get Personal
By Rick Pezzullo
The gloves came off in Peekskill last week following a published report that a prominent developer in the city was a client of the attorney daughter of Mayor Frank Catalina.
Councilman Darren Rigger, Democratic mayoral hopeful Ken Martin and Councilwoman Kathy Talbot stood outside the door of Catalina’s law firm on Brown Street Saturday morning and called on Catalina to disclose his firm’s full client list to ensure he wasn’t representing anyone doing business in the city.
The impromptu press conference came on the heels of an article that reported Catalina’s daughter, Andrea, who shares office space with her father, represented Bruce and Barry Akrongold, who have a $30 million project to redevelop and expand Chateau Rive on St. John’s Street pending. Frank Catalina and his daughter separated their law practice last year, but the mayor said he appeared on behalf of his daughter in court a few times simply to request an adjournment, a common occurrence, he contended, among lawyers.
“The question is, in matters in which his clients have business with the city, whose interest is the mayor actually representing: his landlord clients who pay him privately or the taxpayers of Peekskill?” said Rigger, who is not seeking reelection to the Common Council. “We need to get to the bottom of whether there are any other clients his family law firm represents who have business before the city. The bottom line is this: winning elected office should not be great for the family business.”
Talbot, who is seeking reelection in November, echoed Rigger’s sentiments, saying, “As an elected official you really need to be above board with all your dealings. Everyone has a right to make a living. It certainly seems to me to give the appearance of impropriety, if not actual impropriety.”
Catalina, who is running for a second two-year term, fired back in response to the Democrats’ attack, stressing in his 34 years as an attorney he had never been the subject of a disciplinary proceeding.
“As a lawyer, I hold a license that is highly regulated by my peers in the legal community who vigorously prosecute even alleged ethical violations,” Catalina remarked. “What I find most offensive is the attack on my family, particularly my daughter. While she is an adult, a highly educated and competent litigator, capable of defending herself, she is still ‘my little girl,’ who has done nothing wrong and never asked to be involved in these matters. These mean spirited allegations have no basis in fact, but considering where they are coming from, they are even more appalling. They are calling for the release of business records from two independent law firms based on a newspaper article about a disgruntled tenant that, after the hysterical headline, alleged no wrongdoing.”
A few hours after the press conference, Catalina, Rigger and Talbot appeared together at a ribbon cutting ceremony for Westchester Tool Rentals on Washington Street. Rigger said Catalina represented Beach Auto Sales, the previous owners of the property, and participated in a public hearing in March in which a special permit was granted by the Common Council to Westchester Tool Rentals, although the mayor recused himself from the vote.
“If there’s no problems there really shouldn’t be any issue making public anyone who he’s doing business with,” Martin said.
Catalina maintained the Democrats were just trying to divert attention away from the fact they have no accomplishments to tout and charged if they want to get personal they should produce all their family financial records “not to score political points, but to put rumors to rest.”
“Their problem is that my administration has made great progress in 18 short months despite their efforts to stop that progress at every chance and this ‘problem’(my success) for them, is compounded where their candidates are perhaps the most shady, dishonest and quite possibly law breaking crew to ever sit as public officials in Peekskill,” Catalina charged. “In the words of Mr. Rigger, and I quote: ‘If they have nothing to hide and there’s no problem, then it shouldn’t be a problem.’”
“I am proud of my career and even more proud of all my children. I’d put them up to comparison against anyone but, quite frankly, they would shine even brighter when held up next to any of this crew,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Democrats have written to the League of Women Voters requesting a debate be scheduled before the November 3 election.
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/
