Beaconite.com Discussions

BeaconLady, You're missing my point. They gave themselves a HUGE raise, after the public said NO! Case closed. So you're saying because the Mayor of Beacon is paid $25,000 then the city of Poughkeepsie Mayor should make that much more?? Where's the logic? Gold, Kelly & Company voted to amend the salaries and they could've choosed a MUCH LESS salary than $9,000 for the council and $25,000 for the Mayor.

What COUNTY judges are you referring to?? Giving everyone a slap on the wrist?? You're confusing me with that one??

I'm not saying if Fred won the election, everything would be fine. I can tell you one thing, Fred would be in that Mayor's office alot more than Mr. Gold has been during his first 18 months in office. And now we're not going to have a city administrator for how long?? A couple of months??I'm positive Fred would've appointed a MUCH stronger city attorney than the one Mr. Gold has appointed. It's the city attorney's job to make sure the trains are running on time. Do you ever attend or watch any of the council meetings and listen to our attorney?

Changing the subject...Fireworks were very very good! Thank you to all the sponsors who put up the cash to make this event happen!

Enjoy your 4th!

Is the Mayor of the City Of Poughkeepsie a part time position for $25,000?

**GMIP** Your right $25,000 a year for the Mayor of Poughkeepsie is shit!
Maybe if he made more he could do something about the crime rate! There is a killing at least once a month! Streets up there you don't want to make a wrong turn on! And what about the COUNTY? Let's talk about that. How the freakin' Judges give everyone a slap on the wrist so they can go out and do it again. Letting the criminals decide if they want to do time or re-hab?WTF? Go sit in on a few traffic courts! UNBELIEVABLE! After seeing all that, there's no place like home...Beacon.....And again I"m going to ask the question.... Where would we be If Mr. Freddy A. won the election? We might be paying less but would things be better? do you think everything would be on the up and up then? Steve has made mistakes, Gould made mistakes, Clark's made mistakes, I've made mistakes, NOW WHAT?

Clark makes a good point.

Did the audit get released and what is the real as oppossed to estimated fund balance and how much unsubsidized money has been spent on hiddenbrook and how much money does the city expect to be refunded that has yet to be refunded.

Ahhh the old thursday press releases before the holliday weekend don't you just love it ...yuk yuk so quaint so folksy ....when will people wake up and realize your being played for being fools.

He also is recommending capping property tax increases.

"That will prevent the impulse to resolve the problem by overtaxing residents," Gold said.

He said the city will negotiate contracts with unions representing city employees, police and firefighters.

Gold said he wants to ask the contracts be short-term and "reflect a freeze in wages until we come out of this terrible economic situation."


It's OK for the Mayor and Council to vote themselves a 300% raise, but the union employees who have to actually work for a living - no, they can't depend on a lousy 3% raise. Yeah, their priorities are in place!!

Sister, with all due respect...$25,000 salary in Poughkeepsie and $25,000 for Beacon just doesn't make a bit of sense to me. You know how all the municipalities compare what each other does. Why would you think we are getting our monies worth? Even if you like Steve Gold (as I do), there is no one that can convince me that the 2 mayor's in these 2 cities should be getting paid the same salary.

As I have posted before... you cannot expect the Mayor to put in full time hours for part time pay! Yet he does put in more! $25000 is NOT full time pay!

I have to work tomorrow! But only until 3!

Tomorrow AM I am outa here! Only for a couple of days though-bummer.

Beacon Lady - hope you are feeling better.

**Chipper* Enjoy your weekend! don't worry about a thing! Time for that in the winter!! LOL

You are right on the salaries, the increase that was voted on a few years ago was very steep, especially for one time adjustment. And do the city council members and mayor have medical benefits? If so, does the city pay 100%?

Do we have to pay former mayors and former city administrators medical benefits when they retire? If so, is there family entitled to these medical benefits? What is the percentage that we pay?

As for the mayor's hours, I am not sure what the hours are expected of the mayor. Steve does put in a lot of time, not sure if 9-5 is expected of our mayor. We obviously didn't expect the previous administration to have 9-5 job as the pay wasn't close to that. Even the current mayor's pay doesn't accomodate 9-5 pay wise.

Chipper3

You are correct - I'm not a mother I also wish Meredith a safe trip to adopt her child But I am also a taxpayer and with Mayor Gold working in PK during the week and now we don't have a city administrator running the day to day operation I am a bit concerned. And we don't have a plan in the charter that deals with this type of situation. And Steve has been Mayor for 18 months now and he was well aware of this coming around the bend. Why are we rushing to address this now?

I assume you agree with my points about the salaries for the elected officials or you would've chimed in on that as well.

I hope Meredith comes back. She seems to be doing a good job. But the contract itself is bothersome to me. And that was a product of the Mayor. It was almost like we were bidding against ourselves. I know Steve liked her and wanted to hire her. But in this economy, the employers are in the driver seat. I think he's a bit loose with the city checkbook.

GMIP - I am thinking there is no way you could be a mother. I am offended by your attitude on a woman taking maternity leave, whether through adoption or not. Even men have every right to take paternity leave. Families have been adopting children for many years so don't think our city administrator is the first to do this. I wish Meredith and her family the best wishes on her new baby. And may her travels go well. She will be back in September and has worked hard to get things together before she leaves.

Joe I can remember when there was but 3 traffic lights between here and Pokip, now there 30-count em.

   I remember going up old 9 when it was two lanes and windy, out of Fishkill. When we got to the swamp, my grandfather, a stoic Matteawan Yankee if ever there was one, always uttered "Peat and re-Pete". Then he'd turn around for a second and look at my brother and me in the back seat. Many times we'd go up the house years after and he'd come to the door, open it quietly and say "Peat and re-Pete", which became a sort of come-on-in password.
   Every inch of life has a story


   btw, in those days when 9 was two lanes and windy it would usually take half an hour to get from here to Poughkeepsie. Now, four lanes, six at times, you can make it in no less than thirty minutes.