POUGHKEEPSIE – Alderman Christopher
Petsas is the new Poughkeepsie Common Council chairman. He was elected
Friday in a 6-1-1 vote. Robert Mallory served as chairman last year.
Petsas anticipates moving the city forward with economic development and
crime fighting efforts.
“In the new year I hope to help with the turnaround in the City
of Poughkeepsie with some development projects that are lined up and hopefully
we can pull the trigger on them, trying to keep crime down for our residents
and try to attract new businesses into the City of Poughkeepsie and trying
to improve the overall quality of life for all the residents and visitors
that come to the City of Poughkeepsie is the goals and hopes,” he
said.
The first meeting of the year was not without controversy.
City Administrator Milo Bunyi told the common council that neither he
nor the city lawyer would respond to any questions of the council with
Petsas said “flies in the face of good government, flies in the
face of democracy and is politics at its worst.”
Bunyi’s memo spurred much discussion among Democrat majority members
of the common council. The administrator is an appointee of Republican
Mayor John Tkazyik.
