McDonnell
POUGHKEEPSIE – City Council Chairman Christopher Petsas is frustrated over Poughkeepsie Mayor Robert Rolison’s decision to pay incoming city administrator more than the council authorized.
The council feels the city should stick with the $125,000 annual salary as advertised when Deborah McDonnell applied for the top appointed job. Mayor Robert Rolison announced he wanted to hike it to $140,000. The council rejected it, but the mayor said he will pay McDonnell the higher amount when she starts in mid-October.
Petsas said the council could sue the mayor to block the higher salary, but that would involve costly legal fees, money Poughkeepsie doesn’t have.
“We are a city that faces an $11 million deficit,” the chairman said. “We are a city that has 100 police officers that have not had a pay increase in over four years. We are a city that has seen other employees that have worked for the city for a very long time not get a pay increase and we are also a city rumored to be looking at a double-digit tax increase for next year. So to increase the salary of someone who has not invested anything or shown anything in the community with all of these obstacles facing us, I think, is very dangerous.”
Until McDonnell assumes her new job, Police Chief Ronald Knapp, who has been serving as acting city administrator, will continue in that role.
