Her first day on the job last October, McDonnell, with Assemblyman Frank Skartados
and Mayor Robert Rolison, right, making the introduction
POUGHKEEPSIE – Mayor Robert Rolison will name an interim Poughkeepsie
city administrator now that Deborah McDonnell announced she would leave
at the end of the month to assume the role of village manager in Ossining.
She told Rolison of her decision on Monday.
The mayor said she did “a lot of great work” while in the city.
Now, he will review a course of action going forward.
“We are going to have discussions here internally over the next few days and we will have an acting city administrator and then we will decide how we are going to move on from there as far as filling the position on a permanent basis,” Rolison said.
McDonnell, who took the position in Poughkeepsie last October, could very well hold the record for the shortest tenured city administrator in the city’s history, said Alderman Christopher Petsas, who speculates she must have been searching for a new job just months into her Poughkeepsie post.
He is disappointed and shocked with McDonnell’s decision.
“A lot of money and time was spent to find a qualified candidate for the position of city administrator and I think we all found her in Debbie McDonnell and to have her leave on such a short notice and a short term in the City of Poughkeepsie is disappointing and concerning,” Petsas said.
The council also agreed to a higher salary than was initially listed to bring McDonnell onboard.
McDonnell’s last day with Poughkeepsie is August 31. She will start in Ossining on September 5.
