POUGHKEEPSIE – With no discussion or debate, the Poughkeepsie Common Council, during a brief special meeting on Friday afternoon, voted six-one, with two members absent, to override Mayor Robert Rolison’s veto of a local law allowing the council to retain professional staff.
Six was the minimum required for an override. The local law initially passed with just five votes, a bare majority.
Rolison remains miffed as to why the common council wanted its own staff.
“Everything they have asked for we have given them as far as outside help. Why they believed they need to have their own staff?” The mayor also said the council wanted the right to hire their own “staff,” not “person,” and is a financial concern to him.
In his veto message, Rolison raised several objections, including how many staff might be hired, what they would cost and what the long-term budget implications would be.
Republican Yvonne Flowers cast the ‘no’ vote on the override. Democrats Matthew McNamara and Natasha Cherry were not present.
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