POUGHKEEPSIE – The city’s common council took a six-week summer vacation and held their first meeting on August 22 with a very limited agenda. At the meeting held on Monday, August 29, the agenda had absolutely nothing on it.
Councilwoman Yvonne Flowers, who is vying to become the city’s next mayor, called for a caucus prior to Monday’s meeting to discuss certain issues. The leadership of the council did not call for a caucus prior to Monday’s meeting. Instead, the agenda for the August 29 meeting called for the meeting to open for the purpose of accepting public comment and then will adjourn for the purpose of a caucus by the Democratic majority.
Prior to Monday’s meeting, Flowers told Mid-Hudson News that the majority should have caucused prior to the meeting. Ms. Flowers also indicated that she was not going to be at the meeting due to an illness.
Second Ward Councilman Evan Menist, the Majority Leader, did not respond to a request asking why there was absolutely nothing on the agenda.
Community activist and council watchdog Laurie Sandow took to social media to express her displeasure for the blank agenda. Sandow said Monday’s meeting agenda is an example of “The latest joke from the City of Poughkeepsie Common Council, whose members won’t free their schedules for a caucus meeting, but gladly line up for their paychecks.”
Another post from Ms. Sandow said the meeting is where “Councilmembers will outdo themselves in lawless self-service, abuse of authority, personal enrichment and avoidance of accountability—all of it protected by a behind-closed-doors “caucus” meeting.”
