POUGHKEEPSIE – Common Council Chairwoman Natasha Brown created a Poughkeepsie Housing Solutions Committee in January and named First Ward Councilwoman Debra Long to serve as chairwoman. Contrary to Long’s opinion, the chairwoman also sought appointees from Mayor Marc Nelson’s administration. On Monday, after six months of minimal activity, Mayor Nelson withdrew his appointees to the committee and plans to move forward to get recommendations to the council before the fall.
All of the members of the committee were in place as of April 3. Long was tasked with creating a meeting schedule for the committee that is supposed to make recommendations to the council about the lack of affordable housing. “Five or six months have passed and the committee has met once, maybe twice,” Nelson told Mid-Hudson News. “One meeting (scheduled by Long) was canceled at the last minute, with everybody literally in the building waiting for Chairwoman Debra Long, who didn’t show up.”
Nelson, perplexed by the lack of the committee’s progress, said, “Generally speaking, the committee has accomplished nothing since it was first created back in January,” and he informed both Brown and Long that he was withdrawing the administration’s appointees from the stalled committee.
Nelson told Mid-Hudson News on Monday that he was certain that relations between his office and the council were warming when Chairwoman Brown sought his assistance with the housing committee. “We were really feeling encouraged in January when Chairwoman Brown took over in January and I became mayor,” he said, noting that Brown and he had worked together on deficit reduction and other initiatives that had positive results. He is no longer holding the same level of confidence, especially after his interaction with Debra Long on Monday at city hall and subsequent emails.
In the email exchange, Nelson reiterated that he was pulling his appointees from the committee and would no longer participate in the committee, and offered his plan to address the housing crisis. “In view of the failure of the housing committee to act timely on its mandate, the administration will prepare its own list of recommended actions for council consideration in the fall, relative to the challenges surrounding access to affordable housing in the region.”
Long, in another of a long list of documented outbursts responded to Nelson’s email with name-calling. “Your behavior was totally disgusting and unacceptable today, and it was definitely noted by every member that participated.*” Long continued, writing “To be honest with you, Marc, with a C, you are a master manipulator and a bully, and you will never get the opportunity to come in and interrupt my meeting as you did today.”
Nelson had made Chairwoman Brown aware of his withdrawal from the committee on Monday, which upset Brown. “It is concerning To me that the Mayor pulled his appointments as we have proudly worked collaboratively during our tenures as Chair and Mayor respectively,” Brown said. “I look forward to meeting with Mayor Nelson to discuss remedying the situation and working together to address the numerous housing issues our city is challenged with.”
*Councilwoman Long’s Housing Solutions Committee has yet to produce a public meeting schedule. On Monday, Long held a meeting at 11 a.m. at which Mayor Nelson entered to tell Long of his decision to withdraw his three appointees. Nelson had originally appointed three members to the panel. One of the participants resigned last week for personal reasons.
Pursuant to a longstanding directive from Councilwoman Long in which she told the Mid-Hudson News Poughkeepsie reporter “Please don’t reach out to me ever again,” the councilwoman was not asked to comment.
