The City of Beacon has moved from digital-only City Council Meetings to in-person meetings weeks ago. The Council stated that they missed each other, and even welcomed their most staunched and harshest citizen critics when citizens stepped up to the podium during regular Public Comment session to deliver their thoughts, which usually results in the Council being a punching bag. Those who show up to deliver verbal thoughts, however, usually move a needle in the direction that they are advocating for.

When the City Council resumed in-person meetings several meetings ago, the national media said that COVID was on the run. Some people were getting vaccinated, Governor Cuomo hadn’t resigned yet, his nightly emails were pretty upbeat, and Beacon’s COVID numbers were on the lower end. Until the Delta variant.

Today, Beacon’s COVID numbers for Active Cases are at 29, Dutchess County at large is at 721, Sullivan County mandated masks for all County buildings, and Orange County is strongly recommending all residents to mask up in pubic indoor settings.

For the first time since their in-person meetings, the City of Beacon masked up for the in-person meeting this Monday night, as did several attendees in the audience. Neither the City of Beacon nor Dutchess County has issued a statement or guidance about masking up in public indoor spaces. ALBB reached out to Dutchess County on Monday morning, but has not heard back yet.

Meanwhile, the Council covered a lot of ground in the double Workshop/Regular Public Meeting combo this evening for the summer schedule, including:

• Promotion of Police Officer Kelvin Grey to the Position of Detective and the Appointment of Stephen Donovan to the Position of Police Officer.

• Award of lifesaving action preformed by Beacon’s Fire Fighting crew.

• Continued Affordable Housing Discussion.

• Continued Employment Discussion about how the City Administrator could or should present potential hires to the Council. Councilperson Jodi McCredo has been asking for more information for the council to make more informed decisions about who they are hiring across all departments and positions, but the City Administrator Chris White is hesitant of “wasting the Council’s time” with hiring information, and is leaning toward only presenting the Council with detailed information about Department Heads, and not lower level positions. The Council needs to vote on any hire, regardless of how high or low the position is, and at times, is presented with a minimal amount of information on a new hire, or a promotion of an existing employee.

• Money transferred in the General Fund, including $66,418 transfered for “Employee Discipline.“ There is at least one Employee Disciplinary hearing going on now involving Highway Department Employee (and former Highway Superintendent) Reuben Simmons, who is currently on both paid and unpaid leave with the City of Beacon, during a labor shortage when the City of Beacon cannot fill all of their open positions, including Summer Help. The City of Beacon’s Labor Attorney, Lance Klein with Keane and Beane, has been representing the City for years on the case against Reuben. From when Reuben was stripped of his job title of Highway Superintendent in 2018, to now where he is on paid and unpaid leave as a Maintenance Worker since January 2021. Reuben is one of the few Black (mixed-race) employees for the Highway Department. Hearings to push him out of employment, during a national labor shortage, do cost the city money.