On Monday, October 26, 2020, the Village of Wappingers Falls Mayor, Matt Alexander, announced to residents via letter that he was resigning, effective December 2020. He has been the Mayor of the Village of Wappingers Falls for almost 14 years. In his letter, he stated: “Over this extraordinary past year, in enforced solitude and decreased mobility, I reflected on my own needs. With great sadness, I am announcing that I will be stepping down as mayor in December to pursue other opportunities.” His full letter is published below.

The announcement broke into the news cycle on Tuesday morning, followed by a press release from County Executive Marcus Molinaro wishing him well, and concluding with a discovery that the Mayor had accepted a job of Comptroller in Peekskill. He is a graduate of Notre Dame and is a certified public accountant.

The Mayor told MidHudson News of his new job: “I’m really looking forward to a community like Wappingers Falls urban and diverse and full of opportunity,” he said. “They just got the Downtown Revitalization initiative – a very prestigious award in New York State – and I am very excited about working on that with them.”

The soon to be former Mayor had run for New York’s 19th Congressional Seat in 2012 against Nan Hayworth, and owned a 19th Century building that was destroyed in a large fire in 2017, which prompted the #WappingersRises movement. Matt owned the shop, Stone Bridge Antiques, which he re-opened in a nearby location, according to Hudson Valley Magazine.

Village Of Wappingers Falls And Mandated Police Reform

All municipalities in New York State are under obligation from a Governor’s Order to supply a police reform plan that works with their unique communities. Mayor Alexander is no stranger to police reform. In 2018, the Village of Wappingers Falls had voted twice to dissolve their Police Department, preferring to use Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office instead, according to a Poughkeepsie Journal article. On August 30, 2018 the Board voted to disband the police force to begin on Jan. 1, 2019.

A judge ruled that the votes were unauthorized, and required a public vote. The judged ruled that the Village of Wappingers Falls did not conduct an environmental review, as required under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, according to the article.

The public vote, after the Village’s 2 rounds of voting to disband were denied, was spearheaded by 2 lawsuits, according to Deming Headlight, resulting in the people of the Village Wappingers Falls voting to keep their Police Department. After that vote to keep the Police Department, Mayor Alexander proposed creating a Citizens Board. ALBB has not reached out to confirm if such a Board was created.

The Police Commissioner of the Village of Wappingers Falls, Carl Calabrese, resigned after 11 years of service, on April 8th, 2020. The Mayor and the Village Board of Trustees honored the Commissioner’s service in the Resolution accepting his resignation. Police Commissioner Walter Burke is currently in the position.

Some legal cases are listed in connection with former Police Commissioner, Carl Calabrese, including NOVICK v. VILLAGE OF WAPPINGERS FALLS, NEW YORK, which revolved around the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), retaliation against the Police Union rules or advocacy of rules, bladder cancer of Officer Novick, reporting correctly or incorrectly into the job for health issues, “Disciplinary” actions, a demotion of Officer Novick, and other details.

Another lawsuit in 2011, PISTOLESI v. CALABRESE, centered around the removal of a towing company used by the Village of Wappingers, as directed by then Police Commissioner Calabrese. The lawsuit named Officer Novick and Commissioner Calabrese, among others, including a then Board Trustee, for harassment. Years later, Officer Novick filed a lawsuit against Commissioner Calabrese and the Village of Wappingers in the lawsuit named above. The newspaper clippings below can be clicked to be enlarged.

Meanwhile, In The Town Of Wappingers…

A racial discrimination lawsuit was brought against the Town of Wappingers (different from the Village with different departments, and the Mayor does not preside here, as it is managed by the Town Supervisor, Richard L. Thurston) in 2019 by Troy Swain, who was 4 months into the job of Highway Superintendent when he was fired by a unanimous vote by the Town Council of the Town of Wappingers, due to allegations that he did personal tasks while on the job.

Troy was the first and only African American to serve as Highway Superintendent. Troy now works for the City of Beacon as a Heavy Equipment Operator, where he is 1 of 3 Black people working in that department in Beacon. Another worker, Reuben Simmons, had also served as Highway Superintendent for the City of Beacon, before also being unanimously voted out by Beacon’s City Council when they deemed that the job title did not exist in Beacon, and required a Civil Service exam he was not entitled to take (see ALBB’s article and podcast about this).

According to an article in the Poughkeepsie Journal, The Town of Wappingers also thought that the job title did not exist when Troy Swain held it. “Some members of the town board disputed the existence of the position and said Swain was ‘erroneously’ promoted. The union believed the position should've gone to someone with seniority, according to the documents.”

The same logic was used in Beacon in Reuben’s case in an unsigned mystery letter delivered to a Councilmember’s front porch, even though Reuben had been working for the City of Beacon for as long as his replacement, Michael Manzi.

In the Town of Wappingers, according to Swain’s attorney, Masai Lord of Lord & Schewel, he believes Troy’s termination was retaliation for filing an earlier racial harassment complaint. “Swain claims while on the job he was addressed with racial slurs. He said he had spoken about the harassment to his supervisor and a union representative, but wasn't provided a remedy,” he told the Poughkeepsie Journal.

In a lawsuit against the Town, Troy alleges he was discriminated against and denied due process before being fired, among other claims. He's seeking punitive damages. The trial is set for March 2021, due to a delay with COVID.

The goal of the trial, Masai told A Little Beacon Blog, is that “Mr. Swain needs to be compensated for what he went through. Not just the years of racial harassment, gratuitous use of the N-word, and wrongful termination and retaliation, but violation of collective bargaining agreement, and denied his constitutional due process rights.”

The Town of Wappingers voted unanimously via Resolution to terminate Troy on June 13, 2016. He received his termination notice on June 14, 2016. The lawsuit was filed in 2019, and named individual Board Members instead of the Town as a whole. The Board members tried to reverse by filing an appeal for qualified immunity in May 2020, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal article. That appeal of dismissal was denied in the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit in mid-June 2020.

“The Southern District Court of New York also denied the Town's motion for summary judgement on the claims of discrimination, retaliation and retaliation based on the town's opposition to Swain getting unemployment compensation, meaning those claims will be moving forward to trial,” the article stated.

The Letter From The Mayor Of The Village Of Wappingers Falls Reads As Follows:

For ease of reading, Mayor Matt Alexander’s letter of resignation has been republished here:

Dear fellow residents,

It has been the privilege and honor of my life to enjoy the reward and fulfillment of service to my neighbors as mayor. However, all things must come to an end and my service to you has come to that point.

For over eighteen years, I served the people of the Village of Wappingers Faslls, with almost fourteen, as mayor. Over this extraordinary past year, in enforced solitude and decreased mobility, I reflected on my own needs. With great sadness, I am announcing that I will be stepping down as mayor in December to pursue other opportunities.

Our time together has been full of success and failure, joy and grief as well as growth and decline. But from the past fourteen years, I hop you see mostly good. I will do just that. I see how we have made great changes in our community over time. Though, I have some regrets, my belief is that, together, we have left the Village in a much better place than it was.

The best of our Village is its people and I have gotten to know o many of you in a special way that has made me better for it. I will miss this job more than any other. It was a very difficult decision, but I am confident that wonderful things lie ahead for all of us.

Godspeed and be well my fair Village. I will see you next as a fellow private citizen and hope to enjoy the future with you here for many years.