Bruce Flower joined the City of Beacon as Building Inspector II in October 2022, leaving his job of 18 years as Deputy Building Inspector for the Town of Poughkeepsie, according to Beacon’s City Administrator Chris White at the 1/27/2025 Workshop Meeting. While the numeral II is in the title, it does not mean that there are 2 Building Inspectors, as City Administrator Chris explained when a Councilmember asked him at the 2/3/2025 City Council Meeting.
Dave Buckley was Beacon’s Building Inspector when Bruce came in. Dave started as Acting Building Inspector in January 2019 when Tim Dexter retired at the end of 2018. While Dave was to be “Acting,” his temporary position as Building Inspector lasted for 2 years. After Tim Dexter retired in November 2018, Mayor Randy Casale’s appointee, George Kolb Jr., ended up declining the job in January 2019 after accepting it in November 2018. That contributed to Dave Buckley being in his position 2 years longer as Acting Building Inspector.
One of the issues Tim Dexter was most known for in Beacon was his handling of proposed legalization of AirBnB apartments. He stuck to his interpretation of zoning requirements to require an egress window or sprinkler system be in residential units that were to be officially recognized as permitted AirBnB units in Beacon. These fire-safety installations can be an expensive fire-safety investment for homeowners who are trying to offer short term rentals for additional income. This was widely pushed back on by Beacon homeowners seeking legal recognition of their AirBnB short-term rentals.
The egress window or sprinkler system requirement was later reversed by the next Acting Building Inspector, Dave Buckley, who had been the Deputy Building Inspector at the time. As Acting Building Inspector, Dave interpreted the law differently, saying that short-term rentals could be designated as “accessory use,” which would not require homeowners to have egress windows or sprinkler systems in order to acquire their short-term rental permit.
In 2022, Mayor Lee and City Administrator Chris White tried to bring Tim Dexter back onto the City of Beacon’s payroll as a consultant for the construction of the multi-million dollar new firehouse. This was briefly discussed publicly, but never brought to an official appointment after information about Tim Dexter was submitted to the then new City Council, according to Jason Hughes, a Beacon business owner of The Yard. Therefore, Dave Buckley remained on as Acting Building Inspector until Cory Wirthmann was appointed in July 2023.
Enter Cory Wirthmann
Beacon hired Cory Wirthmann as Deputy Building Inspector, in July 2023. Cory also co-owns the olive oil shop on Main Street, Scarborough Fare, producers of delicious infused olive oils and other culinary items. Cory is also the fire chief in New Palz. Now that Bruce is leaving, Beacon’s City Administrator Chris is recommending that Cory Wirthmann be appointed to Acting Building Inspector when Bruce leaves while they search the civil service list for an applicant match.
What Does The Building Inspector Do?
The Building Inspector interprets zoning laws along with the City Attorney and at times, with the City Council. The Building Inspector interacts with the Beacon community when he or she speaks with business owners or homeowners about any zoning or safety issues that may arise.
While Cory has been in Beacon since July 2023, it seems as though Beacon’s City Council has never met Cory before. During the 1/27/2025 City Council Workshop Meeting, Councilmember Molly Rhodes asked City Administrator Chris if the Council could meet Cory. “If he does become Acting Head or Head, if we're able to meet him either as a public session or Executive Session just to kind of get to know him as we did with Bruce. Kind of like, have the ability for the Council to kind of get to know him.”
City Administrator Chris didn’t think that necessary or possible: “I think I would need to check his availability. He’s also a fire chief and has a lot of commitments,” City Administrator Chris said. As a fire chief with a lot of commitments, it is unclear how Cory will perform his duties as Acting Building Inspector for the City of Beacon, if he can’t go down to Town Hall on a Monday night at 7pm to meet City Council. However, Cory did not speak for himself. City Administrator Chris made assumptions for him to block his schedule when Councilmember Molly requested to meet Corry.
Councilmember Molly pressed on: “To be clear, I'm just thinking for, because we did get a chance to meet other Heads of departments.”
City Administrator Chris responded: “I would just say probably the permanent person we would bring into to me of course.” Councilmember Molly pointed out that the Acting status may last a long time: “I'll defer to you once you learn more about how long he might be Acting for and that might also dictate what seems appropriate both from a practical and from a legal perspective.” In the case of the Acting appointment with Dave Buckley, that appointment lasted 2 years before Bruce Flower was hired.
Some business people in Beacon have told ALBB that interacting with Cory for permits and related matters has been a positive experience.
After Bruce Flower Leaves
Councilperson Paloma Wake was interested in information provided from Bruce’s Exit Interview. “This is a request I guess for any person who's leaving us. I assume that if anything relevant comes up in Bruce's exit interview, if it's relevant to hiring the next person, that that would be incorporated by Sara.” Sara Morris is Beacon’s HR Director. The City of Beacon never had an HR Director until around the time they put up their first Diversity Statement in 2020. Gina Bisale was the first HR Director, but she left shortly thereafter and Sara replaced her.
City Administrator Chris responded "I will leave that up to Sara,"
Councilperson Paloma presented an assumption: "It sounds like Bruce is leaving just because there's a bigger opportunity in a bigger city. Still, if there is anything relevant."
City Administrator Chris pressed that Bruce was moving into more of a Building role in the Town of Poughkeepsie, not that of a Zoning influence, stating: “He was in that position for 18 years and then the person above him retired. So we basically borrowed him for 2.5 years from the Town of Poughkeepsie. He also will focus more on the Building aspect and less on Zoning and Planning. They break that down between multiple staff. So they have a person who oversees Planning and Zoning. He will do Building then they have a Code Enforcement person. He's kind of all three of those here. “
