The Democrat controlled board has demonstrated extreme incompetence within the first two months in office.

Some of the more foolish decisions that they have made:

1) The rehiring of Joanne Lown, who was responsible for creating over $1 million in errors to the town's financial records.

2) Not renewing the contract with Sedor & Co. the auditing firm that was hired to prepare for audits. The auditors were specifically hired to identify errors that Joanne Lown made while employed as the bookkeeper. 

3) Rewarding those with increases in salaries while cutting salaries of others.

4)Joanne Lown, abetted by Aileen Rohr,  rumoredly harrassed the town assessor Timothy Rowan into resigning effective March 1. 

5) Allowing Yancy McArthur to influence the decisions of the town board. Mr. McArthur is a political flunkie having lost six elections in his record of 1-6.

6) Withholding information to the public in order to benefit their agenda (see the previous blog regarding Bill Truitt).

7) RESOLUTION 1:1 – 44 OF 2012: Terminating the contract with the grant writer who was in the process of working on a grant to bring potable drinking water to Holt Rd. Note: Grant writers receive payment through the monies received from the grant.

8) And now, the latest: The consideration of reorganizing the police department, specifically, changing the position of police chief to part-time hourly. zxds

If the readers recall, Charles Broe was hired in a part-time capacity in 2010. However, he quickly found out that the position of police chief is NOT a part-time position but rather it will require more than forty hours a week. The town board changed Chief Broe to full-time.  During the Katie Filiberti murder investigation, Chief Broe worked approximately 60-80 hours a week.

So why is the town board attempting to repeat the same actions of the previous town board? Their attempt to save a buck or two is futile. Let's take a look at some facts: 

1) Just within one recent week, ten (10) burglaries occured.  The crime in Hyde Park is increasing, which is a result of the burglaries occuring along the Rt. 9/9G corridor.

2) The town can bring back Joanne Lown at $37,000 a year by creating a new position specifically for her but they want to cut fumding to the police department. Also noted that Walt  Doyle (RESOLUTION 1:1 - 3 OF 2012) and the Receiver of Taxes salaries were increased. A part-time clerk position was created in the Assessor's Office (one of Aileen Rohr's friends) per RESOLUTION 1:30 – 12 OF 2012.

3) The Hyde Park Police department employs 17 officers per the Hyde Park website.   They are short staffed by approximately seven employees which includes one sergeant, one detective and five patrolman.

The other surrounding communities:

4) In comparision to the town of Poughkeepsie, which covers 29 square miles (with approxiately 10,000 additional residents), at fully staffed, the town employs 84 sworn officers, 12 full-time and 14 part-time civilian employees.  Department operations are under the command of the Chief of Police. http://www.townpolice.net/about-us

5) The village of Rhinebeck employs fourteen officers and one part-time clerk, at 1.6 square miles serving almost 3500 residents. The Town of Rhinebeck is served by three police departments. The State Police and the County Sherrif's department provide vehicle patrol and most criminal  pursuit and investigation. The town contracts with the Village Police Department to provide 26 person-hours of coverage each week, mostly for traffic patrol.

6) The Town of Red Hook police department employs a part-time police chief, however, they handle a mere 2,000 calls per year, in comparision to Hyde Park's 13,000+.  The town of Red Hook employs approximately 10 officers. http://www.redhookpolice.org/faqs.htm


The readers can make their own conclusion regarding the potential actions of the Town Board, but given the above facts, is dismantling the police department is quite foolish.