Suit Challenges Peekskill's Unusual Budget Adoption

Peekskill residents Robert and Catherine Sullivan filed an Article 78 Monday challenging the way the Peekskill Common Council adopted the budget for 2016, according to the Peekskill Post.

The budget, with a 3.6 percent property tax rate increase, was passed Dec. 1 in a hastily called meeting the night after the Common Council had met and voted twice on the same budget resolution, the Peekskill Post reported..

That meeting was illegal, according to Mayor Frank Catalini, who posted a statement on the city’s website after he walked out of it.

It is unclear who called the Dec. 1 meeting.

According to the lawsuit, Deputy Mayor Drew Claxton, Councilman Darren Rigger, Councilwoman Vivian McKenzie and Councilwoman Kathleen Talbot were at the meeting and voted to adopt the Common Council’s version of the budget.

If the Dec. 1 budget vote is thrown out, then the $37.3 million budget proposal from the City Manager, with its 5.9 percent tax rate increase, would take affect, reports Bryan Fumagalli of the Peekskill Post.

Read the Peekskill Post article on the meting, and attached lawsuit, here.