What is New Paltz Town Board hiding from us?

August 18th 2025

The Environmentalist

Somethings smells rotten on the New Paltz Town board. A few weeks after the Town Supervisor and her Republican buddies called an emergency meeting and with no public notice and little public scrutiny, three of the town board members, including Randall Leverette (Republican) disbanded the citizen oversight of New Paltz’s local police force. Giving themselves the power over our police force.

Then suddenly last week, all of the videos of the New Paltz Town Meetings have suddenly been removed from the Youtube Channel and the last three meetings have not been available to residents or anyone wanting to ensure accountability of our elected officials. There is no reference to this on the Town Board’s main page which still links to the (now empty) youTube channel.

The only reference to what is going on can be found on a news post on the Town Planning Board Page.

“Unfortunately due to a Zoom-bombing incident at August 7, 2025’s Town Board meeting, the Town’s Public Access YouTube channel has been removed. The Town is looking at possible options for live streaming and viewing of Town Board (as well as other Committees/Boards/Commissions that live stream) meetings in the future. As soon as a decision is made, we will post the information on the Town website.”

Since the last minutes of the Town Board Meeting was 17th of July,and all videos have been removed, residents are left with an entire month of local decision making that is being hidden from us. This is deeply troubling and there seems to be no concern or urgency in restoring transparency and visibility of the leadership of our Town. This wouldn’t normally be that much of an issue except one of the board members was a republican appointed by the Supervisor with no Election and that Supervisor (Amanda Gotto) has also recently decided to run for the next election on a Republican ticket. This means that New Paltz is essentially being run by two Republican candidates and a loyal follower Kitty Brown whose political affiliations remain unknown following the defection of her close ally Amanda Gotto.

This is the sort of thing we have to be very vigilant about. Political maneuverings and sudden loss of transparency and oversight infrastructures could have profound impact on our futures.

The next Town Board meeting is: Thursday, August 21, 2025 - 7:00pm at the Courthouse, 59 N. Putt Corners. Turn up. Find out what is going on.