Keep an eye on who is running New Paltz?
July 31st 2025
The Financier.
It’s the end of July and I thought it might be a good idea to do our first scorecard for the Town Board and the Planning board. I was planning to analyze the Police Commission too but the re-organizing and the changes of governance there (see my next post) meant an analysis was impossible.
It may not seem that big changes are afoot but read on and you’ll see that the local government of New Paltz is in danger of being taken over by people who are acting in service of their own power, rather than serving the community.
Background
There are only 5 people on the town board. Most of the meetings can be watched on Youtube. (We watch them so you don’t have to).
Given how few people sit on the board and a requirement for 3 members in order to vote on motions, we should expect high levels of attendance. In February Julie Seyfert-Lillis resigned suddenly and the Town Supervisor Amanda Gotto replaced her with the Town’s first Republican Randall Leverette (who serves now without election). While this is perfectly legal, it was very surprising that a Democrat would bring an Republican to the board for the first time in a long time. That same Democrat (Amanda Gotto) lost the support of local Democratic voters in favor of the Village Mayor— Tim Rogers, now running for the Towns top position. After this defeat, Amanda Gotto has decided to run for Town Supervisor on a Republican ticket alongside her unelected Town Board member Randall Leverette.
Meanwhile, two of the 5 Town Board members are primarily focused on Police commission issues (Esi Lewis and Edgar Rodrigues)and the restructuring that has occurred in the structure of the Police Commission and the town laws that have changed in that regard (Chapter 34). They attended the same meetings so are probably in league with each other.
Attendance and participation Jan 2025- July 2025
Amanda Gotto (Supervisor): Attendance 100% (18/18) Key contributions: Chaired all meetings. Clarified procedural roles and responsibilities across planning board, police commission (chapter 34) and other committees (e.g. EnCB, Open Space Preservation etc.). Roll out of Municollab and Village Dissolution, Annexation and strong focus on directing intermunicipal strategy.
Esi Lewis (Councilmember): Attendance 89% (16/18) Key contributions: Played a leading role in revising Chapter 34— the Town law that governs the police commission. Questioned whether public interviews were the best way to increase transparency and trust for Police. Supported goals of transparency, culture-building and better communications between the Police and Town. (Easy to say but hard to know if this has been followed up with any tangible actions.)
Edgar Rodriguez (Councilmember): Attendance 89% (16/19) Key contributions: Led the review of Chapter 34; Proposed changes to roles and budgeting of the Police Commission; Provided historic positioning of Police Commission during public discussions; with restructuring ended up a key decision maker on Police Commission.
Kitty Brown (Deputy Supervisor): Attendance 72% (13/18) Key contributions: Playing an internal and liaison role as a partner to Amanda Gotto. Made no policy, motions or remarks in the minutes but was there for the votes.
Randall Leverette (Councilmember): Attendance 80% (12/15) Key Contributions:Only appointed by Amanda Gotto in February 2025 after the resignation of Julie Seyfert-Lillis. Gradual Onboarding attendance improved through Spring and Summer. As the new guy he voiced his opinions often but did not individually make any documented motions or proposals.
Some observations:
Why is the police commission such a big part of our Town Board? The strong focus of attention of Esi and Edgar on the Police Commission, has been helpful as Chapter 34 (the town law that governs the police commission) has been discussed. Both Councilmembers now hold strong positions on the police commission board. For issues outside the Police these board members seem uninterested and unengaged. This leaves the remaining three board members as a voting block who have the choice between alignment or no decisions.
Three board members have loyalties to Gotto: Randall was appointed by the Supervisor and Kitty plays a internal/liaison role that is deferential to her. As a result, the three of them are passing laws and making decisions without much diversity of perspective. As long as they don’t step on the toes of the Police Commission crew, they can practically do whatever they want. This makes community participation and attendance at the Board meetings critical to keep a check on unchecked decision making by this group and ensuring perspective other than their own are brought to bear.
Republican Takeover? More possible now, than ever! Since Gotto appointed an unelected Republican (Leverette) and is herself running in a Republican ticket, there is a real and significant risk that the New Paltz Town board could be flipped to Republican. If voters stick with the status quo, rather than backing the legitimately voted for Democratic candidate, there is a real possibility that Gotto, Leverette and Brown would maintain domination of the Town Board but with a Republican agenda. All it would take is a well funded smear campaign against Tim Rogers or a well-funded campaign that creates divisions within the Democrats and New Paltz could become a Republican run town. If this happened our local laws will be easily changed to damage to the rights of many residents, remove protections of our environment and alter police oversight in ways that will change our town forever. WE MUST BE VIGILANT! WE MUST PAY ATTENTION.