POUGHKEEPSIE – The City of Poughkeepsie’s Common Council voted 8-0 on Tuesday night to proceed with a lawsuit against Dutchess County to challenge a resolution recently passed by the county legislature. First Ward Councilwoman Debra Long was absent from the meeting.
The county legislature recently authorized spending $725,000 to rehabilitate the soon-to-be-vacated old county jail and turn it into an emergency housing shelter. The council opposes the plan to place the shelter on the north side of the city.
The resolution passed by the city on Tuesday authorizes spending $10,000 of city money on outside legal counsel, Rivkin Radler LLP, because, according to Council Chairwoman Natasha Brown, “We’re not going down without a fight.”
Dutchess County Executive William O’Neil said “It is unclear what the City of Poughkeepsie Common Council is “challenging” – the County has approved money to see if we can better serve those who are homeless with critical programming and services, utilizing existing space at the same site where we are currently sheltering the homeless,” he said, adding “The majority of individuals being sheltered are from Poughkeepsie. There is nothing illegal about providing shelter to homeless residents.”
Mayor Marc Nelson is not certain that spending the money on a lawsuit, in which city taxpayers are funding both sides, is the correct approach. “While I am respectful of the view of our council colleagues, I do not believe that solutions to our homelessness challenges will be found in the courtroom,” he said. “I believe that communication and collaboration with multiple partners including Dutchess County offers Poughkeepsie the best and possibly the only real path forward.”
The resolution does not indicate what the basis of the argument will be, and Brown indicated that the $10,000 is the current cap on expenses but they will consider authorizing additional funds if needed.
Brown justified the lawsuit by…
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