POUGHKEEPSIE – A few members of the community have begun targeting the City of Poughkeepsie Corporation Counsel Rebecca Valk with a series of unwarranted attacks at meetings where the attorney is present. One attendee fabricated complete falsehoods regarding the attorney and another resident, Laurie Sandow, who has better attendance than some councilmembers spoke of an alleged infatuation of her by Valk. That attack is also a falsehood.
The two “activists” Sandow and Jamar Cummings have begun yelling out during council meetings, creating a distraction to those seeking to hear the lawmakers discuss city business. Sandow has been a longtime critic of the council who was arrested for disorderly conduct at a 2019 council meeting for failing to follow the rules set by the council governing public comment.
On more than one occasion, according to witnesses, Sandow verbally attacked Valk in the hallway after meetings using what a witness said was “intimidating volume, language, and invasion of personal space, which appeared threatening.” Valk acknowledged that Sandow has berated her on several occasions, leaving the attorney unwilling to respond to her.
At the February 6 meeting of the council, Sandow used the public comment period to say “It’s amusing and ironic to watch corporation counsel Valk manifest her crush on me, or her seriously unhealthy obsession,” which the attorney strenuously denies.
Jamar Cummings spoke at the same meeting and lied about Valk’s statements at a January meeting of the ZBA. He told the council recently “I have witnessed a rise in “Karen” behavior in this room, particularly as it relates to the Corporation Counsel Rebecca Valk,” regarding the previous ZBA meeting. “I witnessed Rebecca tell a young black man who was defending his small business to basically shut his mouth until she was…
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