Less than a week after Peekskill Councilman Ramon Fernandez celebrated his ethics board case being dropped, Mayor Vivian McKenzie called for the councilmember to take “accountability” for his actions.

At Monday’s Common Council meeting, McKenzie addressed the report from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which named Fernandez as one of the people former Peekskill City Court Judge Reginald Johnson favored by voiding a moving traffic violation in 2018 for a family friend of Fernandez.

The Common Council called for the City of Peekskill Ethics Board to investigate the alleged violations in September 2024. However the Ethics Board dismissed the complaint, saying their authority to investigate alleged violations in Peekskill is limited to those that occurred within six years, a letter from the Ethics Board dated Dec. 23 stated.

Referencing the Peekskill Herald, McKenzie added that the Board of Ethics Chair Joseph Brady indicated that just because the case was dismissed doesn’t mean Fernandez did or did not do the alleged violation, but that the board is prohibited from investigating it.

“We have heard many things about this matter from Councilman Fernandez, such as people were trying to play dirty politics, this is racial, this is political,” McKenzie said. “But what we have not heard from Councilman Fernandez is any accountability for his actions or an apology, and the constituents of the City of Peekskill deserve better than that.”

McKenzie said the entire Common Council, with the guidance of the special counsel, will discuss and decide what the next steps are regarding the matter. She requested the city manager place the matter in either the Committee of the Whole or in Executive Session, as advised by special counsel.

Fernandez declined to comment on the matter, instead telling the Herald it was time to talk about Peekskill and issues that matter to the people.

On Tuesday morning, Fernandez posted to social media images of roads in disrepair since 2023. The images also showed a  traffic barrel with a digitally inserted image of McKenzie with a speech bubble above her head reading: “Mayor’s Orange Barrels.” 

Fernandez told the Herald a storm drainage pipeline was damaged in 2023, near the corner of Hamilton Ave. and Larch Court. He added that it was dangerous as kids coming down from Hillcrest School were jumping over the hole.

After possibly soft launching a mayoral campaign last week in the Herald, Fernandez’s caption post seemingly hinted again at a mayoral run: “[two] years of leading the neglect of city services is too much, enough is enough. No more. Let’s celebrate because there is hope! 2025 It’s Peekskill time!”

Council hesitant to remove special permit code on family daycare

The City of Peekskill’s special permit code for family and group family daycare homes as an accessory use is likely overreaching state regulations.

That is according to Director of Planning Carol Samol and Keane & Beane, the White Plains law firm acting as corporation counsel to the city. As a result, Samol recommended on Monday the city amend the chapter of the Peekskill City code to delete that special permit.

“The state has ‘effectively preempted any local ability to prohibit operation of New York State registered family day care homes through restrictive local ordinances,’” Samol’s memo to the council read.

The proposed amendment was prompted after the city received a letter from the Office of Children and Family Services on Nov. 6, saying the city could not impose a special permit or other additional zoning requirements on home and group family residential daycare.

According to Nicholas Ward-Willis, an attorney with Keane & Beane, the firm acting as Corporation Counsel, the amendment would not preclude local authorities from enforcing applicable sanitation, health, fire safety or building construction standards.

Several council members, including Mayor McKenzie, said they were not yet ready to vote on the proposed amendment. McKenzie took issue with the regulations potentially allowing for 30 home daycare centers on one street.

“We have a tremendous amount of home daycares and to not be able to have any say as to where they go is kind of a problem,” she said.

Councilman Dwight Douglas proposed talking to state representatives to bring the matter up in Albany.

“I think we have no control over it,” Douglas said. “And I think if there’s a certain knowledge that we have a density of them, if there’s a way to know that and get that information to our state legislator people, I think they could bring that up and say, well ‘we should at least have some separation or something.’”

Samol said she would come back to the council with information about how the regulation addresses oversaturation concerns and several other questions asked by council members.

“We need to actually enact the change because our Building Department is stuck trying to enforce something that is not legal in the state of New York,” Douglas said. “I think we can get more information, but not wait months on this. I think we’re going to need to deal with it.”

Council talks limiting restaurant business hours plus graduated fines

The Common Council resumed conversation from last week about requiring citywide restaurant businesses to close between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. The discussion included increasing fines for business owners for quality-of-life incidents.

City Manager Matt Alexander provided the council with a map showing, in red, the restaurants affected by current restaurant business hour limitations. In 2015, the Common Council limited business hours for delis they felt were causing too much late night activity. The council is proposing to make the 2 a.m. closing time and 5 a.m. opening time a citywide regulation.

Councilman Robert Scott questioned if the city could target, through fines, specific businesses that are having issues following the rules.

“As a business owner myself, I would never want to remove a revenue stream from a business,” Scott said. “…I think that if [business owners] knew that you can get fined for this stuff or you can be required to add a cost to doing business in the city of Peekskill when you’re not taking control of this, I think that might be a way to deter.”

While several council members were opposed to Scott’s word choice of “target,” members were generally receptive to Counsel Ward-Willis’s similar idea of a graduated fee schedule, where business owners would face an increased fine amount for every additional violation. business owners would receive a graduated fee that increases for each offense. The current flat fee offense is $250, Ward-Willis said, and who exactly would be fined may depend on the private lease agreement between a business owner and building owner.

Several council members, including Deputy Mayor Patricia Riley and Mayor Vivian McKenzie, still suggested limiting restaurant business hours for the sake of quality-of-life issues.

According to Peekskill Police Chief Leo Dylewski, security at restaurants has not stopped quality-of-life issues from persisting. He reported that of 41,462 calls made last year, 4,181 were between the hours of 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Of the more than 100 driving while intoxicated (DWI) arrests last year, the majority were overnight, he said.

“I’m going to stand here tonight and say that I’m in full support of closing the bars at 2 a.m. just because of the call volume and the issues that we’re having with quality-of-life in this city,” Dylewski said, adding that he believed calls for ambulance, noise complaints, traffic issues and DWI arrests would decrease if the legislation went through.

Council members will discuss a resolution with the limited business hours, as well as graduated fines, at the next Committee of the Whole, then later hold a public hearing on the matter.

Narcotics and unregistered gun arrests reported

Speaking on quality-of-life issues, City Manager Matt Alexander had several reports, including several narcotic arrests and an unregistered gun being taken off the street by police all last week.

One of those narcotics arrests was made in front of the Field Library and yielded several grams of crack cocaine and heroin/fentanyl while another arrest yielded 50 grams of crack, Alexander said. Chief Leo Dylewski said three search warrants were issued on Tuesday, Jan. 7; one warrant resulted in an unregistered gun taken off the street.

Regarding narcotics and other quality-of-life issues, Dylewski said, “Like I said back in November, we ain’t done yet. And we’re definitely not there, and we’re still moving forward. And I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised at how we move forward this year.”

Alexander also reported on the Building Department educating property owners about illegal dumping, 901 Main St issues continuing to occur, and the Planning Department obtaining a full scale signage mockup to display and review before going further with their design.

City discusses $1.35 million improvements to Depew Park

Following last month’s announcement of Depew Park being awarded a $675,000 grant for improvements, Nutrition Site Manager Jonathan Zamora provided more details.

Funds seek to refurbish heavily used athletic courts; add a soccer pitch; new barbecue areas; new grading and landscape to manage stormwater; roads and pathways added to better separate pedestrians from vehicles; and the playground resurfaced and made more accessible.

There also will be new kiosk and signs in English and Spanish to guide people into the park and connect them to the adjoining Blue Mountain Reservation trail system, Zamora said.

The City of Peekskill will put in a 50-percent match,  according to City Manager Alexander, bringing the total cost of the project to about $1.35 million.

“We worked together with New City Parks and on July 9 sought input from the community to make sort of an improvement plan,” Zamora said. “And we solicited feedback from the community.”

The city had a survey available on social media and their parks page where residents provided input on what they would like to see, Zamora said, which the city then gathered that information and worked with New City Parks, which facilitated the application.

The city is also in discussion with New City Parks for a phase two funding. Zamora said the public will be provided updates along the process.

“The other part of public input for this has been all of the people who took time out to come to the public meeting,” Alexander said. “We’ve got [a] mini-pitch in here, we’ve got additional tennis in here and we’ve got basketball courts in here.”

At the council meeting, Councilman Douglas requested the updated renovation plans be posted on the city’s website, so the public could be kept informed. As of press time, the city has not fulfilled this request.