The City of Peekskill is considering changes to its procurement policies.
City Attorney Eric Gordon told the Common Council on May 5 that the city’s procurement policy has to be updated because of inconsistencies between current city code and New York State General Municipal Law regarding competitive bidding for purchase contracts.
Currently, Chapter 106 of the city code requires competitive bidding for purchase contracts in excess of $10K and for public works contracts in excess of $20K. But Gordon said the new competitive bidding levels set by the state are $20K and $3K respectively.
He recommended a resolution to repeal Chapter 106 and replace it with a new procurement policy that updates competitive bidding levels and meets other requirements of the General Municipal Law. The new policy would not be part of city code which, according to Gordon, would provide the council with greater flexibility to make revisions to the procurement policy going forward.
It would also allow a department head to award a contract without obtaining multiple quotes for purchases over $3K and under $20K and public works contracts or procurement of professional services for under $35K. To do so, the department head must display urgent need or point to previous decisions and receive permission from the city manager or comptroller.
On Monday, May 12, the Common Council voted by majority to hold a public hearing on Tuesday, May 27, on the new procurement policy with the sole no coming from Councilman Ramon Fernandez.
As of this writing, Fernandez did not respond to a request for comment on his vote.
In addition to an updated procurement policy, Gordon recommended the council adopt via local law a “best value” procurement policy for contracts above $20K. This would allow the city the option to award certain contracts subject to competitive bidding on the basis of best value, as defined in the original proposal documents, instead of the lowest bid. The city would always have the option to choose the lowest responsible bid even after the best value law is enacted.
Gordon said he would have a full draft of the procurement policy and best value local law at the Committee of the Whole on May 19, with an opportunity for discussion for issues the council has with it and more reactive exceptions to bidding requirements.
Quality of life reports & projects and grants updates
Roughly 125 potholes have been taken care of so far in 2025 with more than half of them taken care over the last three weeks, City Manager Matthew Alexander shared in his quality of life reports.
He told the Peekskill Herald that it is pothole season and there are an unspecified amount of potholes they need to work on, including a list that Councilman Fernandez provided. The Department of Public Works Director Christopher Gross will also be attending the next council meeting addressing pavement issues and providing this year’s pavement repair options.
Alexander shared that the third plow truck the city ordered in 2022 was received. He also said that Sunday garbage service started on April 20, which includes garbage in certain areas and a cleanup of other areas throughout the city as needed.
“We have people picking up garbage seven days a week, and we are there one Sundays to address issues as they occur on that day,” Alexander said.
For the month of April there were 25 fire safety violation complaints, 17 nuisance violations (includes no heat, no hot water, roosters and noise complaints), 14 violations for work being done without a permit, and nine overcrowding and improper use complaints.
The Peekskill Police Department had a call regarding an illegal taxi, made three arrests for being in Pugsley Park after dark, four disorderly conduct arrests whichP included urinating in public, four open container arrests, a crack cocaine arrest at South James and Main Street, a stop for loud music that resulted in an arrest for city code violation, and a littering arrest at the Peekskill train station area.
Alexander said the city continues to have weekly staff meetings with all departments where they discuss their capital requirements. A capital plan is required to be presented to the council every year in June. It comes back again in the tentative budget and the Common Council budget which is adopted throughout the month of November.
The city manager said he went out to Lockwood Drive to look at the collapsed culvert, sharing that the city has a $200K grant requiring a 100 percent match. The city recently had a meeting with New City Parks and the state regional grant administrator for the next steps on a $675K grant received from the Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation which involves Depew Park.
City issues $3.2M bond, accepts mobile radios, and adopts climate plan
Of one local law, nine resolutions, all were passed unanimously barring the aforementioned procurement policy public hearing which had one no vote but passed by majority.
Following a public hearing on April 28, the Common Council passed a local law amending the city’s code on regulations concerning family day care homes and group family day care homes, after it was determined the city’s special permit requirements for home day care was overreaching state regulations.
One resolution authorized the approval of up to $3,276,000 in a serial bond for the purchase of vehicles, and completion of small capital projects. This bond will be bundled with fire trucks and equipment that were already ordered in 2022 for a total of $6.1 million, a bond that was supported by 80 percent grants from funds from the Department of Transportation.
The council will vote on May 27 on whether to authorize the city to issue a $20 million bond for its Momentum infrastructure project which involves improvements to the James St. and Nelson Ave. garages.
Such spending expenditures were tutted over by three Peekskill residents who previously announced they are running for the Common Council – Arne Paglia (write-in), Elena Walker (Republican), and Garett Dowd (Republican).
“As Councilman [Dwight] Douglas pointed out, we have difficulty getting anyone into the James Street ramp to begin with,” Paglia said. “The use of spots at the James Street ramp for the arts loft on Main Street has not worked… it seems like the city and the public will be bearing the cost of doing the infrastructure, including parking for the benefit of developers.”
Walker said she was not objecting to fire trucks and vehicle expenditures that were long overdue but was cautious of the large package.
“We really need to be objective in our expenditures because we have a lot of people in this city, or seniors on fixed incomes,” Walker said. “And these bonds and these increments, and you already went over the cap once, so that means we keep going over the cap again.”
Comptroller Toni Tracy previously said if both bonds are issued, the projected total debt will climb to over $36.5 million in 2025.
The council passed a resolution to enter into a professional services agreement with BFJ Planning for environmental review consultant services for the waterfront/transit-oriented development projects at a cost of $120,000. Another resolution budgeted $30,000 to enter into professional services agreement with Partners in Public Design, LLC, for urban design services for waterfront/transit-oriented development projects.
Other resolutions passed included setting summer Committee of the Whole and Common Council meetings, renewing a professional service agreement for housing quality standard inspections for the Section 8 Program, to conduct a 2025 summer student energy and environmental program for teens at the Youth Bureau, and adopt the City of Peekskill’s Climate Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan (CVAAP).
The City of Peekskill will also be accepting mobile radios from Westchester County for use by the Peekskill Police Department pursuant to the terms of an inter municipal agreement between the city and Westchester County.
During the Citizen’s Desiring to be Heard portion of the meeting, Dowd read a list of health/financial issues relating to floating panels on reservoirs supplying drinking water for citizens of Cohoes, New York.
The council on April 28 unanimously passed a resolution authorizing an agreement with Ecological Citizen’s Project and Working Power to determine the feasibility of and develop a community-based solar power facility. This included a solar array project on the Campfield Reservoir, where residents get much of their drinking water, which sparked contamination concerns from several residents.
In November 2024, Jason Angell, co-director of the Ecological Citizen’s Project, said he and his team agreed to finance an idea from the Department of Water & Sewer that would install a mechanism to isolate the two Camp Field reservoirs from each other in the event that water quality was affected. That solution meant the entire reservoir would not be contaminated, he said.
At the Planning Commission meeting on May 13, the chair announced the co-applicants withdrew discussion of their application from the meeting but would come back at a later date.
In an email to the Herald, Jason Angell, co-director of the Ecological Citizen’s Project, explained the project team needed more time to conduct further study after receiving interconnection study results from Con Edison last week that determined the cost of upgrades necessary to connect their solar project to the grid.
“They [upgrade costs] were significantly higher than we modeled and we have resubmitted for a review to determine if there are any alternative interconnection strategies,” Angell said. “The review will take 40 business days before we receive results.”
