The Rhinebeck Town Board voted unanimously to send a resolution to the Hudson River Drinking Water Intermunicipal Council (Hudson 7) questioning compensation set for the council’s coordinator.
Chair (unnamed in the transcript) said the intermunicipal council has a $75,000 annual budget that pays a coordinator $95 per hour, a figure the chair described as "out of keeping with the town of Rhinebeck's wage parity." The chair said Rhinebeck feels stonewalled by leadership and expects the council to correct the pay practice once the issue is raised.
The resolution, which the board supported and passed without recorded dissent, notes that Rhinebeck is a founding member of the Hudson 7 and that several other municipal members — the county of Dutchess, the county of Ulster and the town of Poughkeepsie — are concerned about the compensation practice. The town’s action is a formal request for the intermunicipal council to address perceived pay-parity problems.
What it means: The resolution is a formal, public challenge from one member municipality to the intermunicipal council’s leadership over how taxpayer funds are allocated for staffing. The board did not change its representation arrangement at this meeting; it adopted the resolution to raise the issue.
(Attribution: Unidentified Chair (Speaker 1) introduced the motion.)