Politics on the Hudson

The Yonkers City Council swore in new members on New Year’s Day and reorganized itself on Saturday by assigning committee chairmanships and designating party leadership posts.

Newly elected councilmen John Larkin, R-6th District, Dennis Shepherd, R-4th District and Wilson Terrero, D-2nd District, were sworn in at the Riverfront Library, along with City Council President Chuck Lesnick, a Democrat beginning a second term.

The next day the body designated Patricia McDow, D-1st District, the council’s majority leader and John Murtagh, R-5th District, the minority leader.

The new committee chairmanships are:

Lesnick: Rules Committee; Budget and Finance Committee

Murtagh: Municipal Operations and Public Safety Committee; Environmental, Sustainable Growth and Green Policy Committee

McDow: Real Estate Committee

Larkin: Legislation, Codes and Intergovernmental Relations Committee (two committees merged into one)

Shepherd: Community Development Committee

Terrero: Education Committee

Councilwoman Joan Gronowski, who formerly co-chaired the Municipal Operations Committee, did not take charge of any committee.

No chair was designated for the Franchises Committee, which did not meet in 2009.

The council also adopted a new rule stipulating that a committee meeting must meet within 15 minutes of its announced start time or it will be canceled.

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