Mount Vernon Mayor Clinton Young has confirmed the hiring of former mayoral aide John Boykin in an e-mailed statement today. Young wrote: “I have decided to end the suspension of Mr. John Boykin. He is working provisionally as the Deputy Director of the Youth Bureau at a salary of $63,469.00.”

The Journal News is hearing reports that former mayoral aide John Boykin is back at work in Mount Vernon City Hall as deputy director in the Youth Bureau. Boykin, who was suspended in March, said today that the job was “not official” and declined to comment further.

Mount Vernon chief of staff, Yolanda Robinson, did not [...]

Debra Stern, candidate for Mount Vernon City Council, is using Twitter to talk about her campaign and post news from around the city. You can follow her on http://twitter.com/electstern. Other Mount Vernon candidates, please send web links and Twitter links to hadely@lohud.com.

The 2010 Senate Appropriations bill includes $1 million in federal funds for Mount Vernon to renovate an existing fire station as an emergency operations center. The center would be a base to coordinate multi-agency response in case of flood, fire, crime or other emergency.

Currently, the City of Mount Vernon does not have an operations center [...]

Helen Blackwood was sworn in as the newest Mount Vernon city judge on Monday. Blackwood was appointed to fill the post after Judge Brenda Dowery-Rodriguez retired. Blackwood is a name well known around the city. Her father, Ronald Blackwood, is a former Mount Vernon mayor and was the first black mayor elected in New York [...]

Marcus Griffith wants to take over Mount Vernon’s top financial post. The councilman is seeking the endorsement of the city’s Democratic Committee to run for comptroller against incumbent Maureen Walker. The endorsement shouldn’t be hard to get, considering Walker and many of the city’s political leaders don’t see eye to eye. Still, Walker is popular [...]

Mount Vernon Comptroller Maureen Walker abused her power and engaged in misconduct when she failed to pay invoices to a law firm or to cooperate in a City Council investigation, Inspector General Harry Stokes charged in a report yesterday.

In the report, Stokes says that Walker obstructed a City Council investigation, gave misleading information, and had [...]

Mount Vernon marked the passing of M. Paul Redd, the president and publisher of Westchester County Press and a prominent voice for African-Americans throughout the county, with a day of remembrance. Here is a statement from Mayor Clinton Young about Redd, who died Friday:

On Friday, January 9th, 2009, Mayor Clinton I. Young, Jr. declared a [...]

Mayor Clinton Young said Mount Vernon is doing its part to help Gov. David Paterson reach his goals on clean energy and fiscal responsibility in New York State. Here’s more reaction from the Mount Vernon mayor on Paterson’s State of the State Address.

DATE: JANUARY 8, 2009

Mount Vernon, NY — “Yesterday, I sat in the State [...]

The Mount Vernon City Council has a new president. William Randolph, who has been on the council for 13 years, was sworn in as council president during a ceremony Friday evening. He takes over the seat from Loretta Hottinger.

Council presidents are selected by consensus of the board and serve one-year terms. This will be Randolph’s [...]