Beacon council member to become comptroller
First elected in 2019, Dan Aymar-Blair has served five years as the Ward 4 representative on the Beacon City Council. He will leave the council on Dec. 31 (its last meeting of the year was Dec. 16) to become the Dutchess County comptroller on Jan. 1. Mayor Lee Kyriacou will name a replacement to serve the final year of his term. We asked Aymar-Blair to talk about his time on the council and what’s to come.
How are you feeling about your new job?
I’m excited and a little jittery. Anytime you start something new, you’re a little nervous because you want to do a good job. I’ve made some appointments for my new team, and we’ve been having meetings to talk about how we can hit the ground running.
Do you inherit a team or assemble your own?
There’s a team of about 12 people, mostly auditors. I get to appoint a couple of the positions.
To what extent does the comptroller interact with the county executive or the Legislature?
I expect most of the work I’ll be doing will be with department heads. I would work with the county executive for higher-profile things, [such as] if we’re doing an audit and we need her cooperation or if we’re following up on a report from the state, anything that she ought to know about. With the Legislature, they’re passing the policy that I eventually review and make sure it’s all being implemented appropriately. I don’t have a say in policy, but if there’s something before the Legislature that will put the county’s finances at risk or jeopardize the long-term financial health of the county, I’ll speak up and share my opinion.
You said before the election that you wouldn’t be coming in with an agenda, but is there anything that feels pressing to address?
I don’t have a political agenda, but I do have an agenda in that I kept a list all year of the things that voters wanted me to look into, or that people thought the comptroller should be interested in — issues facing them. That’s the list that we are working through. Some of the issues that are all over the news are eventually going to beg our attention. One would be the homeless shelter [in Poughkeepsie], looking at the history of the acquisition of Oakley Street [Housing Support Center] and what is being done to lower the cost. I don’t think it was handled well, and it came at a cost to the county. I also spoke to a lot of veterans this year who were concerned about the services they were getting, and not just from the county. There’s a long list. The question is: What’s appropriate for the comptroller to look into, and how do we prioritize?
When I first met you in 2017, you were organizing the People’s Committee on Development. How has Beacon changed since then?
It feels like we’re still on the same trajectory. The City Council has had a lot of conversations about development, affordable housing and zoning. The last vote I made [on Dec. 16] was related to 248 Tioronda Ave., and it felt fitting because that issue highlights some of the things we were working on with the committee. To a certain extent, the city is still playing catch-up with developers. We’re not asking for enough public benefits. We still have a long ways to go.
Are you satisfied with the five years you served on the council?
I am. I wish I could have done more on development because that was the issue that got me involved in politics. But I’m one of seven people on the council. I was there for five years, and if the only thing that we got done was the firehouse and capital projects, I would be proud. The firehouse is something we’re going to be proud of for generations to come, and we got it done so quickly and efficiently. It’s such a state-of-the-art facility. I’m also proud of the electrification law that we passed [in March 2023]. I wish I could have done more on development, but you can’t do it all.
Were there other highlights?
I did a lot of work for improvements at Green Street Park, trying to lay the groundwork for creating a new park by Fishkill Creek and getting a stop sign at the intersection of Washington Avenue and East Main Street. That’s not headline material, but those are the things that people say “thank you” for. That’s the most rewarding part of the job.
What was still on your to-do list?
I didn’t finish helping the council put together a law to protect Fishkill Creek from overdevelopment. I hope that work continues. We talked about affordable housing for a long time, and I don’t feel like we made a whole lot of progress, or any progress. I’m a self-critical person, so on the way out, I’m thinking about everything I didn’t get done. That’s just my character.
