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Peekskill Mayor Mary Foster and Deputy Mayor Don Bennett will seek re-election this fall. The Peekskill Democratic City Committee announced its slate of candidates for the 2011 city and Westchester County elections Monday morning.
City residents Kathleen Talbot and Lawrence Cunningham, Jr. will join Foster and Bennett on the 2011 ticket, replacing council members Patricia Riley and Joe Schuder. Foster is seeking a third term after being elected mayor in 2007 and re-elected in 2009. Foster said she has made sustainable commercial and residential development cornerstones of her time in office and has worked to grow downtown redevelopment and repair aging infrastructure, put more police on the streets, worked to curb litter and have kept property taxes flat.
Currently an executive director at Grant Thornton, LLP, Foster is a retired partner of Deloitte & Touche, LLP. She also a member of the Executive Committee of the Westchester Municipal Officers Association and a board officer of the Northern Westchester Energy Action Consortium. She is a communicant of the Holy Spirit parish and lives in Peekskill with her husband and their two adult children.
Bennett was first elected to the council in 2003 and is serving his second four-year term. He was appointed deputy mayor in 2008 by Foster. An employee of Pamal Broadcasting, Bennett is also a member of Peekskill Rotary and the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce. Bennett said he has worked to implement intelligent city planning and growth, with an emphasis on providing commercial recreational opportunities for our citys youth and families, as well as working with city staff in looking for economic opportunities for the city. Bennett has served as Board President of the Friends of Hudson Valley Mental Health, as an advocate for the Peekskill Youth Bureau and as a member of the Peekskill City School Districts Citizens Committee for Long-term Financial Planning.
The announced candidates join Michael Kane, who has already been announced as the District 1 candidate for Westchester County Board of Legislators. He will challenge incumbent Republican and former Peekskill Mayor John Testa. Kane is a Network Technical Specialist for AT&T. He serves on the Westchester County Board of Legislators Environmental Committee, as well as the Westchester County Democratic Labor Committee. He has served on the board of KEON Center (CARE, Inc) a non-profit agency that serves the developmentally disabled. He is a former associate member of the Cortlandt Hook and Ladder and the current Chair of the Peekskill Democratic Committee.
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