“I feel it’s my duty to serve my fellow citizens in Peekskill. My wife and I have become deeply embedded in this community and are committed to its wellbeing and long term growth. I know we share those same sentiments with many other residents and hope to work together to achieve the greatness we see for our community. We see the growth and progress that is taking place in the city and are excited by it. I will represent the interests of the community with integrity and honor to ensure the success of our future. With the right priorities and leadership in place we can further enhance the development of Peekskill into one that provides an even higher quality of life for all residents, safer streets, fiscal responsibility, and overall community sustainability. Allow me the privilege to represent this great city to protect the interests of our current and future residents.”
What Matters to Brendon & Peekskill
"Below are just some of the important issues to me when it comes to Peekskill. I want to see this City rise to the greatness that everyone speaks of. We together can make this a reality. The road ahead will not be an easy one but together we can accomplish great things."
Public Safety
My top priority is to make our streets safe. We need a community approach to take back our streets and let everyone know that breaking the law is no longer an acceptable practice. We cannot only look to the Police Department to make our streets safe. We the people need to let it be known a new culture about crime is coming to this City. A culture that will no longer tolerate the smallest infractions. The fight will not be an easy one but we the people will prevail. We need to organize a City wide neighborhood watch program with individual groups representing each district in the City. Create a Hotline/Email/Facebook page, direct line to the Police Department, and monthly meetings. Great thing don’t happen overnight, but within a year of the initiative the change will be clear. We need to be able to walk down any street in our City and feel safe.
Public safety is the number one focus of any City. We need to provide essential service to protect our community. The Police Department and Fire Department need the tools to do their job. I have good relationships with both departments and I am certified by the International Fire Service Training Association as a Department of Defense Firefighter.
Revamp the Building Process
The next priority of mine will be to revamp the building department process. My wife and I bought a house two years ago and planned to do significant repairs due to the poor condition of the house. The bureaucratic process to fix up a home in this city was very timeconsuming and risky for us as homeowners. I understand why residents are hesitant to invest in their property when you could spend thousands and not get approval to work on your house. People want to fix their house, and people want to build in Peekskill. The system in place has people running from away from the City and doubting whether they should invest here. I will dive into the weeds of the process and look into other towns and Cities in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties to see how they conduct business. We will put together a committee and look for best practices to adopt. We will make it a friendly process that makes it easy for residents to invest in their homes without the stress and risk that the current process brings.
Public Private Partnerships
We need to create public and private partnership to encourage smart grow for the City. I know that is a blanket statement that all candidates make. Who doesn’t want to encourage growth? The better question is, do you have the ideas, the drive, and the energy to seek these partnerships? The other part of that is knowing the people with the ideas and expertise to create the partnerships. I have an amazing idea in place that I’m working on now that will benefit the City greatly, but we will save that for another day.
Quality of Life
Every day I drive through Peekskill and see the problems our City faces. The properties owned by banks, and absentee landlords that aren’t maintaining their properties. The littering issue we have, the illegal boarding houses. These issues will be one of my major focuses.