New Paltz town supervisor resigns, police chief announces retirement

New Paltz Town Supervisor Neil Bettez will be leaving his job a year and a half early. That announcement came at the April 4 town council meeting. Bettez will be taking a job that seems tailor-made for the scientist-cum-supervisor, serving as climate resilience program manager of the Hudson River Estuary Program at the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Bettez is a little more than halfway through the current term, and the timing will require someone be appointed to oversee town affairs until the next election. Filling a town council seat that was vacated last August took six months, but that was for a part-time position the absence of which was more an inconvenience. With Bettez leaving as of May 3, the supervisory duties would fall to Alex Baer as deputy supervisor until a new supervisor is tapped. Bettez noted that anyone interested in a temporary appointment to the job should email assistant@townofnewpaltz.org. 

Voters will make their own decision in November, but due to the lateness in the election cycle candidates will be selected by members of the political committees. The late Carol Roper was the last Republican to hold the supervisor job in New Paltz, and if that pattern continues then whoever Democratic committee members select will be the candidate voted in. Bettez hopes that committee members choose the same individual who is appointed by council members, to minimize the number of transitions in leadership. The individual elected in November will serve out the final year of Bettez’s term. Since state legislators pushed through a plan to shift local elections to occur in even-numbered years, the vote in 2025 will be for a three-year term to line up with that agenda. 

The position that Bettez felt couldn’t be turned down “will involve working with elected officials, communities, partners and researchers to fund, develop and implement innovative solutions to climate adaptation and resilience,” the outgoing supervisor said. Bettez is a scientist by training, having worked at the Cary Institute before taking the supervisor position in an open election eight years ago, and believes that this job will be “something I could work at for the next ten years.” It’s another form of service, albeit one that isn’t quite as draining as running a town. 

“As my wife reminds me, we’re still going to live here,” Bettez said, and for the outgoing supervisor that means setting up the next person for success through the smoothest possible transition. Bettez also expects to otherwise remain active in the community. In addition to being supervisor, Bettez serves on the village’s shade tree commission, the town Democratic committee and the college council of SUNY New Paltz. 

Police leadership changes in May

Robert Lucchesi will be retiring after 31 years in the town’s police force, capped by four as chief of that department. With the recommendation of police commissioners, town council members voted unanimously to approve Matthew Sutton to take over the top cop job as of May 31. Carmine Fuoco, now a sergeant, was promoted to lieutenant as of May 1 to aid in the leadership transition. Both Sutton and Fuoco are lifelong residents of New Paltz, and said at the April 4 town council meeting that they are proud of the foundation that has been built in the town’s police department by Lucchesi and Joseph Snyder, the chief who retired in 2020. 

Lucchesi was praised for taking over the department even as shutdowns due to the pandemic caused massive disruptions. Sutton and Fuoco emphasized their desire to continue to be “ahead of the curve” with policing, continuing with the same forward-thinking mindset that brought body cameras to this department years ago, and that resulted in the expected delivery of the town’s first electric police car this year. 

The outgoing chief will likely be honored by a “walking out” ceremony on May 30, but those specifics have not yet been announced.