On May 11th, 2026, A Little Beacon Blog submitted a FOIL request for any complaints made against Chris White, age 56, Beacon’s former City Administrator who recently and unexpectedly retired in March 2026, his last day to be in June 2026. No reason was given, but during a following City Council meeting, Chris stated he wanted to make a Zoom cameo appearance on a City Council Meeting while hiking on the Appellation Trail to warn people of their 15 second mark during speeches made during Public Comment, which is when they get cut off.

Deputy City Administrator, Ben Swanson, was promoted to City Administrator upon Chris’ absence. The Deputy position was created out of thin air during Chris’s time as City Administrator. One month after his retirement announcement, the City announced that Chris was taking a leave of absence in April. Chris made no more appearances at City Council Meetings after that.

On June 8th, the City of Beacon’s Clerk, Amanda C. Caputo, responded to ALBB’s FOIL request stating that the request may or may not be granted: "Please be advised, the City requires additional time to complete your FOIL request due to the time it takes to locate and retrieve responsive records, the number of FOIL requests recently received, the breadth of the request, and the need to review certain responsive records to determine whether such records are subject to an exemption, in part of full, under FOIL.

“As such, the City anticipates you will be contacted on or about Wednesday, July 22, 2026 (i.e. thirty (30) business days) regarding the extent of which your request is granted or denied. We will notify you in writing if the City requires additional time to locate, assemble, and review records.”

Select other FOILs that ALBB has requested have also not been answered, which include:

How much money did the City of Beacon Get per year for the MTA Newburgh Beacon Bridge License?
Was there any disciplinary action of the Beacon Police Officer Edison "Eddie" Irizzary between his hiring in 2004 and retirement in 2021?
”Retired Beacon Cop Who Killed Roommate Does Not Appear In Court For 2nd Hearing - Attorney Cites Ongoing Mental Health Evaluation”
Receipts from any scrap metal earnings to the City of Beacon around the time of March - July 2023. If money was received to the City of Beacon in exchange for any scrap metal from any company in New York or the tri-state area during that time, please submit receipts for which company, and for how many dollars were received per exchange. Thank you.
The percentage of Beacon’s sales tax that Beacon receives back from Dutchess County that Mayor Kyriacou negotiated, as well as the full contract that this sales tax percentage is discussed.
Please send video or link to video for City Council Meeting from August 6, 2017. This was the meeting where Michael Manzi was appointed to Superintendent of Streets, thereby dissolving and replacing Rueben Simmon's department head position of Highway Superintendent. Then City Councilmember Jodi Mcredo turned to the audience and asked if they were happy now. She was met with cheers of hoots and hollers. Then Mayor Randy Casale shushed them and told them this was not a football game. Then Councilmember Lee Kyriacou responded by saying he may have preferred watching a football game to this. This video of this City Council Meeting It used to be in Vimeo and re-cast on A Little Beacon Blog, but the video has since been removed. The video was removed under former City Administrator Chris White’s tenure.

That video of that meeting is public record, and we need it back.