Per Mayor Lee Kyriacou’s recommended appointment of David Ross to Beacon’s Board of Assessment Review, a board David no longer serves on since being discovered with having a forgiving friendship and correspondence with sexual predator and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, David was the “finance guy,” as Mayor Kyriacou referred to him, for the Southern Dutchess Country Club (SDCC) in Beacon on Wolcott Avenue. Per the SDCC’s website, David was the Vice President and Chairman.

On Sunday, A Little Beacon Blog emailed the email listed next to David’s name on that website to inquire if he was still on the board after he resigned from his Chair position of the MFA art practice program at New York’s School of Visual Arts (SVA), as reported by ARTNews. ALBB did not receive a response as of Monday evening, the night of the City Council Meeting, where ALBB asked the City Council if David had resigned from Beacon’s local assessment board.

In an article reported on ALBB’s Facebook reporting on the potential for David to no longer be on Beacon’s Board of Assessment Review, the Southern Dutchess Country Club was mentioned as reference. The evening after the City Council Meeting where it was revealed that David was no longer on that board, Geoffrey Robillard, a person identifying himself as a “lifetime member” who “sits on the board” of SDCC, insisted via Facebook Comment that David did not hold those positions.

Geoffrey commented at Facebook: “First of all get your facts straight! David is not nor ever has been SDCC President and or chairman! You want to spew crap take time to fact check! It isn’t hard.”

Upon review, ALBB corrected the publishing of the President position, as the SDCC listed David as Vice President and Chairman. ALBB responded to Geoffrey that all articles had shown screenshots of David’s position on the board, and linked to ALBB’s original article that quoted Mayor Kyriacou verbatim from the October 9, 2025 City Council Meeting where he identified David as being linked with SDCC as “the finance guy.”

Geoffrey responded: “I sit on the Board and am a lifetime member and I am telling you he is not President or Chairman nor ever has been.”

A few hours later, the email address from the SDCC website, which is membership@southerndutchesscc.com, responded to ALBB’s initial email, confirming that David had been on the club board:

Hi Katie

David has resigned from the board of SDCC.

Sdcc B.O.D.

ALBB responded:

Hello,

Thank you. Can you tell me who you are that is responding.

Screenshot as of 3-4-2026 11:30am of Directors and Officers at the Southern Dutchess Country Club on Wolcott Avenue.

Can you confirm:
1. Your name.
2. What position on the board David Ross held.

The writer responded that he is Barry Winter, the President of the club.

Barry later confirmed that David was the Membership Chairman, and held no other board positions.

ALBB pressed one more time for confirmation on why David’s name was listed as Vice President on their website. Barry responded: “Yes I forgot he was VP. The VP doesn’t really do anything. I have updated the web page and Dave is no longer listed. At our next board meeting we will elect a new VP and membership chairman. For now I'm filling the membership chair role.”

After being appointed by Mayor Lee Kyriacou in October 2025, David Ross, a citizen of Beacon; husband to former City Council Member Peggy Ross who served with Mayor Lee on Council years prior; widely-known director of contemporary American museums nationwide; who was found with multiple correspondences in the Epstein Files after the January 30th, 2026 drop; is no longer on the Board of Assessment Review for the City of Beacon, the City’s attorney Nick Ward-Willis confirmed after A Little Beacon Blog called in during the second Public Comment opportunity of the evening to ask who resigned from the once full board to create two new vacancies so quickly that the City voted on that night with no prior notification or announcement of vacancy to the public.

Otherwise, the City of Beacon was not going to mention David’s departure from the Board.

Katie of ALBB asked: “Can you tell me, for the Board of Assessment Review, who are the two people who resigned? The last time we had nominations was in October 9th, 2025, which was Michele Rios, a realtor, and David Ross, curator of museums, and a board member here at the Southern Duchess Country Club, who was also recently found in the Epstein Files and resigned his position elsewhere,” referring to David’s resignation of his position as chair of the MFA Art Practice Program at New York’s School of Visual Arts (SVA) after ARTNews broke the story of his relationship and correspondences with Epstein.

“Can you tell us who resigned, when they resigned, and why they resigned, and also, why there was no public announcement of these two vacancies.”

Attorney Nick took over answering. He neither confirmed or denied that David Ross resigned, saying: “So, we don't go into details on personnel matters. The two individuals who served before were Mr. Ross and Mr. Palisi, I believe. That's generally all we provide.”

Mayor Kyriacou began to respond: “Um so…”

Attorney Nick was swift to cut him off, repeating his previous statement: “So that’s generally all that we provide.”

Mayor Kyriacou wanted to continue, but restrained himself, saying: “Okay,” with a pause. “And…Okay. I’ll stop there.”

Attorney Nick concluded: “Yeah.”

City Administrator Chris White picked up the response: “Well, and he didn’t resign. He passed away.” To which Attorney Nick responded “Well…Yes,” without referring to which former board member they were referring to.

City Administrator Chris continued: “So Bobby Palisi, for those...” implying he was going to describe who Bobby Palisi was for those who did not know. “Very involved in softball. Life member of Mase [Hook and Ladder]. We had the Memorial Bunting on the firehouse for his fire service.” Bobby was also a brother-in-law of Michele Rios, his wife’s sister, who is also on the Board of Assessment Review.

Mayor Kyriacou picked up the description: "That's the dark bunting when you were, if you were passing by and you're wondering what that was. That was Bobby."

Mayor Kyriacou wanted to continue again, but held back. "Um...So...And then...Um...Yeah. Okay." And the meeting ended.