2 Vacancies On Beacon's Assessment Review Board; 3 of 5 Members Are Realtors; Mayor Set To Reappoint Realtor Tonight

Update 10/9/2025: “Assessment Review Board Vacancy Not Promoted; Discussion of Ethics Complaints; Both Appointees Confirmed”

Two vacancies have opened on one of the most important boards in the City of Beacon that impacts property owners and their potential property taxes: the Board of Assessment Review. A well publicized open call for those vacancies has not been made by the City of Beacon, and it was not declared who was not returning to the board. A reappointment of a board member whose is a realtor, the profession of which is a debatable conflict of interest and is discussed in guidance provided by New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance, is on the table for an appointment by Mayor Kyriacou at tonight’s City Council Meeting, which will be passed by the Mayor if there is no objection from City Council.

According to the presentation made by Ben Swanson at last week’s Workshop Meeting, there are 2 appointees up, one of whom is on the board already. Ben stated: “Michele Rios [of Berkshire Hathaway] has served 2 terms. This would be her 3rd term. She has been on the board 10 years starting in 2014. She has a long real estate career as a licensed agent and broker spanning 20 years or thereabouts. So, she has a a great background for this board.”

Ben continued with the second appointee, David Ross: “David has a distinguished career in fine arts management. He's worked throughout the country in executive administrative roles with various art institutions. We think he's a very impressive candidate and he's willing to spend the time on this board as well. We're excited to bring his application to your attention as well.”

What Does The Board Of Assessment Review Do?

Mayor Kyriacou explained during last week’s 9/29/2025 City Council Workshop that the Board of Assessment Review “is one of the three statutory required ones [Boards]: The Planning Board, the Zoning Board, and the Board of Assessment Review.”

He continued: “Their job is is mostly focused around May when you have the new assessments come out and there's a grievance process and they will hear grievances. That's the non-litigation process that the City does. And then if it ever goes past that, it goes past it. But their job is primarily in that month of May. And I'm just appreciative that we've got people willing to do it.”

When people challenge their assessments to commercial or residential property and win, the City of Beacon will at times pay them back the difference. Property assessments are based on many factors, including related “comps,” which are the most recent prices of properties sold near the property in question. With the hot market in Beacon, having bidding wars is common, as well as offers of cash coming to disrupt a buying process. Some realtors are more aggressive than others at navigating this phase which can result in driving up property prices.

The Board has 5 positions on it, and 3 of them are realtors.

Who Else Is On The Board?

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According to a screenshot taken by the WayBack Machine, a public database of years of archived screenshots, the realtor Ron Donofrio was the fifth name on the Assessment Review Board that has been removed. Ron was appointed in October 2020 for a 5 year term.

It was announced that there were 2 vacancies on this board. However, it was not disclosed as to who was stepping off the board, or whose term was ending or up for reappointment. Last week, A Little Beacon Blog emailed Mayor Kyriacou, his secretary Ben, and Council Member Molly Rhodes asking who was leaving the board, but none of them responded.

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Ron Donofrio is also listed at the Highlands Current website as a current Assessment Review Board Member with the current City Council as of October 2025.

Checking the Board of Assessment Review page today Monday, there are 4 names listed. Prior, there were 5 names listed. According to the WayBackMachine, as of May 15, 2025, Ron Donofrio was the 5th name that is no longer listed on the City of Beacon’s website as of today. Ron is a realtor in Beacon and was appointed on October 19, 2020 by Mayor Kyriacou.

Other Board Members include:

John Stella, Board Chair
According to a memorandum presented by Ben, Secretary to the Mayor, on December 14, 2022 in favor of John Stella's reappointment, John "retired from IBM and then worked as a Realtor in the area. John spent the past 15 years on the Board of Assessment Review, 12 of which were as Chair. He also served as Chair to the City's Parking and Traffic Safety Committee for 14 years. Additionally, he served as Vice President of the Beacon Board of Education. He also served as an Volunteer Firefighter for 60 years "and is now exempt," according to the memorandum.

John Berry
According to a memorandum presented by Ben, Secretary to the Mayor, on January 3, 2024 in favor of John Berry's reappointment: “Mr. Berry is a resident of the City of Beacon and is currently retired. He has a lengthy background of community service to Beacon, specifically in previously having served as a pack leader for a local Boy Scout Troop, previously having served as Chair of the Beacon Democratic Committee, running for Mayor in 2003, and by currently continuing his long-standing service on Beacon’s Board of Assessment Review.”

Robert Palisi
Robert Palisi’s memorandum for recommendation cannot be found online at this moment, but he was recognized as the Grand Marshall of the Parade of Green in 2023. According to his Grand Marshall recognition, Robert is a lifelong resident of the City of Beacon who started his career at Shaw Motors (then became Healey) with his father. He then worked for Ward's Auto Body, and then Secor Auto Body. In 1979, he started his own family business, Palisi Auto Body & Auto Glass on Main Street in Beacon, which moved to a "newly constructed state-of-the-art auto body shop on West Main Street," in 1984 says the parade flyer.

"Bobby is also a partner in Fulton Avenue Realty Restoration Company, which over the last 28 years, has done a multitude of building renovations and constructed several new houses in and around the City of Beacon."

Michele Rios
Michele Rios is a realtor with Berkshire Hathaway. When this article surfaced, encouraging the City Council to pause her reappointment in order to reconsider having realtors on the board, Michele responded via Facebook Comments with insults and a threat to ALBB.

She also stated that there were 2 realtors on the board. However, there were 3 realtors on the Board, when Ron Donofrio was within his term, which may have ended October 2025.

Comments Of Interest

The Assessment Review Board is one where people in the community must appeal to fellow members of the community for financial matters. Fear of retaliation should not be a factor, but for some is.

To show an example of character, the comments of the language and logic used by this board member up for reappointment are below in the order of their publishing:

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According to the bios presented above, there were 3 realtors on Beacon’s 5-member Board of Assessment Review as of this year: John Stella (Chair), Ron Donofrio, and Michele Rios.

Questions Raised From These Proposed Appointments

• Should realtors be on the Assessment Review Board?

• Should Beacon have a Board to hear grievances about realtors in the buying/selling process in residential or commercial property transactions?

According to Guidance provided by the New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance, the issue of real estate agents or brokers being on assessment review boards is taken into consideration as a potential conflict of interest. While it does not prohibit it, the guidance does suggest a ratio of 1 to 3.

“Section 1524 specifically requires that persons appointed by the legislative body of a local government to the board of assessment review have a knowledge of property values in the local jurisdiction. In most instances, a real estate broker would certainly meet this requirement. It has been and continues to be the opinion of this office that there is no incompatibility arising from the appointment of 1 real estate broker to a 3 member or assessment review.

“The obvious intent of section 1524 is to provide property owners with an opportunity to obtain an independent review of their assessments by a body which did not participate in the assessment in the first instance and which consists of members knowledgeable in real property values. However, care should be taken with respect to the overall balance in the composition of the board of assessment review.”

How To Voice Your Opinion About A Mayor’s Appointment

While the Mayor makes an appointment, the City Council must support it. If they do not, then more consideration is given. To make sure your voice is heard or seen, email each City Council Member and the Mayor. One should not fear retaliation if they are a commercial or residential property owner.

MOLLY RHODES
Councilmember, Ward One
Pronouns: she, her, hers
mrhodes@beaconny.gov

JEFFREY DOMANSKI
Councilmember, Ward Two
Pronouns: he, him, his
jdomanski@beaconny.gov

PAM WETHERBEE
Councilmember, Ward Three
pwetherbee@beaconny.gov

GEORGE MANSFIELD
Councilmember, Ward Four
gmansfield@beaconny.gov

AMBER GRANT
Councilmember, At-Large
Pronouns: she, her, hers
agrant@beaconny.gov

PALOMA WAKE
Councilmember, At-Large
Pronouns: she, her, hers
pwake@beaconny.gov

Lee Kyriacou, Mayor
mayor@beaconny.gov

Ben Swanson, Secretary to the City Mayor
cityofbeacon@beaconny.gov

Property Taxes - How Are They Paid By People Who Experienced Income Reduction?

While renters in Beacon are experiencing little protection from increases on where they live, causing some Beaconites to leave Beacon or live with anxiety of rent increases, people with qualifying mortgages backed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Department of Agriculture who have escrow accounts with the mortgage company holding their account may be catching a break when their property tax to the City of Beacon, school and library come due.

The CARES ACT legislated that if a qualifying homeowner has experienced lower income due to the pandemic, they can put their mortgage into forbearance, thereby pausing payments and not incurring additional interest or penalties. The paused payments get added back into the total owned of the home, which are added to the total debt the homeowner owes. This forbearance was started by the Trump administration, and was continued by the Biden administration, who recently extended that deadline through June 2021.

Forbearance Is Set - What Does It Mean For Property Taxes?

While relief is experienced for a homeowner who lost income due to the pandemic, what happens to the property, school and library taxes that are due directly to the City of Beacon?

Some residents pay these payments directly from their own accounts, versus having the institution servicing their mortgage divide a portion of their payment into an escrow account, so that when property taxes come due, the money is there and company servicing the mortgage, like Quicken Loans or Rhinebeck Bank, makes the payment on behalf of the homeowner.

One year ago in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, A Little Beacon Blog asked the City of Beacon how property tax was being handled. At the time, Mayor Kyriacou, who is a landlord in Beacon and owns several properties, advised us to ask state officials about it.

This year, A Little Beacon Blog inquired again, and received this response from Beacon’s City Administrator, Chris White: “The City delayed foreclosing on any properties in 2020. Normally, the City would have sent last chance agreements in March of 2020 to properties with 2018 taxes still open. In compliance with the State's COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Act, the City mailed hardship declaration forms to anyone with open taxes from 2018 giving them until May 1, 2021 to pay or enter into an installment agreement. We have also not taken action on back taxes for 2019 or 2020 so there has been some flexibility.”

New York City’s City Council passed legislation in 2020 on late payment penalty interest to 0% for a period of time. As for Beacon, Chris explained: “The interest on taxes is 1% a month but is not compounded. We allow partial payments and offer installment agreements of up to 24 months for past due taxes as long as property owners remain current on any upcoming taxes (including school) while in an agreement.”

A Benefit To Escrow Accounts: Advance Payments Have Been Made For Some Mortgages

When a homeowner has an escrow account with the company handling their mortgage, that company sets aside a portion of the monthly mortgage payment and places it into an escrow account for property taxes to the City of Beacon and to the school and library. Same can be done with homeowners insurance. It’s one less bill to worry about, and makes setting aside money automatic.

If an escrow account is not used, however, then the homeowner needs to make the payment themselves. Even before the pandemic, some residents who had not disciplined themselves to save the money found it difficult to scrape the money together. With the pandemic and economic shut-down, collecting that money could be more difficult.

Property Tax Escrow Account 101

When we reached out to Dave Curry, VP Commercial Lender for Rhinebeck Bank, to inquire as to if Rhinebeck Bank was also advancing property tax payments for residential mortgages, he went beyond the question to provide some education about escrow accounts as they pertain to residential mortgages:

“Yes, we escrow taxes into the monthly payment. For Rhinebeck Bank, we do this on both the residential and commercial side. This a typical requirement as financial institutions want to be sure the taxes are being paid on an annual basis and that the borrower is in a position to do so. Some Banks will not escrow taxes if it was requested by the borrower, however, the bank is putting the trust in the borrower to be able to manage their finances enough to pay those big bills when they come! Unfortunately, most people are not disciplined enough with their finances.”

Dave continued: “Escrowing Insurance is a different story. Normally Banks do not require the escrow of insurance. So how this works is that your monthly mortgage payment is normally broken down 3 ways: Principle, Interest and Escrow. The escrow portion goes into a separate escrow account and when the Bank receives the tax bill, they cut a check from this account. Additionally, there is an escrow analysis done on an annual basis, which determines if your monthly escrow portion is enough to satisfy the annual taxes. Sometimes there is a shortage and you will have an increased monthly payment, and sometimes there is an overage where you will be cut a check from the Bank. That is pretty much the scope of it, but very common for mortgages.”

The escrow analysis is conducted for if the taxes in the city increase or the city reviews their appraisal amounts on each home, as Beacon did a few years ago after not having done it for years, which resulted in a substantial increase for property owners. The amount set aside from the monthly mortgage payment needs then to also increase in order to set aside enough property tax money.

People who are done paying their mortgages may not be in the habit of making the monthly required payment anymore, thus needing to be disciplined enough to set aside the money for tax collection time. If they have the money, during the pandemic where some have experienced job loss.

Beacon Remains Under 2% Tax Cap For 6th Year In A Row

If you got a refund from your property tax escrow account for being overestimated, this could be why (although we’re not property tax experts, but a refund did come our way this month). Mayor Randy Casale presented Beacon’s 2019 Budget in October, and stated: “In this year’s budget our homestead tax rate shows a decrease of 1.6518% and the non-homestead rate dropped 1.8073%.”

Before presenting the complex layers of a city’s budget, the Mayor also pointed out: “This is the fifth year in a row that we have received a ‘no designation’ classification from the NYS Comptroller’s Office with a score of 5. We have an Aa2 Moody’s bond rating. This shows our tax dollars are being managed thoughtfully and responsibly. This is the sixth straight year we were able to stay under the 2% tax cap while continuing to provide the services that keep our city safe, invest in our infrastructure and improve the quality of life for our citizens.”

Anthony Ruggiero, the City Administrator, reminded readers of the 2019 Budget Presentation of the history of the tax cap: “The tax cap law established a limit on growth of the annual property taxes levied to 2% or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. As you may recall, last year the tax cap was actually 1.84%, however this year it is 2%.”

Select Increases Projected For Certain Line-Items In The 2019 Budget

Water and sewer rates will show increases: 5% for water and 10% for sewer. Said the Mayor in the 2019 Budget Presentation: “These increases will allow us to continue to make upgrades to both facilities and our aging infrastructure.“

Infrastructure upgrades have been going on in Beacon on several neighborhood streets since the summer. There was a sewer collapse on Main Street at Tioronda, which closed the street to cars for several days, and negatively impacted neighboring businesses, like Raven Rose who experienced sewage backup into the shop.

Says Emily Burke, owner of the kitchen store Utensil, which until very recently was located on the eastern end of town (she has since moved to the west end of town, with an expanded shop): “The ongoing construction certainly had an impact on all the east end businesses.”

Also significant is the retiring of Beacon’s Building Inspector, Timothy Dexter. He served the city for 36 years in several roles, including Firefighter, Building Inspector, Fire Lieutenant, Acting City Administrator, “and mentor to many,” Anthony stated in the budget presentation letter.

The position of the Building Inspector will remain, but move to the Building Department’s budget, and away from the Fire Department’s budget, where it was previously. Building Department staff will remain the same, and the number of firefighters (13) and fire chief (1) will remain the same.

There are other highlights of what budget line-items are increasing or decreasing, which you can see here in the budget itself.

Recycling Market Crash Significantly Impacts Beacon’s Budget

The City Administrator stated that Beacon will keep weekly recycling, but at a loss to what was budgeted previously. “This is significantly impacted by the collapse of the recycling industry. The City went from receiving a revenue of $15 a ton to an expenditure of $61 a ton. This, combined with the increases in garbage contracts, amounted to $99,698 increase in the general fund expense budget.“

If you need to see things visually, as a line-item, this could look like +$15/ton as income to Beacon, and now looks like -$61 as an expense. The collapse of the recycling market was predicted for years by business leaders in the recycling industry, and was triggered by the Chinese decision in January 2018 to buy almost none of the recycled paper pulp coming from the United States. (A reminder: When putting goods out for city recycling, all recyclable paper and plastic must be dry and clean. Rinsed and not soggy. Otherwise, if the plastic is coated in food or dirty, or the paper soggy, it does not get recycled.) A Little Beacon Blog hasn’t gotten an official quote on where non-purchased recycling goes if it’s rejected and not purchased by China.

Beacon Homestead & Non-Homestead Assessed Value Increased

As explained by the City Administrator in the budget presentation: “This year the homestead assessed value increased by 3.47% or $30,859,063 million. The non-homestead assessed value has also increased over last year by 9.65%, or $23,815,921. This year represents the fifth year since 2009 that the overall assessed values increased, and did so by $54,674,984. Homestead values remain more than $102 million less than it was in 2009. The non-homestead assessed value has fluctuated through the years, and while it increased approximately $23,815,921 this year, it is only the second year in a row that it has been more than in 2009.”

Public Input Scheduled For November 19, 2018

CORRECTION: This section originally stated December 3, 2018 as the Public Hearing. According to the Mayor’s letter in the Budget Presentation, that was the date set. However, the Public Hearing for the 2019 Budget was announced and scheduled for Monday, November 19, 2018.

Department heads have been meeting in workshops throughout the fall. Workshops are open to the public to watch, but not participate in. A Little Beacon Blog republishes workshops here to help increase accessibility to these videos and agendas of the meetings. The opportunity for the public to come out and contribute their opinion on the 2019 Budget was Monday, November 19, 2018 at 7 pm at City Hall. This is the white building near the train station that also houses the police station and courthouse.