When Steve Bechtold was at the podium at City Council for his retirement announcement, it did not seem like a moment that had a lot of former planning around it. During the speech honoring him, Highway Superintendent of Streets, Superintendent Michael Manzi expressed that they were just discussing before the meeting who was going to do all of the ordering of shirts, since Steve was the one who had handled that during his 29 years of service in the Highway Department for the City of Beacon. Said City Administrator Chris White: “We're going to be lost." Superintendent Manzi agreed: "We will be lost. We're going to be shirtless I guess.”
The Unsanctioned Union Petition
In September 2020, at the time of his promotion to Head Mechanic, Steve was named in a harassment complaint as lead organizer of an unsanctioned union petition circulated during work hours against Reuben Simmons filed in March 2019. Reuben is a fellow employee and former Highway Superintendent, before Superintendent Manzi was appointed to the position. The complaint focused on the process in which the petition was handled, that the “signature collection was conducted on city time and caused an uncomfortable work environment,” according to the filed complaint that ALBB has seen.
Additionally, the harassment complaint was allegedly not shown to Black employees (Reuben is Black) until after the then union president, Paula Becker (who was also an employee of the City of Beacon at the time), was informed about it. It was circulated with the alleged intent to try to prevent Reuben from being on a negotiating committee of the CSEA union for the department’s new contract at the time. However, Reuben was not on the negotiating committee. Only later, Reuben told ALBB, after the union president Paula was informed about the petition by Reuben, did Steve show it to two other Black employees in the department: Ed McNair and Troy Swain, who declined to sign it.
Ed later resigned from his position in the Highway Department in March 2021, citing unresolved racial tensions and retaliations, making working in the Highway Department “pretty rough to say the least,” according to his resignation letter that ALBB has seen. At the time, there was one other Black employee in the Water and Sewer Department, Lew Swain, and an employee who is Dominican, Christian Cuello.
After Reuben learned about the alleged petition, he went to the department’s union president, Paula about it, who said she did not know about the petition. Reuben told ALBB: “My issue was that if you're going to petition, show it to everybody so that it's fair.”
The Alleged Gun In The Locker Room
Months later, Reuben said he saw Steve with a gun in the employee locker room. After a morning safety meeting at work, Reuben emailed his boss, Superintendent Manzi, about the gun. According to the email ALBB has seen, Reuben said: “I feel obliged to tell inform you about a situation I encountered. The week of September 23, 2019 I witnessed a firearms in the possession of Steve Bechtold in our locker room. From that moment I have taken precautionary measure to ensure my own safety at work in the event something were to take place at the workplace involving such threat. I refrained myself from reporting it to you sooner as you have been vocal in protecting this employee whenever issues are raised and the level of retaliation that I feel could transpire makes me uncomfortable and a threat to my safety.”
Superintendent Manzi emailed back: “I was and have not been previously aware of this situation but the matter has been addressed with the individual without issue and he was understanding of the matter. Please do not refrain from reporting if any other issues persist.”
Reuben requested to have Superintendent Manzi’s email about the gun included in Reuben’s personnel file, but then City Administrator Anthony Ruggiero declined his request, Reuben told ALBB.
During The Head Mechanic Promotion
Promoted to Head Mechanic of the Highway Department on what was supposed to be September 21, 2020 but was postponed due to push-back from members of the community who highlighted that the majority of the Water Department was white at the time, Steve’s promotion then was delayed for the night so that Councilmembers could feel that they had all of the information on all of the employees positioned for promotions. Peter Delfico was up for appointment to Highway Department Auto Mechanic II and Nicholas Durso for Auto Mechanic I.
Reuben never filed a formal complaint about the gun, because, he told ALBB: “After I saw how the complaint went about harassment with the petition, I didn’t even try regarding the gun, even though it made some of us uncomfortable.”
At one point, Reuben was both Steve and Superintendent Manzi’s bosses, but through another process initiated by department employees, which included Superintendent Manzi who wrote his own anonymous letter discrediting and dismissing Reuben to Beacon Councilmembers that ALBB has seen. The result of that anonymous letter campaign was that Reuben was stripped of his Superintendent position, and Michael Manzi replaced him.
That Michael Manzi was one of the anonymous letter writers pushing for Reuben’s Superintendent position to end was discovered during the City of Beacon vs Reuben Simmons employment termination hearings initiated by City Administrator Chris White, who spent over $110,000 in legal fees at one point trying to fire Reuben, but lost the case.
ALBB reached out to Ed McNair to ask how the alleged gun and response made him feel. Ed responded: “If it had been Reuben with a gun in the locker room, the discipline would have been harsh and made public.”
Months after Steve’s 2020 promotion to Highway Department Head Mechanic, the City of Beacon’s then new HR Director, Gina Basile (she has since left), introduced a new firearms policy regulating personal guns in the workplace in December 2020, as reported by ALBB at the time.
The Honoring of Steve Bechtold
The honoring of Steve Bechtold was kicked off by Mayor Lee Kyriacou: “The first thing we're going to do is we're going to honor Steve Bechtold. And you know, we begged him to come and he let us do that. Mickey, will you bring him up and talk a little bit about him. Then I got a little thing for him."
City Administrator Chris White added: "And Mickey wrote a limerick for the occasion."
Superintendent Mickey responded: "Am I supposed to speak only good?"
Councilperson Amber Grant responded through laughter: "Be honest."
City Administrator Chris encouraged: "Roast. Roast."
Superintendent Manzi continued: "I'm standing here tonight with Steve Bechtold to announce a retirement effective 1-4-2025. Steve started his career with the City of Beacon in May 22nd of 1995 and after almost 30 years of service to the City as a Mechanic, most recently our Head Mechanic, Steve has decided to retire."
Superintendent Manzi turned to Steve and said: "About time."
Steve replied: "With little pushing from you."
Superintendent Manzi replied: "A little pushing. I want you to enjoy yourself. I've had the pleasure of working with Steve for the last 20 years. Became friends on a personal level as well, as we both enjoy the sport of snowmobiling. During Steve's career, he was instrumental in keeping the City's fleet up and going, including but not limited to our Highway, Water and Police vehicles. As well as all Park, small equipment, and anything else we needed. And, he even - we just talked about it - we're trying to figure out who's going to take the ordering of City shirts and stuff like that. He's done that since I've been here."
"We're going to be lost," City Administrator Chris White said.
Superintendent Manzi agreed: "We will be lost. We're going to be shirtless I guess. Throughout his long career here, Steve has been reliable, dependable, and most importantly, committed to the City. He'll be missed by all, and I'd like to say congratulations and wish him health and happiness in his retirement.”
Mayor Lee presented Steve with a gold lettered City of Beacon Certificate of Recognition in recognition and appreciation for 29 years of dedicated public service to the City of Beacon.
As per the New York State and New York City Employees' Retirement System (ERS and NYCRS) retirement plan for state and city employees who joined between 1983 and 2009, Tier 4 members are eligible for a pension factor of 2% per year with 20-30 years of service. For each year beyond 30, the members receive 1.5%. Steve’s retirement is just shy of 30 years.
Steve accepted his certificate, and said: "Thank you so much. Thank you very much," and began to take pictures. City Administrator White encouraged: "Look like you like each other."
Steve gave his acceptance speech: "I just need to say thank you for the years I've been here. It's got its ups and downs, but mostly, you know, mostly everything was good. You know, you can't agree with everybody all the time, but for the most part, all went well. So thank you very much."
City Administrator Chris said: "Job well done."
Councilmember Amber Grant said: "Thank you. Enjoy your retirement. I hope you have wonderful years ahead of you with lots of fun."
Steve replied: "Hopefully it lasts as long as I was working."
City Administrator Chris warned: "Watch out for Mickey on the snowmobiles."
Mickey agreed: "We'll run into each other trails."
Steve cautioned: "Hopefully not. Hopefully not."
City Administrator Chris said: "Try not to run into each other."
After Steve was done, Mayor Lee started walking away but City Administrator Chris pulled him back, making sure one more item was complete. Mayor Lee then awarded Superintendent Manzi a certificate for 20 years, even though his hire date was in 2006, as stated in CSEA documents and in one of the anonymous notes that was sent to Councilmember Jodi McCredo and read in public in 2018. Superintendent Manzi is in his 19th year.
Mayor Lee said: "Mickey did a disclosure in his discussion of 20 years, he said. And that is correct. So in recognition of 20 years of outstanding and dedicated public service to the City of Beacon, I also have a City of Beacon Certificate of Recognition for Michael Manzi."
As for recognition, other employees have also worked for 20+ years, but not all have had the recognition that Steve received, according to Reuben, who has worked for the city since 2002 (23 years), starting as a summer intern. Dave Way recently reached 20 years, and Lew Swain retired with close to 30 years and was handed a certificate on the job, not during a public presentation like this, or with a City funded party. A retirement party was thrown for Steve during company time, and a Christmas Party also this year.
While these are nice gestures that can boost moral, the retirement party on company time was the first of its kind, according to Reuben, when asked by ALBB.
