TOWN OF CHESTER – A Town of Chester employee has raised concerns with Supervisor Brandon Holdridge and the Town Board about Comptroller Neil Meyer’s access to confidential records while he is under investigation, alleging that he has shredded paperwork and entered the town’s confidential file room.
Holdridge previously confirmed that the town is conducting an internal investigation into whether Meyer used his town-issued laptop to perform volunteer work for the Town of Wallkill on Town of Chester time.
In an email obtained by Mid-Hudson News and sent to Holdridge and the board at 1:21 p.m. Monday, the employee alleged that Meyer “has been spending his entire day throwing away paperwork and putting paperwork in the shredder. He’s been in and out of our confidential file room numerous times.”
It was not clear what paperwork Meyer was allegedly shredding.
“I think you are all not taking this whole thing seriously,” the employee alleged in the email. “If he is being investigated, he should not have access to anything that he does. Someone needs to do something.”
Holdridge responded to the employee approximately 30 minutes later, copying members of the Town Board and Town Attorney Elizabeth Cassidy. Holdridge wrote:
“(Councilman) Bob Courtenay and I just got off the phone with Liz (Cassidy). We will be speaking to Neil regarding this information. I will report back after. We are actively investigating the record on the laptop as you all know. I will report back to you when that is finished. The laptop was handed in to us at the earliest possible opportunity. He did not have it longer than he should have.”
Sources told Mid-Hudson News that Meyer retained his Chester-issued laptop for about a week after the town confirmed on Oct. 28 that he was under investigation. About an hour after Holdridge responded to the employee’s email, he was seen in the Town Hall parking lot speaking with Meyer and Courtenay.
Holdridge declined comment and Meyer did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Thursday.
“The town is hired an outside firm to do a thorough and impartial investigation,” Courtenay said. “I have no further comment as this is a personnel matter.”
Chester’s investigation followed scrutiny of Meyer’s role in the Town of Wallkill. Republican officials have questioned why he allegedly had access to Town Hall and municipal computer systems despite not being a town employee. The State Comptroller’s Office is investigating the alleged Wallkill breach, and the Chester development could add another layer to the probe.
At a Town Board meeting earlier this month, Chester Councilman Giuseppe Cassara requested that the Orange County District Attorney’s Office investigate Meyer. Holdridge and Cassidy opposed the request. Cassara later wrote to Holdridge and the Town Board, asking that the DA’s Office specifically examine “computer trespassing and theft of time.”
Holdridge, a Democrat, and Courtenay, a Republican, held a news conference less than a month before the November 2023 election, alleging that their political rival, former Town of Chester Supervisor Robert Valentine, may have used his position to benefit his family’s trucking and excavating company, as well as himself, on projects such as the Greens at Chester.
Both Holdridge and Courtenay called for an investigation of Valentine by the Orange County DA’s Office. A review by the DA’s Office last summer found “no overt signs of criminal activity” by Valentine.
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