At noon on New Years Day Plattekill Town Justice Annamaria Maciocia administered the oath of office to Stephen O’Flaherty as a Plattekill Town Councilman.

Judge Maciocia said, “the swearing in ceremony is essentially the administration of the oath of office to a newly elected public official. We are here today to certainly bring that witness of community to this very important act. Whether this swearing in is part of a federal, state or local government function, it is always the beginning of one’s journey as a public servant, which is a task that is all consuming and is probably one of the greatest privileges that a citizen of the United States of America to give service to one’s country.”

In February 2024 O’Flaherty was appointed to the Town Board to finish out Dean DePew’s term when he became Town Supervisor. Last November, O’Flaherty won the seat in his own right, but due to the state election laws, he will have to run again this November for a four year term.

O’Flaherty said the current Town Board works well together.

“It’s a great group and they all have a strong vested interest; we all have a different dynamic of what we understand and what we bring to it. The analytics of some are different from the analytics of others,” he said. “Even in the crunch of the last six board meetings, there’s been a lot of discussions on what to apply ARPA [American Rescue Plan Act] funds for and ideas on how to make it feasibly possible.”

O’Flaherty works for the Stifel Nicolaus Investment Company, based in St. Louis, Missouri.

“I do financial planning and advising on stocks and bonds. It could be for individuals or retail for what they call institutional,” he said.

O’Flaherty said applying his financial knowledge to helping create the 2025 town budget was a bit of a learning curve, but he will be ready when the board begins discussions later this year on the 2026 budget.

“I’ll say from what I’ve seen in almost a full year now, it is all doable and there are a lot of good ideas that flow across the town board’s table and I think it’s all for the better,” he said.

Supervisor Dean DePew began hearing about O’Flaherty from different committee members in town but did not actually meet him until a plane crashed into a tree in his backyard a number of years ago.

“We’ve always had a great dialogue and he was someone I kept in the back of my mind as maybe a good candidate in the future. He was feeling the same way and we clicked and here we are,” DePew recalled.

DePew said when current members of the Town Board have a difference of opinion on a given topic, they work it out in order to reach a consensus.

“I think each member on the board is realistic in the sense that they know, including myself, that what we say is not the end of our thought process,” he said. “For the most part we hash it out before we come to a conclusion and look at the pros and cons and try to research everything to the fullest extent.”

DePew said O’Flaherty’s financial background is a great asset for the Town Board.

“As we move forward, the anticipation is to better our investments with higher yields and hopefully with his expertise we’ll be able to achieve that,” DePew said. “I am very happy and very confident that he is going to do a great job.”