FOCUS ON: City Council President Liam J. McLaughlin

City Council President Liam J. McLaughlin is a Yonkers guy, through and through. His story is a true Yonkers story.

He was raised in Yonkers and has lived here for more than four decades. His wife, Debbie, is also from Yonkers. Now, the McLaughlin family lives only a few blocks from the house he grew up in. Liam attended St. John the Baptist School, the same school that his son Ryan now goes to. He coaches his son on the same youth baseball and soccer fields that his father coached him on when he was a kid.

A small business owner, he is a practicing trusts and estates attorney at McLaughlin & Zerafa LLP. Previously, he worked for several small law firms in the New York area, including his own general practice law firm and the Corporation Counsel’s Office in the City of Yonkers. Council President McLaughlin was also an adjunct professor at Manhattan College.

In 2013, he was elected as Council President by the voters of Yonkers.

A former senior auditor at Ernst & Young, he is a certified public accountant and holds a Juris Doctorate from New York Law School and a B.S. in Accounting from Fordham University. He is also a licensed real estate broker.

Deeply rooted in the community, he coaches youth baseball, basketball and soccer with Dunwoodie Youth Association. He currently serves as President of the Lincoln Park Taxpayers Association and is also a member of the Holy Name Society of St. John the Baptist Church, the Kerrymen’s P&B Association and the Ancient Order of Hibernians of Westchester County.

He is admitted to practice law in New York and Connecticut and is a member of the New York State Bar Association, Westchester County Bar Association and the Yonkers Lawyers’ Association.

BUILDING

When Liam first ran for Council President, he asked us to believe in a better Yonkers and that’s what he’s delivered. He’s ushered in a pro-business climate and now companies want to do business in Yonkers again. With over $1 billion in new and ongoing economic development projects now in the pipeline, Liam has helped achieve one of the best employment rates in the state and created good-paying jobs right here in Yonkers.

INNOVATING

In his first month on the job, Yonkers faced a $55 million fiscal crisis caused by the Board of Education. He took on Albany to get our fair share of funding. Staying within the property tax cap, Liam instituted tough new financial controls and oversight to get the City back on firm financial ground while liberating $10 million in administrative costs at the Board of Education for instructional purposes through consolidation.

PROTECTING 
Liam has led the fight to keep our neighborhoods safe and clean. He’s authored and passed bipartisan legislation to crack down on littering, cut taxes for veterans, create a community alliance to stop the proposal to park oil barges on the Hudson River waterfront, provide the largest contribution in history to the Yonkers Public Schools and fund state of the art equipment and training for our first responders, all while keeping property taxes under control.