Assemblyman Chris Eachus held a town hall event at Monroe-Woodbury High School on November 15 after school. This event was coordinated by the Youth in Government club, which holds two town halls every year.
Assemblyman Eachus expressed his enthusiasm in coming to speak with M-W students. Before his role in government, he spent 40 years as an AP Physics teacher until he retired from Newburgh Free Academy in 2015, making engagement with his young constituents a priority of his.
“I was helping kids in high school and then I retired from that, so maybe I came back to public service a little bit because I wanted to help kids in high school again,” Assemblyman Eachus said. “I do mostly this, I go to high schools, elementary schools and libraries. I put on science projects with kids. I was at the Woodbury library last week and built model cars with those folks”
Assemblyman Eachus was first elected as an Orange county legislator in 2006 and served for 12 years. He was elected as state assemblyman of the 99th district, which includes parts of Orange and Rockland counties, in 2022.
The assemblyman credited his wife for encouraging him to pursue his political passions.
“We were talking one morning and I was talking about all the things I didn’t like in my area. She finally just said to me, ‘Stop your [complaining] and do something about it,’ and so I ran for the county legislature,” said Assemblyman Eachus
During the town hall, students were able to ask questions about issues he cared about and his experiences working in government.
Assemblyman Eachus noted that mental health was specifically something he wanted to focus on.
“I’m big on mental health, I have a daughter who lives over in Rockland Psychiatric and I love her to death,” said the assemblyman, “But they aren’t doing everything they need to be doing, not enough services are available to the people that may need them. Mental health has been important to me all 37 years since I’ve had my daughter.”
He also discussed the large number of bills he is looking to pass in the 2024 legislative session, after passing seven bills last year, and how difficult it can be to have important legislation passed.
“When I go up to Albany in January, I have sitting on my desk 24 bills that I want [passed] and have already written, but I’m running into 149 other folks who have at least 20 or 24 bills that they want passed,” Assemblyman Eachus explained, “It becomes a bit of a push and pull type of thing on who gets their bills through first. But it’s alright, I like it”
The assemblyman felt it was important to emphasize that he does not consider himself a “career politician” and how he feels it’s important to humanize elected officials to encourage engagement with constituents.
“ I’m nothing special… I catch colds, we [elected officials] aren’t special people. The only thing special about me is that I won a particular election. If I ran and won, which I did, I better be ready to respond to everybody all the time,” said Assemblyman Eachus, “You can call me everyday, you can call my office everyday, that’s not too much if you actually have an issue. I should be willing to deal with that.”
Assemblyman Eachus expressed his excitement to see young people being engaged in a town hall event and how important it is to continue being civically involved.
“Think about involvement right away. I never thought when I was in high school, ‘Gee I’m going to go talk to my election official and tell him a thing or two,’ but why not? I don’t think you can be too young, you can always get involved,” said Assemblyman Eachus.
Mr. Verboys, teacher advisor of the Youth in Government club, briefly discussed the purpose behind this town hall and the others coordinated by the club.
“It’s great that we can bring these people [elected officials] out to talk to you,” said Mr. Verboys. “We have two town halls every year with one Democrat and one Republican to help you guys get a sense of what local government looks like.”
