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The Cornwall-on-Hudson Village Board meets twice a month on Monday nights. It holds a Work Session on the second Monday of the month and a Business Meeting on the third Monday. The mayor and trustees hold two-year terms.
James A. Gagliano Mayor
Elected on March 16, 2021, Mr. Gagliano was installed as the Village’s 29th mayor, after serving one term as a Village trustee. His professional pursuits include serving as a law enforcement analyst and policing methodology subject matter expert in the media, where he provides on-air analyses of complex law enforcement and counterterror matters. An adjunct assistant professor and doctoral candidate at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, he is a sought-after speaker on criminal justice, homeland security, police use of force, and organizational leadership matters, and delivers keynote addresses for corporate clients and in academic settings.
A 1987 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he was commissioned as a U.S. Army Infantry Officer, serving as a light infantry platoon leader and company executive officer in the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, while stationed at Fort Benning, GA, and Fort Drum, NY, between 1988 and 1991. He earned an M.P.S. in Homeland Security and Criminal Justice Leadership from St. John’s University in 2017.
He proudly served for 25 years in the FBI. During his career, he was appointed to a variety of investigative, tactical resolution, crisis management, undercover, mid-level and senior management positions, including assignment to the FBI’s elite counterterror unit, the Hostage Rescue Team (HRT), and as the Senior Team Leader of the FBI New York Field Division’s SWAT Team. During the Global War on Terrorism, between 2002 and 2003, he deployed to Afghanistan three times in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He was awarded the FBI’s second highest award for valor, the Medal of Bravery, for his SWAT Team’s actions in June of 1993.
In one of his final FBI assignments, he studied Spanish at the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, then served as the deputy legal attaché and acting legal attaché at the U.S. Embassy in México City before retiring in January 2016. Mr. Gagliano serves on the Board of Directors for the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization founded in 1994 and dedicated to the defense of the noble law enforcement profession and its honorable practitioners. He is also a member of the FBI Agents Association, the Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Hostage Rescue Team Association. He is an author and opinion writer.
James and his wife, Tiffany, Dean of the School of Business at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, have five children between them – all products of the Cornwall Central School District -- and reside in the Lower Village. You may run into them on the sidewalks of Hudson or Main Streets, where they frequently walk their sweet, rescued pit bulls, Jaxon and Dansby.
James Kane Deputy Mayor
First elected in March 2010, Mr. Kane has served as Village Trustee for almost six terms, two of which include his appointment as deputy mayor. James’ professional background includes being a former prosecutor, legal counsel, partner in his own law firm and as an energy advisor in the electric industry.
James grew up in Orangetown, Rockland County, New York and is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island in 1987 with Bachelor of Science degree and a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Military Police Corps, United States Army Reserve. Shortly thereafter, he attended Gonzaga University School of Law, where he earned his Juris Doctorate in 1990.
Upon graduation, he proudly served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office from 1990-1997 prosecuting street crime, financial crimes, labor racketeering, and writing and arguing appeals before the First Dept. Appellate Division and New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. Later he was senior legal counsel and acting general counsel in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Office of the Inspector General as well as senior legal counsel in a Moreland Act Commission. James then spent seventeen years in private practice with his two partners based in Pearl River, New York. Currently, he is a senior energy advisor with the New York Power Authority.
He also proudly served in the United States Army Reserve for 28 years, first serving as a platoon leader in the 812th MP Company, 306th MP Battalion, 800th Military Police Brigade, Orangetown, NY and after spending 13 years in the MP Corps, he branched transferred to the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in 2000. From 2014-2015 he was deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Freedoms Sentinel with Task Force-435 and USFORA. As Officer in Charge of the Legal Cell, he was charged with training, advising & assisting the Afghanistan National Army, Afghanistan judges, prosecutors and court personnel in the prosecution of insurgents captured on the battlefield and sustained court and base operations.
Jim and his wife, Kelly, a Special Education Teacher with the City of Newburgh Enlarged School District, their one child, Michael, a 2020 graduate of Cornwall Central High School, and two black labrador retrievers call Hudson Street home.
Bill Braine Village Trustee
After his childhood on Long Island, college at SUNY Albany (B.A., ’91), and ten years in New York City, Bill Braine chose Cornwall-on-Hudson to raise a family. Bill is a Director at Mastercard, which he joined in 2007, where he works on enterprise business pitches and solutions to promote small businesses and local commerce. Before that, Bill spent 12 years in marketing at Sotheby’s auction house. He is the former Chair of the Town of Cornwall Economic Development Advisory Committee and one of the architects of the Main Street revitalization plan, Cornwall Rising. He is also a former co-host of the Cornwall New Year’s Eve ball drop and former Running columnist for the Times Herald-Record, author of the rural suspense novel Bone Hollow, and a volunteer with the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, Habitat for Humanity Newburgh, Riverkeeper, the Cornwall July 4 Committee, and the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. Bill is also a founding member of the Cornwall Community Co-Op, which gave rise to the Farmer’s Market. Just prior to his election to the Village Board, Bill was a Trustee of the Hudson Highlands Nature Museum for two years.
Bill’s wife Claudia Depkin, born in Cornwall Hospital, is Director of the Haverstraw King's Daughters Public Library and the current President of the New York Library Association. Together they moved to Cornwall in 2006. Their two children are a proud graduate and current student in Cornwall schools.
David Carnright Village Trustee
Trustee David Carnright has lived most of his life in the Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson. Dave attended Cornwall schools and graduated from Cornwall Central High School in 1971.
Mayor Brendan Coyne appointed Dave to fill a vacancy on the village board in 2012. Dave ran for trustee in 2013 and has served on the board for eight years.
Dave started working for Fry Copy Systems after graduating high school and remained with the company till 1980. He next worked at Nepera Chemical Company in Harriman.
In 1985, Dave went on to work for Central Hudson Gas and Electric. After 31 years, Dave retired in 2016 as chief gas mechanic.
It is here in Cornwall where Carnright met his wife, Louise. They have been married for 40 years and have raised four children. All of their children have gone through the Cornwall School system.
Dave has been an active member of the community. He served nine years on the Cornwall school board. He is president of Cornwall Youth Football and served more than 20 years on the Cornwall Little League Board. He has also served on the Cornwall Independence Day Committee.
Lori Beth Paliotta Village Trustee
Trustee Lori Beth Paliotta was appointed in September of 2023 replacing Rich Gaillard.