Bill Gouldman's Work Record
William Gouldman has been serving as the primary representative for Putnam Valley in the county's legislature since 2015, a part-time position. He also held several full-time jobs in the private sector during that period, as he was entitled to do. However, as an elected official he's required to file annual time and attendance records to the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement System. And for the last nine years, the records he submitted have him logging more workdays a month than any elected county official, including those whose jobs are full-time such as County Executive Kevin Byrne, District Attorney Robert Tendy and, for several years, the county's sheriff.
Readers can view this year's filing by clicking on this link to the agenda of the county's August meeting and scrolling to page 130, the second-to-last. Gouldman's records indicate he's been working 33.23 days a month. The only way that is mathematically possible is if he consistently worked extensive amounts of overtime, over and above the six hours that the county sets as its standard workday for legislators.
This year's filing was not an exception. A review of the legislative archives shows that in nine of his 12 years as a legislator, Gouldman's records have him working at least 32 days a month. He didn't start out that way. During his first three years, he filed paperwork showing he worked just 11.2 days per month, more typical of other legislators. However, his days-per-month jumped to 32.19 beginning in 2018, the year he became self-employed. He generated reports that resulted in that exact days-per-month number until 2024 when it rose again to 33.23 days per month, the identical number that the county has filed for him for the last three years.
Gouldman's filings suggest extraordinary, sustained dedication, especially for a part-time employee whose base salary is about $48,000 a year. By comparison, Byrne, whose 2026 filing indicates he worked 30.17 days a month, earns $181,303 a year as a full-time employee.
What is even more surprising is that Gouldman says he worked those very long days while also holding down full-time jobs elsewhere. For example, his LinkedIn page shows that from 2021 to 2023, when he logged overtime hours at the county, he was also a full-time account manager for MG Security. That assignment included overseeing 10 security guards at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital during COVID. Later, after being promoted to field supervisor, Gouldman wrote that "I am the point person of contact for each of the 50 different sites that I manage."
In a phone interview, Gouldman says he keeps careful track of the hours he spends working for the county on phone calls, emails, and preparation for meetings and gives that paperwork to the county's finance department, which then calculates the number of days per month before submitting it to the state's retirement system. "I take it very seriously," said Gouldman. "I work all the time. In many ways, I'm a workaholic."
Not everyone is convinced. Paul Jonke, a two-time legislative chairman who served alongside Gouldman for nine years (not always in the friendliest of ways), knows the demands of the job well. "Based on my experience, I question whether Bill is putting in 33 six-hour days every month," Jonke said. "He may be conflating his political work as town chairman of the Republican Party with his legislative duties." Like other legislators, Gouldman only needs to document that he's working 20 six-hour days a month to maintain his pension plan eligibility.
So, it's possible that Putnam Valley has the hardest-working legislator in the county. Or, it's possible that Gouldman's timesheets warrant closer scrutiny. That Gouldman's pension filings are a topic of conversation at all is somewhat ironic. With term limits ruling him out for another legislative bid, Gouldman is running to be Putnam Valley's next supervisor. In June, when he was seeking the endorsement of the town's Conservative Caucus, he misstated his opponent's work record, leaning on data obtained from the same state retirement system being reported on here. He has since apologized for his mistake but might now wish he'd never brought it up.
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