Councilman Rich Becker

Richard "Rich" Becker was born on 10 March 1953. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Town of Cortlandt where he presides over the Zoning Board. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Early life, education, and career:
Becker was raised in New York City in the Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town neighborhoods of the Lower East Side. He attended what is now the State University of New York (SUNY) in Binghamton and later obtained his M.D. from New York Medical College in Valhalla.
After his residency in Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, Becker obtained a fellowship from Westchester Medical Center and than practiced cardiology at Hudson Valley Hospital. At Hudson Valley he has served as Chief of Medicine, President of Medical Staff, and Chairman of The Medical Board.
In 2005 Becker founded Hospital Medicine Associates, a private practice that supplements local medicine. As of 2011 it provides eighty-percent of all admissions and consultative services at Hudson Valley Hospital. Although he resigned from Hospital Medicine Associates, he continues to maintain his private practice, The Hudson Valley Cardiology Group
Town Board:
Campaigning for Cheaper Gas
In 2007, Becker challenged Joseph D. Cerreto, an incumbent Republican member of the Cortlandt Town Board. In addition to ending Cerreto’s thirteen-year tenure, the election also marked the emergence of a Democratic majority on the board. Commentators speculated that the shift in municipal politics reflected county-wide growth of Democratic and independent voters; indeed, in the past decade prior to the election, the number of registered democrats grew from 187,776 to 222,161 and the number of indendents nearly quadrupled from 4,565 to 16,377.
Becker’s medical background sensitized him to effects of gas and utilities costs on public health; indeed, recognizing that senior citizens that lower their thermostats to save money are at risk for pneumonia, he and Town Supervisor, Linda Puglisi, campaigned to find cheaper alternatives to current fuel prices.
In exchange for more exposure, Becker and Puglisi persuaded gas companies to cap their service costs, guaranteeing savings from twenty to forty cents a gallon more than what would cost other municipalities in the country.
Supporting Local Businesses:
To help combat The Great Recession in Cortlandt, Becker has helped orchestrate a number of initiatives to promote local commerce. Along with his colleagues on the town board, he has helped launch a public access television program called “Taking Care of Business” in which local businesses are interviewed and spotlighted in an effort to encourage residents to "shop local." Moreover, in the spring of 2011 Becker, Supervisor Puglisi, and other council-members helped expand exposure to constituents’ shops and restaurant by promoting “Shop Cortlandt,” a weekend-long sale intended to draw attention to local merchants.
Personal Life:
Becker is married to Terry Bleyer-Becker, a psychological social worker at the Ossining Children’s Center. Together they have two children: Lauren who has been awarded a PsD in psychology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Justin, a first-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania.

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