Mount Vernon’s Democratic mayor drew a federal Hatch Act warning for city-stamped campaign mailers boosting her slate, while her handpicked deputy faces attempted murder charges.
The Post obtained a U.S. Office of Special Counsel ruling that Democratic Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard violated the Hatch Act by sending campaign mailers marked as an “important message” from the city during the June 2025 Democratic primaries.
The mailers backed five of her hand-picked candidates for comptroller, city council, and city judge. They also included a sample ballot residents could “cut and take with you to vote.”
Erica Hamrick, deputy chief of the OSC’s Hatch Act Unit, wrote that the language would reasonably lead residents to treat the pieces as official business from their mayor and open them when they might otherwise ignore campaign material.
"The language of these campaign mailers reasonably would lead residents to believe they contained official business from their mayor, compelling them to open the envelopes when they might not otherwise do so,"
The OSC issued a warning letter. It advised that any future prohibited political activity by Patterson-Howard would be treated as a willful and knowing violation of the law.
The Hatch Act, first established in 1939, bars state and local officials whose positions receive partial federal funding from using the power of their office to sway an election.
Mount Vernon activist Samuel Rivers filed the complaint that triggered the federal review. He called for the mayor’s resignation after the ruling.
Rivers said the letter confirmed what residents already suspected when they opened the envelopes.
"Look at the letter, the federal government has now confirmed what residents suspected when they opened that envelope: The mayor used the power of her office to try to choose their representatives for them,"
Patterson-Howard did not respond to a request for comment. She was elected in 2019 as Mount Vernon’s first woman mayor. The Westchester County city sits just north of New York City.
The same mayor hired Jennifer Lackard in 2020 as deputy police commissioner to lead the department’s Wellness Unit, a $125,000-a-year post reportedly created for her.
Patterson-Howard defended the hire at the time and insisted Lackard passed a rigorous background check.
Lackard was recently charged with attempted murder for allegedly chaperoning her son to a botched drive-by shooting outside a Bronx courthouse.
Her husband, James Lackard, 47, was allegedly in the car. Police said the former convict, described as having a drug-peddling record, was on the run before turning himself in a few days after the shooting.
Federal watchdogs handed the mayor a warning instead of steeper penalties. Local voters still live with the results of her personnel choices and her use of city stationery for a primary slate.
When city hall turns official mail into campaign tools and stands by troubled hires, residents pay the price in trust and public safety.
