fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Movie Night Gift Subscription
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Reynolds: Hein outmaneuvers Gallo

by Hugh Reynolds
April 14, 2016
in Hugh Reynolds, Voices
2

Kicking off their summit last week with an exchange of insults, Mayor Shayne Gallo and County Executive Mike Hein then got down to the real business of saving face on one hand and advancing an ambitious plan to consolidate county government and enhance educational opportunities in the city. Flies on the wall report it got pretty tense before Gallo declared his “full support” in a press release clearly authored by somebody other than Gallo. (Gallo doesn’t use the word “excited” and is far more adept at grammar and spelling than this amateurish official communiqué was.)

Reportedly the meeting, called by Hein, started with the mayor demanding why he wasn’t “in the loop” when this potentially far-reaching plan directly affecting city residents was devised by the executive. Hein reportedly said something about his staff thinking Gallo was “quick-tempered” (meaning perhaps that they thought he might have screwed up the planning process) while Gallo said his staff considered the executive “a megalomaniac.”

Fortunately, it did not take a fistfight between the two physically fit egotists to ensure a clearing of the air.

The fact was that Gallo’s public persona as a hands-on innovator took a beating. He wasn’t consulted on a plan directly affecting his jurisdiction, and he failed to rally his troops once the news hit the fan. His back-and-forth between opposing the plan and then supporting it carried the odor of burnt waffles.

Give Hein credit (again) for cunning on this one. Once a blind-sided Gallo voiced his objections to the plan, Hein quickly responded by producing a host of city-based supporters — aldermen, legislators, etc. — who if Gallo had done his homework should have rallied to the mayor’s side. The mayor came across as out of touch.

Hein, despite a tactical triumph, bore some bruises. Off this episode, politicians in the county’s other municipalities have to be wondering when the Sixth Floor Steamroller will surprise them with a plan for their own good concocted entirely in secret with zero input on their part.

The official communiqué, hastily drawn after the 90-minute summit, attempts to deal with both issues. In it, Gallo, with no apparent shame, speaks to fully supporting “an innovative and cooperative plan.” That the plan is innovative cannot be denied. That it was an exercise in intermunicipal cooperation insofar as Kingston was concerned is nonsense.

Gallo got a few crumbs and some egg wiped off a red face. The UCCC adjunct campus originally targeted forSophieFinnSchool(currently on the district’s closure list) at his behest may wind up instead at Meagher School a few blocks away, the first elementary school to get the ax.

As part of the plan, Hein will also sell county office buildings on Flatbush Avenue and South Manor Avenue after personnel are consolidated in the Business Resource Center on Albany Avenue. Given the real-estate market in Kingston, Gallo shouldn’t apply that tax revenue to his 2013 budget, or in all likelihood, 2014.

There are some lessons here. The county executive, intent on reshaping government in his own image, cannot be allowed to operate in a vacuum. The kinds of sweeping reforms he proposes require official input throughout the planning process. To demand less is to acquiesce to Big-Brother government.

County Executive Mike Hein. (Photo by Dan Barton)

RRA revisited

Garbage, perforce its name, is one of those out of sight, out of mind things we’d rather somebody else deal with. I’m always relieved when the stuff I put out on the curb on garbage day is gone — to where, I have no idea — when I get home.

The Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency, created by an act of the state legislature in 1986 — then-assemblyman Maurice Hinchey was cosponsor — is one of those out-of-sight outfits we don’t care much about as long as they empty the cans.

Page 1 of 3
123Next
Tags: Meagher Elementary Schoolmidtownmike heinshayne galloSophie Finn SchoolTerry BernardoUlster County RRA
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

TONTO inventor Malcolm Cecil & band this Friday at SPAF

Next Post

Orson Bean headlines Noel Coward play at Shadowland

Hugh Reynolds

Related Posts

Venus gets ready to dominate the evening sky
Columns

Venus gets ready to dominate the evening sky

March 24, 2023
Letters to the editor (2/9/22)
Letters

County Charter Revision Commission, Silicon Valley Bank, Marcus Molinaro and more letters from our readers

March 22, 2023
Ulster County RRA urges legislature to shift from single-stream to dual-stream
Op-ed

Should the county absorb the Resource Recovery Agency?

March 19, 2023
Understanding gravity’s relentless and crushing pursuit
Columns

Understanding gravity’s relentless and crushing pursuit

March 17, 2023
County finance woes, public power system, fossil-fuels and more letters from our readers
Letters

County finance woes, public power system, fossil-fuels and more letters from our readers

March 15, 2023
As we March toward spring, the days slowly but noticeably get longer
Columns

As we March toward spring, the days slowly but noticeably get longer

March 9, 2023
Next Post

Orson Bean headlines Noel Coward play at Shadowland

Please login to join discussion

Trending News

  • Missing hiker found dead at Mohonk Preserve 7.9k views
  • Tinkerers rally to save embattled P&T Surplus in Kingston 3.5k views
  • Citing safety concerns, Woodstock opposes gas station at the corner of Basin Road and Route 28 0.9k views
  • Dead body discovered near Kingston park 0.9k views
  • Newcomer wins seat on the Saugerties Village Board  833 views
  • Unwarranted video surveillance: Town of Ulster weighs security and privacy concerns 775 views

Weather

Kingston
◉
37°
Rain and Snow
6:50 am7:13 pm EDT
Feels like: 34°F
Wind: 4mph E
Humidity: 64%
Pressure: 30.1"Hg
UV index: 0
SunMonTue
59/30°F
54/34°F
50/32°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Movie Night Gift Subscription

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing