For the eleven-member roster of mostly ex-politicos who constitute the Ulster County Charter Revision Commission, the task of revising the Ulster County Charter is wrapping up.
Presented with petitions from both private and public interests, the group has met 16 times since September 15 of last year to consider changes to the fabric of our county government.
Accepted changes at this point include:
Anyone running for county executive has to have resided in Ulster County for three years.
The county attorney must be confirmed by the county legislature.
Explicit authority is granted to the county comptroller to audit public-benefit corporations and component units of county government.
The county comptroller and finance commissioner are prohibited from outside employment and/or holding other elected positions simultaneously.
The human-rights commissioner will have authority over the human-rights commission.
Rejected changes include:
Reimbursing up to $10,000 of court and attorney fees to any plaintiff who successfully sues the county government for breaching its charter.
Appointing an oversight committee for capital projects over a million dollars.
Board of supervisors nixed
It sometimes seems that all the bureaucratic minutiae under the sun which could be identified have been spilled onto the commission’s long wooden table to be weighed and joggled.
There was even a dashing March 9 Powerpoint presentation led by Town of Rochester supervisor Mike Baden and Village of New Paltz mayor Tim Rogers on behalf of a huddle of town supervisors and mayors, to do away with the county legislature entirely and replace it.
With whom?
A county board of supervisors.
The prospective putsch failed.
Seconded by Scott McCarthy of Lloyd, commission member Shannon Harris of Esopus gamely made a motion to form a subcommittee to study the idea. As of April 17, no compelling enough argument had been discovered to sway the remainder of the commission. Overthrowing Ulster County’s present form of government will not be on the ballot in November.
Or it isn’t likely to be. All the decisions reached so far by the Charter Revision Commission are not binding, and there is no legal reason to prevent them from reversing any decision they’ve voted on so far. Barring a special session, the county legislature meeting on July 18 is the latest time that the commission could feasibly submit its list of improvements. The members would prefer to have everything in order when its recommendations are sent to the legislature in the month of May.
The charter as it was created in 2006 was not envisioned to be a document perpetually tinkered with by a group of unelected people. Arguing for more frequent public scrutiny, the commission has voted to cut the window of time between which the charter will be revisited for further tinkering from ten years to five.
As it is, as it has been, the 23 elected members of the county legislature can make changes to the charter any time they wish, provided that twelve of them can agree on a proposed change, that the county executive doesn’t use her veto, and that the change is accepted by the public, which will be asked to weigh in for a vote.
All or nothing
Whatever items make it through both the commission and the legislature will be presented to the voter as a take-it-or-leave-it omnibus proposition. All-or-nothing prevents voters from accepting or rejecting individual changes to the charter.
Perhaps that’s wise. Any provocative proposition smuggled in with the rest could risk sinking the entire raft of suggestions, a disagreeable outcome which encourages suggested changes to be bland, even before the legislature weighs in to calibrate the changes still further.
Seven months have already been frittered away and there is the board of elections itself to contend with even after the legislature does its thing.
“We have to receive all language by August 7,” says county elections commissioner Ashley Torres. “The deadline for anyone to get a proposition on the ballot is three months before the general election. That’s election law 4-108.”
But as one might expect from politically constituted organisms, another scenario exists. Bypassing the legislature, the commission can place one or two suggestions before the voters at referendum. Provided the changes are solely limited to affecting the legislative or executive branches of government, says the charter, the workaround is kosher.
Arguably the most consequential amendment anticipated to come out of this commission is a possible change to the order of succession when triggered by an outgoing county executive whose term has not expired. Two of the last three county executives have left their office mid-term, opening months-long windows where unelected interim county executives have been appointed to steer the county ship.
Adding insult to the voting public’s injury, the awkward timing of these departures resulted in elections held minus primaries.
The disenfranchisement of Ulster County voters was palpable.
The motives of party operatives and the competence of the duly elected executive are beside the point. The fact is that Democrats enjoy a lopsided voter registration advantage in Ulster County. Without a primary, the choice of the 280 committee members of the Democratic Party amounted to a coronation of the next leader for the county’s 182,000 residents.
Without a primary, the numbers on the Republican side are even more damning. Just 23 members of the Republican Party weighed in last year on their party-line endorsement, making the Republican candidate selection process demonstrably even more elitist than that of the Democrats.
Ironically, it will be a number even smaller than that who can deliver Ulster County voters from this quandary. The eleven-member commission poised to address this problem needs only seven votes to get its recommendations on the ballot. The opinions of the 23 elected legislators are not required.
Kathleen Mihm is chair of the commission. Other members include Frank Cardinale, David B. Donaldson. Shannon Harris, Thomas P. Kadgen, Scott McCarthy, LeShawn Parker, Hector S. Rodriguez, D. Mici Simonofsky, Fawn Tantillo and Brian J. Woltman.
Join the family! 
