It seems as though Ulster County executive and county comptroller March Gallagher are headed to county court. Against each other.
The two elected county officials exchanged bitter words this Thursday, October 19 about a court subpoena sought by Gallagher.
Gallagher is seeking the release of books and records pertaining to former county finance commissioner Burt Gulnick, whose guilty plea last week to grand-larceny charges not connected to county government finances will mean a jail sentence for him. The county and state are currently conducting a forensic audit to determine whether Gulnick should face additional charges related to his county responsibilities.
Gallagher’s release said the county had hired an outside labor counsel several years ago to conduct an investigation. She has been unsuccessfully seeking the results of that investigation for the past two years. These 2021 documents, she said, were necessary for the comptroller to recommend internal controls that would protect taxpayers from from waste, fraud and abuse.
According to Metzger’s office, Gallagher was seeking all corporate compliance hotline issue report forms from January 1, 2019 to the present, which could include personally identifying information of whistleblowers for any number of issues.
Metzger’s release said the county’s labor lawyer had advised Gallagher in September that a subpoena involving protected whistleblower information was improper under state law and the county charter. It expressed disappointment that Gallagher had taken “the extremely aggressive action to sue my office,” adding that providing unfettered access to private information unrelated to county business was a dangerous precedent and a violation of attorney-client privilege.
Gallagher had claimed in her office’s press release that the contested documents were necessary to carry out her charter-mandated responsibilities. Her own extreme disappointment, she wrote, was that her access to these books and records was being denied.
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