I want people to understand the Office of the Comptroller’s decision to subpoena records about Burt Gulnick from Ulster County and the resulting litigation.
Our document request is narrowly tailored to include specific records and time periods based on credible concerns. These concerns, several of which were reported to our office by whistleblowers, we raised repeatedly. The report we seek was conducted with taxpayer dollars because of documentation and concerns we brought forward. While we understand the former executive’s decision to have the investigation conducted by an outside firm, the investigation could have a significant impact on internal controls and thus it is imperative to our audit function that we review the results on behalf of the county taxpayer.
Our responsibility is not limited to “financial, books, records and accounts.” The Ulster County Charter enables the comptroller to undertake investigations. In this case, based on the allegations of potential time theft and other inappropriate behavior, we commenced an investigation in April of 2021. If we allow the administration to disregard our request for documents without response, it undermines the comptroller’s ability to access information in the future.
We are also not the only ones suing Ulster County over these issues. In fact, two former employees of the Department of Finance are now suing the county, alleging that they suffered discrimination and retaliation related to their coming forward about these concerns. Potential whistleblower retaliation creates a substantial financial risk to Ulster County taxpayers, and these allegations broaden my concerns about the way Ulster County handles whistleblower complaints.
In the past, the results of employee investigations have been shared with the legislature and the comptroller to ensure that appropriate checks and balances are maintained.
Providing my office access to information does not make the information public. In fact, the comptroller’s office reviews sensitive, confidential and personal information every day in the regular course of our work. We are bound by, and closely adhere to, both professional and legal standards, and maintain appropriate confidentiality requirements.
We have enjoyed working with the Metzger administration, but we believe that these documents are critical to performing our risk assessment duties as required by the County Charter. Many of these requests relate to internal controls, operational, and financial risks across the county. It is our job to request and review information related to county programs and operations. During my tenure as comptroller, the former county executive did answer subpoenas and found a way to provide me the information I needed to conduct the people’s business.
While I appreciate the opportunity to bring these issues to the people of Ulster County through the press, these questions will not be resolved here. Occasionally, public officials have differences of opinion about the scope of their responsibilities. We have a process for resolving these differences: a judge will decide based on the law and the facts.
Readers are welcome to access the comptroller’s side of the case here: https://tinyurl.com/subpoenalitigation.
March Gallagher
Ulster County Comptroller
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