Months ahead of the planned retirement of Town of Ulster Supervisor James E. Quigley, III, council-members last week unanimously approved delegating all authority for the daily operations of the Town of Ulster and its districts to deputy supervisor Clayton Van Kleeck.
Following the authorization at a meeting of the town board held on Tuesday, April 9, Van Kleeck explained that the move doesn’t mean Quigley is leaving sooner than August of this year, only that town officials are looking to make an “unusual and unique” transition as seamless as possible.
“We want to be very clear about this,” Van Kleeck said. “Supervisor Quigley has given his intentions of retiring later this summer. I have been working closely with the board as a deputy supervisor to work this transition through so that the Town of Ulster doesn’t miss a step if that’s at all possible.”
While the departure of elected officials is an annual occurrence, it generally happens following an election cycle.
“This is a very unusual and unique thing that’s occurring in the Town of Ulster,” Van Kleeck said. “Jim and I will continue to work closely together, as we do with the rest of the departments. This decision was made so that we can help the department heads and help everyone else that works with the town to ask questions and be able to know there’s a transition. Jim is still here, he’s still the supervisor and I’m the deputy supervisor and I have increased responsibilities now.”
Van Kleeck said town officials wanted the public to understand that despite the unique nature of the move, it was designed to ensure business continued moving forward as smoothly as possible.
“We want to be clear and open with everyone about this,” he said. “We’ll continue to try to be organized, clear and efficient in how we handle things.”
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