| KINGSTON
- Ulster County is changing its governmental structure and is
forming a transition team to facilitate the change mandated by
the recently approved county charter.
"The goal of the committee is to put the structure in place
to allow the comptroller and the executive to step in when the
treasurer goes away and the administrator goes away," said
Gary Bischoff, D-Saugerties, chairman of the Legislature's Efficiency
and a Reform Committee legislator who will serve as the transition
team's chairman.
Narrowly approved by voters in November, the document outlines
the creation of a county executive position, a comptroller position,
reducing the number of Legislators from 33 to 23, and other structural
changes.
"It's to give Ulster County a modernized government,"
said Dean Gerald Benjamin from the State University of New York
at New Paltz. Benjamin headed the Charter Commission that created
the document.
The transition team will include Bischoff and Benjamin; Legislators
Robert Parete, D-Boiceville; Philip Terpening, D-Kingston and
Wayne Harris, R-Clintondale; Marianne Collins from Ulster County
Community College and Kingston attorney Louis Klein. Deputy County
Administrator Arthur Smith will serve as a resource for the team.
Committee meetings will be open to the public, Bischoff said.
But even as the county moves toward charter implementation, some
members of the public are still looking to change the document.
New Paltz resident Pete Healey has banded with county residents,
including New Paltz Supervisor Toni Hokanson and Republican Committee
member Bill West. They are concerned with the charter's language,
how it outlines district reapportionment, how the ethics board
is appointed and how there is no appeals system for department
heads.
While Healey accepts the charter's adoption, he thinks county
officials should try harder to address these concerns.
"Just because it passed, it doesn't mean it's a perfect document,"
he said. "Forty-nine and a half percent of the people who
voted on this didn't like it."
The charter passed 20,149 to 18,785, with a vote so close it couldn't
be called on election night. The government restructuring outlined
in the charter must be completed by Jan. 1, 2009, when the new
county executive takes office.
Alice Hunt can be reached at hunta@poughkeepsiejournal.com
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