Orange County Senator Bill Larkin, after zealously representing Kingston since 1989, might find that assessment interesting. So, too, would he view Sottile’s remark that when seeking support on state issues he more often went north to Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings.
Just why a former mayor from Kingston would volunteer to testify before a legislative commission is also intriguing, but not to Sottile. “After 10 years, who knows the city better?” he mused. His city, however, is less than 8 percent of a sprawling district that meanders up theHudsonto the Mohawk.
Sottile, now busy selling real estate, made clear he has no intention of running in the new district.
Here and there
It made for juicy headlines, but I think Mike Hein’s latest good-government initiative, a proposal to reduce the comp time county managers can store up for retirement, was a case of too little too late. Fact is, several of Hein’s big horses recently left the barn after filing for retirement — with plenty of comp time — before the chief executive’s proclamation. And any leftovers will be covered under the generous old rules. Recommended reforms — if approved by the legislature — won’t be retroactive and wouldn’t kick in until April.
But give Hein credit for again having the pulse of the public. People deeply resent highly paid management types, some of them Hein’s appointees, taking a ton of cash out the door with them.
Poor Kelly Myers. The newly elected Saugerties town supervisor wasn’t even in office when she set off a firestorm among constituents by suggesting the position deserved a pay raise. Maybe so, but Myers didn’t raise the issue during her successful campaign against incumbent Greg Helsmoortel.
Lately, Myers got into hot water for docking the salary of town animal control officer Marie Post while the 87-year-old great-grandmother was in the hospital recovering from open-heart surgery. Post, a former town councilmember and mother to formerUlstersheriff Ken Post, is one of the more beloved figures in Saugerties. A well-respected animal advocate, Post attempted to carry out her duties while hospitalized, something Myers belatedly discovered when said she came to visit her at her sickbed.
“My son Ken [the ex-sheriff] was with me and I began telling her what I had been doing to keep in touch with my [12 full-and-part-time] people and I guess she realized what was going on,” Post told me. Post, currently rehabilitating at Thompson House in Rhinebeck, also supervises the town transfer station. Her part-time salary, $24,000 a year, also includes, unbeknownst to the supervisor until last month, her health care.
Post, a forgiving type, says she bears no grudges against the rookie supervisor. “We’re all in this together. We’re all trying to do what’s best for the Saugerties we love, I think Kelly understands that,” she said.
Attempts to reach Myers were unsuccessful.
