Hugh Reynolds: Charter chatter

Did I mention real estate? Is there a pattern here?

Along those lines, I’m hearing that former budget director Art Smith and deputy executive Marshall Beckman, recently retired with generous pensions, are back in harness as “contract employees” in the executive branch. Beckman will focus his considerable talents on getting the Golden Hill Local Development Corporation up and running. Smith, master of his former domain, will give not-quite-ready-for-prime-time budget director J.J. Hanson (his successor) a few more lessons.

Farewell and good luck to county health Commissioner Dr. La Mar Hasbrouck, 44, a man with a plan and well on his way to achieving it. Hasbrouck told us when confirmed by the legislature in 2009 that his career goal was to beU.S. surgeon general, and that he could giveUlster three years at the most. He’ll start work as health commissioner for the state ofIllinois next week. And wasn’t the current occupant of the White House a senator fromIllinois?

As for Hasbrouck’s record as Ulster health commissioner, absent independent judgment, we’ll just have to take the administration’s word for it. For sure, Illinois must have been impressed.

Tenaciously left-of-Maurice Hinchey congressional candidate Joel Tyner, unlike most zealots, seems to have a sense of humor about himself. Asked how an anti-establishment candidate such as himself expected to raise the several millions necessary to challenge incumbent Republican Chris Gibson ofColumbiaCounty, the itinerant school teacher replied, “Have you heard of the Tyner tithe?”

Tyner, a Dutchess legislator, faces Ulsterman Julian Schreibman in a June 26 primary. He takes heart that Maurice Hinchey, in an interview last week, “did not endorse Schreibman.” In fact, Hinchey does not take sides in primaries.

On Tuesday, the Schreibman campaign announced he had secured the Working Families Party endorsement. Schreibman certainly leans that way, but if anybody epitomizes the values of the WFP over a long career in politics, it’s Tyner. Party bosses obviously consider Schreibman, who’s never been elected to public office, a better bet.

Where’s George?

Back in the day when I ran a weekly newspaper, we were always looking for interesting and/or off-beat local features. Former Freeman editor Sam Daleo used to call them “gee-whiz stories.”

One of the more memorable episodes was when I stood on the sidewalk in front of first-governor George Clinton’s eight-foot monument at the Old Dutch Church and asked passersby where Clinton was buried. Responses ranged from shrugs and glares to “over at the Governor Clinton Hotel,” or “at the Governor Clinton Market.”

One guy thought he was buried “some place onClinton Avenue, that’s why they named the street for him.” Another thought he was buried “near Governor Clinton Cleaners, where he had his uniforms cleaned.” Still another insisted he was buried at Kingston City Hall, where his portrait was on display.

It was fun and served to illustrate that some Kingstonians were just a tad foggy on their local history. For those with a mind for some catch-up, the 200th anniversary of Clinton’s death will be marked with pomp and ceremony beginning at the gravesite on the corner ofMainand Wall streets at noon on Friday, April 20.

Clinton biographer John Kaminski will lecture on Clinton at the courthouse on Wall Street at 1:30 p.m. I interviewed Kaminski for a Clinton feature in this edition and found him a most delightful character. Any historian who quotes Yogi Berra has to be interesting. Don’t miss his presentation.