Olrud, one of a small group of activists among Ulster County’s estimated 14,000 veterans, comes with bona fides. A member of American Legion (motorcycle) Riders out of Post 1298 in Port Ewen, he is post adjutant (second in command), a second vice-commander on the county level, and a past president of the Ulster chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America.
In his e-mail slugged “A cease-and-desist request from Mike Hein,” Olrud spoke of a meeting of county veterans services director Steve Massee, his deputy Keith Bennett and himself last week where Massee had allegedly conveyed Hein’s ire over scattered criticism having to deal with names on veterans’ monuments.
Olrud quoted Hein as telling his veterans’ agency leaders to convey this message to veterans: “Either we back off openly attacking him and his veterans’ initiatives or he will stop any and all county veterans’ funding of veteran initiatives and fund requests, period.”
That Hein slaps his name on almost anything connected to county government, even buses and the veterans’ Patriot House for homeless vets in Kingston, is to some veterans and others annoying. Generally, it is understood that such self-promotion is one of the perks of office, there for the taking by almost any politician.
Hein’s predilection for self-glorification is clearly at the heart of Olrud’s missive, but he fails in one crucial aspect: Olrud’s widely disseminated account is hearsay once removed. And all of us courtroom drama fans know even firsthand hearsay is inadmissible as proof. As Olrud claims in his email, Hein is telling his minions to tell “veterans” something Hein allegedly told them. Whew.
Massee stoutly denies the conversation ever took place.
‘Complete fabrication?’
Those who have been on the opposing sides of issues with Hein and those who understand how he can react to criticism might see a ring of truth here, but assumed proclivity is only an indicator subject to speculation.
Besides, it would have been downright stupid for Hein, in an election year and with the grand opening of his veterans’ war memorial in front of the county office building now less than two months away, to have uttered any such words in front of staff, even in a fit of pique. It would have been even dumber to order such views conveyed to veterans themselves for certain public consumption.
(Photo: Phyllis McCabe)
Hein, who most assuredly recognizes a no-win man-beats-wife story when he sees one, was not available for comment. He has, however, allowed his department head to speak.
Massee, a retired Navy captain, director of county Veterans Services Agency and a Hein appointee, confirms the meeting with Olrud last week, but said the conversation Olrud wrote about was “pretty much a complete fabrication.” Said he, “It bears no resemblance at all to what we discussed.”
What they discussed or who else was there he wouldn’t say, since “all discussions with veterans in our office are confidential.” (Up to and including, apparently, discussions on public policy.)
Olrud has not responded to repeated inquires for further comment.
As the troops are never happy unless they’re bitchin’ about something, there’s no doubt some activists don’t like the idea of politicians “playing politics” by putting their names on public projects, as Hein did (in large letters) at the homeless veterans’ project on Wurts Street last summer. At the same time, most veterans appreciate the initiative Hein took, which had considerable community support. If Hein, a Democrat, was playing politics on that one — and that’s a subjective judgment — he hit a home run.
County Legion Commander Ira Weiner, a former Esopus councilman, former town Republican chairman and Olrud’s post commander, takes a more sanguine view. For openers, Weiner said, in his e-mail to veterans in response to Olrud, that Olrud “does not have our support, nor were any of us involved in the preparation and composition of said letter.”
To clarify, Olrud in his email doesn’t say he speaks for vets, only that Massee asked him to convey Hein’s so-called message.
In closing, Weiner must have warmed the cockles of Hein’s heart with the kind of endorsement that could wind up in somebody’s campaign brochure: “In all my dealings with county executive Mike Hein,” he wrote, “never once did I ever hear him say or [allude to] ‘closing the door’ on veterans or their projects. [“Close the door” was Olrud’s phrase.] While he [Hein] may have been disappointed in some attitudes, he has always come across as sincere in his intent to never stop honoring, helping and respecting veterans. I believe we have a win-win situation in Ulster County.”
Hein couldn’t have said it better himself. Whatever the design on the veterans’ memorial monument at the county office building in place for a May 24 dedication, it might be in for a tweaking. There will be 1,300 names of killed-in-wartime veterans on it. In my humble view, the words in the largest letters on the monument should not be, as on the memorial in front of Patriot House, the county executive’s name.
mike hien’s a bully
I like Hugh Reynokd’s writing. This week I also like what he says.
Hein is such a legend in his own mind, he should have his own statue in Academy Green Park. As for the name of a politician, how about Richard Milhous Nixon? After all, that absolves all Democrats of guilt over the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which occurred under LBJ, and has the great benefit of reminding folks from whence Mr. Hein came before he became such a “people’s advocate”. LOL