District 16 (Gardiner, Shawangunk)
Tracey Bartels.
Tracey Bartels (Incumbent)
What skills or experience of yours qualify you to be a county legislator? Please include both public and private experience, if appropriate.
I have served four terms in the county legislature. In my role as a legislator, I draw on my previous experience in office as well as my experience in the private sector. I have been fortunate to build a reputation that I’m proud of, based on the mutual respect of colleagues in office. I work across party lines and keep my focus on the issue at hand and the citizens that I represent.
Being one of 23 legislators requires consensus-building in order to achieve results. I am proud of my ability to bring people together and my commitment to listen to all points of view. Compromise is not a bad word.
In the private sector, my work in film production and post-production gives me a unique perspective. In that role, I was responsible for managing millions of dollars and I was personally accountable for every last penny. I bring that fiscal responsibility to my role as a legislator. I have never voted for a tax increase and, in the course of my time in office, I have suggested millions in tax cuts.
Describe what the county legislature does and how it impacts the residents of your district.
The county legislature is the legislative, appropriating and policy-determining body of the county. The legislature adopts the county budget and is responsible for all actions related to local laws, including adopting, amending or rescinding laws. In the simplest terms, the legislature sets the policy; the executive administers the policy. On a practical level, the legislature approves all expenditures, including state-mandated programs, which make up a bulk of the annual budget. As a member of the legislature, I work across party lines to represent my constituents and my community — to protect taxpayers, the environment and the county as a whole.
Both the Resource Recovery Agency (RRA) and the Industrial Development Agency (IDA), to which the Legislature appoints members, have had friction with other stakeholders in the past year. As a legislator, how would you address concerns about those agencies?
These are both complex and critical issues. To begin with, the Resource Recovery Agency has largely experienced friction with stakeholders due to increases in tipping fees and proposed pull fees to the towns. With the introduction of flow control, the Agency moved to a direct user-fee charge in which the users of the system bear the full weight of the cost — including the payment of long-term debt associated with the original town landfill closures and subsequent refinancing of debt to prevent a significant tax increase. The county was long attempting to get away from the net service fee: the taxpayer-funded subsidy that annually went to the Agency and since flow control has remained at zero.
We have long recognized the need for a holistic approach to waste management in this county. Our current system involves trucking solid waste hundreds of miles at a significant financial and environmental cost: millions of dollars annually. It is absolutely unsustainable. I authored a resolution creating a Solid Waste Management Improvement Commission to address this very issue. We are in the process of investigating long term-solutions. The Commission is made up of stakeholders; legislators, the Agency, the industry, the towns, the city, the recycling community, the League of Women Voters and the general public all have a seat at the table. It’s been a very inspiring and enlightening process. I’m hopeful that we will have meaningful recommendations for the legislature and subsequently the RRA to consider. This must remain a priority for the next legislature.
As to the Industrial Development Agency, the friction hits very close to home. The IDA approved a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement for a project that created a tremendous controversy at the local level. The home community argued that the economic impacts weren’t adequately analyzed. For New Paltz, that argument played out in court and left the local community feeling as if its concerns were never considered. This was also a heated discussion for many of my constituents, as I represent many taxpayers in the New Paltz School District. I believe that the IDA should be required to evaluate local impacts, including those of community character and community services, when considering PILOT projects.
John Hinson.
John Hinson
What skills or experience of yours qualify you to be a county legislator? Please include both public and private experience, if appropriate.
I grew up in the Town of Montgomery with a single mother, a brother and a sister. I was raised on Welfare and my family rented the same home for over 25 years. After graduation from high school I went directly into the US Army. I was a military policeman assigned to the Tenth Mountain Division. I was deployed two times to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, and part of my duties was controlling the border between Egypt and Israel for the multinational forces and observers during the Persian Gulf War.
After my honorable discharge, I went to work with the developmentally disabled adults at Orange County AHRC. I worked full-time and went to night school at SUNY New Paltz full-time. After graduation in December 1994, I went to work as a vocational coordinator/behavior specialist at Ulster ARC and finally a case manager with New Horizons.
Once my first son was born, I needed to financially change my situation and I went to work for Iron Mountain Records, Storage and Information in Port Ewen. While working full-time, I began buying and renovating homes and started my first business. I utilized my knowledge of Medicaid and started a Medicaid consulting business, which to this day I still own. I advanced to director of operations at Iron Mountain, responsible for a budget in excess of 40 million dollars in revenue.
After 9/11 I had a change of heart with my priorities, and left Iron Mountain to focus on growing my businesses and spending time with my family. I continue to own and operate a Medicaid billing, own John Hinson Realty, LLC and a construction company.
I am currently a town councilman, a former member of the Zoning Board of Appeals and member of the Open Space Committee. I am a get-down, get-dirty and make-it-happen business owner. None of my employees can tell you that I have asked them to do any job that I have not done myself.
Describe what the county legislature does and how it impacts the residents of your district.
The Ulster County Legislature is the lawmaking and appropriating body for the entire county. There are many aspects of the legislature that affect the residents of Shawangunk and Gardiner: The legislature passes the budget and oversees the expenditure of funds for all of the services provided by the county, passes laws to enhance and protect the lives of county residents and works with localities to help make Ulster County the best place in the state to live, work and raise a family.
Both the Resource Recovery Agency (RRA) and the Industrial Development Agency (IDA), to which the Legislature appoints members, have had friction with other stakeholders in the past year. As a legislator, how would you address concerns about those agencies?
The legislature appoints the IDA board, which affects the taxes received at the local level. I will work with my colleagues to appoint members of the IDA board who will work for the best interests of the residents of Gardiner and Shawangunk, instead of political appointees who will do the bidding of a particular party.
The RRA handles all of the municipal solid waste for the county. Having flow control directs all of the garbage to one single entity, thereby ensuring its proper disposal. While I support the operation of the RRA until the debt is retired, I do not support the current attempts to site a landfill in Ulster County. There is a serious chance that the county will spend an enormous amount of money again, and end up without a landfill due to public pressure.
District 19 (Marbletown, Rosendale)
Manna Jo Greene.
Manna Jo Greene (Running Unopposed)
What skills or experience of yours qualify you to be a county legislator? Please include both public and private experience, if appropriate.
I have had the honor and privilege of serving on the Ulster County Legislature for the past two years representing District 19, the people of Rosendale and a portion of Marbletown, and, running unopposed, I look forward to the opportunity to continue to serve for the next two.
Before coming to the legislature, I served for eight years on the Rosendale Town Council. I have been the environmental director of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater for 15 years and served as the recycling coordinator/educator for the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA) for ten years prior. As recycling coordinator, I took Ulster County’s recycling rate from four percent to 40 percent in less than a decade and helped to draft the agency’s first Solid Waste Management Plan, which now needs to be updated. I also chaired the Rosendale Environmental Commission and served on the Ulster County Environmental Management Commission for many years prior.
Graduating from SUNY Ulster with an AAS in nursing, I worked as a critical care nurse at Benedictine Hospital for 22 years, during which time I organized two union campaigns to improve conditions for nurses and patients. I actively promote green building, renewable energy and sustainable agriculture throughout the mid-Hudson region, including helping to draft the Energy Chapter of the Mid-Hudson Regional Sustainability Plan.
With my years of public service, my ongoing efforts to ensure environmental protection and promote sustainable development and my experience in health care, I am uniquely qualified to serve as a county legislator. Moreover, I learn by listening, researching and asking informed questions to create the best possible solutions, which is a valuable and much-needed asset to ensure good governance.
Describe what the county legislature does and how it impacts the residents of your district.
The Ulster County Legislature passes laws and sets policy, which the executive branch then administers. Much of the work is done in various committees. I have served on Energy and Environment, Public Works and Capital Projects and Laws and Rules. I also chair the Ulster County Climate Smart Committee. I have always run for office on a platform of sustainability and collaboration, and my time in the legislature has challenged me to actively employ these principles.
Two major issues this term are 1) resolving the future use of the Ulster & Delaware Rail Corridor in a way that is most beneficial to a wide variety of residents, business and visitors; and 2) making recommendations for sound solid waste management that will stop us from spending $8 million a year to export our waste to distant landfills. I serve on two committees that are working well to achieve both of these goals.
I remain easily accessible to my constituents at (845) 687-9253 or [email protected] and eager to hear their suggestions and to address their concerns.
Both the Resource Recovery Agency and the Industrial Development Agency, to which the legislature appoints members, have had friction with other stakeholders in the past year. As a legislator, how would you address concerns about those agencies?
A League of Women Voters study group, on which I served, defined sustainability as being comprised of Four Es: the balancing of Environmental Protection, Economic Prosperity (based on quality-of-life indicators) and Social Equity, achieved by using Effective Communication. During my first term in the Legislature I have actively promoted a fact-based, solution-oriented process, where varying values become additive (instead of canceling each other out) to achieve superior results.
I actively attend UCRRA Board and Town Supervisor Association meetings, and proposed and now serve on the consensus-based Solid Waste Management Improvement Commission, which is capably co-chaired by Carl Chipman, the Republican supervisor from Rochester, and by Hector Rodriguez, Democratic legislator from New Paltz. It consists of a variety of stakeholders including haulers, recycling coordinators, a geologist, businesses and several legislators, who use the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and other experts as resources, and who are committed to doing the research needed to make the best recommendation to the RRA Board, which the Legislature appoints on a rotating basis.
Another contentious issue is the future use of the U & D Rail Corridor, which is being addressed by the Ulster & Delaware Corridor Advisory Committee, another bipartisan committee focused on creating the best recommendations to the legislature for the future use of this unique resource.
Friction is best resolved by active listening, and sometimes that requires facilitation. If members of the RRA, IDA or other boards are incapable or unwilling to listen for solutions that best serve our constituents and the county, they should be replaced with people who are.
A lifelong activist for peace and justice, I cut my teeth as a teenager in the Civil Rights movement, where I learned that if your cause is just and you are persistent, you will eventually triumph. I thank the voters of Rosendale and Marbletown for their continued support and urge them to call on me regarding any countywide issues of concern or with suggestions to maintain and enhance our county’s beauty, health and safety, economy prosperity, social justice and long-term sustainability.
District 20 (New Paltz)
Hector Rodriguez.
Hector Rodriguez (Running Unopposed)
What skills or experience of yours qualify you to be a county legislator? Please include both public and private experience, if appropriate.
I have had the opportunity to work at every level of government, from the White House and Capitol Hill, to local government. I’ve been lucky enough to have the support of this community for my 12 years in office. The skills I bring to the position are the ability to work out compromise when needed to pass legislation for our community, to listen for community input and translate that into action.
Describe what the county legislature does and how it impacts the residents of your district.
The legislature must decide policy for our county. Sometimes that impact is significant, like the county take over of “Safety Net” or flow control. Other times it is smaller, such at the countywide ban on styrofoam or the New Paltz Loop. I’m currently working on banning products containing microbeads. Small, but ultimately significant.
Both the Resource Recovery Agency and the Industrial Development Agency, to which the legislature appoints members, have had friction with other stakeholders in the past year. As a legislator, how would you address concerns about those agencies?
I have deep concerns about the Industrial Development Agency and I believe we need wholesale changes there. During my time in office, previous legislatures had a close relationship with the IDA. The organization now has rewritten its rules, and of course we all know what transpired with Wilmorite. Unfortunately, leadership in the legislature seems to support the actions of this agency. However, a group of legislators will reintroduce a resolution calling for them to work with local government and to stop their practice of negotiating PILOTs without local government consent. Previous IDA boards would only sign off on a PILOT with the local government’s permission.
The RRA is another public benefit corporation of the county and again, leadership decided to reject the Democratic nominee this year. However, the legislature has another appointment coming up this year and I intend on using this chance at pushing for better relationships with the Town of New Paltz. We are working with the RRA to attempt to address the long term waste solution for our county.
To learn more about all the candidates running for election in New Paltz, Gardiner, Highland and Rosendale, visit newpaltzx.com.
