Berky loses seat in wake of police dash cam video going viral
Republican Brian Woltman defeated first-term Democrat Jennifer Schwartz Berky, 1,030-811, on Tuesday for the Ulster County Legislature seat in District 7.
Just weeks before the election, Berky, 53, found herself the subject of local and national scrutiny after a video depicting her emotional breakdown during a traffic stop in the town of Ulster was made public and quickly went viral.
At one point during the 26-minute police dash cam video, town of Ulster Police Officer Gary Short asks Berky if she’ll listen to him, and she responds: “Yes, I will listen to you, and you’re not going to let me go even though I’m a county legislator and I always do everything right and I follow the law and I was at the same pace as every other car.”
Berky, pulled over for driving 43 mph in a 30-mph zone, also tells Short she’ll call town of Ulster Supervisor James Quigley and that Ulster County Sheriff Paul Van-Blarcum already had been contacted.
Three days after the video was made public, Berky issued a statement apologizing for her behavior, saying her actions were unacceptable and thanking Short for “his patience and professionalism with me during a very difficult time.”
Woltman, 55, is the purchasing agent for the city of Kingston. He lost to Berky in District 7 two years ago.
Woltman said the county needs leaders in government who will listen to and heed the messages of its residents and he vowed to work to “make it as reasonable as possible” for people to open businesses in the county. He also called for a review of the county’s regulations on businesses to see if there are regulations that are impeding business opportunities and said he opposes a proposal for the county to assume the responsibility for unpaid property taxes in county’s three villages, which he said would place “an unfair burden” on city taxpayers.