Legislators battle over routine appointments
A series of seemingly routine resolutions to appoint members to the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency board of directors turned controversial Tuesday when county Legislature Minority Leader Hector Rodriguez made a last-minute motion to change one of the appointments.
Legislature Chairman Ken Ronk called the move “disgraceful” and said it made a mockery of the process legislators went through in selecting the new board members.
Rodriguez, D-New Paltz, defended the move, saying Kerhonkson resident Richard Jones’ name deserved to be put up for consideration by the full Legislature.
At issue was a resolution appointing former county Legislator TJ Briggs, now a Wawarsing Town Board member, to the Industrial Development Agency board.
Rodriguez introduced a motion on the floor of the Legislature to amend that resolution to substitute Jones for Briggs, D-Ellenville.
That motion passed, 139, with Legislators Joseph Maloney, I-Saugerties, and Brian Woltman, R-Kingston, joining with Democrats in favor of the move. All other Republican legislators opposed the change. Kevin Roberts, R-Plattekill, was absent.
“Clearly we felt Mr. Jones deserved a full hearing,” said Rodriguez, adding that he was “personally invested” in seeing Jones appointed.
“He interviewed fantastic,” he said.
“To me,” said Ronk, RWallkill, “this reeks of the kind of back-room, backdoor deals that exist in Albany and Washington. To me, it’s a disgraceful abuse of legislative power.”
Legislator James Maloney, chairman of the Legislature’s Economic Development Committee, said Rodriguez was “hijacking democracy” by making the 11th-hour change.
“Apparently going through a process that was an agreed upon process doesn’t matter,” said Maloney, R-Ulster.
Legislator David Donaldson, D-Kingston, said the committee subverted democracy by taking what he said was a secret-ballot vote to select the appointees.
“Seven people sat in that room,” James Maloney said. “It wasn’t a secret vote.”
Ronk said each committee member was asked to write the names of their top picks for the slots on a slip of paper. The votes for each candidate were tallied and the committee voted on the final recommendations.
Also appointed to the board were: Daniel Savona of Kingston, Paul Andreassen of Malden-on-Hudson, and Michael Ham of Kingston. Reappointed to the board were Randall Leverette of New Paltz, and James Malcolm of Highland.
There still is one vacancy on the board. Legislators are expected to vote to fill that position at their June meeting.