ULSTER COUNTY KEEPING BUSY
Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan shows no signs of slowing down seven months into job
Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan hit the ground running when he assumed the helm of Ulster County government in June, and in the seven months since taking office, Ryan — who is only the second elected executive in the county’s history — is showing no sign of slowing down.
In fact, he laughed and said during a recent interview, “settled is not the word that comes to mind” when asked whether he’s settling into his new role.
“I keep waiting for a slow day and it has not happened yet,” he said.
Since taking office following a special election in April, Ryan has held town hall-style meetings in each of the county’s 20 towns. He’s met with department heads in each of the county’s 28 departments, as well as community leaders from across the county. In addition, he’s held numerous press conferences.
Four months after taking office, he released his first county budget, a $342.9 million spending plan that, like the budgets of his predecessor, former County Executive Michael Hein, decreases the amount to be raised by property taxes.
He has proposed a variety of initiatives aimed at his “Big Five” priorities for his term: developing a “green new deal” for Ulster County; ramping up the county’s efforts to combat opioid abuse; expanding and diversifying the county’s skills-training programs to ensure county residents have the tools to find good-paying jobs; redefining the county’s criminal
justice efforts; and making county government more responsive and responsible.
Recently, he said, he met individually with each member of the incoming county Legislature, and, during his State of the County address Thursday, announced plans to hold youth meetings in each of the county’s nine school districts.
He also announced during his address an aggressive plan to create 1,000 new jobs in Ulster County in 1,000 days.
“We’re running fast,” he said.
A Kingston native, Ryan graduated from Kingston High School in 2000 and attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. As a captain in the U.S. Army, Ryan served two tours in Iraq as an Army intelligence
officer. After leaving the Army, he founded a technology company that focused on improving cybersecurity.
Although he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic line in the 2018 congressional election, his position as county executive marks the 38-year-old’s first foray into elected politics. A Democrat, Ryan was elected in April to fill the unexpired term of former County Executive Michael Hein, who stepped down from the post to take a job in the state Office of Children and Family Services. He won a fouryear term in office in a rematch against Conservative Party Chairman Jack Hayes in November.
Ryan admits there’s been a bit of a learning curve, “I didn’t totally know what to
expect,” he said. He added, however, that his time as both a leader in the military and as a business entrepreneur gave him a good foundation to build upon.
“The core leadership skills and management skills as a West Point cadet have been crucial,” he said, as have the planning processes he learned as a military officer and the lessons he learned as a small businessman.
And serving the 180,000 residents of Ulster County has given him the same sense of purpose and mission he felt when serving in the military.
“The part that I was excited about that has aligned with what I hoped is feeling a real sense of purpose and mission, which is something I had when I was in the military and I felt less
when I was in the private sector,” Ryan said. “Feeling like all the hard work is actually contributing something back that is meaningful, so that’s the part that I hoped for that has been met or even exceeded.”
He said he was also surprised to discover how much county government actually does and the myriad ways it touches the lives of the county’s residents.
“It was really a humbling exercise to realize to realize how much good work is actually happening and the level of talent that we have,” he said.
In the midst of it all, Ryan is making sure to carve out time for his son, 6-monthold Theo, and his wife, Rebecca. He said the two tag team childcare and home responsibilities, with Ryan
dropping his son off at daycare most morning and cooking most of the family meals.
He says it is his hope that Theo, like his dad, will be able to find a place to live and work in Ulster County, which pushes him to work as hard as he does.
“I specifically think it’s so critical that young people are excited about what’s going on here and feel like there’s a place for them here,” Ryan said, adding that he didn’t feel that way when he graduated from high school 20 years ago.
“I’m really excited to go talk to young people, getting them excited about what we have going on here, but also feeling empowered, feeling that they have a role to play in what things are going to look like 20 years out.”