Officials make second try for first-class status

The Town Board has moved forward with a second set of approvals needed to get state lawmakers to recognize that the municipality should be designated a Town of the First Class.

Supervisor James Quigley said Tuesday the first set of resolutions approved in December did not have all the information needed by the state Senate and Assembly. The new paperwork is expected to cross every “t” and dot every “i” before it is forwarded in hopes there will be a special legislative session.

“We did not have a Senate and Assembly bill number in the resolution,” he said. “We had not been instructed to fill out the home rule paperwork. I got a call on June 2 from (state) Sen. (Michelle) Hinchey saying, ‘I can’t do this. You didn’t send us the paperwork.’”

In November, residents approved in a referendum by a 1,557-1,093 margin establishment of the position, which was expected to begin in 2023. However, the paperwork snafu was not discovered until the final weeks of the state legislative session and the bid to become a Town of the First Class can only move forward if a special session is called.

Quigley said it would be easier to have the two current lawmakers request the vote than trying to explain the process to a new Assembly member after Kevin Cahill’s Democratic primary loss and a new senator if Hinchey is not re-elected

“I’m not leaving anything to chance here,” he said. “I’m afraid (a new Assembly representative) is going to be totally lost as a babe in the woods and have no clue as to constituent service and how to get things done.”

Quigley previously said his reasons for wanting the change include avoiding situations where town finances are maintained by someone without a fiscal background. Towns of the First Class are required to have a comptroller.

The town passed the threshold for being granted a “first-class” designation after the 1970 census brought its population to over 10,000 residents. However, board members in 1966 had already taken a special census and decided in September 1969 to ask state lawmakers to “enact a special law exempting the town of Ulster from the mandatory classification change.”

State law through 1975 required first-class town boards to be made up entirely of elected members but allowed second-class town boards to consist of two town justices, two citizen council members, and the town supervisor. Records from 1975 show that the Ulster town budget had pay set at $23,000 for the two judges’ personal services and an additional $7,500 each for salaries as Town Board members.

Minutes of a May 21, 1975, Town Board meeting, where residents were questioning the decision to remain a second-class town, show that then-Justice Sherwood Davis defended the decision and then-Supervisor Carmine Sabino agreed that a comptroller overseeing town finances would be detrimental.