The two candidates in a special election for Ulster County executive addressed the business community Wednesday morning during an Ulster County Chamber of Commerce forum.
The forum at the Diamond Mills Hotel in Saugerties featured questions from the audience, like: what is broken in Ulster County and needs to be fixed? Democrat Pat Ryan, the runner-up in the 19th Congressional District 2018 primary, said improving the lives of the more than 40 percent of the county’s 180,000 residents who live paycheck to paycheck is in dire need of attention.
“There’s a lot of pieces to fix it from getting wages up to investing in skills training programs and apprenticeship programs to figuring out how to incentivize more small business starts and small business owners to further grow the business,” Ryan says. “So, but, if we don’t, if we continue to grow and yet leave way too many people behind, it’s not only, in my opinion, the morally wrong thing, but it’s not good for our economy when can’t participate and be part of the economy.”
Number two on his list is addressing the opioid epidemic. Republican Jack Hayes, who chairs the county’s Conservative Party and is a former county legislator and town supervisor, has a different priority — addressing short-term revenues. Second, though, is managing solid waste. Hayes recently served on the board of the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency.
“I’m very, very impressed with the way that Tim Rose is running the agency, and he’s looking forward,” Hayes says. “He is really looking for solutions, and we’ve been talking, we talked to Greene County, we talked to Sullivan about a regional approach. I think we could probably extend that to Dutchess.”
He too, mentioned addressing the opioid crisis. The April 30 special election was set after County Executive Mike Hein left the post in February after 10 years, to take a position leading the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. Hein, a Democrat, was the county’s first executive, following a change in the county charter that created the position. His third term would have run through the end of this year.
Acting County Executive Adele Reiter, who served as Hein’s chief of staff, saw credence in both candidates’ concerns. As for her brief role:
“I am so appreciative of having the opportunity to do this job. I love this job. I’ve been working, fortunate to work with Mike for the past 10 years, so there’s nothing that I haven’t seen or done before but I think we all miss him terribly,” says Reiter. “And I look forward to a new county executive coming in to work with me and continuing to do the work of the people because it’s critically important that everyone in this county knows how important they are to this government.”
Both Hayes and Ryan said that, if elected, they would want Reiter alongside. Ryan and Hayes, both of Gardiner, were polite, answered the questions at hand, and did not take swipes at one another. They’ll face each other not only April 30 but again in the general election in November. Hayes calls the timing of the two elections ridiculous.
“I had made the suggestion that we push this special to the primary so there’d be no additional cost. And I don’t see what it would have hurt. It’s a couple months,” says Hayes. “The interim portion of someone getting elected is really just a stopgap; it’s just a prelude to the next four years.”
The Ulster County Republican Committee nominated Hayes in March. Hayes, a former state trooper, says it is important that voters have a choice. Ryan, a West Point graduate who founded a tech company, has been on the campaign trail since January.
“I think campaigning and getting out there and talking to people is actually really, I love doing it personally and I think it’s a really healthy thing for our democracy,” says Ryan. “So I kind of take the direction of what our county charter says, what we need to do or not do.”
Abe Uchitelle is president of Kingston-based digital marketing firm Dragon360 and is running for a county legislator post. He supports Ryan and wants to see investment in workforce development.
“We did a lot of work in economic development but we need to invest in our community right here and especially for the young people that have an opportunity to come away with the skills that they need to be successful,” Uchitelle says.
“How do you win in a Democratic county?” asks Dunne.
“Keep talking, I guess. I talk to a lot of Democrats and I have a lot of Democrat friends. And I’ve elected Democrats that I’ve helped to win elections,” says Hayes. “We have to go with a philosophy, what do you want, we have to pick a philosophy rather than a brand. The brand business is getting old. It’s not helping us at all.”
By brand, he refers to party affiliation. Ryan served two combat tours in Iraq as an Army intelligence officer. Asked how he would lead the county differently than his Democratic predecessor, he says he would build on Hein’s initiatives and accomplishments, and gives an example.
“I’ve been calling for a Green New Deal in Ulster County where we move aggressively to renewable energy, where we build a green jobs academy and actually train our folks in those skills,” says Ryan. “That’s not something, that’s just, I think, going even further than we’ve already gone in playing to our strength as this wonderful, environmentally-conscious county.”
As for what the candidates took away from the forum, here’s Hayes:
“Telling the business community that they’re the answer rather than me trying to tell them how to operate is the big takeaway,” says Hayes. “And I think they know that.”
And Ryan:
“I think it was an awesome discussion. I think what people heard was, one, my energy and excitement about the job, my optimism about our county as a place that’s going to keep growing, and my commitment to work with the business community to figure out how to do that the best way,” says Ryan. “I think one of the lines that people seemed to cue on was when I said sometimes government’s job is to get out of the way and then the other piece was to make these foundational investments like broadband Internet in every corner of the county.”
Again, the special election for Ulster County executive is April 30.
