Can a county executive make a difference in improving a county”™s economy? Ulster County now serves as a political laboratory of sorts in answering that question because this November it will elect its first ever county executive, at a time when the economy nationally and locally is challenged to compete in marketplaces that are global.
The Ulster County Development Agency is hoping the new office can make a difference developing the county”™s lagging economy. Last month, the UCDC publicly warned that state policymakers in Albany are overlooking needs in the mid-Hudson Valley while focusing economic development efforts farther upstate and in the New York City metropolitan area.
“The bottom line is we look forward to working with a strong and effective county executive,” said UCDC president Lance Matteson  “We need to spotlight our needs and to properly position them within the framework of a statewide program for assistance. And a premier Ulster County Executive will be key to making that case.”
The post of executive was created two years ago when county voters narrowly approved a referendum changing the county”™s charter and form of government, adding an elected executive and elected comptroller to replace the appointed administrator and elected treasurer. The executive will work with the existing 33-member county Legislature, whose chairman has served as the county”™s de-facto chief executive.
Most of New York state”™s 57 counties do not have an executive. When the Ulster County executive takes the oath of office in January 2009, Ulster will join 16 other counties including Westchester, Orange, Dutchess, Rockland, Putnam, Nassau and Suffolk counties with elected county executives.
“What the executive can do is give focus and direction to the government, so the government has priorities,” said Gerald Benjamin, Dean of political science at SUNY-New Paltz. A former Ulster County legislative chairman himself in the early 1990s, he also chaired the charter commission that created the new form of government.
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“An executive means someone distinctly identifiable as a leader, and that is something we don”™t”™ have now,” Benjamin said. “When businesses approach an area, they want to know who is in charge, who can we go to? With an executive there is a go-to person in the government.”
The major candidates for Executive in Ulster County are Democrat Michael Hein, 42, the current county administrator who was appointed to the post by a new Democratic majority in 2006. He had cultivated an image as a reformer, having shaped county budgets that consolidated some minor departments, and reshaped the county”™s health insurance package for some 2000 county employees. Hein also helped create the new county Environmental Department and recently helped conclude successful negotiations with the CSEA for a new labor contract.
The Republican line is held by Len Bernardo, 53, co-owner of Skate Time in Accord, who is actually a member of the county Independence Party. Bernardo opened the skate facility in 2006 after moving upstate from serving as founder, owner and president of Data Communique International of Carlstadt, New Jersey. He created a new method of disseminating financial data for the mutual funds industry before selling the business to Havas Advertising in 1998. He then served as president of the company until 2007 when he moved to Accord.
Officially, the county executive is charged with creating and overseeing the county”™s roughly $325 million annual budget, which must be approved by the Legislature. Another key power is the ability to appoint department heads. Both men agree that the county executive would serve as a focal point that could direct county economic policy more effectively than a legislative chairman can do.
“The executive office gives the ability to convene large groups; you can bring people together,” said Hein. “This will be a coordinating role in many respects,”
Bernardo noted the importance of the power to appoint department heads. “We put the right people in place to get the job done; that”™s what an executive does,” he said.
Both expressed support for creating shovel-ready sites, including potentially developing at the 850-acre Winston Farm in Saugerties recently selected by the county UCDC as its top potential site to build a business park.
Hein noted that whoever wins will face a particular challenge. “The difficult thing is we are making this transition during recessionary times,” said Hein.
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