KINGSTON – Every few years, an independent committee meets to reconsider pay raises for county legislators and certain other elected positions in Ulster County Government. Usually nobody bothers to pay attention, and the public hearing held Tuesday night was no different.
The hearing was closed after 15 minutes, and conversation quickly turned to baseball.
Barely anyone braved the rainstorm to witness the proceedings of the Ulster County Periodic Compensation Review Committee, except a handful of reporters and the committee members themselves. Several different versions of the final draft were floating around the meeting, and the finished product was described as “chicken scrawl,” with last-minute tweaks to the language.
Committee member Gerald Benjamin said the language in the document was
fine tuned over the last few days.
“The policy recommendations were the same tonight as what was posted online,” Benjamin said. “The rationale has been changed to some significant degree.”
“It’s really a matter of language on the rationale,” agreed committee member Wayne Gutman. “There’s been no changes whatsoever to any data, any empirical number, anything.”
Chairman Glenn Noonan said the legislature will have several options for increased compensation this year. The full legislature must decide which option to choose together as a collective body. One is to drop the benefits package and get an extra $10,000. The other choices are pay 30 percent benefits and get $3,000; or pay 40 percent benefits, get $4,000; or pay 50 percent benefits and get $5,000.
The district attorney’s salary is set by statute and is excluded from review. County executive and sheriff will not be getting raises this year.
