KINGSTON – Ulster County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach’s effort to block the county from reducing his staff size by some 10 percent was rejected by a State Supreme Court justice.
Auerbach maintained the reduction of one full-timer and the hours of
a part-timer would make it extremely difficult for his office to carry
out its independent review of county spending.
County Executive Michael Hein and Auerbach are both Democrats. Following the ruling by Justice Richard Mott, Hein said “justice was done… in favor of the property taxpayers of Ulster County, the county executive and the Ulster County Legislature in the in the frivolous lawsuit” brought by Auerbach.
“What this ruling clearly says the executive has the right to write a budget in the best interest of the people, the legislature has the right to provide oversight for that budget and clearly that we were not only well within our rights, but that this was a frivolous lawsuit,” Hein said.
Auerbach saw it differently.
“Our ultimate goal here was to protect the interest of the taxpayers of Ulster County. We looked to restore the 2,200 hours that were eviscerated by the legislature and county executive and bring back our ability to continue to perform those audits, examinations, reviews and oversight of the spending of public’s money,” the comptroller said.
Two county legislators contend the cuts were punitive in apparent retaliation for the audit of executive initiatives and an attempt to intimidate over Auerbach’s report of waste in county government spending.
The county officials said that the resolution authorizing the reductions violates no laws and that it was the consequence of a fully vetted and appropriately conducted budget process.
Judge Mott dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety stating “there is insufficient evidence of a concrete public interest benefit.”
Hein said with “meritless lawsuits like this,” Auerbach is “running the risk of costing the county taxpayers far more than he has ever saved them.”
Auerbach said his effort was clear from the start, “to prevent the limiting effect on our ability to perform independent audits and reviews of county programs and expenses. We wanted to ensure autonomous oversight on $300 million of the public’s money while recouping the over 2210 ‘man hours’ that were eviscerated from our budget and reduced from the auditing staff.”
The comptroller said his goal “was not to be forced away from identifying financial blind spots simply because they were controversial or politically correct.”
The court also rejected Auerbach’s request to have the county pay his legal expenses, which Auerbach estimated to be “in the thousands.”
