KINGSTON – The Ulster County Legislature Tuesday night reappointed two former board members to the County Industrial Development Agency Board while naming five new members, but not before they debated who should be selected.
Republican Minority Leader Ken Ronk, who lives in the southern part of the county, was critical of the areas from which the members were selected.
“We have three members from the Town of Rochester, and nobody from New Paltz or Gardiner or Shawangunk, Plattekill or Marlboro, one from Lloyd and then everything else is north and west,” he said.
Conservative Legislator Joe Maloney termed the IDA “welfare for the wealthy,” and was critical of the PILOT agreement granted the Kingstonian project, which includes housing.
“I think Senator Skoufis is completely right to the point where he is completely right where he is ready to dissolve the entire IDA system o0n the state level, and boy, will he be bailing Ulster County out if he is able to do it,” he said.
Skoufis is chairman of the Senate Investigations Committee, who has been critical of IDA spending.
Ulster lawmakers reappointed Dr. Diane Eynon of the University of Pennsylvania who lives in Accord and Michael Ham of Kingston, with the International Union of Operating Engineers.
New board members include Lynn Archer of Accord, a former county legislator; St even Kelley of Highland, president of Ellenville Regional Hospital; attorney Rachel Silverman of Stone Ridge; Rashida Tyler, associate executive director of the Ulster County YMCA, a resident of Kingston; and Kaustubh Wahal, managing partner of H2C Securities, a resident of Kerhonkson.
