Sad State in Ulster

Last week we talked about the fact that in last year's town of Ulster budget Supervisor Quigley was cited by Ulster County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach's office for not including the safety net costs in his 2011 budget. Well rumor is Auerbach is now 2-0 against Quig's, because we hear EA's office was correct and that County Exec Mike Hein will indeed charge the town of Ulster for the safety net costs from last year in 2012, which presents more bad news for the Ulster Supervisor, who released his budget last week with a whooping 9% increase. These safety net costs will be on top of that increase! ROTLMAO just thinking how Quigley got himself into this mess. I mean this is Jim Quigley the financial wizard, you know '' James E. Quigley the third, The Buck Stops Here!"  More like Supervisor Quigs trying to pass the buck and his shortcoming on to the backs of us taxpayers. So no I am not rotlmao, or loling, Im sad by the fact next year, just like almost every other year, the town of Ulster will our raise taxes and decrease services. Sad face indeed!! :(

Supervisor Quigley Set to Jack Taxes By 9.3 %...AGAIN

Town of Quigley Supervisor Jim Quigley (well at least he thinks that's the name of the town) has proposed another near double digit tax hike..since taking office, the Republican, Conservative has raised taxes almost every year, some in the double digits. The tax hikes are always someone elses fault.  For his first term, he blamed them on the former Supervisor, than he decided to blame it on the safety net costs. How about taking some responsibility Mr. Quigley? After all he is the Supervisor and will tell anyone who will listen what a great CPA he is and financial wizard. 

However, my fellow residents of Ulster quickly realized while we had to get rid of Woerner, Quigley sold us a bill of goods and failed to deliver on his promises. To the Ulster Supervisor it seems he is more concerned about advancing his political career than running our town. The rumor is he wants to run for County Executive in two years, he's gunna have an uphill battle, because unlike Quigley, Hein has made the difficult choices and actually lowered our taxes.


Maybe it's time that Mr. Quigley think outside of the box ad start lowering some expenses. When Quigley took office, he slashed the salary from Supervisor from 45 thou, to about 27 thousand. In the current budget he has raised his salary back to 45 thousand. Mr. Malloney who is the town assesor has a town cell phone and a nice take home vehicle, I think its a brand new Jeep, rumor is that he is requred to use a Jeep becasue the shocks hold up his signifigant weight. Not sure which is more bloated Maloney or Quigley's budget.


Why for example did the Supervisor's clerk need a raise of more than 15%.. especially when I beleive the Supervisor's clerk is Quigley's sister. NEPOTISM at it's finest.

We also have to wonder if Quigley put the safety net costs in this years budget, unlike last year which resulted in the town facing more embarrassment when the County Comptroller's office issued a report citing the town of Ulster as breaking the law by omitting them.

Fially, Quigley is exceeding the 2% tax cap that is in effect. Gov Cuomo's tax cap is there for a reason, to provide NY residents with real property tax relief. Overriding the cap is really irresponsiable of any town leader, it reaks of smuggess and arrogance on the part of Quigley.

Town resident Dan Barton said it best at a recent town board meeting:


“I do not think that there should be any override of any tax increase (cap),” said town resident Robert Barton. “We’re being taxed to death. ... The continuing increase for all levels of taxation has gotten out of hand.”

Not often, I would agree with malcontent Barton but in this case, well said Mr. Barton, well said.

Supervisor Quigley's Disappointment

Having to come to the realization that Chief Taggard would not be coming back as police chief, after he was charged with alleged misconduct, took some time for Supervisor Quigley to swallow (again, no pun intended).  It also took a lot of pressure from his fellow gop Councilmen for Quigs to pull the trigger. A full month passed after Taggard's suspension and Quigley finally conceded  in an interview with the Freeman that he was prepared to ask Taggard to resign as Chief of Police. However, Quigley's stubbornness on the issue, his failure to put his personal friendship with the Chief aside hurt him with his town board and with town residents. Some of those residents have nicknamed Quigley, Supervisor Peterno, in response to his handling of the matter. So I guess it should come as no surprise that the appointment of a new permanent Chief to replace Taggard has turned into a circus.


Lt. Athoney Cruise who was appointed acting Chief, and was the ranking officer in charge at the time of Taggard's suspension, was recommended to receive a permanent appointment as it's new Chief by the Town's personal committee. This did not sit well with Supervisor Quigley because the personal committee, which is made up of ELECTED TOWN BOARD MEMBERS,  actually had a opinion. You see in the town of Quigley, I'm sorry, I mean the town of Ulster, board members are not allowed to have an opinion. That is politics 101 in the Jim Quigley school of Government, just ask star pupil Kelly Myers. It got so volitial that town board member Eric Kitchen descrbed it this way:

 Councilman Eric Kitchen said Quigley was unfairly reprimanding board members for recommending the next chief be selected from within the town department.

“This is a democracy,” Kitchen said to the supervisor. “You have your opinion, I have my opinion. We can all agree to disagree, but I can’t feel like a child who’s being yelled at by his father (for) stealing a cookie out of the cookie jar.”

This is ot the first time Supervisor Quigley has decided to dish out some of his fatherly advice, click below;

Fatherly Advice Quigley style!!!

 To be fair, Supervisor Quigley loves his afternoon cookie..or two, or three or sometimes four. Come to think of it by the looks of it so does Supervisor Myers, is that what Quigley teaches in politics 102?  It's Wednesday, Kelly does that mean  you reach for a choclate chip or a nutterbutter?  My guess is both but I digress.

Currently, Lt. Cruise is still the officer in charge but there still has not been a formal vote to make him Chief and everyday another name pops up for the job. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if Nicky Woerner tries to get the job, or at the very least a spot in Quigley's government cookie class ( we hear he's a fig nutton type guy).  However, Lt. Cruise has picked up some important support from former Chief Watska who endorsed him to be Ulster's permanent top cop. This also rubbed Quigs the wrong way because it is in violation of  the Quigley School of politics 103, that states department heads and especially former department heads should be seen and not heard, in response to the Watska endorsement, Supervisor Quigley had this to say to the Freeman:


Supervisor James Quigley said Watzka should have encouraged the Town Board to follow established policy when appointing the next chief instead of making a public endorsement among candidates.

 “The letter is very disappointing from a person who led this department in a distinguished manner, who came in at a point and time when this department needed leadership, provided that leadership and organization, and now he’s advocating that we ignore the processes that were put in place under his leadership,” Quigley said.


There are a lot of things Quigley can describe as disappointing and they are all staring him right in the face. However, Watzka's letter should not be one of them.

BORED IN ULSTER

The staff at Ulster Insider is reallly bored with the political season this year. Town races are not up this year and the Gibson/Schreibman race is nothing that we are really excited about. We expect Gibson to win in a landslide.

Speaking of Congress, our own Congressman Maurice Hinchey was given a very prestigious award from the Woodstock film festival-- Our Congressman was honored with the spirit of Woodstock award for his life long advocacy of the arts.


On a county level we hear Mike Hein had a very successful birthday party, while our staff were unable to attend we hear about 250 people were there. 

Our Assemblyman Kevin Cahill is running unopposed, the staff at Ulster Politics are a little disappointed with Cahill. What happened to the guy in 98 that was full of life and boundless energy, now Kev is just content to be an Assemblyman and it disappoints us. C'mon Kevin, where is the fire? 

Sup. Quigs to DA

"District attorneys have their own way of prosecuting cases," he said. "Some prosecute in the newspapers; some prosecute in court."

ouch!! Temper Temper Supervisor Paterno, do you see your hopes of being Executive fading??? Rumor has it Quigs is telling anyone who will listen he may end up in front of a grand jury answering questions, well I sure hope the District Attorney does not read the Record! Gadzooookss!!!

Supervisor Quigley or Supervisor Paterno?

Supervisor Jim Quigley is in a politically pickle, pardon our pun,  over what he did or did not know when he appointed disgraced Police Chief Taggard  shortly after taking office in 2010. Taggard was recently placed on PAID leave by the Ulster Town Board after being arrested by state police on charges of official misconduct. While the charges allege that Taggard did not report abuse that he had knowledge of, there are rumors that much more serious charges may be coming down the road. Sources tell Ulster Insider that Taggard was charged quickly with the minor misconduct charge to get him out as Chief. Getting people to speak out against a sitting Chief can be very intimidating.

Taggard who was Quigley's inside man during his 09 race for town Supervisor was rewarded handsomely by Quigs, Taggard was appointed Chief after Chief Watzka was forced out. Taggard was also promoted over than Deputy Chief Sinagra who was much more qualified. Many Ulster police officers retired after Taggard's appointment. Rumors of Taggard's questionable relationships were well known throughout town for years, while nothing was ever proven you have to question why someone like Quigley with high political asperations would appoint this guy as his Chief of Police.

 As stated earlier, Taggard remains on paid leave. From what we have been told the votes to bring Taggard up on former charges by the town (which is required to take him off of a paid leave) are there but Supervisor Quigley aka Supervisor Paterno wont have any of it.


Why Mr. Supervisor? The people deserve to know!

Quigley to Dep. Chief Sinagra: No Health Care For You!

Details still emerging but we were appalled that Supervisor Jim Quigley has chosen to deny health care for former Deputy Chief Sinagra. We know of the Quigley/ Sinagra feud but we hope that our esteemed Supervisor would not deny a town officer that protected his and my community his health care.