County Comptroller March Gallagher is accusing County Executive Jen Metzger’s office of dragging its feet turning over evidence in an ongoing probe of alleged time theft by employees of Ulster County Area Transit.

Gallagher made the remarks in a social media post Friday in which she also questioned why Metzger and county lawmakers failed to mention the investigation in a statement congratulating UCAT head Toni Roser on her retirement.

“I am disappointed that the public comments by the county executive and legislative leadership praising the UCAT director upon her announced

retirement do not acknowledge the ongoing UCAT time theft investigation by the Comptroller’s Office,” Gallagher wrote. “The director's retirement does not conclude the investigation. On behalf of taxpayers we will continue to pursue the outstanding records and report our findings based on the evidence.”

The existence of Gallagher’s investigation was revealed on Aug. 25 when a work crew cutting grass outside of UCAT’s headquarters and bus garage on Golden Hill found a hidden camera that appeared to be trained on the entrance to the facility. The camera was marked with Gallagher’s name and contact information. The camera was turned over to the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, then returned to Gallagher after Sheriff Juan Figueroa said there had been no “criminal intent” in her placing the camera to covertly surveil county employees. Gallagher criticized Metzger at the time for revealing the investigation in a public statement describing the incident.

Roser, who ran Kingston’s Citibus system for 15 years before it merged with UCAT in 2019, announced that she will step down from her post at the end of the month. In a statement announcing the retirement Metzger, along with Chair of the Ulster County Legislature Chair Peter Criswell and Legislator Debra Clinton, chair of the legislature’s Housing and Transportation Committee praised

Roser’s work for the county included helping guide the Citibus/UCAT merger and moving the UCAT fleet to electric vehicles and helping modernize operations.

“Toni has been a steady, dedicated leader whose service to UCAT and to the people of Ulster County is evident in everything she does,” said Metzger. “We thank her for her service and wish her the very best in her retirement.”

A few hours later, Gallagher responded in a social media post criticizing the retirement announcement. The post also alleged that the county had not turned over footage from UCAT’s own security cameras despite, she said, the material being under subpoena from her office since Aug. 28. Roser has not been publicly accused of time theft or any other violations of the law or county policy.

In an email to Kingston Wire on Friday, Metzger spokeswoman Amberly Campbell denied that her office was withholding the requested forage. In August, Campbell described a meeting between Metzger and Gallagher immediately after the discovery of the hidden camera. Campbell said that after Metzger was presented with preliminary findings of the investigation, she immediately agreed to turn over all of the requested footage from UCAT security cameras. (Campbell added that Gallagher had declined Metzger’s request for footage from the hidden camera.)

“We began providing the comptroller with the initial camera footage she requested,” Campbell said in an email. “The comptroller then requested the data in a different format and then amended that request to include a total of tens of thousands of hours of footage from the UCAT cameras that, due to the sheer size of the data, has taken an additional amount of time to make available. We have been cooperating with the comptroller to get her the footage and have been giving her regular updates about her request.”

Campbell’s email also included a statement from county Director of Personnel Dawn Spader denying any connection between Roser’s retirement and the time theft probe.

“We absolutely expect the comptroller to continue her investigation because that has nothing to do with the director of UCAT’s retirement,” Spader wrote. “Her retirement will also not impact the investigation. UCAT has been completely cooperative at all stages in this investigation.”