I’ve gotten used to County Executive Pat Ryan’s almost daily pronouncements and updates on Covid threats and strategies. But I wonder if it wouldn’t have far more impact and credibility if he placed county Health Commissioner Dr. Carol Smith at the forefront of this war on contagion rather than in the shadows.

Which is to say, wouldn’t it be better to hear from the health care experts in county government — the health department — rather than just politicians?

Let’s give Ryan credit for presentation. He seems to have mastered his material to the extent that the casual viewer or reader might consider him an expert. He’s not, no more than former Gov.

Andrew Cuomo, who set the stage for what followed. Ryan has a degree from West Point. In the private sector his expertise was in computer management. Smith is a medical doctor.

Ulster is not unique in this respect. Politicians on every level have taken the Covid crisis and made it their own. Is it any wonder that people question whether public policy on Covid is made by politicians, not healthcare experts?

I don’t expect any of this to change any time soon. The Covid crisis is just too hot for politicians to resist.

But I’d like to hear from Dr. Smith now and then.

Passing the Buck

Elected officials all over the region will be eagerly anticipating a gush of federal Covid cash to hopefully be released beginning mid-year. They should be careful what they wish for if the Village of Red Hook’s experience is an indicator.

Back in 2005, with the usual fanfare, Red Hook officials announced a sewer construction project that would replace septic tanks in the village with a modern wastewater treatment system. Ground was broken on what grew to an $8.5 million project last week.

Now, I am reliably advised by former Red Hook officials that while installing sewers in a busy municipality can be complicated, with many a local political hurdle to clear, it’s really only been about five years since guaranteed funding was secured.

Be that as it may, the lesson here is that filtering federal and/or state aid through constipated bureaucracies takes, like Metamucil, time. Lots and lots of time.

Governor’s Message

Gov. Kathy Hochul extended an olive branch to the legislature by moving her first governor’s message (“State of the State” address) back to Assembly chambers this week. Sincerity will be measured in her first budget next week where she will literally put her money where her mouth was.

A number of legislators were impressed by Hochul’s returning the speech site to a legislative chamber in the state capitol — “the house of the people” — after a decade of off-site addresses by Andrew Cuomo.

Appearances count in politics. The legislature felt itself dissed by an all-powerful governor who chose to take his show on the road, or at least to the convention center in the Empire State Plaza. Some see a period of glasnost (Soviet Unionish for “openness”) between the executive and the legislature. Actions in that case will speak louder than words, or forums.

Comments from local state legislators reflected their relief from Cuomo tyranny more than a budding romance with his accidental successor.

Freshman state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Saugerties, pronounced herself “incredibly happy” that most of the governor’s priorities mirrored hers. And why not? She was “especially thrilled,” she said in a release, to see the governor “prominently” mention agriculture in her speech. Hinchey was recently reappointed chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, having witnessed directly or indirectly 26 governor’s messages under five governors, was supportive, but not slavish.

Yet to be heard from as of this writing were the county’s six other state legislators, none of them county residents.

Notes

A correction before moving on. In a recent column, I failed to mention former county legislator Larry Kithcart of Kingston as the first African American to be elected to the county body. Elected in the late ’70s, Kithcart served three terms. Julius Collins, Democrat of Ellenville, was the second elected in 2019 and served one term.