The post of Ulster County executive, created in the 2006 County Charter to bring stability to government, has in the last three years become a revolving door.

Mike Hein, the first executive, elected in 2009, served a full nine years and two months into a 10th, before departing for a high-paying job in the Andrew Cuomo administration. Pat Ryan lasted just over three years before resigning to run for Congress.

Let the record show that in less than three and a half years, we’ve had three county executives, one elected (Ryan) and two appointed by outgoing executives as acting executives, Adele Reiter and Johanna Contreras. Sometime late Saturday afternoon county Democratic committee members will, for all intents and purposes, select a fourth executive to serve the remainder of Ryan’s term, ending Dec. 31 next year.

As the Kingston Wire Editorial Team pointed out in a well-reasoned editorial this week, it would appear that county executive has become something of a stepping stone for upwardly bound ambitious politicians. Not a good thing for stability and a far cry from what drafters of the first County Charter envisioned.

There is no way, of course, that any charter can force anybody to fill a term to which they were elected.

In one of its more curious innovations, the 2006 charter allows an elected executive to choose his or her successor in case of a vacancy. Hein chose Reiter, his closest confidant and chief of staff. She served about four months before an elected Ryan took office.

Ryan initially chose Deputy Exec Marc Rider at his designated successor, but withdrew that designation when Rider declared for county executive. He named Contreras to replace him. Ever the loyal subordinate, Rider said he “understood” Ryan’s reversal, all the while grinding to stumps at least two sets of molars.

The differences between Contreras and Reiter are significant. Reiter, who worked in the treasurer’s office before being tabbed by Hein, had almost two decades of government service before serving a brief stint as acting executive. Contreras was appointed a deputy county executive by Ryan in January. She has voted once in Ulster and is now the acting county executive with all the powers and authority of an elected executive.

Nothing against Contreras, who brought an impressive resume for the job, but does anybody have a problem with an unelected appointee running county government?

Fortunately, an 11-member charter review commission has convened to recommend changes in the original document. Nobody asked me, but I think they should focus on what’s known in county government circles as the “successor spot.”

One suggestion: let the legislature choose a successor. Most legislators have a working knowledge of government; some even understand the issues they vote on. And they’re all elected by the people.

A second idea: Candidates for executive could run for the office with their designated successors like we do on the federal and state level and in Kingston. Is anybody listening?

You Could Have Looked It Up

Item: Special election set for election day Nov. 8 for county executive.

Well, that was a long time coming. For weeks, months, nobody in officialdom seemed to know when the special election for county exec would be held. Consensus had placed it sometime in mid-December.

All the time, the proper, legal procedure was right in front of their eyes. If anybody had bothered to look, there it was in the administrative code, chapter and verse. One would think that with all the legal eagles flying around the county office building, somebody would have noticed.

The good news is running a special election on Election Day would not only convenience voters, but according to election commissioners, would save the county some $300,000 by piggy-backing the special with everyone else on the ballot. It was in the final instance a close call.

Is this any way to run a government?

One For the Books

Full disclosure: I’m a library guy. Couldn’t wait to get my library card as a kid. I was a member of the 1978 (then) Kingston Area Library board of directors that moved the library from Broadway next to Kingston High School to its present location on Franklin Street in Midtown.

The building was constructed as an elementary school (School No. 8) in the late 19th century. Generations of Kingston children attended before it closed a few years before the library moved in, then known as Sojourner Truth School.

Over its 44 years on Franklin Street the library has seen significant changes, especially in the second-floor children’s library. Offering a wide range of programs, the library has evolved into a neighborhood center.

Now, the library is poised to take a giant leap into the future. Plans have been presented to the public for a $14 million renovation to replace and upgrade all major systems, with a small addition and modern safety equipment.

By any measure, $14 million to renovate a more-than-a-century-old building is serious money. In comparison, the renovation of Kingston City Hall (1998-2000) cost about $7 million, about $12 million in today’s dollars.

Being a library guy, I just had to attend last week’s final informational meeting at the library. The architect in charge spent over 90 minutes going over plans in detail, but I think it was the comments from two members of a sparse audience that best framed the debate.

A middle-aged Dan Robins and his wife sat next to me in the second row, so I leaned over for a whispered interview. He told me his father Bart born in 1910, had attended No. 8. The elder Robins was a mailman, retiring in 1972 and “was known as the Uptown mailman,” his son said.

“I’m a little bit leery,” he said of the library plan. “I’ve heard a lot of good things tonight, but 14 million is an awful lot of money.”

Library officials said the 25-year bond issue will cost about $6.50 a month per thousand dollars of assessed value for district residential property owners based on an average assessment of $179,000.

Robins also expressed concerns about investing in a building of the library’s age. “I wonder if they looked at that vacant King’s Inn lot off Broadway,” he said, in suggesting the library should consider something brand new from the ground up.

A few minutes later a young man named Noah Osman took the floor. Osman and his wife moved here three years ago to find “Kingston very welcoming.”

“I’m so proud to live in a community that has a library that will meet our needs, and all for seven or eight dollars a month,” he said.

District residents will vote at the library Sept. 20.

NOTE – Library director Margie Minard will appear at 8:30 Friday morning on the Me and Mario radio show on WGHQ, 920 AM.