The stale odor of whitewash permeates the County Office Building after the State Comptroller’s Office released results last week of its 19-month investigation into whether or not admitted thief Burt Gulnick stole money from the county during his more than 20-year tour as finance director.

The report from Tom DiNapoli’s office concluded that Gulnick, currently serving out a two-year term in the county jail for embezzling over $100,000 — more on that to follow — neither “mishandled” county funds nor “committed financial crimes.” In the same report, the comptroller cites unidentified “weaknesses” in the county’s handling of funds that could leave it “vulnerable” to fraud, which the report says did not happen while Gulnick was in charge of county finances. It doesn’t get much more Orwellian than this.

There’s more. In effect, the comptroller advises the county still needs to get its financial house in order even as it found nothing amiss.

Left unsaid, apparently, was why the county executive, other than bringing in replacement staff for Gulnick’s office, didn’t put in place safeguards (like handling of cash) while DiNapoli’s office was taking more than a year and a half to try to figure what was going on — or not — during Gulnick’s tenure.

County Executive Jen Metzger, who acted swiftly to remove Gulnick after he was accused, and quickly convicted, of stealing $97,000 from the Hurley Recreation Association and another $13,000 from former executive Mike Hein’s campaign kitty, wasted not a heartbeat in declaring “closure” after the comptroller’s report was made public.

To some surprise, County Comptroller March Gallagher, a frequent critic of county fiscal procedures, joined in. It was Gallagher who first raised suspicion about Gulnick, in large part because she found it almost impossible to get information from the finance director for her periodic audits. Paper trails? Good luck with that.

Gulnick ran a fiefdom virtually impossible to penetrate by an outsider, including the executive branch, comptroller and the county legislature. From this morass the state comptroller brought forth a clean bill of health?

As politics go, this will be the end of the Gulnick affair. A credible, presumably objective investigator has passed judgment, and local ducks have fallen in line.

All I can say here is, remember the county jail.

Manna From Albany

The recent announcement by the governor’s office that the state will provide some $10 million in equal shares to improve municipal swimming pools in Kingston, New Paltz and Wawarsing says something about the welfare state we live in.

Washington spreads untold billions across the land for these kinds of municipal projects, which trickles down to states for similar endeavors. Every dollar is accompanied by proud announcements and grateful testimonials from elected officials.

I have no problem with sharing the wealth, although it began looking like an incumbent re-election operation decades ago. Why would anyone vote against an elected official who just secured millions for a new firehouse or a swimming pool?

It wasn’t always as such. Back in the day, a newbie resident approached the Hurley Town Board and asked why the town didn’t have a municipal swimming pool.

“You want a swimming pool?” town Supervisor Jake Croswell asked. “Go build one in your own back yard.”

I get the counter-argument, that only “rich” people can afford swimming pools. But do public officials always have to take so much credit?

Farewell, Bill West

I knew former county legislature chairman Bill West, who died at 98 last week, for the better part of 40 years, but I never appreciated his impact on his hometown of Woodstock until his lengthy obituary was published in the Daily Freeman on Sunday.

West was one of those small-town movers and shakers who saw what needed to be done, gathered his community around him, and went out and did it, particularly in the areas of recreation for its citizens.

A town supervisor in his 30s, West had a solid conservative Republican majority behind him. It’s hard for newcomers in Woodstock to appreciate that not that long ago it was almost impossible to elect a Democrat to any office in the Art Colony.

Over his long and active life, West lived to see a complete turnabout in Woodstock. These days, Republicans are almost as scarce as mountain cougars, and by that, I mean the big cats, presumably extinct in the Catskills.

That said, I doubt if even Bill West, with his decades-long record of significant accomplishment, could get elected in one-party Woodstock now. And that’s kind of sad.

From us to Bill West’s family, thank you for his service.

Food, Friends and Family

I mentioned this on our Me and Mario radio program last Friday morning. But for those who might have missed the broadcast, here it is.

When I was editor of the former Ulster County Gazette weekly, we had an edition coming out on Thanksgiving Day. Buried in the chaos of a weekly newspaper at deadline, I couldn’t think of a “Thanksgiving message” for readers.

I asked my 8-year-old son what he was grateful for. At the time, McDonald’s was running a “food, friends and family” jingle which had nothing to do with Thanksgiving.

Without hesitation, the little redhead said, “I am thankful for food, friends and family. Without food, I would starve. Without friends, I would be lonely. Without family, nobody would love me.”

It doesn’t get much better than that.

From my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.