The wildcat corrections officers’ strike across the state prison system may be still going or just settled, depending on what time you read this. According to media reports, the COs are voting Thursday on the state’s latest bill of concessions. In the meantime, Ulster Sheriff Juan Figueroa has extended an invitation to displaced corrections officers to join his team.

Figueroa deals with the much same issues on a much smaller scale as the supervisors who run state prisons. It’s an awful job. Angry, resentful prisoners, some of whom may actually be innocent. Most hate their confinement, the food, the numbing routine, the strict discipline and especially the men and women in uniform who dictate their daily lives.

The job pays well, with plenty of overtime. More than a dozen Ulster corrections officers earned over $100,000 (off base pays of $80,000) last year, according to a recent county comptroller’s report. Add benefits and it can top $135,000.

Nice work, if you can get it. But it’s not nice work. Most COs take the 20-year half-pay retirement, if they last that long.

There is, of course, a significant difference between the county jail and the Big House. On the local level, prisoners serve only a few months for non-felonies, up to a year for more serious misdemeanors.

The perception that the county jail is “easier” than state prison may help the sheriff’s recruitment drive, assuming COs living in the southern end of the county don’t mind driving about 60 miles roundtrip to Kingston.

Years ago, I had a friend, a chronic alcoholic and routine drunk driver, who finally got what he deserved — a year in the county jail after blowing way beyond the legal limit. He was there for about a month when he called me for help. Note that this was one tough dude, the kind of guy you knew from one look not to mess with.

“You know everybody in town,” he pleaded. “Please, please, get me out of here!”

“I got no juice with judges,” I said. “Besides, it’s the county jail. How bad can that be?”

“It’s jail!” he shouted into the phone.

I’m a bit uneasy about the Figueroa recruitment drive. It seems he’s taking advantage of an unfortunate situation to relieve his own. On the other hand, when opportunity knocks it could be to the advantage of both turnkeys and the sheriff.

Dashboard Discrepancy Explained

As noted herein, there is a difference of 239 county workers between the executive’s tally and a report on personnel issued by the comptroller last week. Did somebody miss 239 people, I asked them both.

Comptroller March Gallagher cleared up the difference. Her higher number of 1,691 includes part-time workers and those salaried workers who left county service before the end of the year. Executive Jen Metzger’s lower number leaves the impression that she’s reducing the workforce. In fact, she’s increased it by at least 20 new hires during her two years in office.

Not to pick on the comptroller, she does good work, but she might also include the numerous blanks in the county budget, line-item positions that are never filled during the budget year. It’s called padding and it goes straight to surplus at the end of the fiscal year.

How Do You Get ’Em to the Polls?

Owing to record low voter turnout the past two years, the Kingston Board of Education is asking for input on how to turn that around.

According to the school district, almost 7,000 people voted in school board elections some 15 years ago. Last year, it was in the 1,700 range, or less than 10 percent of the estimated 26,000 eligible voters in the district. Other school districts in the county have better participation, but not by much.

School Superintendent Paul Padalino speculates that voters turned out as they did because they’re generally satisfied with their school system these days. People turn out to vote when they’re upset about something, he says.

Could everything thus be honky dory with the electorate?

The problem is that these kinds of abysmal turnouts are fundamentally undemocratic. With, say, less than 10 percent of the electorate casting their votes, the outcome can be decided by slightly more than half that at the ballot box. Therefore, a very small percentage of voters will hold sway over a huge percentage of the electorate. Winners in this case would be the district establishment and those doing business with it, along with parents and maybe some grandparents who haven’t moved to Florida.

People have reasons for not voting, of course, which is an inherent right. And they pay a price. Those who know the law understand that if voters defeat a budget twice, 95 percent of the original budget goes into effect. In effect, they’re voting on 5 percent of the budget. Why bother?

School board elections and budgets are offered to voters in mid-May by state law. This date is apparently tied into the state budget, which contains billions in school aid and is due by April 1. For many voters, I would think a vote on anything in mid-May would come as an afterthought.

Would moving school board elections to Election Day in November, if possible, make a difference? Even off-year elections produce 40 to 50 percent turnout. But how would school budgets fare against a considerably broader electorate?

We have no idea what the school board can or will do about voter turnout which ought to be an utter embarrassment. What do we tell the kids in civics classes?

Other than lip service and an occasional wringing of hands, there will be no action taken before this year’s mid-May balloting.