None of the main actors from central casting were around when the Ulster County Charter was drafted almost 20 years ago. Meanwhile, the headline-grabbing dispute between the comptroller and the rest of the government devolves into its ultimate end: a decent burial.

That is, unless March “Candid Camera” Gallagher actually proves allegations of time theft at the county bus barn.

The 2008 charter, narrowly adopted by voters over stiff Republican opposition and intense lobbying by Democrats and good government groups, was a direct consequence of the disastrous county jail debacle. Some 35 percent over budget, about $25 million, nobody involved in the project went to the mega-facility as its first inmates.

Republicans got run out of office as a result. Somebody, it was decided, had to watch over this government. The answer was an independently elected comptroller with subpoena powers. Pursuing its findings was up to the other two branches, namely the legislature and the county executive, and maybe the district attorney.

First, a brief comment on human nature, which being human doesn’t change all that much over mere decades. Nobody likes being watched on the job. “She’s always looking over my shoulder,” a former colleague used to say. I didn’t know whether he was referring to his mother, wife or boss.

From the get-go, this comptroller/watchdog component of county government was more knee-jerk virtue signaling that anybody down the decades never took too seriously.

Former county executive Mike Hein, under constant fire by then-comptroller Elliott Auerbach, used to complain that we didn’t need a comptroller at all. He had plenty of people on his own staff that could keep an eye on things. Disgraced former county finance officer Burt Gulnick Jr., recently released from jail for embezzlement in the non-government sector, was one of them.

We return to comptroller Gallagher's surveillance of the comings and goings of county workers at the bus depot on Golden Hill in Kingston. Deploying a not-so-hidden camera of her own from bushes in front of department offices, Gallagher intended to verify “credible” complaints from whistleblowers that a person or persons were “time-stealing” from the county.

Gallagher’s camera was discovered, reportedly, by a worker mowing the lawn in front of the bus barn. Perhaps it was the flashbulb going off that alerted him or her. Reports to department supervisors set off the chain reaction of finger-pointing we are now witnessing.

Gallagher has asserted her legal right as comptroller to investigate credible reports of potentially criminal behavior. Citing an obscure 2018 resolution regarding privacy of county workers, the executive and legislature pounced.

The gist of it was, how dare the comptroller launch a surveillance of county workers without consulting either the executive or the legislature? Why? Because, to paraphrase Elvis, you don’t never catch a rabbit by firing off warning shots.

One of Gallagher’s responses was that she didn’t “trust,” based on previous experience left to the imagination, a department head (or executive) to conduct an objective investigation. Strong stuff, that. “In police work, we call this a clue,” former Kingston police chief Gerry Keller used to say,

Clue, indeed. If the executive/legislative branches can’t be trusted to pursue questionable behavior in their respective domains, what does that portend? Could this be one of those “physician, heal thyself” scenarios? Or that there is absolutely no corruption in county government?

Gallagher pulled in her horns somewhat in agreeing to share her information with the executive and the legislature. The legislature’s response has been to pursue policy protocols on surveillance of county employees, something its leaders are already adamantly opposed to.

There is also another potential consequence of this chapter that nobody seems to be talking about: the effect on would-be whistle-blowers. Gallagher, of course, has kept those names strictly confidential as she pursues her investigation.

But it does seem to raise the question of why a whistleblower, presumably from the bus department itself, wound up taking the story to the comptroller and not the county executive.

Bikes Under Surveillance

Kingston police chief Tinti, after prodding from the media, advises readers that those pesky e-bikes that have sprung up like mushrooms on our streets can in fact be ticketed for traffic infractions. If cops on bikes can catch them. (That’s me, not the chief.)

Bikers were always a concern, darting through stop signs and out between cars or across intersections. Careful drivers kept a wary eye, for who wants to be involved in an accident with a cyclist? I was years ago and it still haunts me when I drive through that Midtown intersection. Thank God no one was hurt.

The difference between bikes and e-bikes is about 20 miles an hour. These things are quick and fast.

I almost rear-ended a truck when its driver slammed on his brakes to (just) avoid an e-biker darting through a red light last week. Try telling that story to your insurance company agent when it pops your rate by 25 percent.

I like the chief, but in this case I think he’s just blowing smoke. That is, unless he petitions the Common Council for some e-bikes for his Finest to deal with this clear and present danger on city streets.