Ulster County executive race: How Metzger, Quigley see issues in bid to succeed Pat Ryan

When Ulster County's voters go to the polls this year, they will choose someone to fill the remainder of former county executive Pat Ryan's term.

The vacancy was created when Ryan was elected to Congress in a special election in August.

Republican and Conservative party candidate James Quigley, the current supervisor of the town of Ulster, and Democrat and Working Families party nominee Jen Metzger, a former state senator and former Rosendale town board member, say they are up to the task of succeeding Ryan.

Deputy County Executive Johanna Contreras has been leading the county since Ryan's move to Congress. Metzger or Quigley will fill the final year of Ryan's term. An election for the next full four-year executive term will be held next fall.

Quigley said his 13 years as town supervisor have "given me a unique look at the day-to-day operations" of government and prepared him for the job. He's also touting his financial expertise.

"I am a CPA (certified public accountant), I'm a numbers guy," Quigley said. "I put out 13 budgets (as town supervisor) and in all of them except the one I was handed (at the beginning), we had a surplus. I'll be ready on day one."

Metzger said her two years serving in the state Senate in Albany, as well as her time on the Rosendale town board, where she filled the role of deputy supervisor, have prepared her to serve as county executive.

"I'm ready to hit the ground running," she said.

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Metzger's key issues

Metzger has some ideas on how to address what she calls "the housing crisis" affecting many middle-, moderate-and fixed-income residents in the county.

Metzger said there has been a huge increase in short-term rentals, which has a serious impact on the availability of housing. But she said too many private equity firms are purchasing that housing as an investment.

"We need more of them to be owned and occupied by local people," Metzger said.

Metzger also wants to expand the county's mental-health services and "make sure the county is addressing the whole person." By extension, she also includes the opioid abuse epidemic, for which the county just received a $1.3 million federal grant, in mental-health services.

She said while in the state Senate, she worked on mental-health issues that would affect the county, from getting funding for a peer-to-peer counseling and support program for the county's veterans, to introducing a bill for children's summer camps to hire licensed mental-health professionals.

Metzger also is proposing to expand the county's public transportation system. Ulster County Area Transit, the county bus service, needs to expand its routes to reduce people's reliance on individual cars, Metzger said.

"Also, many people can't afford cars, and this would be a huge benefit to get them to work or to school," she said.

Quigley's key issues

Among the issues Quigley hopes to tackle is the long-standing debate over the revamp of the county's emergency management system. Quigley said the county acquired new radio equipment some years ago, but it has sat in a warehouse because no decision was ever made on whether to relocate the emergency management center from its current location in the Golden Hill area in Kingston to a proposed new location in New Paltz.

"We need to use that equipment before it becomes technically obsolete," Quigley said.

On a related issue, Quigley said he would take a look at the personnel in the county's volunteer services ‒ fire and ambulance. He said many people take those services for granted, but with many newer residents working in New York City, they don't have the time to volunteer and put in the hours needed to train.

With the county's population getting older, those services will become a priority. Quigley said if enough volunteers can't be found, it might become necessary to create a county-wide paid ambulance service.

Quigley's campaign also is promising a change in what he called the "misuse" of the county executive's office, since the day it was created, as a stepping stone for ambitious politicians looking to advance their own agendas.

"Those days will end with Jim Quigley as county executive," he said. "My focus won't be on what's best for my career, it will be what's best for the people of Ulster County."

Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record, the Poughkeepsie Journal and the Journal News/lohud. Reach him at mrandall@th-record.com or on Twitter @MikeRandall845.

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Ulster County executive: Metzger, Quigley vie to succeed Pat Ryan