Charter Commission Slams UC Legislature

As I said, a bunch of rubes are undoing the hard work of people who actually know what they're doing:

Ulster County Charter Revision Commission members on Tuesday issued a report with a warning to their successors that work done to make county government responsive to residents will in the end be subject to political whims.

The report came on the eve of a public hearing about proposed revisions that left some commission members upset over compromises with county legislators.

“I would not characterize much of our interaction with the Legislature as reasonable,” said Charter Revision Commission member Rod Futerfas.

[. . .]

Commission members said they were not prepared for disputes with legislators, who earlier this month demanded that the Legislature retain final say over the redistricting process as one of more than two dozen proposed changes to the county charter.

“If the next commission is as naive as we were it’s probably good to let them know that their nine months of work is going to be eviscerated and it could be by a group of people with no knowledge of what they’re talking about,” Futerfas said.

Commission member Jim McGarry said the closing report from the 11-member panel should serve as a “caution to those who come after us” when trying to make changes to the government. However, he added that future commission members may not read comments from the first group of people assigned to the task of finding charter weaknesses.

“I don’t think we’re going to have any lasting affect,” he said. “One wonders how many will read the thing in 10 years anyhow.”

No comment from Gerry Banjamin, who was likely too busy throwing up to make a statement.