The Metzger administration wasted little time in naming a successor to public works commissioner Brendan Masterson, fired earlier this month with no explanation following a week-long suspension. “Personnel matters” apparently cover a myriad of sins, real or imagined. Cover-up would be the operative phrase in this instance.

To the surprise of many, including your faithful scribe, County Executive Jen Metzger nominated former legislator Richard Parete, five-term Marbletown supervisor, to man this critical post.

According to published reports, the new commissioner’s salary will be $145,000 a year – executive-level compensation – and a nice bump from the $64,000 the little town of Marbletown pays its supervisor.

Parete, first elected to the legislature in 2002, and in 2018 to successive terms as town supervisor, was once a member of the Parete trio: two brothers, Rich and Rob, and father John, all serving in the legislature at the same time. Prior to that he was a lineman for the Verizon company. Parete patriarch John is a former county Democratic chairman and legislature chair.

Times change and in time, clan Parete, once pillars of the Democratic Party, became outcasts. The brothers departed for greener pastures while dad was defeated for re-election by Kathy Nolan. Thus, the Rich Parete’s nomination comes as something of a head-scratcher among the current ruling class.

For sure, Metzger gave her would-be highway commissioner a wonderful writeup in her announcement last Friday. Parete’s record does speak to broad experience in government but scan as I might, did not provide any direct link to the myriad duties required of a county public works commissioner.

Parete’s being elected town highway superintendent five times over would have better commended him for this high-level job.

That said, Parete, a Syracuse grad, proved a quick study upon taking up his duties as town supervisor.

Metzger knows best, which means the rubber-stamp Democratic supermajority in the legislature is sure to approve his appointment when it meets in December.

New Roof, But Where's the Solar?

Don’t look up, but work on a new roof at the County Office Building at Fair and Main streets in Kingston will commence later this week, officials have announced.

Reconstruction costs by a Staten Island firm have been pegged at $485,000, but that’s not what’s causing a buzz around environmental advocates.

There will be no solar panels installed “at this time,” according to officials. And why not, some might ask.

In a progressive administration where electric vehicles and solar energy are all the rage, one might think that going solar at its headquarters would be a no-brainer. It’s complicated, they say. Maybe later.

The County Office Building, dubbed the “glass menagerie” by critics, was probably obsolete when it opened to shock and awe in1964. And no small measure of revulsion. Located at the fringe of the city’s historic Stockade District, the COB featured six stories of glass and steel, vaguely reminiscent of Albany’s Corning Towers. It was extensively renovated in the 1990s.

According to legend, if not city law, no building in the Stockade can exceed the height of the base of the Old Dutch Church steeple across the street.

It is, however, fair to credit the building as one of the factors in the revival movement which led to the establishment of the Friends of Historic Kingston in 1965.

Rooftop solar power, someday, might have been the icing on the cake.

GOP Electioneering

Mounting a pre-election drive to secure perhaps a few more seats in the legislature next week, the downtrodden Republican minority has an attack on the county executive, of all things, for being insensitive to the needs of food-challenged constituents.

In a recent press release the outnumbered (19-4) GOP accused Metzger of cutting back spending on local food pantries. They got that part right; Metzger’s proposed 2027 budget reduces spending in that area by about 20 percent. What the suddenly-concerned food warriors didn’t get, or forgot, was that Metzger herself instituted the county program last year.

Should she have reduced the county share in these times of ever-rising food costs? Of course not. She should have increased it by at least the federally announced cost of living.

But to accuse Metzger, a genuine bleeding heart, of insensitivity, is just plain electioneering.

Hopefully, the legislature, in its collective wisdom, restores or even enhances that spending as it peruses the Metzger budget line by line. Right now, it looks like there’s at least four votes there.