Fawn A. Tantillo, Confidential Secretary to Chair Bernardo, sent out a press release headlined CHAIRMAN BERNARDO ANNOUNCES LEGISLATIVE STAFF APPOINTMENTS. Wednesday’s post on Ulster County Cloakroom – Bernardo Watch: Even More Cronyism – puts the news in perspective:

So, let’s review. Patty Jacobsen, who works for the Ulster County Board of Elections and should know better, gets a dead woman’s signature for Terry Bernardo’s petition for legislator. Vicky Fabella is Patty’s daughter, who got $6k raise as soon as Bernardo became chair and now gets another raise for her loyalty. Of course, Karen Binder’s seat hasn’t even cooled off, not to mention the harassment Binder underwent when Bernardo investigated the dying woman over the comp time she was using for medical appointments (which is a matter of public record and about which I will have more to say in the coming days).

Krista Barringer is a Bernardo pal who was bounced from her position as Director of the Ulster County Youth Bureau by Mike Hein, ostensibly for budget reasons but really because Barringer was using her position to enrich the Bernardos by steering youth bureau business to Skate Time 209. Barringer leaves another crony job working for Bonacic.

And Frank Reggero gets a raise because, oh, I suppose he peels a mean grape or something.

And all of them are making less money than their prior counterpart, dontcha know. Except the truth is Bernardo continues to spend money on her pals like a drunken sailor, now likely to be well over $100k more than the previous leadership spent for the same services (it was previously $96k more according to Robin Yess’s meticulous calculations).

Fiscal conservatism in action, folks.

Thank you, Count Ulster.

– Jon Dogar-Marinesco