The Ulster County Laws, Rules, and Government Services Committee on June 12 voted to set a public hearing for July 15 on proposed local law No. 6 of 2025, which would amend the Ulster County Charter and Administrative Code to revise sections governing budget and finance, including a change to the dollar threshold for contracts requiring legislative approval.

The hearing-setting resolution was moved and adopted without recorded opposition. Committee members discussed a provision that would raise the dollar threshold at which contracts require explicit legislative approval, a change that drew questions from several legislators and comment from Ulster County Comptroller Gallagher.

Comptroller Gallagher told the committee the $50,000 threshold in the charter dated to 2006 and “with the time value of money, that level just may not be appropriate.” Gallagher said her office analyzed how many contracts would be affected and cautioned that “size of contract does not actually dictate how important a contract may be to the constituents,” citing an example, “Veil Explorers,” that was controversial despite being below $50,000 in a prior iteration.

Committee members discussed procedural options for separating that dollar-figure change from the rest of the charter revisions. Counsel advised the group that the available procedure would be “a motion to amend to redact that portion and then submission of a standalone separate local law at a subsequent meeting.” Several legislators said they favored moving forward with the public hearing and addressing the contract-threshold language afterward so as not to delay the broader charter update.

The committee’s action only sets a public hearing; no substantive amendment to the charter was adopted at the June 12 meeting. Any ultimate change to the contract threshold would require adoption of the local law following the public hearing and the formal local law process.

Background: The resolution was presented as part of a package of charter revision-related local laws forwarded for a July 15 legislative session. The committee referenced materials prepared by the Charter Revision Commission and analysis from the Comptroller’s Office about how the proposed threshold change would affect the portion of county contract dollars that require legislative approval.

Looking ahead: The committee set the public hearing for July 15; members flagged that separating the contract-threshold language into a standalone local law may be procedurally cleaner if members want more focused discussion on that single change.