Ulster County withdraws field-test resolution; approves contract for facility-based drug testing

A proposed Ulster County resolution that would have required use of high-quality field drug test kits in county-administered social-service programs was withdrawn June 5 after county staff and the sponsor said conversations led staff to adopt existing protocols.

Legislator McCullough, the resolution sponsor, said a productive discussion with county leadership prompted withdrawal: "I'm gonna withdraw this resolution at this time." Commissioner Iaposi said the conversations allowed the county to "revisit and review our protocols and processes around administering the drug tests" and to focus on avoiding false positives.

Separately the committee approved resolution 2 95 to authorize a $150,000 contract with Anderson Medical doing business as Emergency 1 Urgent Care and Diagnostic Center to provide drug testing services through the Department of Social Services. Commissioner Iaposi and Deputy Commissioner Wood explained the Anderson Medical contract expands options so clients can be tested locally at the urgent-care sites rather than traveling to Kingston or Ellenville.

Deputy Commissioner Wood described how testing is sometimes scheduled and sometimes required on short notice: "So We don't we wanna kinda catch them off guard, make sure that they're clean all the time. So I may call up Mike and say, you need to go in by 02:00 tomorrow," Wood said, describing the county's practice of directing clients to test under court orders or formal directives.

Wood clarified that the county's authority to require testing in individual cases derives from court orders and that testing may be conducted randomly within a participant's court or program requirements. The committee voted to adopt the Anderson Medical contract.