That's right — Ulster County Legislator Mary Sheeley has been hired by Ellenville's Village Board of Trustees to take over for the recently-elected County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach…and she'll be working the job in a part-time capacity. The village sure does seem to have a lot of faith in Sheeley, as they're asking her to do what has always been a full-time job in only 20 hours a week.

A super task, indeed.

The idea here, as discussed by Mayor Jeff Kaplan, is that it will potentially save the village government a chunk of money. Apparently, while Auerbach was campaigning, the various service department-heads with the village were able to keep things under control without the manager's watchful eye. Now the village is going to see how things work out with a part-time interim manager.

In truth, it's not a bad idea. Right now is a great time to try and cut costs, seeing as how we've got a recession happening across the nation. But this also forces us to ask the question: why was the manager's position full-time for so long when it can so easily be reduced?

So far, there hasn't been any kind of specific discussion on what Sheeley won't do that Auerbach did — in fact, it seems like quite the opposite. It's been said that part of the reason for Sheeley's hiring is her expertise in financing and accounting, as her work at H&R Block will attest. As such, the village board will surely be leaning on her more heavily than managers-past to dispense financial and economic advice. This looks like it even takes a page or two from the recently-proposed position of village comptroller.

So what's going on here? Is Sheeley really being expected to work more as the manager on a part-time basis? This is not to say that Sheeley isn't up to the job — she's certainly proven herself as a dedicated servant of the public, both as a former village trustee and as a county legislator. But can any person, no matter how qualified or dedicated, really do the job of the village manager in addition to her day job plus working as a county legislator? We hope so — we'd hate to see that Sheeley has bitten off more than she can chew.

But you know what they say: desperate times call for desperate measures. Time, or the lack thereof, was a huge factor in why Sheeley was given the interim post while the village board continues to field applicants to take over the job on a permanent basis. The board was left with three weeks to find someone to fill the post, but it seems like it would have been prudent to have begun the search back when Auerbach first announced his candidacy back in April. Sure, no one knew if he would win (a truth which persisted weeks after the actual election). But preparation for such an eventuality would have prevented the village's mad scramble in December. It seems that a lack of preparation is a perpetual problem that has dogged the village board for a while now.

Welcome to the new position, Mary Sheeley. We wish you the best of luck — it seems like you're going to need it.

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