KINGSTON – In a blow to Ulster County Executive Michael Hein's recent restructuring of the youth department, the Legislature voted, 18-11, against his choice of replacement, Janet Y. Caffo, for youth bureau director.

Caffo, who, according to the county website, oversees "County Executive Mike Hein's Consumer Fraud Office," was picked to replace former youth bureau director Krista Barringer, in a departmental restructuring that Hein claims will save the county almost $11,000 this year and up to $74,000 over the next two years. The restructure combined the position of youth director with that of the director of the county Bureau of Consumer Affairs. Caffo has been the interim youth director since Barringer's termination on June 18.

The vote was significant in that Hein cannot nominate Caffo for the position again; as a result, she stands to lose both appointments.

Addressing the legislature during Tuesday night's session, Barringer said she is most concerned that the youth will be poorly served by her substitute, whose resume lacks any experience in working with children.

"This is not about me; this is about your most vulnerable constituents, the one-third population of your district who do not vote and do not have a voice — your youth. They deserve a government entity that independently seeks to ensure that they appropriately receive the county's attention and resources," she said.

The specifications for the director were rewritten on June 18, the day of Barringer's dismissal, and no longer require the applicant to have three years of supervisory experience in youth development and juvenile delinquency. While Caffo appears to meet the revised minimum qualifications for the position, nothing in her work or educational background suggests that she has "a thorough knowledge of factors underlying youth development and growth."

Legislator Frank Felicello, R-Marlboro, said the spec changes were "tailored to meet the middling qualifications [of Caffo]."

Several speakers spoke out in support of Barringer, including Carl Chipman, supervisor of the Town of Rochester, who said that individual towns depend on the youth bureau to act as a funnel to direct money into each town's youth program. He said Barringer was "amazing at finding a dollar under every rock" to fund these programs and in helping the towns wade through Albany's bureaucracy and extensive paperwork to secure the funds.

James Hanson, a spokesperson for the executive's office, said the intent of the merger was to find cost savings in an area not controlled by mandates. The youth program is state-mandated; the fraud department is not. The appointee for the position will commit 35 hours a week to the Youth Bureau and five hours to consumer fraud. Logic might suggest that the appointee would be the one with more experience in the position that is state-mandated and requires more hours. Hanson said Caffo was chosen instead because she's proven her ability to perform dual roles.

Hein said Barringer's termination was motivated not by politics, but by an attempt to be responsive to the financial crises that the county and state face. The county executive said he had to choose between funding children's programs and funding a full-time director.

"The reality is that this was a business decision," he said.

In a letter to Minority Leader Jeanette Provenzano, Michael Berg, executive director of Family of Woodstock, said that the state has made significant cuts to youth programming funds and that "it is very difficult to justify maintaining the same level of administration with diminishing programming."

Berg said that he understood that "the funding saved by combining the two positions would be used to increase the amount of programming available to Ulster County youth."

With Caffo's appointment defeated, the youth bureau will be operating without a director until Hein names a new appointee and the legislature approves his selection.