KINGSTON � Though created with the intent of becoming a financially self-sufficient operation, the county's fee-based trash agency, the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA), has cost county taxpayers nearly $32 million since 1998. On Monday, Comptroller Elliott Auerbach issued a report that blames the county legislature for failing to properly monitor the agency and accuses them of being poor stewards of taxpayer dollars.

"The Ulster County Legislature has practiced a laissez faire approach and this hands-off governance style has cost the taxpayers nearly $32 million with no end in sight," Auerbach wrote in a press release that accompanied his report.

The comptroller's report examines the fees, known as Net Service Fees (NSF), that the county has paid the trash agency since 1992, per an agreement between the county and the UCRRA.

Auerbach said the NSF was "never intended to be an annual subsidy of UCRRA, but rather, [as] monies needed to build the agency's capacity while starting up."

Auerbach said the NSF has become a "safety net for the budget shortfalls that they've been operating under for a decade."

Among the charges leveled by the comptroller are that the legislature has not fulfilled its contractual obligations to "monitor and control factors contributing to the NSF."

YEAR    NSF paid to UCRRA 1998 $ 1,608,400.00 1999 $ 3,788,896.00 2000 $ 3,385,470.00 2001 $ 3,604,171.00 2002 $ 3,998,416.00 2003 $ 2,775,392.00 2004 $ 3,412,893.00 2005 $ 2,397,819.00 2006 $ 2,392,335.00 2007 $ 1,887,678.00 2008 $ 1,249,383.00 2009 $ 1,398,254.00 Total $ 31,899,107.00

Deputy Chair of the Governmental Services, Environmental and Administrative Committee, Hector Rodriguez, D-New Paltz, said that though the comptroller's charges were not wholly accurate, the committee members would take his report under advisement.

Rodriguez described the UCRRA as a very different agency than it was in its infancy and said that when the Democrats were the legislative majority, the environmental committee received reports from the agency on a monthly basis. While the agency needed subsidies initially, Rodriguez contends that since 2004, the fees paid by taxpayers have "flat-lined or been in decline."

However, the comptroller's report disputes Rodriguez's claims, noting that the NSF has been paid every year since 1998 and that the dollar amounts have fluctuated from $3.9 million in 2002 to $1.2 million in 2008. The most recent payment the county made to the UCRRA was almost $1.4 million in 2009.

In addition, the report states that the auditors found "no evidence in official records that the legislature has ever leveraged its authority to oversee or control the UCRRA budget which regularly results in significant NSF payments."

Citing "ongoing concerns with the agency," Legislator Laura Petit, R-Port Ewen, who has worked as a legislative liaison to the UCRRA since its early days, applauded the comptroller for taking action. She said the agency struggles to keep solvent and viable and that the legislature should employ more oversight to ensure that the goals and objectives of the agency are met.

"I call upon the legislature to use its power and authority to protect taxpayers in every way related to the UCRRA," said Auerbach. "Simple due diligence is what is needed and this report provides some guidance on how to begin."

UCRRA Executive Director Michael Bemis said the comptroller's report will be reviewed, but noted that conditions have changed since the agreement was initiated in 1992. At the time that the contract was negotiated, he said it was predicated on Ulster County having a major landfill. Residents opposed and rejected proposed landfill sites and trash was transferred out of county.

Bemis said the contract should have been updated to reflect the change but it was never addressed by the legislature. He also noted that in 2002, the agency's debt was reissued and extended, based on cost-saving recommendations at the time.

Despite being a taxpayer-subsidized organization, the UCRRA's salaries and benefits exceeded $2.3 million in 2009.