In an extraordinary segment on the WGHQ morning show, radio host and Democratic County Legislator Richard Parete (D-Accord) admitted that he and several other Democratic Legislators, including Peter Kraft (D-Olive) and Tracy Bartels (D-Glenford), along with Democratic Party Boss John Parete, secretly met with a member of the NY State comptroller’s office at Democratic Party Headquarters in Kingston.

County Democrats have often accused Republican Legislators of conducting county business in private. County Republican leaders cite this as another example of Democratic hypocrisy.

According to Parete, the meeting was originally scheduled to be held at the County Office Building, but was moved at the last moment “because a former employee did not want to be seen”.

In a lively exchange, Republican Majority Leader Michael Stock (R-Woodstock) called in to challenge Parete. According to Stock, “This meeting between the Chairman of the Ulster County Democratic Party and the auditor taints the entire process. This crude attempt to turn a needed, if unpopular, project into political grandstanding threatens the integrity of the audit.”.

“If Republicans held a secret meeting like this, it would be front-page news on The New York Times “, said Stock. “Certain Democrats think that holding secret meetings with their political boss is acceptable behavior in their ‘do anything, say anything’ campaign. The truth is these democrats have no plan to deal with the issues facing the county. They seem to take the tact that if they sling enough mud, some of it may stick. There is a right way and a wrong way to go about things. This is another example that the present leadership of the Democratic Party here in Ulster County doesn’t know the difference.”