What on earth did guys like Gary Kriss do before the invention of the cell phone? Once upon a time the people’s business was carried quite efficiently without wireless devices, so this is something to ponder.

Thanks to the modern marvel of portable communication,  government insiders like Kriss are able to yak and yak all day like teenage prom queens before the big dance. It’s nothing but an addiction, a technological fetish.

As any observer of Westchester County government knows, Kriss is the $150,000-a-year chief adviser to Bill “Boss” Ryan, the chairman of the board of legislators. Kriss is under a criminal investigation in connection with thousands of dollars of electronic stuff he bought using a county credit card. Among the gadgets were computer software and, yes, cell phones.

Indeed, his use of a county cellphone is also under scrutiny.  It seems that between May and Nov. 6, 2007, Kriss engaged in 18 calls with Domenic Volpe, a Democrat who ran against County Legislator George Oros, R-Cortlandt. Kriss, of course,  is (or was) a loyal servant to Boss Ryan, a Democrat who loves partisan politics and undoubtedly would’ve knocking another Republican off the board to further consolidate his power.

Questions have arisen over the nature of the Kriss-Volpe conversations as to wheher they were political in nature. If they were political, then they were in direct violation of the county’s Code of Conduct and Board policy which prohibits a staff member from doing political work against a sitting legislator.

Kriss’s defenders, Ryan being one of them, say the calls were on the up- and-up, even thought they went right up to and included Election Day. I guess they were just yakking about the weather.

Oros won anyway.