When I first met Susan Tolchin 12 years ago, she was peeved, walking around a near empty office, waving her arms at the empty walls.  Even back then, Tolchin, who is now Deputy County Executive, was fiercely protective of her boss’s image. Some things never change. 

Here’s what I wrote in January 1998: 

 

When Andrew J. Spano arrived last week to take over the helm of Westchester County government, he found that he had inherited little from his predecessor’s once-elegant office except a few dusty cabinets and a couple of ill-tended potted plants. The sumptuous leather couch and handsome walnut desk and matching chair and refrigerator were gone. 

Thus, Mr. Spano, the first Democrat to be elected Westchester County Executive in 15 years, began his tenure sitting behind a squat rented desk in an anything-but-power chair.

But as his first order of business, Mr. Spano used the laptop computer he brought from home to change the law that allowed his predecessor, Andrew P. O’Rourke, to buy his office furniture at a discount and take it with him when he left.

Mr. O’Rourke paid $5,075 for 16 pieces of furniture and a fax machine, said Susan Tolchin, Mr. Spano’s director of communications. The county also gave Mr. O’Rourke his computer, which he had received from the county’s General Services Administration in a trade for a personal computer. 

Mr. Spano would like to see that county officials be allowed to take only ‘’mementos’’ of their service, not fax machines, personal computers or brass candlestick lamps. ‘’What’s at issue is what constitutes furniture and furnishings and what is a fair appraisal,’’ Ms. Tolchin said.

I guess that means that incoming County Executive Rob Astorino can expect to walk into a fully furnished office come January.