Mr. Johnson......take down that sign!!!

Does it ever pay to give compliments?.  Yesterday I congratulated Mike Toohey and the retiring members of the City Center Board for giving us a larger more effective Convention venue.  Then I saw the sign they erected!!!!

It is an digital neon eyesore; nothing more than a gaudy advertising board constantly flashing its prosaic messages to stroke whatever convention happens to be in town. Could the 9/11 sculpture have been worse?

The City Center* guards the entry to North Broadway, arguably the most notable historic area of a city that prides itself on its Victorian past.  Now thanks to the City Planner who crafted T-Zones, putting them outside of the normal constraints of the Zoning Board of Appeals; thanks to a Design Review Commission carefully appointed by Mayor Johnson to fudge judgments on questionable taste, we have no restraints on that area.  Let’s document that entryway.  We have the above mentioned garish sign, a gas station and a tattoo parlor.  Aren’t we becoming a class act. 

Mayors have the power to appoint members of the three Land Use Boards; the Planning Board; the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Design Review Commission.  When Mayor Klotz came into office although SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) was nearly 20 years old, it was honored in the breach.  Under Mayor Klotz the Boards started to promote and in the case of the ZBA require training in how to adhere to the State mandated standards that control the Boards.  They became dignified, thoughtful Boards that complied with State law as well as local ordinance.  Their questioning of applicants was demanding, their deliberations detailed but if they took a little more time, their rulings were usually balanced and just.

Under the old zoning code outside neon signs were not allowed in our city.  They were considered antithetical to the context of Saratoga Springs.  Under past Boards, there would have been a motion sent to the City Council to include digital under the prohibition.

Enter Mr. Johnson and his Mayoral mendacity about civility.  .  Through attrition and pressure, he managed to replace almost every one of the 21 Land Use Board members.  Notable is the fact that under Johnson only one party is smart enough to be appointed to the boards.  Preferred are contractors, developers, land owners and people related to the real estate business.  SEQRA handled by the City Council became a joke.  Anything goes.  Voila, the City Center signage.

Now the Mayor is paying an outside firm of attorneys to rewrite our City zoning code without public participation.  “To make it more consistent and understandable” is the word from City Hall.  However, when it is done, we, the public will get a few weeks to read and absorb it.  If we’re lucky we’ll get a few public hearings where our participation will be limited to two minutes.  It will then be passed through by what is left of the current City Council that approved it.  Who knows what is being written behind those closed doors.

What is it with people named Scott?  Is Saratoga Springs Scott, as the Governor of Wisconsin, doing everything in his power to stop citizens from participating in their government?  Is he against city workers?  His main thrust appears to be avoiding benefits to workers.  He is more than willing to spend 4+million dollars on a parking deck while laying off public safety and civil service workers as being too expensive.  Can he really believe that one parking structure will bring an additional $10+ million in sales taxes to pay for the bond on the structure?  Did he tell the truth about his ability to negotiate union contracts?  He has spent a boat load of money on outside attorneys to negotiate them to completion.  I may be incorrect, but to my knowledge only one contract has been signed in the nearly four years since he started paying the outside attorneys. 

Back to the sign in front of the City Center.  We have a government that pays little attention to the needs of its citizenry.  They do parking decks instead of public safety coverage; they pander to business owners; contracts with vendors are sacrosanct while our labor contracts go unsigned; the look of our City is falling prey to the most banal demands of the business segment of the community.  There has to be a more balanced way.

*For full disclosure: my husband is on the City Center Board. We do not agree about the sign. 

                        ******************************************************* 

This week we learn that the Supreme Court will hear three interesting cases:

Ø      The Texas redistricting case (that could undermine the Voting Rights Act)

Ø      The Arizona Anti-Immigration Act

Ø      The Federal Healthcare Act. 

We will finally learn if those Bush appointed Judges told the truth when they said they were not activist judges.  And here we thought that the Voting Rights Act was established law, Immigration was an established Federal function and the Federal government had the established right to required us the carry automobile insurance (or health insurance).

Wishing you and yours a healthy, happy holiday season whether you celebrate Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza or any other faith.  To my atheist and agnostic friends, simply enjoy.

'Tis the season to be jolly......

Originally I was going to question why a lame duck City Council is pushing through large expenditures on outside attorneys, a non revenue producing, uncovered parking deck and additional superficial personnel at the same time they are cutting firemen, policemen and other vital city hall employees.  But the majority has spoken.  It said that Mayor Johnson may push spending through his sycophants four on any project that strikes his fancy or the fancies of his backers.  So I address another issue.

To frack or not to frack, that is the question.  It’s roundly debated.  There is the usual divide between the corporations and the conservationists (a word has the same root as conservative).   Only one fact in the issue is immutable.   “Personkind” (mankind to oldies) cannot live without water.  The current proposals for fracking all include pumping chemicals into the ground which will most definitely leach into ground water systems.  Nature insures it just as with the PCBs.  No thinking or caring person wants to have children in any shale region drinking any part of that toxic mixture.

BUT listen up.  The Saratoga Springs Democratic City Committee is lucky enough to have a taciturn third Vice President who is a working energy engineer.  Over a glass of bubbly at the Democratic committee holiday party, I asked him about the question of fracking. 

My first question was how important is shale gas.  He said, if we can harvest it, in not too many years the U.S. may be exporting fuel the way we were the world’s exporters of oil before there was a Saudi Arabia or a Libya.  That’s impressive as a way towards the re-energizing of our economy as well as reducing our dependence on the oil from some problematic areas.

 

My second, but more important question, was what about befouling our water systems?  Apparently, as usual, the Corporations ably assisted by their politicians are looking for the cheapest, quickest way of attacking a problem.  “No one has given the problem to the engineers” said our friend.   There may ways to extract the gas using other disciplines of engineering.  It might be possible to extract gas by using controlled sonic booms or other methods yet to be considered that have no lasting impact on the natural habitat. 

The question that really needs to be addressed is can we safely extract the gas; can we frack safely.  And that is not even being asked no less discussed publically - at least not by the politicians; not by the corporations; not by the public.  If the answer is yes, let's go ahead.  If the answer is no, it should not be an option, Governor.

As usual we are mired in an issue totally polarized and muddled by opposing political sides, heavily funded by corporations and obfuscated by mendacity.  There has to be a better way.

Congratulations to Mike Toohey and those retiring from the City Center Board.  Grateful thanks to him and the exceptional current Board who have provided us with an enlarged City Center .  It will enhance our City's economy by accommodating more and larger conventions.  The Mayor as he did with the 9/11 sculpture committee has reached out to new people to enlarge participation in the governing process of our City....among them Joe Dalton and Tom Roohan.  Ho hum.

Wishing you and yours a healthy, happy holiday season whether you celebrate Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza or any other faith.  To my atheist and agnostic friends, simply enjoy.

A newspaper, a newspaper, our city needs a newspaper!!!

When we scrutinize low voter turnout and ponder why, one reason comes to mind – no newspaper.  No impartial newspaper to inform; no impartial newspaper to educate; no impartial newspaper to rally people to participate in their City, their government, their future.  To the uninformed, everything looks rosy in Saratoga Springs.

Four newspapers are capable of covering Saratoga Springs.  The Times Union, an Albany paper does its best weighing in on important issues in a City miles away.  The Post Star is primarily a Glens Falls newspaper that doesn’t make much of Saratoga Springs.  The Saratogian is supposed to be our local newspaper.  Although, any paper that can’t always get the correct date for the Victorian Walk hardly deserve a title that includes news.

The Publishers who come and go are only interested in revenue.  Except that there were a long line of publishers who automatically wanted to endorse only Republican candidate, we can discount them.  That leaves us with Ms. Lombardo.  Ms. Lombard has been long among us.  Her most notable accomplishment was her op ed the day after the Bush/Gore election when everyone was hanging onto every news outlet waiting to hear the details and possibly the outcome of the election.  In her op ed Ms.  Lombardo told us she didn’t want to go to election night parties.  She then spent an entire editorial talking about her broken refrigerator and what she went through to replace it.  She showed her truly astonishing priorities and her perhaps imperfect grasp of the important issues that impact our lives.

Take the most talked about issue of the past few years, Charter Change.  The Saratogian could have educated us with an overview of the various alternatives to the Commission form of government.  It could have outlined the extraordinary and tax spending measures Mayor Johnson was taking to prevent citizens from voting the proposed charter up or down.  It could have weighed the benefits/deficiencies of the Commission form of government.  It did none of these things.  This Saratogian, this paper that for decades ran its brilliant cartoon of the five headed monster whenever there was a problem between Commissioners; whenever the issue of charter was raised, was strangely silent.  No real information on the issue; no cartoon.  I don’t know what it tells you.  It tells me that Ms. Lombard and the paper are controlled by the revenue and opinions of its advertisers, Roohan Realty, Stewarts, Adirondack Trust, Gordon Boyd Energy Company - Mayor Johnson supporters all.  As a newsperson, Ms. Lombardo is certainly past her sell by date.

And that leaves us with the Daily Gazette.  At one time when Kathy Parker was reporting on our City it was one of the better newspapers in the area.  No more.  Last spring when I submitted a letter to the editor (see below),  I received the usual phone call asking if I had written the letter.  I said yes.  The young lady asked if I were still a member of the S. S. Democratic City Committee.  I answered yes, why did she want to know.  She said, she’d have to put that below my name.  I told her that I was writing as a private citizen, not as a representative of the committee so if she had to note that I was a member of the committee, she shouldn’t publish the letter.  But, I told her to tell her editors that it was a disturbing policy.  She asked if I would like to speak to her editor.  I said yes please.

One Arthur Clayman, editor, got on the phone.  I explained that I didn’t represent the committee so he couldn’t publish the letter with the committee name below mine.  He said that was his policy.  I told him I’d read plenty of letter written by Brian Hollowood who was a member of the Republican City Committee and it never so stated.  He repeated his policy and we agreed that he wouldn’t publish my letter.

Ten minutes later Mr. Clayman called back.  He said if I took out Congresssman Chirs Gibson’s name he would publish my letter under my name alone.  He had given me ten minutes to think.  I asked if he had the names of all committee persons of the Democratic, Republican, Independence, Working Families and Green Parties?  The answer was no.  “Then how do you know I am a member of the Dem. City Committee?”  His answer – “someone recognized your name”.   “So you are singling me out to mark as partisan because someone recognized my name?”  “It’s my policy” he repeated.  When I told him he’d lost for his newspaper all credibility as an impartial news outlet, he hung up on me.

I don’t know what this tells you.  It tells me that although voter registration between Democrats and Republicans is almost even, our city, our county is still in the vice of single party control, in our case Republican.  Although we do elect Democrats now and then, if a Democrat is to stay in office for any length of time he/she has to play ball with Republican “city fathers” – I believe its called picking one’s battles.  Anyone who stands for the rights of citizens to free information; for multiparty participation in city governance/boards; for free interchange of ideas is personally vilified and so turned out of office.

Again.... we have no impartial newspaper to inform; no impartial newspaper to educate; no impartial newspaper to rally people to participate in their City, their government, their future.

Letter to the Editor:

Mendacity

Remember the congressional election of 2010.  Our TVs were flooded with ads featuring our neighbors.  They said don’t vote for Murphy.  He will kill Medicare and hurt seniors.  They deceived voters.

Congressman, Dr. Chris Gibson and his compatriots are doing exactly what they falsely accused another of planning.  Their plans include cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Planned Parenthood specifically and healthcare in general - safety nets most needed in times of economic trouble.

Conservative rhetoric rails against “entitlements”.  If we and our children can’t have a social safety net (entitlements), why should corporations with rich balance sheets have subsidies (entitlements).

Dr. Gibson seems to be a social ideologue caring only about low taxes.  He has the knowledge and experience to know where and how to streamline the military budget.  Instead, he plays with our social safety nets ignoring all other government spending and revenue issues. 

Politicians like him paid by corporate donors sermonize about low corporate taxes, low taxes on income over a million dollars and large corporate subsidies to stimulate the economy and create jobs.  We have been trying that for the past ten years.  It hasn’t worked!   The jobs are gone; the deficit blown; the middle classes being asked to sacrifice while the few prosper.

I certainly understand the pressing need to lower our national debt for our children’s sake. But before putting citizens, seniors, women and children now or in the future at risk, we should be looking at oil subsidies, large corporate farming subsidies, our entire tax code and a panoply of programs/loopholes that help multibillion dollar corporations not ordinary citizens.

Congressman Gibson is either a zealot or has a callous disregard for regular citizens. During the “shut down” debate Gibson and his ilk promised to dismantle everything that has made America a strong nation. There is a better way.

304 Words

Nancy Goldberg

Saratoga Springs

Mayor Johnson is spending your money again.....

I’ve said before that Mayor Johnson is arrogant.  He and his deputy Mayor, who are against Charter change act as if we already have a strong Mayor form of government.  They stick their noses into every one of the five departments that are supposed to be led by independent Commissioners.

Now they have raised their arrogance to new levels and have added underhanded and deceitful to their behavior.  Anyone who has followed the budget knows that the Mayor has proposed building a parking garage on Woodlawn Avenue – a free parking garage.  We the tax payers will have to bond over $2 million for the first phase and another $2.5 million for the second phase.  That is over $4 million without creating one cent in revenue.  We the tax payers will pay all of it.

On November 16^th the Mayor sent out an TFP (Request for Proposal).  He has given November 23^rd as the final day for questions.  The bids will be opened on December 2^nd.  He has done this LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AFTER AN ELECTION IN WHICH HE LOST HIS MAJORITY.  WHY?  What is the rush to send out the RFP and award the contract if everything is above board?  Could it be that something is fishy?

Under normal circumstances this would not be enough time for an RFP.  Of course, business is bad so let’s assume that contractors will drop what they’re doing and rush to bid on such a lucrative contract.  HOWEVER, the Thanksgiving weekend comes in that period.  So one wonders how anyone will accomplish it in the shortened time.

The answers to questions that RFP responders might have won’t be back until the week bids are due.  Those answers may dramatically change a RFP response.  It simply doesn’t make sense.  It doesn’t make sense for the Mayor to rush through such an expensive project.  It doesn’t make sense to rush the contractors that way.  It makes even less sense to cut out the newly elected officials that you chose.  UNLESS of course, something fishy is going on.

Let’s remember how the Mayor rushed through the Recreation Center.  The recreation center and the expansion of the City Center happened about the same time.  Because the City Center Board did due deliberation in a changing market, the City Center Board was able to save approximately 30% of the cost.  Because the Mayor rushed through the Rec Center, he (we) paid top dollar for it.  Obviously the Mayor is a very slow learner.

I know you elected him.  But don’t you think that you ought to go to City Hall on Tuesday the 22^nd and demand that he not waste your tax money by yet again rushing a project.

Hike the County sales tax now - are they kidding!!!

The County wants to raise the County Sales tax 1%.  What will it do to the Cities of Saratoga Springs and Mechanicville; the towns of Clifton Park and Malta?  People from surrounding counties often come here to shop where they can save sales tax.  That may stop if our sales tax is increased. The County administrator, Spenser Hellwig, doesn’t seem to care.

Here’s little history of County Administration.  The County has no charter.  It functions under General County Law portion of State Law. The County Administrator position was created many years ago under the leadership of then Charlton supervisor Fred Hequembourg (now deceased). He was old school but very astute and ultimately agreed to establish the county administrator title.

The title was established by simple local law and the administrator is appointed by, and serves at the pleasure of, the Board of Supervisors. The county administrator is NOT the County executive. He is the County budget officer.

Spenser Hellwig is the 4th person to hold the title. The first two did not last long; both were forced out after brief stays by Fred McNeary who, in those days, had an inordinate amount of power. David Wickerham became the 3rd administrator enjoying McNeary patronage. Over the years Wickerham assumed more and more power simply because the Board of Supervisors was willing to abdicate theirs.  In the end, nothing went on the supervisor’s agenda unless Wickerham approved it.  Some of our own supervisors even referred to him as the "county executive."

Let’s see what Spencer Hellwig’s qualifications are for the job of County Administrator.  He came from the County Personnel Department were he served as County safety officer until he became Wickerham's deputy administrator. Hellwig came up through the ranks on the strength of Jasper Nolan's patronage.  He is a very political animal and has been rewarded for his blind allegiance to the Party.

Evidence for that allegation?  Once Hellwig was overheard by a reporter calling the then City Attorney, Matt Dorsey, regarding one Louise Barney.  He requested, probably at the behest of Jasper Nolan, that Mrs. Barney, mother-in-law of Lew Benton be evicted from her apartment at Jefferson Terrace.  Mrs Barney was 94 at the time.  Fortunately when Mr. Dorsey went to court, his order of eviction was denied.

Now as County Administrator Spenser Hellwig has - according to the papers -  essentially spent down the entire $35 million County surplus and hidden that fact from the taxpayers until the day AFTER the election. His excuse is that approx. $60 million of the County's proposed $300 + million 2012 budget are "mandated expenses".  Perhaps that is true. BUT that means that $240 Million are NOT mandated.

Senators McDonald and Farley say that Hellwig’s proposed sales tax increase is DOA.  One hopes that our Supervisors Yepsen and Veitch are also working to defeat the proposed 1% sales tax hike.  But what does this say about Hellwig’s competence?  Is he so unskilled that he did not do any homework BEFORE proposing to raise the sales tax from 3% to 4% (that is a 33% increase).  Do we really believe that there is no fat in the $240 million in NON-MANDATED County expenditures.  Remember Mr. Hellwig is supposed to be the budget officer and adept at finding the fat in these trying times.

Remember, again, we had a $30+ million surplus before Hellwig took over.  Now he says we will have a $20+ million deficit.  That is a loss of over $50 million.  Mr. Hellwig has demonstrated that either he is way over his head as county budget officer or he is downright incompetent.  That he kept all this from the public until the day after the election shows that he is at best a political hack.

 The Board of Supervisiors should remove him immediately and replace him with someone who has the background and knowledge to understand the hard choices we all have to make these days with budgets.  It would also be good if they chose someone who puts the good of Saratoga County citizens over the demands of any party.

Connect the dots......

We know that the saratogadecline blogger uses poetic and not so poetic license.  He obviously has an agenda. However, why does he feel it necessary to use so much profanity?  Is it a way to avoid cogent discourse on real issues that face our City, a city he doesn’t live  even in?  Instead of asking for donations, you would think that a person who has the skills to put up graphics on a blog makes good money at a well paying job.  Or does disability pay to well to give it up.  You who donate are paying for him, you, Saratoga Springs, are paying though the nose.

The problem is that his kind of language brings out those as foul mouthed as he. They post comments that spare no one, not men, not women, nor even children.  The blogger once told me that he spent time in Gaza on holiday.  Could that be true?   Could it be one reason he features me so prominently in his blog.  Perhaps he learned his sociological terrorism there, using the internet and his rhetoric to sow dissatisfaction and dissention in our community.  What other reason for such negativity?

We have just had an election in our City.  Instead of wishing our elected officials well for the betterment of the City some of them have been roundly trashed as drunks, idiots and the like.  Let’s recap.  Those trashed include newly elected Madigan and Mathiesen; Val Keehn, no longer in the city; Commissioner Sirocco (Republican ) and his family some of whom don’t ever drink; Kathy Moran because she represents working people, Brent Wilkes, Dennis Yusko (Times Union reporter), John Herrick (Chair of the Republican Party), Thilo Ullmann (Chair of the Democratic Party), and Pat Kane to name only a few.
  

Those not trashed are Mayor Johnson, understandable if the blogger is a Republican; John Franck not understandable if the blogger is a Republican; Jasper Nolan, understandable if the blogger is a Republican.   Question:  why is the blogger who trashes the newly elected Democrats always seen sitting at the same table with Lou Schneider and Bill McTygue (founders) when the Democratic Club meets at Mamma Mia’s?  What connects these dots?

Since the blogger seems to be fixated on the physical appearances of his targets, one could ask if he has ever looked in the mirror.  Certainly his early experience with food and financial deprivation taught him neither compassion nor humanity.  Had it done so he would not be so judgmental and vitriolic about those with whom he disagrees?  Or perhaps he sleeps through the sermons at his church.  With that, I am done reading and commenting on the blog of a corpulent narcissist.  Rage on ye foul mouthed churl.  I won’t know it. 

Back to the City.  If you read the Charter, you will know that it is honored in the breach.  We have a Commissioner form of government.  We do not have a strong Mayor form of government.  Yet, the Mayor defunded the human resources position; he has defunded the Parks and Open Space position.  In short, he has ignored the law of the City.  These are not optional positions.  They are mandated by the existing Charter.  And yet, the Mayor sues those who want Charter change.  Apparently he finds it easier to ignore the Charter for his own purposes rather than change it for our consideration.

 

Did you know that under the ethics of the Charter a private investigator is precluded from being the Commissioner of Public Safety?  The Mayor was happy to serve with a Commissioner of Public Safety who says he is a working private investigator.  Oops!  The Deputy Mayor is another interesting case.  I thought that the Deputies are paid more than Commissioners because they are full time positions.  Why is the deputy Mayor seen working at a grave yard during the time when she is supposed to be working at City Hall?  Are we to believe that she does it for free?  Has she paid the City back for the hours she spends out of city hall during the working week?  Has she paid us back for the weekday time she spent going door to door for her bosses reelection? Is that in her job description?

What’s with Ms. French who has made renting the Congress Park Casino such a hassle?  Why is she being so difficult that some of the usual charities and brides are not using the Casino any more?  Is she trying to embarrass Commissioner Sirocco by tanking the Casino revenues?  Hey, Marilyn Rivers, risk manager, have you ever gone to the basement of the Casino?  Are not the existing mold and asbestos dangerous for people working there?  And, Ms. Rivers, what about the code violations on the “new” recreation center?  The fire insulation is not up to code.  Why is the roof leaking already?   Did you give back the builder’s bond before making sure the roof didn’t leak?   Do you ever go around to the City facilities for which you responsible? 

Now we know that the new City Engineer with whom you are supposed to work has not yet taken his examination that would qualify him for his job.  We know that his friend, the new building inspector, is also studying for his examination that will qualify him for his job.  Saratoga, we are already paying these two men as if they were indeed qualified for the jobs they hold.  We understand they are both hired by the Mayor.  But, Ms. Rivers, you are supposed to protect the City from risks for which we can be sued.  Why haven’t you made these situations known to the public who uses these facilities?  Why don’t we hear about them at the City Council meetings and what is being done to address them?  Like flowers, you were put up for an award by your supporters.  Winning doesn’t make you as useful to the City as flowers. When flowers just sit there, they don’t put us at risk.  Remember when I came to you and told you that I had just walked into the building; the old City Hall steps were crumbling and needed some yellow tape put up to avoid accidents.  You said to me, “don’t tell me, tell Pat Design.”  I thought we paid you to do that.

In the matter of Penn State...........

We lived in Pennsylvania twice.  The entire State was proud of its public University as a fine educational institution with an oft winning sports tradition.  They seemed to run a clean sports operation, graduating their students, avoiding the illegal enticements so many other Universities offered to attract high school students. 

All of that changed this weekend with the announcement of the continuing "child abuse" perpetrated by a now retired assistant football coach with the knowledge of many in authority.  Not only did the university authorities fail to report the felony to the police, they awarded the offending man an emeritus status allowing him the continued use of the field house where the felonies were to continue. We were with an Alum of Penn State when the news broke.  He was devastated that his university had acted in such a way as to ignore and cover up a report of child rape. 

With age, wisdom is supposed to come to us.  It also dims some of one’s memories of youth.   We can all be relatively sure that in our late teens and early twenties we were not as thoughtful as we are now.  Can we even go as far as saying that many college students are solipsistic.  And, still, I was shocked when students went to Coach Paterno’s house chanting “just one more game”.  

We all probably have some small sadness that the Coach is leaving under such damaging circumstances.   Not because he was leaving in such a manner but because he was not the hero we thought him to be.  How can he play the victim as if to compare his situation to the damage that was done to those vulnerable young boys.  If Paterno were the hero we believed him to be, he  would not have failed to discharge his responsibility to children.  He simply reported the “incident in the shower” to University authorities and continued to work with the perpetrator.  If Paterno were the class act we believed him to be, he would have resigned saving the University the difficulty of having to fire him. Is any coaching assistant so important that the rape of young boys can be forgiven or ignored?    Is the student body really so callus as to do so?

What kind of people are we, what kind of society are we if we place more importance on a winning sports team and a winning coach than we place on the rape of our children.

The recreation center and others issues.....

A member of the Democratic Committee appointed to the Recreation Commission by a Democrat Mayor, writes  letters-to-the-editor in favor of Mayor Johnson, against Democrat candidates that he was elected to support.  He becomes the poster person for the Johnson re-election campaign.  Sadly, he is a one issue citizen in a city with multiple issues.

Let’s look at the recreation center.  We now have a facility that is meant to hold basketball tournaments rather than to serve local people who could walk to it. The facility accommodates over a thousand people for those tournaments BUT it has no showers in the locker rooms for tournament participants to wash.  However, there is parking for only 54 cars as if it were only meant for locals.   It has a commercial size kitchen BUT no stove.  It is built with fire insulation that is only certified to 34,000 square feet; the recreation center is larger than 34,000 square feet.  It all sounds like a facility that was rushed to completion without defined aims and with poor planning.  Congratulations Recreation Commission.

The debonair Commissioner Wirth put no parking signs on the rec center side of the street rather than protect the residential side of the street.  When there is a tournament in the facility there is parking on both sides of the street because public safety doesn’t patrol and give out tickets.  A car can hardly get through the street.  Certainly no emergency vehicle can get down Vanderbuilt Terrace.  Why hasn’t the Commissioner of Public Safety put no parking signs on the residential side of Vanderbuilt Terrace?  Residents are tax payers who need to be able to drive down their street and get into their driveways.

 When Mayor Johnson came into office we had a new building inspector who was still in his six month probationary period.  He was tasked to approve the rec center construction.  He opined that the fire insulation was not in compliance with State requirements for a building over 34,000 sq. ft. Because the rec center is over 34,000 sq. ft. additional tests were required.  Rather than approve the tests, the Mayor removed the building inspector when his six months probationary period was over and went on to build the facility.

After that the city then went nearly two and a half years without a senior building inspector.   When the public service commission insisted that the Mayor comply with the charter and hire a building inspector, he hired outside council to fight them (our tax dollars). Recently the Mayor appointed a new building inspector who has to go to school to receive his certification for the position in which he serves. 

 

Let’s be clear on this subject.  Building inspectors make sure that buildings comply with the state and local building codes for fire and construction safety; they make sure that construction complies with our zoning code.  This is a vital function of government.  IT IS GOVERNMENT’S FIRST PRIORITY TO POTECT THE SAFETY IT’S CITIZENS.  Why would the Mayor who oversees the planning and building departments and the rest of the City Council play hide and seek with this issue for so long?

 

And because we need to expand the dialogue, why has the Mayor hired an outside law firm to rewrite our City Zoning Ordinance without public input?  Is Mayor Johnson is as tall as Napoleon?

Do we believe what we hear or what is published in City Hall records?

 At the League of Women Voters debate the Mayor assured us that he was well within his budget for outside legal services.  Commissioner Ivins supported his contention. 

It’s nearly impossible for the average citizen to find the exact amount of outside legal expenses as they are spread over different accounts in the City Attorney’s budget (office of the Mayor) and in the Account’s Office budget.  Here’s what’s available according to the Commissioner of Finance's published reports:

Cost of Outside Legal Services: 2009 – March 31, 2011

Year                Original Budget    Reported Actual Expenditure   Difference

2009                $175,000                $294,846                             +$119,846/+ 68%

2010                $150,000                 $209,735                             +$59,735/ +40%

2011 thru         $ 96,000                  $103,778                             + $ 7,778/ + 8%

March 31(1st quarter)                       (including encombrances)

TOTALS          $421,000                 $608,359                         ______________      

These costs are IN ADDITION to salaries and benefits paid to the city attorney and the assistant city attorney.  They DO NOT include regular legal costs such as assessment matters, non-payment of taxes, etc.

First Quarter of 2011

This year, 2011, the rate of expenditures on outside law firms seems to be even greater than the two previous years.  Commissioner Ivins notes in his first 2011 Quarterly Financial Report for the period ending March 31, 2011 that the mayor’s office had already exceeded its entire 2011 expenditure.  Through the end of March a total of $103,778 had been spent or encumbered and an additional $91,778 had already been transferred into the account.[1]   

[1] 2011 1st Quarterly Report, Finance Department, April 21, 2011

What is the truth?  It is time to change the team.  Wilkes, Madigan and Mathiesen will reopen our government to all citizens.

Vote on November 8^th.  Polls are open from 6:00 AM until 9:00PM

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Saratoga is not in decline.....

Novermber 1, 2011 

It requires no courage to write an anonymous blog.  It requires no strength to avoid confronting the hard truths we face as a community.  It takes no creativity to lob ad hominem attacks, implying that an older woman has had plastic surgery or baselessly accusing her of mistreating servers at community restaurants.  

Saratoga is not in decline, anonymous blogs notwithstanding.  I urge you to read the blog “saratogadecline” not for what it contains, but for what it does not contain: cogent analysis and reasoned argument about our community’s pressing issues.  In referring to a letter of mine published in the Saratogian  as the “worst letter in the world,” the October 23, 2011 post on saratogadecline confronted neither the facts I included in my letter nor the ultimate issue.  The issue I raised in my letter, however, should concern every member of our community.  The facts on which I relied derive from City Council minutes and the published reports of the Commissioner of Finance and are unrefuted.  

So I now embark on my own blog to present facts and confront difficult issues that face our community concisely and cogently and, most of all, civilly and without rancor.   

My first order of business is to set the record straight for those of you who read the October 23, 2011 post on “saratogadecline.” 

1. Ken Klotz and Hank Kuczynski appointed me to the Zoning Board of Appeals (“ZBA”), not Valerie Keehn.
2. The ZBA voted on its own chair, no Mayor appointed me.
3. I have always been a proponent of density in the City.  I have always been a proponent of protecting open space in the rural areas of the City. Conservation, from the same root as conservative, has tangible and material economic benefits, impacting both tourism and agriculture and maintaining the majestic beauty of our City and its environs.
4. I resigned my position on the ZBA six months short of completing my seventh year.   I did so when my colleagues refused even to discuss the debilitating conflict of interest under which certain appellants were laboring – conflicts that affected the ZBA’s independence.  During the variance appeal on the Recreation Center the City Attorney, the Assistant City Attorney and the City’s outside Council – at the Mayor’s direction – represented the City as appellant while purportedly providing disinterested, independent legal advice to the ZBA.  In other words, those lawyers were hopelessly conflicted.   This conflict may have affected the outcome of the Recreation Center appeal.  In the normal course of every ZBA appeal during my tenure, we discussed neighborhood impact issues such as lighting and parking.  During the Recreation Center appeal, the City’s lawyers prevented the ZBA from discussing these issues.  For me, the compromises that conflicted counsel forced upon the supposedly independent ZBA prevented my continued service.
5. I believe in people as they are; I never confuse knowledge with intelligence.
6. While I do not have strong feelings about the charter revision, this City’s administration should not spend taxpayer dollars to prevent citizens from voting on the issue.  Initiatives that prevent every legal citizen from voting on his/her own destiny are simply un-American.
7. I support adequate police and fire/EMS coverage for the entire City. Shouldn’t  everyone?

As for the current city-wide races, I support Wilkes for Mayor; Madigan for Finance and Mathiesen for Public Safety. 

If elected,  we should expect that they will: 

conduct the City’s business in an open and honest manner, avoiding executive session. 

listen intently and respond cordially to citizens who raise issues at City Council meetings.  I expect them to do their best to be responsive to the entire electorate and not just to themselves and those who elect them. 

provide the City with a clear and complete vision of our future, setting and prioritizing legislative and administrative agendas. 

provide us with an understandable accounting of the City’s finances. 

provide us with a comprehensive status report on the adequacy of public safety within the City, including a plan to cover the eastern plateau in a timely manner and a solution to the burdensome overtime plaguing the budget. 

appoint competent persons to the three Land Use Boards, regardless of party affiliation. 

devise and implement a comprehensive plan to attract new and interesting businesses to Saratoga Springs. 

 ON NOVEMBER 8^TH please cast your votes for the above candidates who will uplift Saratoga.