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.