What's the matter with contracts?

 

What’s with our lawyer Mayor and his city attorney?  They don’t seem to like contracts.   They keep the Commissioners under whom the workers function out of the loop so they can negotiate the contracts.  Our little (this does not refer to height)  Mayor does seem to have delusions that he oversees a strong Mayor government.  However, having cloaked these negotiations in secracy, they outsourced them to outside legal firms.  Do our police and firemen have contracts?  I don’t think so.  Have they negotiated a new wireless contract for the city?  I don’t think so.  Have they negotiated a new CSEA?  I don’t think so.

So what you may ask.  Well, many contracts are retroactive so we might be in for some hefty back payments.  But let’s look at the one contract failure that is  actually costing us tax payers money.

For quite a while, the City of Saratoga Springs has leased a large tract of land on Weibel Avenue to National Grid. The monthly payments to the city remain at $5,400 per month under the terms of a lease agreement that expired nearly four years ago.

The Mayor and his city attorney have failed to re-sign National Grid to a new multi-year agreement. We are told that National Grid has contacted the city about a long-term contract in the past, but no agreement has been reached.   Why?

Here is the situation.  Real estate professionals set the current value of the parcel in excess of $12,000 per month.  Our City is only receiving $5,400 a month.  That’s a shortfall of $6,600 a month or nearly $80,000 a year.  That ain’t hay folks.  Why won’t the Mayor put his mind to concluding a new contract with National Grid?  The Mayor wants to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the waterfront; he wants to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on land and a  new parking garage for the recreation center.  Where does he expect the Commissioner of Finance to find the money for his recreational fancies when he makes no effort to bring money into the city coffers?  Certainly  not from this rec facility that continues to cost tax payers money.

Here’s more lax oversight on the part of our Mayor.  The money that the City of Saratoga Springs has received from National Grid, in excess of $525,000, sits in a special account originally designed to “refurbish” the site once National Grid moved out.  Why doesn’t the Mayor propose to use this money for our tax base?  If the site needs remediation after National Grid leaves, why doesn’t the  Mayor negotiate a contract that includes National Grid paying for any clean up needed?  He has certainly given National Grid a free pass since his election.

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Did you watch the debate last evening?  I did. I'm a news junkie.  I have seen every Republican debate also and both conventions.  Now, I spent time at Harvard Business School so I know a Board Room bully when I hear one and Mitt Romney is a Board Room bully.  No surprise there.  And the moderator is past his sell by date for letting the bully coopt the conversation.  No surprise there either. 

What was surprising was that Romney felt so free to lie; to boldly contradict everything he has said for the past year and a half.  He has often promised a 20% across the board tax cut; last evening he stood up and denied it on national TV.  He has been mocking  hiring more teachers for months; last evening he touted teachers.  For months he has promised to repeal Obamacare.  Last evening he said he would keep major parts of Obamacare.  Does he think that there is no internet?  Does he think we have amnesia?  However, it remains to be seen if the American public is sufficiently tuned in to realize that he contradicted himself nearly the entire evening.  I grant you that the average person doesn't understand the insurance exchanges of health care or Dodd-Frank.  But why would you vote for anyone who says whatever he has to to evern different audience just to get elected? Why would anyone vote for a man who wants to be our President but likes his money so much better than us that he didn't even bring his money home long enough to get elected.

And if he has any interest in education why would he target PBS first, one tenth of one percent of the budget?  Since our tea party friends in congress, if not our governor, have slashed our educational budget, Big Bird is, in fact, the only introduction to letters and numbers that many children have.  The devil is always in the details.  Let's hope the women of this country, at least, can connect the dots.  If they want smaller government can you imagine the size and cost of a government agency to monitor all pregnancies?  And what is this Republican thing about voting against equal pay for women for doing equal work?  Are we in the 1950's or in the 21st century? 

And please remember when our President took office the stock market was under 7,000.  It is now over 13,000.  Corporations have made larger profits then even before in history.  Where you put your money is indeed where indicative of where your priorities lie whether it is Mr Romney or our large corporate structures.