THE SPEECHES ARE IN AND POSSIBLY SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION

First, important information regarding the upcoming November election.  It looks like the Dem’s will have a full slate of candidates for Council and for the 2 Supervisor positions.

Rumor also has it that either the Mayor or Deputy Shauna had released information on the slate for the Republicans running for City office.  They also have a full slate which includes Mayor Johnson, Ken Ivins (though not for his old position), Dick Wirth, Skip and loser in the race for the Chair of the City Republican Party, Andy Jarosh (think Kate Jarosh as his possible Deputy).  Some of these are hard to believe but when you recycle those who lost a seat on the Council rarely gain a position back.  Such is the state of the Republican Party, one which seems to be disintegrating since John Herrick took over and continues today.  We shall see.

Well, both the Mayor’s State of the City Speech took place and the Democratic Committee’s response has been printed in the paper.  The Mayor’s speech gave us a little to be worried about.

1. The State of the City Speech started off nicely but he ran into trouble when he did some things no other Mayor has ever done in a State of the City Speech before and that is when he told his fellow Commissioners that “he was voted into office on a vote of Saratogian’s “rejecting the then-dysfunctional government that was rampant with divisive politics”, then warned the Commissioners and warned them that “there have been indications” that “some are attempting to return to politics as usual.” He then “call told the City Council to abandon any personal agendas and earn the respect demanded of City Hall.” 

2. At the City Council meeting 2 days before the Speech, the amendment to create a Comprehensive Plan Committee was tabled for 2 weeks.  The reason for this I had suspected at the time was that the majority of the Council (4-1) members were afraid the Mayor already chose his members.  NY State law requires the Council as a whole appoint the committee, but as mayor Johnson has pointed out in the past, he thinks he is above the law.  Well, as you may have guessed, if you agreed with my 2^nd sentence, during his speech, in his own words, he said ‘Today I confirm that I have established a Comprehensive Plan Committee…’  He then names the organizations and boards the members will come from, however, he also does not mention that there will be no representation from the regular citizenry on the Committee.  He does allow the Council to appoint 1 member each, but he will have to approve the choice, (expect a lawsuit over this one).   The man again shows that he cannot work with the opposite Party while in the same breath, accuses them of the same thing.

3. There has been news from a person with knowledge of the Charter Review Commission that allegedly the Commission has been chosen by the Mayor and they have been meeting since December at the Deputy’s house crafting their plan.  Johnson has announced what he wants the Commission to look at updating. The budget (he wants more involvement), longer terms of office, Charter language stating he has the authority to outsource the HR Dept. We now pay an outsourced firm the Mayor has employed which pays them $75,000.00 per year for a 20 hour work week.  We could have a full time in house HR Director for that price working full time.  He has also charged them with looking into and possibly change each Departments duties and responsibilities (sounds like he wants to be a STRONG MAYOR), Mayor Johnson, that was voted down in 2006.  If the Mayor would just follow the current Charter that was changed in 2001 instead of eliminating mandated duties things might just run a little better, but again, why follow the law?

In the Democrats response they do make some valid points.   The commented that “the WHOLE Council worked diligently to enact laws for the welfare of all of our city’s inhabitants. We applaud the successes that they and many of our city’s servants participated in”.

“Some of these successes are easily measurable. The City Council reduced our real property tax rates while increasing city services (despite the mayor’s votes against both the budget and the fire department’s provision of emergency medical services). The council prudently set aside funds in various reserves such as retirement, buildings and infrastructure, and tax stabilization (rejecting the mayor’s proposal to spend a portion of these on a parking lot in a residential neighborhood), and set aside funds for contingencies involving unaddressed labor contracts.”

“Other success stories are just as meaningful. Through the combined efforts of the City Council and downtown business owners, bartenders, waiters, waitresses, private security guards and city police are now working together for safer streets.”

“The Mayor announced that he will appoint a Charter Review Commission with a very specific charge. Despite the defeat of a proposal to change our commission form of government to a strong mayor form six years ago, the mayor appears to have pre-determined that his commission will develop a charter that changes the power of the commissioners and specifically removes budget-making power from the commissioner of Finance.

We suspect that the Mayor’s powers would be commensurately increased.”  I had said this last month and anyone following the Mayor for the last 5 years could tell he wants to keep grasping for more power.  Something I always wondered about over the last 5 years was the Mayor by law gets to appoint members to three exceptionally influential boards: The Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the City Center Board. In five years, the mayor has yet to appoint one Democrat to these boards; every Democrat whose term expired was replaced by a Republican.  The Boards seats are now filled with mostly all Johnson appointments.  I would think in a sense of fair representation he would appoint some qualified Democrats and maybe reappoint some, not many but some.  This is an example though of what he stressed in his Speech though, he doesn’t play politics.  Praise the Lord.