WHEN DOES POWER CORRUPT GOOD PEOPLE

THE CHARTER CHANGE REFERENDUM IS NON PARTISAN. THE ISSUE IS FOR THE CITIZENS OF SARATOGA SPRINGS NOT ANY ONE POLITICAL PARTY

Power starts corrupting good people once they get elected to public office (not all but most).  You can see the difference when men & women run for office  versus the conduct when in office and then how they go back to normal when they leave office.

I met a married couple downtown one day over the summer and got talking about local politics and of course charter change came up.  The couple are relatively new to Saratoga having lived here for about 12 years (carpet baggers to quite a few ‘native’ Saratogians) and they had helped out on Commissioner Madigan’s campaign, how much they didn’t say, but they said that as a person she is like night and day from when she was a candidate.  They said she seems bitter about most things today and when they watch a Council meeting they cannot believe how she treats citizens and fellow Commissioner’s from the Council table.

This couple have an insight most Saratogians don’t, many Saratogian’s didn’t know Madigan before she got elected and like so many elections you get elected either because (a) your opponent did something citizens didn’t like, (b) no one is running against you or (c) your Party is swept in as a group.  B has become the norm in Saratoga politics in recent years and not because everyone is doing a great job.

Take this Council for instance and a single issue CHARTER CHANGE.

Many former Mayors, Commissioners and longtime City Hall employees are heavily behind the movement to change our form of government to a more representative, cost effective and a well managed government where you need not worry about getting kicked out of one Commissioner’s dept. for trying to suggest in getting something done in another Commissioners dept.  What a concept.

The prevailing voting block was most always Madigan, Mathiesen & Scirocco against Franck & Yepsen.  This shifted once Commissioner Matheisen spoke out that it would be in the best interest of all Saratogians and the City itself to approve a change in the form of government. You can visit the Charter Commissions website to view letters to the editor written by past Commissioners and Deputy’s.

 He (Matheisen) has said “The commission form of government has no separate legislative body and no structure for central management. Instead, five different members of the city council are responsible for executive oversight of their respective departments while at the same time serving as at-large legislators, a recipe for serious conflicts of interest. Due to political and personality differences, the five city departments work well together on occasion while at other times not so well. There is much redundancy in operations as the five departments are separate but equal. It is difficult to find candidates for city government due to the increasingly complex nature of each of the five council seats.

The Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission has given our voters the opportunity think long and hard on what form of local government will best meet the needs of our City today and in the future.”

Well, now the new voting block are Commissioners Franck, Madigan & Scirocco versus Mayor Yepsen & Commissioner Matheisen.  See what happens when you are afraid that the power you have and will continue to get might seep from you and into the citizens hands?

Here is another example:  The Commission early on wanted a separate election for the Charter which was May 30^th.  The wailing from the new voting block was heard all the way to the east coast.

Commissioner Franck is quoted in a Feb. 21, 2017 Times Union article from a City Council meeting  "If there is a special election, even if it's to tweak the charter, I'm against it," said Franck. "If it's November, I won't take a side on the charter vote."

Now, here is a quote by Commissioner Franck from a 9/19/17 Council meeting putting his spin on the Proposed Charter.

“Am I missing something? Does anybody outside the planet Mars really believe that one person is going to be able to do all this work?”

Franck took issue with the elimination of the deputy commissioners and asked: if the deputies are eliminated, who is going to do the work to run city government? He threatened to block the funding to send information about the charter change to the public.

“If they cannot do this in a rational and fair manner, and not have material misrepresentations in it, then I’m not going to OK it,” said Franck.

Does this sound like his quote from February?  This trio can see that the power may have a chance to slip away from them and well out with their past promises.  Skip doesn’t sense anytime so when he tries to explain something heads almost always fall asleep as soon as his lips part.  What is coming from Franck and Madigan however is mind boggling.

This trio cannot understand the concept or are just plain acting dumb.  I have heard that other than the Mayor no Commissioner spends 30 hours a week in City Hall running their departments.

Franck , Madigan & Skippy can’t understand that by getting rid of the Deputy’s no one person can do all that work.  Well as many citizens, as I do, understand we already pay a Police Chief to run the Police Dept., we already pay a Fire Chief to run the Fire Dept. and they can report or go over their budget with their boss (City Manager), Why do we need a Deputy of Public Safety?  We already pay a City Assessor to do his departments work and he will answer to the (City Manager) his boss, we already have a paid City Clerk who will guess what?  Answer to his or her boss.  We have a paid Finance Department, we already have 2 paid City Engineers and already pay too much for outside engineers so why not have 1 engineer run DPW and fund the Direct of Public Works whose line is in the budget?  Mr. Vietch’s position was created by Skippy (he says it wasn’t a political move) but you could defund that position and add an office staff person for ½ the salary he is paid. 

So you see we already have the paid employees in place and we will eliminate a layer of middle paid bosses we won’t need.  It will not be 1 person (City Manager) that will have to make up all the work the Deputies do, he will be the City’s CEO overseeing the operation of the City by the already knowledge and capable workers employed by the City already.  Rocket Science, no just common sense that three members of the Council seem to lack.  Does POWER CORRUPT?

Another question to ask yourself as a anon did in the previous post, will you take the word about the costs of savings from a Finance Commissioner whose leadership resulted in a 1.125 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year ending 6/30/17 and who has said she will have to have cutbacks in this year’s budget or a former Senior Vice President of Finance for a Company that does 19 BILLION in sales a year and happens to also be a CPA?  Again, not rocket science.

A times Union article written by Wendy Liberatore on September 28, 2017 quotes some former City officials:

 “A.C. Riley, Saratoga Springs supervisor from 1980 to 1987, and Mayor from 1990 to 1995, agreed.”

“Managing the city isn’t a job for amateurs,” Riley said.  “Everything in our world is getting more complex, including local government. In the old days, most people could fix their own cars, or the kitchen sink. How many people can do that today? We call a professional, someone with training and expertise, so we get good results. Under the new charter, that professional will be our city manager, who will be the leader of all city departments. Our elected city council will make all the important decisions, and direct the manager to carry them out. The charter will require the manager to be educated and experienced in how to read and carry out laws and regulations, how to develop and manage a budget, and how to negotiate with unions. The council will rely on the manager to direct several projects at once and get things done on time.”

Former Mayor Raymond Watkin previously opposed charter change, but now sees things differently.

“I look forward to supporting the campaign to adopt a new city charter,”  Watkin said. “Our city government is unable to keep up with the demand for services from our growing community. In-fighting and a ‘me-first’ attitude among the commissioners has prevented progress on meeting infrastructure, public safety and community needs.”

Another Times Union piece also said this:

“The commission's mailing to city residents won't determine the outcome of the vote, but it's an important part of educating the public.”

“Ms. Madigan and Mr. Franck have all that at their disposal, too, as well as the bully pulpits of their positions. They're free to use them, but not to abuse those positions to unilaterally block the commission from doing its job to inform city residents — an abuse that they might find could be its own case for reform.”

POWER CORRUPTS

For some light entertainment go to http://saratogaspringsny.swagit.com/play/09192017-1334  and listen to the following times

Public Safety  14:55 until you stop laughing at Skippy

Public Safety especially 27:25

Public Safety especially 31:20 – to the end.

Unfortunately not anymore, Michele Madigan offends everyone all the time and it is not funny!