CHANGE OF THE CURRENT CHARTER? I DON’T THINK SO!

There is something rotten that will be on the ballot in November, the 6^th by the way.  The item is twofold.

1.    Charter Change

2.    Adding 2 more baby Commissioners with limited authority.

First of all the newly elected Mayor (Meg Kelly) who was elected by the Changing the Form of Government people did something underhanded.  Instead of fighting with the group It’s Time Saratoga in demanding a TIF recount which the County Attorney and both Democrat and Republican Election Commissioners would not allow even when the great Judge Nolan’s ruling was overturned by the Appellate Court  ( Nolan  must have the most cases he rules on overturned among all judges in the State).

However you can figure out why when the County Republican Committee gives SUCCESS $1,000.00 to aid them in the anti - Charter fight and Republican candidate Don Braim donated $500.00 out of his campaign funds to SUCCESS for the same reason.  Now I may be wrong but is it allowable to donate campaign funds for a City ballot proposal?

No Change in the form of government did not win by 10 votes when you look into why some people voted against Change – many people tell me that quite a few people didn’t like the City Manager form but wanted a strong Mayor form but they did want a change.  Imagine if they voted for Change instead and if things didn’t work out switch to a strong Mayor?  Not that I believe the City Manager would have been nothing but an excellent choice.

Back to Kelly gave a slap in the face to over half of the citizens who wanted a Change in the FORM of government not a retooled version of the dysfunctional one that exists now and after looking over the ‘proposed changes’ is still dysfunctional.

She appointed a new Commission to retool and the Commission was made up of the 5 Commissioners, their Deputies (who depend on their Commissioner for their job) and the City Attorney who had just gotten his salary doubled as Commission Chairman.  Now the first thing that stands out is do you think that a Deputy Commissioner will object to their boss?  Also, this Commission appointed by the Great Kelly has not 1 citizen on it.  This Commission is like the old adage “hatching rooster eggs - wasting time and/or resources”.  All they are doing is  stripping the Mayor of their duties and spreading them to different departments thereby making the position a ribbon cutter one like that one before the last Charter retooling under former Mayor Klotz which strengthened the position.

Much was made of the costs when changing over to a new form of government and cost estimates were given and made public in the financial analysis.

This new ‘proposal’s’ financial estimates lines are all $0 even when they know there will be added costs.  A member of the so called Commission said if they couldn’t figure out the cost they put a $0 in the space. Transparency is a wonderful thing

The retooling’s 2^nd part is adding 2 more baby at large Commissioners who can vote along with the Council members but cannot get involved in any Departments business.

SO ALONG WITH MANY CITIZENS VOICING THEIR OPINIONS YOU SHOULD VOTE A BIG NO ON BOTH ISSUES AND PRAY THAT THE OPPORTUNITY COMES AROUND AGAIN FOR A CHANGE IN THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT AND GET RID OF THIS RETOOLED DYSFUNCTIONAL COMMISSION FORM.

We can also thank our lucky stars that Madigan & Scirocco have both publicly stated they are not running for office in 2019.