Well, the ‘new’ Council has started its reign of terror
already, normally after the election and until after the swearing in of the new
Council on January 1st not much happens in City politics. Yes, they may finish up some small items but
there aren’t many meetings left in the year so with 3 big Holidays coming up
and the chance that many people won’t be paying much attention or have enough time
to keep track of what is going on it is usually… ease along into the new
year.
However with this Council everything is different. This Council likes to make major decisions
when citizens are at their busiest. The
major decision this Council had to make was, will they or won’t they allow
Saratoga Hospital to destroy area housing developments and several
neighborhoods in giving them a green light to build an unnecessary
expansion. Well, true to their cowardly
actions of the past, Monday night, calling a ‘special meeting’ they voted 4-1
approving the hospital to plow ahead to the next step, Commissioner Franck was
the lone dissenter. This Council has
already made up their minds to let the hospital have its way and most know the
reason why.
What is it not surprising about the ‘special meeting’
that these cowards, 2 days before Christmas is summed up by the Saratogian
reporter that wrote the article “ The brief special meeting of the Saratoga
Springs City Council held during the Jewish holidays and two days before
Christmas drew few residents impacted by the City Council’s 4 to 1 vote last
night in favor of the zoning map amendments”, then this gem spewed by our renowned
City Attorney DeLeonardis.
“City Attorney Vince DeLeonardis reading the
long litany of “no negative impact” found declarations in reference to the
zoning changes up for a vote before the Saratoga Spriings City Council at
Monday night’s special meeting of the Saratoga Springs City Council.” I gather DeLeonardis forgot about all the
residents in the area in his decision of ‘no negative impact’.
This was truly a Christmas gift to the hospital and a
payback for gifts given to those politicians running in November.
Another major (big surprise) announcement was that Robin
Dalton has appointed fellow Democrat Eileen Finneran as her Deputy. It seems Finneran needed the money and Dalton
obliged. Finneran has experience and
will help the blank Dalton run the department.
There are many who believe that those running for Commissioner should
announce who their Deputy will be so voters know who will be running the
departments. However that would be too
good information for voters to know so why do it?
Well, it is not even New Year’s Day yet and already the
Council has divided the City with major announcements made in secret, so begins
2020 and with this Council we are screwed already.
The attorney for the area residents being ‘negatively affected’
are filing a section 78 against the Council’s decision, as with any litigation
it takes money to go to court and the City and the Hospital have unlimited
money at their disposal. We would like
to ask you if you are so inclined to donate to the Save Morgan Street group to
help with the costs involved.
https://savemorganstreet.com/
