EATING CROW - CONGRATULATIONS SUCCESS

Well, the election is over and I have to tip my hat to SUCCESS for running a campaign that did put the fear of high taxes and a change to a City run by big developers, I thought that’s what we have now.  However, they won and we will go on as usual.

It should also be said a round of thanks should go to the hard working people who worked on the Saratoga Citizen side.  They were a group of concerned citizens who fought for a cause they believed in with no aspirations other than to make the City better.  Saratoga would be even better if it had more citizens like them to join civic programs that just to sit back and complain about those whose intentions are not selfish in any way.

One thing that we can come away with from this election and can join SUCCESS in is that people do not want 4 year terms among other items, as the Mayor has indicated this himself.  His Commission will be watched by many to see if they will make sure that the mandates of the 2001 Charter passed by the citizens will be enforced.  The way to better this form can probably be done by just following that Charter’s mandates.

It will also be interesting to see how our economy will fare when as rumored the Governor announces soon that Albany will be the site of a new full blown casino, which has been talked about for the last few months.  I have no fear however, that our form of government will be able to keep Saratoga the lively City we are now with no tax increases and the same level of services.

   

Again, congratulations to SUCCESS for their victory.

WILL IT BE A SURPRISE?

1. Will it be a SURPRISE, if the Saratogian, after nearly 30 years of calling for a change of the form of our government does not endorse Proposition 1?

  

2. Will it be a SURPRISE to find out that Mayor Johnson will pull a last minute slam out of his bag of dirty tricks to try and create fear and doubt to sway voters as he did in last years Mayor’s election.  I remember that one, he had his minions pass out door tags and mailings days before the election telling voters that his opponent Brent Wilkes had mismanaged his business into a 90 some million dollar loss.  It was proven that the Mayor had fabricated the information.  Newspapers reported in many articles of the unscrupulous act the Mayor pulled.

3. Will it be a SURPRISE if businessmen like Tom Roohan, Charles Wait, and Elliott Masie are against Proposition 1?  Remember that the Commission form was started “when fearful that the island city might never recover its prosperity under the leadership of the incumbent city council, a group of wealthy businessmen known as the Deep Water Committee devised a plan to have the governor appoint a commission to govern the city during the rebuilding period. To appease opponents who contended that appointed government was undemocratic, the plan was altered to provide for popular election of the five commissioners.”  The operative words here are WEALTHY BUSINESSMEN.  The Commission form was created by them and for them.  Look at Saratoga Springs rich history, who were the power brokers?  Roohan’s, Wait’s, McNeary’s, go ahead look back in time and see for yourself.  These men and those that came before them wanted to keep Saratoga Springs under their thumbs and do things when they wanted to, not when an independent Council set the pace.  Today we have a mini me version in Mayor Johnson, with his $27,000,000.00 clout and his business buying spree's, he is getting away with things local citizens could never get away with.

He has a fence surrounding his house that is illegally placed and doesn’t meet code.  He has stamped macadam sidewalks when City Code says you -have to have 5ft. wide by 4’ thick concrete with wire sidewalks, again he is out of code.  Why isn’t the code Dept. charging him with these code violations?  Is he inserting his private threats on City Hall employees?

4. Would it be a SURPRISE if SUCCESS was paying senior’s to vote no?

5. Would it be a SURPRISE if not one word that SUCCESS is promoting regarding the Charter is truthful?

Like it or not, the back room of politics is surely a game.  Will it change if the Manager form wins?  Not all games but most of them.  One Commissioner would not be able to stick it up another Commissioners backside because they wouldn’t play ball with them. 

 The Council would be the legislative body of government approving every piece of City business.  The Manager would oversee the running of the departments by qualified department heads, not political appointees or appointees that have a personal interest with a Commissioner.  This Manager will get the Departments to run smoothly and efficiently because if they don’t then it is his or her job on the line.

I hope you have made up your minds by now, but if you are against the Proposition or still on the fence, take a look at what happens in the next few days, say a Press release by the Mayor, a charge by the financial backer of SUCCESS, Elliott Masie and ask yourself, are these acts of desperate people trying to have fears and doubts about this issue?  If so take a look at what they do not want to lose and ask yourself, maybe it’s time to take our government back.

A great post by a Saratoga resident who is an author of his own site explained it well, visit his article here
http://tenoonan.com/2012/10/31/saratoga-springs-charter-vote/

IS IT REAL OR JUST A DREAM?

Two things struck me as funny today, well maybe 5 or 6.  In a Letter to the Editor to be published in Friday’s paper there is one by none other than one of the McTygue boys.  Some of the boy’s rear their heads at election time but unlike the beloved groundhog, shadow or not, they go back underground, except for Bill because we know where he goes.

Well brother Peter pens a letter that is both hilarious and like most of SUCCESS’s statements, the article is based on myth.  One person responded to Peter’s letter and they quoted a section not only proving that Peter like to stretch among other things, his stories.  The person that posted did give the chapter and section of the part of the proposed charter which if you can read English proved his allegations total fabrications.  I’ll never understand why members of SUCCESS can never argue any point on fact, Oh well, that was funny 1.

The next funny was the story on WNYT where Pat Kane, founder of Saratoga Citizen and tech guru Elliott Masie were interviewed.  Kane looked sharp in his sport coat while Masie looked like he just got back from Moreau Lake.  There were 2 funnies in his interview, (1). He kept saying he had a bridge in Brooklyn, I guess he was trying to sell it to the reporter and (2). "I don't believe that Saratoga, which is one of the top communities in the world, needs this change. If it ain't broke, don't fix it," said Masie.  So now Masie is paying for full page ads for SUCCESS, he must be getting nervous for both himself and best bud, Scott Johnson.  Masie who has donated upwards of $15,000.00 to SUCCESS looks like he is piling it on again with full page ads of the myth & smoke screen that define both SUCCESS & himself.

Now I love Saratoga Springs and it is a beautiful City, but first, it was said to be the most beautiful City in the country by our business politicos , now our resident tech guru (I thought guru’s wore Kimono’s) say’s it is one of the top communities in the WORLD.  I guess Masie doesn’t get out of New York State that often.

Well there may be more, word has it that a well respected former City employee  (no not Mary Zlotnick) will have a Letter printed in the Saratogian in  which he will give us an inside look at what it takes to deal and work with this form of government.  This letter is found on page 6A and is a doozy. 

As it is November already and October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I want to say that some of my family have been touched by this dreaded disease and even when the doctor's tell you they "got it all", you are thinking about it the rest of your life.  So my prayers are with those who have loved ones that have breast cancer.  The below picture is done with tongue in cheek and I mean no disrespect to the cancer survivors, but he deserves the picture.

IS IT REAL OR JUST A DREAM?

Two things struck me as funny today, well maybe 5 or 6.  In a Letter to the Editor to be published in Friday’s paper there is one by none other than one of the McTygue boys.  Some of the boy’s rear their heads at election time but unlike the beloved groundhog, shadow or not, they go back underground, except for Bill because we know where he goes.

Well brother Peter pens a letter that is both hilarious and like most of SUCCESS’s statements, the article is based on myth.  One person responded to Peter’s letter and they quoted a section not only proving that Peter like to stretch among other things, his stories.  The person that posted did give the chapter and section of the part of the proposed charter which if you can read English proved his allegations total fabrications.  I’ll never understand why members of SUCCESS can never argue any point on fact, Oh well, that was funny 1.

The next funny was the story on WNYT where Pat Kane, founder of Saratoga Citizen and tech guru Elliott Masie were interviewed.  Kane looked sharp in his sport coat while Masie looked like he just got back from Moreau Lake.  There were 2 funnies in his interview, (1). He kept saying he had a bridge in Brooklyn, I guess he was trying to sell it to the reporter and (2). "I don't believe that Saratoga, which is one of the top communities in the world, needs this change. If it ain't broke, don't fix it," said Masie.

Now I love Saratoga Springs and it is a beautiful City, but first, it was said to be the most beautiful City in the country by our business politicos , now our resident tech guru (I thought guru’s wore Kimono’s) say’s it is one of the top communities in the WORLD.  I guess Masie doesn’t get out of New York State that often.

Well there may be more, word has it that a well respected former City employee  (no not Mary Zlotnick) will have a Letter to the Editor printed in which he will give us an inside look at what it takes to deal and work with this form of government.

As it is November already and October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I want to say that some of my family have been touched by this dreaded disease and even when the doctor's tell you they "got it all", you are thinking about it the rest of your life.  So my prayers are with those who have loved ones that have breast cancer.  The below picture is done with tongue in cheek and I mean no disrespect to the cancer survivors, but he deserves the picture.

KEN & JANE BITE THE DUST

Well Charter fans, the debates are over, about 80 public informational nights by Saratoga Citizen and 5 nights by SUCCESS.

One good things that Saratoga Citizen did was have 4 or 5 City Manager’s there before and after the debate meeting people and answering any questions citizens had and they were quite busy answering questions before the beginning of the debate.  By the way the Managers were in town as the NYS City Managers Association is holding their annual conference here.

The moderator of the debate Thursday night at the Saratoga Springs High School did a sound job keeping the 4 debaters in check time wise although he let Ken Klotz drift on a little too long sometimes, hoping there was going to be a point made.  Those in attendance should have made up their minds one way or another by now. 

Sadly, one thing that stood out to me and my friends was that SUCCESS had no facts to back up their claims, which they had a perfect forum in which to do so.  Ms. Weihe often gave her opinion of something in the Proposed Charter that was completely explained and proved what she had said was entirely based on her spreading false information, which is a hallmark of SUCCESS.  Time after time she made a comment regarding an issue ‘in the Charter’ and when it was answered by the other side with the reading of that particular question, she still told people that the meaning was wrong.  Through the evening the moderator had to tell her to keep quiet and at one point saved her from complete embarrassment when he quietly to her he read the Charter and she was wrong.  He had to silence her 3 times on just that time alone.

One important piece of information we found out last night is that our Commissioners will pick the transition team, and that operating with a full time professional City Manager with the proper educational background is a hard act to beat.  Our elected Mayor and Council have contact with department heads and can even gather information from employees but cannot tell an employee what work to do or where to do it.  That comes from the Department head who answers to the City manager, this is known as a chain of command, another thing we don’t have under our current form of government.

Before the end of the night the moderator asked the Saratoga Citizen duo if there was any place on the internet that one could find out information on how the manager form of government works.  Between both of them they came up with 5 websites to get information and an offer to speak directly to a City Manager.  When the same question was asked of SUCCESS, all they could say was check with the State Comptroller as they perform a full audit of the City.  What in the heck will they tell a caller about a Charter form of government?  Only, in Saratoga Springs.  I like Ken but he must have been coached by that beauty Karen Klotz, yes the same one that looks like she has a pain in her a**.

All in all it was a good night for the Manager form of government and a pie in the face for SUCCESS.  There will be more to follow.